2 Corinthians 13:11

When we are of one mind we have unity.  In unity comes the peace and love of God.  Only in unity we can have these.  We can not obtain Peace and love without being united with God.  Also when we are united with God, we become united with each other.  To bring unity we also have to comfort one another.  If my brother or sister is upset they need to be comforted and through this comes unity.  Just as I’m writing this IBS, I am late with it.  This was supposed to be done for yesterday, but I am a little back on homework…Anthony could obviously see I was a little stressed out and he came over to comfort me.  That is what Christians are called to do.  Anthony and I are united through him comforting me in my times of struggles.  Through this unity comes the peace and love of God.  This is an amazing thing for the body.  What other religion does something like this?  Like they see someone hurting, help them and then feel unity together.  It’s a thing of Christ, and not this world.  We aren’t called to be of this world, but to Christ.  So today I will thank Anthony for the comfort.  I will apologize for pushing him away during this process, and God will bring unity through this.

1 John 1:5-7

The age old rivalry, Light vs Darkness.  I used to be in the darkness, I used to not know the light.  When you are in a dark place, you can vaguely see the light ahead, but you don't know it.  I am a christian now though.  So I am in the light, the light of God.  If one is part of the darkness, they don’t know God.  God is perfect and can’t have any sin in Him.  So when I come to Him, I am cleansed, He doesn’t see me as what I actually am, which is dirty and rotten.  Rotten to the Core.  I like how Paul puts it in Romans 7:24-25- 

O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from this body of death?  

I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.  So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh, the law of sin.

It’s that constant struggle between fighting off the darkness wit Jesus Christ, to be in perfect unity with Him inside the light.  I have to always be fighting my flesh.  My flesh is strong.  My flesh is 19 years of pure pride and sinfulness just waiting for the next temptation to come my way so I may stumble and go into the darkness, but God.  God gave me my new nature when I came to Him.  Also the Spirit dwells in me, I am in the light now and I can flee from wickedness.  I don’t have to sin.  Paul says again in Romans 6:1-2-

What shall we say then?  Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?

God forbid! How shall we who are dead to sin, live any longer there in?

God forbid I keep sinning so grace may abound.  So today I will think of Romans 6:1-2 every time I am knowledgeably sinning.  Since I am wicked I don’t always know that I am sinning, it just naturally happens, I am not always going out of my way to do wrong, but when I do go out of my way to do wrong…I will dwell on these two verse.

Luke 17:7-10

A servant doesn’t finish his job until all the master says he is done.  After a long day of working in the field, he wouldn’t come in and complain if the master had another job for him.  No matter how much gets added on, he won’t be finished until the master says so.  In the same way, God can keep giving us more and more.  So much stuff that we can’t handle, unless we rely 100% on God.  That is the whole point too.  We have to rely on God.  I can’t do a single task on myself, I need God to help me.  I need His strength and not my own.  This is also with serving others.  Like yesterday I had K.P., but Austin told the class to call home and tell about the flights being ordered.  I could’ve done both if I was relying on Christ.  However I was relying on myself and only got K.P. done.  I messed up.  I shouldn’t have relied on my own strength, but the strength of God.  Both jobs weren’t completed so I was an unfaithful servant.  Only when the days work is done may the servant relax.  So today I won’t relax until all my work is done of me.  I will do all tasks of me and rely on the strength of God and not my own.  I will do all my serving when it’s asked and with God’s strength I will do all my tasks.

Luke 12:37-40

Being on KP this week, it really just shows this verse in a different way.  When doing the dishes you have to clean the whole plate and the whole cup and the whole fork, but you really have to scrub the inside of the cup the top of the plate and the head of the fork.  This is due to the fact it’s the dirtiest part.  The most impurities are not going to be on the bottom of the plate.  It’s going to be on the top part which was used.  The Pharisees were so outwardly clean.  They were so religious, but on the inside.  They were spiritually dead.  They had nothing.  They were. like the lepers, unclean and dying.  Religion kills, religion causes death, but a relationship in Jesus brings forth life.  Life abundantly.  Religion cleans the outside, but Christ cleans the inside.  For my entire life I was a pharisee, I was clean on the outside, I was religious, but then Christ changed me when I found out I could make it a real life relationship.  During senior year I started making my walk a relationship.  It was weak, but it was then I realized that I was just religious my entire life.  Until Ignite I was religious, Ignite has helped me start to kill the religion of Christianity.  I am starting to not be so religious, I am starting to build a relationship with the Father.  I’ve learned Grace here, which helps clean the inward man, and helps you die to yourself.  You can’t have grace and pride coinciding, pride doesn’t let you admit you screwed up, but grace knows you did and forgives you even though you don’t deserve it.  So today, I will clean my inside out by praying to God and confessing sins to Him asking Him to derive me of it.  I will ask for His help for my insides to be cleaned.

John 15:15

Jesus is talking to the apostles and calls them friends instead of servants.  He tells them a servant doesn’t know what is going on, but a friend is given the information.  They have been given the information.  Also they all serve beside Jesus.  Jesus is a servant with them, so they are all servant friends.  We are given all the information so we are friends of Jesus, we serve with Him and for Him too.  It’s a different perspective the fact that Jesus calls us friends because we are given the information in His word.  He doesn’t look down upon us.  He doesn’t tower over us, which He could do and be in the right, He is God.  No He is our friend, He is our ally.  Who do we go to in times of trouble?  Enemies or friends?  That’s right, friends.  We go to the ones who care for us, and they won’t attack us in our weakness.  We go to Jesus who wants our vulnerability.  So today if I have trouble with anything: Mentally, Physically, Spiritually, or Emotionally…I will go to a friend and pour out what is wrong to them.

John 12:26

Pretty easy right?  To serve Christ one must follow Him first.  If I want to truly serve, I must be a follower of Christ.  I mean Christ is the greatest example of a servant, like ever.  He is God, yet He came down to earth, in a super humble way, being born in a manger.  Then He lived His whole life serving people, who should be serving Him.  Then He goes and dies on a cross and raises up from the dead for them, for me and you.  That is serving.  So if I want to serve, I must take up His example.  I have to make myself lower than others.  I must crucify myself, I have to die to the flesh everyday.  Where Christ is, is where His servant is.  What Christ did, we should do too.  I mean obviously we can’t do a lot He did, but the attitudes He showed.  Love, obedience, humility… We need to show too.  This is how I can be a servant.  The verse closes with Jesus saying, “If any man serve me, him will my Father honor.”  If I do these things, and I serve Christ.  I will be honored by God.  I don’t need earthly honoring.  God the Father honors me.  Which is far superior to earthly honoring.  So today I will follow Christ’s example and serve others.  I will help with extra dishes that are just left in the sink, and if people leave cups out I will wash them.  Also I will put furniture away too.

1 Corinthians 12:14-15

We are all of the body of Christ.  We are all one church.  It does not matter: Race, Residency, Gender, Age, or anything.  If you accept the gospel message and you are a Christian, then you are apart of the body of Christ.  I can't make the body of Christ by myself.  No, it takes the collection of the believers.  It takes our brothers and sisters in the States, Mexico, Guatemala, Canada, Uganda, Cambodia, Jamaica.  It takes the believers around the world to make up the body of Christ.  Also it doesn’t matter if I’m a foot, or a hand, or just a single leg hair.  I just want a spot.  In heaven if all I get is the scraps from the table, then I’ll be joyous because at least I have a spot in the glory of God.  Also each body part has a different purpose.  A hand can’t just move around on it’s own.  No it must be attached to the rest of the body.  Like Christian said, “We are like the Power Rangers.  Sure we are cool by ourselves, but we need to be with one another and connect to one another to defeat the enemy.”  This is cool if you really think about it.  Apart from the rest of the believers I’m weak.  They feed into me, they plug into me.  I am made stronger by the challenges they put me up to.  It’s all for Jesus, but they are plugging into me.  So today, I will try and be closer to my fellow body members.  I will not trust in myself to defeat the enemy, but rather rely on the body to help me defeat him.  For I am weak by myself, but with Christ and the body, I am stronger.