July 19th, 2010 Morning devotion

This morning's devotional. Just thought I'd share! :)
God bless!!!


You Are Not Alone

You are not alone - For God is with you.
You are not defenseless - For God is your protector.
You are not inadequate - For God is your sufficiency.
You are not useless - For God has a purpose for your life.
You are not worthless - For God sent His Son to die for you.
You are not without hope - For God has a place prepared for you.
You are not unloved - For God loves you with an everlasting love.
You are not rejected, or abandoned - For God calls you His own.

-Roy Lessin

"I will never fail you. I will never abandon you." So we can say with confidence, "The Lord is my helper, so I will have no fear. What can mere people do to me?" Hebrews 13:5-6 NLT

Don't Waste Your Life

One of the books I've been reading this summer is "Don't Waste Your Life" by John Piper. First impression of the book, Piper don't play! He's pretty deep. Unlike some other Christian authors that like to just scrape the top of the coating off and give readers just some glimpse of what Christian lives should and shouldn't be like, Piper cuts right in. No scraping, very blunt! Other interesting thing 'bout reading this book is that we're reading it together with the youth and discussing it in our small discipleship groups. So far, it's been interesting. I really like the fact that during our meetings, I get to hear about each persons thoughts and opinions on the book, and what Piper is really throwing at his readers. There is the actual book, and then there's a study guide that we base our discussions off of.

So far, we've been talking a lot about

• What exactly is wasting your life?
• How can we not waste our life?
• Am I wasting my life?
• What is my purpose in life?
  

Like I mentioned earlier, it's very interesting hearing others thoughts of such questions. In the book, Piper mentions many times of how many people really see life as only an opportunity to them to live, but don't know what to live for. Some might think life is just a time-line laid out for ourselves to do our best to get to the last date. I tend to ponder though, how do we know that when the last date comes up in this certain time-line, how do we know it's our last? Piper really gets the reader into his gist of learning how to boast, learning how to live for a certain purpose and not waste our lives. He gives a clear pathway of leading readers of how to live our lives accordingly, abidingly, and truthfully. Truly, I hope and pray that after reading this book, I can learn how not to waste my life. I'll try to keep myself updated with this post, but for then I'll leave you all with one of my many highlights in reading this book.

"The whole point of seeing through something is to see something through it."
**by: C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man. -Quoted by John Piper, Don't Waste Your Life:"My search for a single passion to live by"

When God breaks through

How is it that sometimes subtly, sometimes with a sudden startle, God breaks through the thick fog of our collective blindness? Our lives confront us with the inevitable experience of suffering: our own suffering, the suffering we cause to others, the pain we experience in and with the suffering of others. “Pay attention,” says the voice of God within us, “Here is an opportunity to deepen your relationship with me! You will find me when your heart breaks open with compassionate love for all of creation. But you must let the suffering touch you deeply enough that you begin to see your own path as a path of compassion on behalf of all living creatures.”

Weavings: A Journal of the Christian Spiritual Life