The Burning Bush Devotional

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01.10.08

Christian Growth

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. - Hebrews 5:12-14.

Tragically, many of us do not grow to maturity as Christians. Others grow slower than some. I know exactly why I did not grow, as I should have after receiving Christ as my Savior. It was because I was not praying, as I should have. I was not reading God’s Word, as I should have. I was not attending church as I should have, and I was not serving God, as I should have. Whenever I began to do those things, I began to grow as a Christian. Sadly, my lack of growth caused all kinds of problems and only when I began to grow did those problems begin to go away. I could have saved myself and those close to me so much pain if I had immediately started praying, attending church, reading the Bible and actively serving the Lord.

To grow as children of God our spiritual nature must be fed. The apostle Paul is speaking of that in Romans 8:5-6, “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” In Romans 13:14 Paul tells us, “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.” We are to clothe ourselves with Jesus and instead of thinking about how to gratify the flesh, we should be thinking about how to feed our spiritual nature.

Paul gives us some things to feed the spiritual nature with in Philippians 4:8-9, “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.” We know Paul said to follow him because he was walking in the steps of Jesus. We know that Paul was preaching the Word of God. We know that he was a man of prayer. We know that he was very, very busy in the service of His Lord.

On a scale of one to ten, where are you at as a Christian? Have you grown in maturity since salvation or do you still need to be taught the basic “...principles of the oracles of God?” The good news is that we can grow if we want to grow (If you have no desire to grow as a Christian you need to examine whether you actually have a relationship with Jesus.). Ask God to help you to grow as His child and become more and more like Jesus.

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The Burning Bush Devotional

Welcome to the 56 new subscribers since January 1, 2008!!

01.08.08

Courage for the New Year

Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. - Joshua 1:6-9.

Joshua had just taken over the reins of power from Moses. However, this is not necessarily a promotion that Joshua wanted or desired to have. This was not going to be a cakewalk. There were so many people and they had proven in the past to be a rebellious people. At least their parents were. Joshua knew he had to protect these people and at the same time conquer a land filled with strong cities and people. For many it would have been an impossible task and God knew Joshua would need courage. We need courage too.

The last several years have been difficult for my family and me with our parents growing older with more and more health problems. However, last year provided perhaps the greatest challenges for us. The year started out with my Dad having another stroke being hospitalized and from there being placed in the same nursing home with my Mother. He passed away on May 24^th. We also had the tornado, which hit our community damaging our church on May 5^th. During this time, I was trying to take care of my parent’s affairs and cleaning out their home so someone could move in and live there. During the summer, we cared for foster children who are children of friends. The boy, Malachi, had a relapse of his cancer and his care was a great challenge for us (He is doing much better; please continue to pray for him.). My mother-in-law had a heart attack and my Mother passed away Dec 3^rd.

We realize that we have been fortunate in many ways by only having minor health problems ourselves. We also realize that the courage and strength necessary to go through the last year did not come from within.

Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary defines courage as “mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty.”

The Wordsmyth English Dictionary-Thesaurus defines courage as “the quality of will that enables a person to confront fear or danger regardless of the consequences; bravery.”

The Wiktionary defines fear as “A strong, uncontrollable, unpleasant emotion caused by actual or perceived danger or threat.”

Fear is an emotion; however, courage is an attitude that will enable us to take action. Fear immobilizes you. Courage activates you. Everyone will experience the emotion of fear but not all will have the attitude of courage when they encounter fearful circumstances.

Courage can be valor demonstrated as the soldier or others face death. Courage, however, can and must be demonstrated to live the Christian life. John F. Kennedy once said, “Without belittling the courage with which men have died we should not forget those acts of courage with which . . . men have lived.”

Much of what God calls on us to do, as His child requires courage. It requires courage for us to take seriously the Great Commission. It requires courage for us to live out the Sermon on the Mount. It certainly requires courage to follow in the steps of Jesus. Sometimes, however, we are called on to face what may seem to be an impossible task. We may face our own Jericho, as did Joshua. Will we have the courage? Can it be done?

Where did Joshua’s courage come from? His courage flowed from the Word of God as God commanded him, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it.” Joshua was to speak the Word, meditate on the Word, and He was to do all the Word of God commanded. If we want courage, we must do the same.

Whatever courage I have had or have now I know flows directly from the Word of God. Whenever I neglect the Word, I have a lack of courage. If I want to have the courage necessary to face the challenges of this New Year, I know that I can only have that courage through the Word of God. For the Christian our courage flows directly from His Word. Make this New Year be a year that you live courageously by reading, studying, meditating on, memorizing, and living the Word of God.

(You can receive the Burning Bush Devotional by email in an html format with bold letters and colors. Just send an email to burningbushhtml-subscribe@welovegod.org and then reply to the confirmation email.)

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Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned. - Matthew 12:33-37.

About thirty years ago when I was working in the oilfield I had started going to church and wanted to invite the men working on my crew to attend church with me. There was a revival at my church and so I invited them. Their response was a surprising one. They said that whenever I stopped cursing they would come to church and laughed. Well it was true I did have a problem, whenever things would go wrong or I would hit my finger or whatever, one or two words would just seem to come out of my mouth. However, we made a deal if I could stop for a week; they would come to church. It took me six weeks before I made it through a whole week without a curse word coming out of my mouth. Only one of them ever came to my church but I have never had a problem since with cursing.

According to a Parent's Television Council report in the year 2000 sex, violence and foul language on television had increased by three-fold since 1989. Specifically, for those eleven years foul language had increased five and one-half times. References to previously unmentionable things had also increased many times. I do not have any statistics but I would suspect that the language of people as a whole who watch television programming had deteriorated on a similar proportionate basis. Since the year 2000 especially during the last few years it seems to me that the deterioration has accelerated even more.

Luke 6:45 (and Matthew 12:35) gives us some direction for controlling our speech and actions. According to Luke 6:45 if we store evil things up in our hearts then evil things come out in our lives. However, if we store good things up in our lives good things come out. Romans 13:14 in the KJV tells us not to make provision for sin and another translation tells us not to even think about how to gratify our sinful desires. Philippians 4:8 tells us what we should think about instead.

As I found out with my language problem, once you have the sin problem it is much harder to rid yourself of it. The best thing to do is to guard your heart, keep your heart (Proverbs 4:23) so that evil things are not coming into your heart. If you only have good things stored up in your heart it is much more likely that only good things will come out. What have you been putting into your heart?

It is the beginning of a New Year and for those of you with a language problem perhaps this is the time to begin to change. I would never have stopped if I had not tried to stop. Make a commitment and keep that commitment. You will probably fail a few times but do not let that deter you from continuing because through the power of God you can overcome your language problem. (And, if you do not have the problem please pass this on to someone that does because it sounds as though more and more people do have a problem.)

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