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Checkout Today's Devotion 
by Dr James MacDonald
(at the bottom)

Our Teaching Unit:

Game Changer: How to Impact Your World

A Study of the Book of Daniel

The Lesson for This Week:

"Stand Courageously"

The Point: "Be Ready and Willing to Stand for God"
Daniel 3:13-18, 26-28

Lesson 2

"Pray Fervently"

The Point: "Our Prayers Connect Us With God's Plan"

Daniel 2:13-21, 26-28a

Lesson 1

"Develop Conviction"

The Point: "Live Your Life With Uncompromising Conviction"

Daniel 1:3-5,8-13,17-19

Blueprint

Dr. James MacDonald

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. . . . and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God (Ephesians 6:11, 17, ESV)

In the construction world, nothing good is built without a blueprint. The necessity of a plan is universally accepted. Any time a problem or question comes up, builders examine the blueprint. For every uncertainty or perplexity, they go back to the blueprint.

Interestingly, the principle is not just true in the construction world. It also holds true in life.

You can’t build your finances without a blueprint.

You can’t build your family without a blueprint.

You can’t build your future without a blueprint.

You can’t build your faith without a blueprint.

Professionals in the construction trades would never try to build anything of value without a blueprint, yet all the time, people try to slap together a sort of life without a pattern or a plan. They reach for materials, cut without measuring, and hurriedly nail a bunch of pieces together at random. Bang, bang, cut, cut—and up goes all kinds of craziness in their lives. Even when things go wrong, and life starts to shift or crumble, they never go back to the blueprint, because they don’t have one. Even as they gaze in horror at what they’re building, many never realize, I need a clear plan for my life. I have to consult the blueprint.

Don’t Christians get that concept? Sadly, most people—even a lot of Christians—don’t grasp the importance of operating from a blueprint, much less God’s blueprint, as they build their lives. Christians create extra problems because they know they have a blueprint but refuse or forget to check it for direction.

God wrote the blueprint for human life. God Himself authored all the manufacturer’s specifications for your happiness. He knows how you’re put together. He knows how you work. He knows what will make you happy or miserable. He knows what will satisfy you and bring you joy. He wrote the blueprint for your complete happiness: the Bible.

The blueprint protects us. When we’re confronted with a temptation, we should immediately reference the blueprint. “I feel tempted to do _______________, but God’s Word says I should do _______________. I choose to follow the blueprint.” The power to say no to temptation is the power of the Word of God. If you find yourself in a situation where some temptation is being pressed upon you, don’t even try to stand against it yourself. You don’t have the power to resist it in your own strength. Use the only offensive weapon in your arsenal: “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

The power to dismiss the enemy is the power of the Word of God. Satan whispers lies to us, such as, “Does God really love you? If He really loved you, then He would let you have _______________. That would make you happy.” Our response should be, “Let me check God’s Word, because it’s the blueprint for human happiness. You want me to do _______________, but God’s Word says _______________.” Satan is the father of lies (John 8:44); lying is all he ever does. When James 4:7 tells us to “resist the devil,” that doesn’t mean to get out your boxing gloves. It means to draw your sword, God’s Word. Apply truth to the error that’s clouding your thinking.

Want to make a choice that will change your life forever? Commit afresh to God’s Word as the blueprint for your life.

Pray
God, You didn’t leave me here, lost and alone and wondering and wandering. You gave me a blueprint for life. Thank You for Your Word. Thank You for how it guides my choices. Thank You for its power to defeat temptation and every scheme of the enemy. I choose to build my life according to Your Word. By faith I believe that Your way is best, and a life built on You, with You, will satisfy my deepest longings. In the name of Jesus, amen.

Game Changer: How to Impact Your World

We hope you will join us this Sunday!

Mrs. Pat will be back and teaching

Our Teaching Unit:

Game Changer: How to Impact Your World

A Study of the Book of Daniel

The Lesson for This Week:

"Pray Fervently"

The Point: "Our Prayers Connect Us With God's Plan"

Daniel 2:13-21, 26-28a

Last week's Lesson:

"Develop Conviction"

The Point: "Live Your Life With Uncompromising Conviction"

Daniel 1:3-5,8-13,17-19

A Little Something Extra...

Since We Can't Take It With Us, Let's Send It On Ahead! I recently heard an amusing and instructive story about a wealthy man who was diagnosed with a terminal illness. The rich gentleman idolized his material possessions so he liquidated his assets and ordered his wife and nephew to place the cash in a box in the attic. He told them, “When I die I’ll grab the cash on my way up!” In a few days he expired as predicted. His wife and nephew ran up to the attic and found the cash box undisturbed. His widow exclaimed, “I knew that old fool should have put his cash in the basement!” Here’s the Point: Since we can’t take it with us, let’s send it on ahead! Jesus tells us how we can use our earthly resources to build God’s kingdom and create a heavenly mutual fund that will yield dividends for eternity. “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.” (Matthew 6:19-20)

Update

Update for Sunday, Oct. 11th, 2015

"If you feed them, they will come!"

A loud and boisterous "Thank You" for all who brought breakfast dishes last Sunday. Also, to all of you who help clean up after one of our "First Sunday" events, "Thank You". I know many of you look forward to every "First Sunday" and we are thankful for this opportunity. 

This Sunday's Lesson: God's Promise of a New Home

Scripture: Revelation: 21: 1-8

Mrs. Pat is on a trip so I will be teaching the next two weeks. I look forward to seeing you this week.

The following is from Dr. Kevin Elko. Dr. Elko is a Christian Sport Psychologist. He has worked with many teams on the professional and collegiate level. I subscribe (free) to his weekly Monday Morning Cup of Inspiration and it challenges me for the whole week. If you would like to subscribe, go to http://www.drelko.com/ and on the right side of website is the Newsletter and Monday Morning registration. 

The following came from his newsletter:

Heels Off!!!!

Dr. Kevin Elko

I believe everything teaches us, if we stop to reflect on what it could teach. September 11, 2001, taught me lessons I will carry the rest of my life.

I was called into New York City immediately after 9/11 to work with people who were impacted by the terrorists’ acts. Arriving there immediately after the planes hit, I saw people with casts on their legs because they were trampled in the street, I saw remains taken out of ground zero as firemen and their comrades stood at attention and saluted the fallen, and I saw the kindest, caring people you can imagine.

As a counselor, I was taught, when going into catastrophic situations, to protect myself, to interact, yes, but not to walk into something that is so emotionally charged that I could lose my balance. The fireman knocked me off balance, a staggering that woke my soul. Here were people who ran into the World Trade Center, giving up everything for people they didn’t even know.

To act is not a feeling but a choice

Christ was the one who taught us by his example—to feel and then act—when he fed 5,000 people that he didn’t know and healed the blind he had just met. My first lesson from 9/11 is to look, feel and then act – not to dismiss, saying, "That’s a shame," or even to urge someone else to do it. To act is not a feeling but a choice. Set out each day, looking for someone who needs something, feel compassion for that person, and then act. Don’t judge or say they should have done this or that they brought the situation on themselves (which obviously people did not cause 9/11), but rather act. Mercy always trumps judgment. Today, make a choice to intentionally love somebody. And if your heart is big enough, open it up and love everybody.

While at NYC, I met with a security guard describing the inside of one of the buildings immediately after a plane hit. He said he stood there screaming up the stairwell, "Take your heels off!" Then, he started to cry and said, "People died because I could not get them to take their heels off." Have you ever thought how much your behavior has an effect on others? This other lesson of 9/11 haunts me.

The metaphor of "take your heels off" has been powerful to me. To get anything in life, you have to take something off. Take off your pride if you want to grow and become a complete person. Take off your ego if you want a real relationship with God. Take off your need to be right if you really want peace in your life.

To find God, remove what isn’t God

We don’t need to find peace, joy or God; we have to remove what isn’t God and those things, and God and those things will find us. I have a good friend who says all the time, "I haven’t gotten much of anything by praying to God. But I lost my anger, the bitterness in my heart, my self-absorption about my life and my fear of death." Take your heels off; take off what limits you to become more.

The ultimate "take your heels off" is forgiveness. We cannot put peace and freedom on us until we forgive; it is a type of taking our heels off. Forgiveness is not a feeling, and for that reason, people can’t do it: they want to FEEL their way to forgiveness. But it’s a choice; you never feel like forgiving! The person who forgives is not the one who is wrong but rather is the one who is spiritually mature and makes the decision, not who captures a feeling.

At one of my presentations, a man said, "I haven’t spoken to my brother for seventeen years over my mother’s tombstone. Please excuse me; I am stepping out right now to call him. I don’t even remember the original argument, but I am asking him to please forgive me." The man did not have a feeling but was making a choice; to have a relationship with someone he loved he had to take the heel of pride off.

So now what? Once you realize the truth, what do you do with it? Your money is not your wealth, but your time is. Most people’s lives do not end too quickly, but they start too late. They walk around like they’re living a dress rehearsal. You should have a flashing sign in your brain: live because 9/11 is coming, and nobody escapes.

Coach Pagano of the NFL Indianapolis Colts became friends with a little girl with cancer while he was taking chemo. After he had finished, she sent him the following note, "Dreams are something your mind knows to be true and your soul wants to follow." The little girl’s mother delivered it to Chuck; three days later, the little girl died.

Live full so you can die empty

Right now there is something in you that your head wants to follow and your soul knows to be true, but you keep ignoring it; you keep living in quiet desperation. Yet you heard it inside of you too many times for it not to be the truth. You got caught up in full crisis living like the rest of us, but the real crisis is not here; when it comes, it will demand front center stage. Then, there will be no energy for this dream. Live full so you can die empty. Do it now with urgency because your personal 9/11 is coming with a bang.

Look, see, feel, act – that is what Christ taught us. Think that what you do impacts all. Curing oneself of the disease of "me" is a daily healing, because it never goes away. Get rid of what is not peace, joy and God, and all of these will find you.

In Asheville, North Carolina, in the middle of town stands a big wall with the words "Before I die, I will" written fifty times with a blank line after it. What is your blank? Before I die, I will find a cure for cancer. Before I die, I will help feed starving people. Before I die, I will write a book that will impact others. What would you write? Well, then, start writing. Whatever it is, do it now. Your 9/11 is coming.