Day 137...School Smarts

Proverbs 4:4-13

I hope you achieve two things in your career as a student. First, learn stuff. You're probably a smart kid, but there's a ton of stuff you don't know about the world around you. Taking school seriously and doing the hard work is the best way to learn a lot of the stuff you'll need to get where you want to go in life. Learn stuff.

Second, I hope you find wisdom. Wisdom is knowing how to use all the stuff you learn. For example, you might learn how to do CPR and save a life. Wisdom helps you know who needs CPR so that you're not trying to save someone who isn't dying (that could be awkward).

This translates easily to your spiritual life too, by the way. There's lots of stuff we need to learn about God. And He wants to give us wisdom so that we know how to use all the stuff we learn about Him (James 1:5). If learning about math matters, learning about God REALLY matters!

• Think about it: are you making the effort to learn the stuff you need to know from school and about God?
• Pray and ask God to give you more and more wisdom as you learn more stuff about life and Him.

Pastor Dave

Day 135...The Art of Endurance

Galatians 6:7-9

This is so cool! Today's verses fit perfectly with one of the things we discussed in WIRED yesterday. If you weren't there, one of the things we talked about from the life of Elijah was the fact that nothing is hidden from God and He will deal with the bad choices we make. Check out 1 Kings 21 for a good example (focus on King Ahab).

These verses in Galatians speak about this by saying that those who ignore God and live only for themselves will earn spiritual death but those who live for God will earn eternal life. Bottom line: no one slips beneath God's radar; He sees how we are living and He will deal with us accordingly.

Some days it's going to be tough to live for God. He encourages us to not grow tired and to keep on doing good to others because He is working through us and we will make a difference in other's lives.

• If you had to give your life a grade for living for God, what would you get? Ask God to help you live more for Him and less for yourself.
• What's one practical way you can live for God in your school this week?

Pastor Dave

Day 128...Heading Home

Hebrews 11:13-16

Most people don't like to feel out of place or like they don't fit where they are. How would you feel, for example, if you were wearing your best Hawaiian hula skirt to the fall dance at school? Probably a little self-conscious and awkward.

But when it comes to followers of Jesus relating to the world around them, we should feel out of place. This world is broken and it's running by the rules of sin right now. We are following the rules and lifestyle of God's Kingdom. Those two don't fit together at all. It's a tough line to walk between wanting to connect with and reach out to non-Christians and beginning to act and look like one of them.

• Examine your life. Based on your life, would anyone guess that you're a follower of Jesus?
• If you are blending too much with the world around you, ask God to show you what needs to change.

Pastor Dave

Day 123...Get Real

Romans 4:18-21

Faith is sometimes misunderstood. Some people think that having faith means ignoring realities or being dumb enough to fall accept something without any real reason. But those people couldn't be more wrong!

Having faith in God doesn't mean ignoring the facts or realities. Look at Abraham in these verses. He knew that the facts said there was no way he was going to have kids. He was 100 years old - way beyond prime years for starting a family. Abraham didn't ignore the facts; he knew there was a bigger fact involved - God.

And having faith in God isn't falling for something without reason. Abraham knew he could trust God because of all the things he had seen God do. It's not dumb acceptance to trust someone after you have seen they have the power to do what they say they will do over and over again.

Having faith means accepting the facts of reality and knowing that God has the power to overcome those facts to make His plan happen.

• What "fact" or "reality" in your life seems to big to overcome (parents divorce, moving to a new city or school, etc.)?
• Pray and ask God to help you have the faith that He can overcome these things to make His plan happen in your life.

Pastor Dave

Day 118...Big Bad Momma

Psalm 144

People are funny. When things are going good, we forget how much we need God. When we're making lots of money we forget that God provides for us. When we are safe and healthy we forget that God is our protector. Sadly, sometimes it takes a tragedy or hardship to remind us that we can't really handle life on our own. While this may be true for most people most of the time, I don't think God wants us to live in this pattern of remembering and forgetting Him. Let's make it our desire to remember God and rely on Him regardless of how good or bad life is going for us.

• Take a moment and write out all the things that God does in your life. Then post that up somewhere you'll see it regularly and thank God for one of them each time you see it.

Pastor Dave

Day 116...Quit Gawking

John 9:1-11

I really appreciate the story in these verses because I think it speaks to a problem we have in our culture. Most people (all the ones I know...and even myself at times) think of painful or unpleasant things as "bad." Something must be going wrong if I'm not happy or if the situation didn't turn out like I hoped it would.

These verses remind us that there is a much bigger plan at work in our world and our lives. I'm sure this blind man wasn't happy about being blind, but his condition was bigger than just his life. He didn't know it, but his blindness fit into God's plan for bringing salvation to mankind by helping to show Jesus' power to heal.

As you go through life, realize that God will use your problems and pains to bring about good (that doesn't always mean happy) things in your life or someone else's life. Let's stop whining about the things we don't like and trust that God has a plan for our lives.

• Think of one "bad thing" in your life and ask God to show you how He plans to bring something good out of it.
• Ask God to develop in you an attitude of thankfulness even when you're not happy about something.

Pastor Dave

Day 111...Wax Worship

2 Timothy 3:10-14

We all have people that we look up to and respect. And because these people can have a ton of influence in our lives, we need to make sure that they are people who will point us towards Jesus, not pull us away from Him.

Paul gives us a few guidelines from his own life that we can use to help us decide how much we should look up to a person and follow their example.

• Do their words match up with God's words in the Bible?
• Does their life mirror the life that Jesus wants us to live (they don't have to be perfect)?
• Is their faith in Jesus evident in their life?
• Do they show the fruit of the Spirit? - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control
• Is their faith deep enough to stand up under suffering and persecution?

As you decide for yourself whom you will look up to and whose example you will follow, think about these questions and how well the person's life can answer them. Make sure you follow people that will help you follow Jesus!

Pastor Dave