Saturday, July 4th
Written by Janet Scott

Psalm 31:7
I am overcome with joy because of your unfailing love for you have seen my troubles, and you care about the anguish of my soul.

“Though feelings come and go, God’s love for us does not.” C.S. Lewis

Even in our everyday relationships we may not feel that we are loved by the significant people in our lives but that really has nothing to do with whether or not we are! Your feelings will never change the simple fact that God loves you! He loves you right where you are even though where you are may not be His first choice for you! The Bible is very clear that NOTHING can separate us from the love of God! NOTHING! God cares about every tear you cry as well as every happy moment you share, but no matter what you are feeling about God, no matter how many times you try to tell someone God doesn’t care or worse yet that He hates you, it is just simply NOT true! Don’t mistake God’s silence for not loving you or not caring! Do you remember the story about Lazarus? (If not check it out in John 11) Jesus was told that he was sick and dying and he didn’t run over there to take care of him. He waited 2 more days and then walked to where Martha and Mary lived. When He got there Lazarus was already dead but Jesus had waited because it gave God more glory to raise him from the dead than it did to heal his illness, and this helped others believe. It wasn’t that Jesus didn’t care, He deeply loved Lazarus. God’s silence is always for your good even if it seems painful at the time. No matter where you are know that God loves you and has your best interest at heart. “When you can’t trace His hand, trust His heart”.

Extra time in the Word Psalm 31

Friday, July 3rd
Written by Kyle Shultz

James 4:11
Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it.

When you see someone doing something or saying something that you know isn’t right, what’s the first thing you want to do? I’ll tell you what I want to do. I want to go and tell my good friends what’s wrong with that person. You know how it is. You just have to tell someone when a person messes up. What God is saying here is that this is a form of self-righteousness [pride]. The first few verses before this James is talking about being humble, which means focusing on God and not even looking at yourself. You either filter everything in this life through faith or yourself. James is saying that when you examine faults in others you are not living in faith, and in criticizing, you judge yourself by the same law. A critical spirit is completely crippling spiritually, but it is one of the easiest things to fall into if you are not careful. The only way you can overcome being critical is by surrendering to God’s grace and choosing to love the person knowing that you are just as capable of the same faults.

Extra time in the Word James 4

Thursday, July 2nd
Written by Michael Williams

James 1:26-27
If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep ones self unstained from the world.

We can go to church on Sunday, attend bible studies regularly, and memorize the Bible from front to back. If we are not engaged in loving acts of service towards the lost, the broken, and the hurting, what we are doing is just for the sake of our conscious. A friend of mine who is an atheist goes to church, attends bible studies, and knows more about the bible than most Christians I know. There has to be something that stands out about you. Something more than a trendy Jesus T-shirt and Bible reading in public places. Anyone can do that. We need to be loving people in such ways that people question our sanity, and only God can do that through us. That usually happens when we do things for people because we genuinely love them and not because we are trying to recruit them into our religion. We must love for no other motive than to love. When we have no other agenda but to love, GOD SAVES THEM. People aren’t necessarily changed through rehearsed, cliché, microwave oven “Christian” catch phrases and conversion tools. And I emphasize CHANGED, anyone can just say a prayer. It really isn’t our job to save people in the first place, is it? It’s Gods. We simply present Him in his most unadulterated form: Love. And through that we are given the opportunity to further elaborate on the reason for the hope that is within us. Religion doesn’t change people, neither does telling them what they are doing wrong over and over again. Love, essentially God, changes people, and we have the honor, the privilege, to be apart of that change. Don’t take it for granted by settling for just talking about what love is. Show them what love is.

Extra time in the Word James 1

Wednesday, July 1st
Written by Kyle Shultz

John 14:13
And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.

If I had a nickel for every time this verse was misread. This is not like the Christian James Bond with a license to be blessed. If you pray to God and ask for whatever you want and put in Jesus’ name at the end of it hoping to get all you want, you’ll be disappointed quickly. James 4:3 says you ask and receive not if the purpose is to please yourself. The key to this in the phrase in my name. Remember, you are not your own, God has bought you with Christ. The entire mission of God in your life is that He makes you into the image of Christ. That is how we bring glory to God. So with that in mind, God has given us amazing liberty to ask anything in the realm of us being His children praying for His will to be done in our lives, and He WILL do it! Take a look at what’s in your life today, ask God to show you if the things you focus on are focused on pleasing you, or Him. He’ll take care of your needs, so you can focus on His desires for you.

Extra time in the Word John 14

Tuesday, June 30th
Written by Kyle Shultz

2 Corinthians 12:7b-9
there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

Why did God say no to Paul? Paul wasn’t doing anything wrong, as a matter of fact this was something that was brought on for being in the right. You may have heard the saying, “this is my cross to bear” referring to some form of struggle. In all honesty, when we choose to follow God with our lives, there will be difficulties that don’t make any sense to us. Jesus said that in order to follow Him, we had to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him. You will carry one of two burdens in this life. You will either carry the weight of the world on your back trying to live for yourself only to be crushed in the end, or you will accept the hard road that brings scars that shine God’s glory in living for Him. Now the thing about carrying your cross, when you choose to take steps in obedience you find out that it’s not you that’s walking. You’ll find this burden much lighter than you first thought. You thought you were carrying this on your own to find out Jesus was carrying you the whole time.

Extra time in the Word 2 Corinthians 12

Monday, June 29th
Written by Michael Williams

1 Peter 2:9-10
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

I am so tired of hearing Christians talk about how worthless and unworthy they are. How they are nothing and no one. Yes, compared to God, WE ARE NOTHING. But we need not insult God by telling Him, or attempting to remind Him that He created garbage. He made something great, we screwed it up, HE fixed it. Now let us thank Him for it. We are not worthless, we are valued so much that God, HIMSELF… DIED… FOR US! We are not useless. Through us God reveals His glory to the world. We are no longer to blame for our sins, setbacks, and shortcomings. Jesus took all of those upon Himself on the Cross. DO NOT LET your failures redefine you as worthless or useless. Do not insult God by acting as though His sacrifice on the cross was not enough to fix you, redeem you, or make you worthy to be called His. Don’t you dare go another day without acknowledging the magnificent work of art He began when He made you. With every breath you take, God takes another stroke with His brush on the canvas of your soul; with everyday that goes by God is making you more and more like everything He intended for you to be. You are beautifully and wonderfully made. Now start acting like it.

Extra time in the Word 1 Peter 2

Sunday, June 28th
Written by Kyle Shultz

Hebrews 12:6,12
For whom the LORD loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives.” Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees

If we were to be honest with ourselves, we would have to say that we deal with sin on a regular basis. There’s no way around it. This chapter in Hebrews even goes as far to say that there’s a particular sin that everyone especially deals with. What we can be sure of as believers is when it comes to this is that (1) God will prompt in our hearts that it’s wrong when we do it, and (2) we will face consequences for our choice. When we look at this, it’s very easy to look down at ourselves, and that is not the reason for the Lord’s correction. He corrects us from the wrong that would take us down a road of more severe consequences than we could ever imagine. When we look down at ourselves, it’s a form of pride, just like someone who thinks better of themselves than what they really are. The opposite of pride is humility, and humility is not even looking at yourself. You might think, “How is that possible?” The answer is found in Psalm 118:1, “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever.” We need to remember that God has made us His children, our identity comes from Him. He is always at work in our lives and is always showing us His love. In response to that we must choose to give Him thanks (strengthen our hands as verse 12 today says) and focus on Him. When we do, He aligns our heart with His and enables us with His strength that is greater than our sin. So don’t loose heart, thank God now for His what He has already done for you and is doing for you and allow Him to give you strength beyond your struggle.

Extra time in the Word Hebrews 12

Saturday, June 27th
Written by Janet Scott

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10
Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!

It is good to have friends and to be known as a good friend. Everyone has tough days and times where life has us down. It is good when you have that close Godly friend that can come alongside you and help pull you back up! It is even better when you can be that friend. I remember being in High School and seeing a girl that had no one and how it broke my heart to see that no one had even tried to reach out to her. Worst of all was when I did some of my friends had the nerve to ask me why! I was not happy to think that the friends I had could even ask why I would reach out to someone hurting just because she wasn’t “popular” and her family was extremely poor! If we cannot show the love of God to people who are hurting no matter who it is or what our “friends” may think we are really missing out! Be thankful for the good friends you have and be all you can be to be the friend you need to be not just for them but also for the ones who have no one to help lift them up!

Extra time in the Word Ecclesiastes 4

Friday, June 25th
Written by Kyle Shultz

Psalm 116:6
The Lord protects the simple-hearted; when I was in great need, He saved me.

Has anyone ever accused you of being gullible? Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Some people are just that way by nature, and others can be caught off guard once in a while. I don’t think it’s good to take advantage of a gullible person to either hurt them or make a complete fool of them, but I do find it fun to just tease them when the opportunity arises. What makes it fun is that the person just doesn’t see it coming.

If you look at the meaning of the Hebrews word for simple-hearted you’ll find it means “silly, foolish, easily swayed.” Take a look at what’s happening today. Our economy is crumbling and people who we thought had secure jobs are being laid off left and right. Divorces happen to over half of today’s marriages. We deal with health issues, loss of loved ones, and countless other difficulties. Truth is, life is really hard and we don’t know what’s around the corner, we are simple-hearted when it comes to handling life. God is our Safe Place. He never keeps the hard times from coming to us, but He protects us through those hard times. He doesn’t expect us to understand everything that’s going on because we can’t. All He wants us to do is look to Him. When He shows us something He wants us to obey, that’s because it’s a step we are required to take to freedom. If it’s not a step we are required to take, He will stand as our protection.

Extra time in the Word Psalm 116

Thursday, June 25th
Written by Janet Scott

Psalm 101:3
I will set before my eyes no vile thing. The deeds of faithless men I hate; they will not cling to me.

In this chapter of Psalms David sets his mind for how he will talk and behave and what he will allow himself to even look at. Sin is something we don’t “fall” into we walk into it! We have choices to make every day; what we will say, what our attitude is, what we will look at, how we treat others, etc. If we do not determine in our hearts and minds each day how we will walk and talk it is so much easier for Satan to get the advantage. It is so important to start your day out in the Word of God and end your day with the Word of God, even if it is just a verse or two. It takes determination to do the right things on a regular basis, to develop the habits you need to be all you are called to be in Christ. I would encourage you to set your priorities and set your mind to not allow yourself to be in a situation that you know will tempt you to do something you know you shouldn’t do. It will get easier the more you do it. It is amazing how much easier it is to pick up a bad habit vs the determination it sometimes takes to add a good habit, but you can do it if you f.r.o.g (fully rely on God)!

Extra time in the Word Psalm 101