Live No Lies

Day 7

Day 7 finishes this series with the focus on what the result of following in the practices of Jesus: we stand firm…

Devotional Point 4 today: spiritual disciplines are spiritual warfare… This is how we win: we stand.

Scripture 4 today: “Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.” ‭‭1 Peter‬ ‭5:9‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Reflection 4 today: To get into the place we are we are “standing firm in the faith“ happens only by walking out the practices of “walking with Jesus“. Every minute of every day. It does not come from picking and choosing which things we want to obey and which not, we are either “all in“ or not. And most of that comes from whether we put Jesus in “our room“ or whether we are ourselves in “Jesus room“. It’s a choice regarding whether we want Jesus to live by our rules or if we want to live by Jesus rules.

Question for the day: When have spiritual practices empowered you to stand up to the devil? 90% of the time in my thought life.

Other Notes: This last 7 days of “live No Lies” has had something to say to all of us. I thought we source follow this up with a 5-day services from John Mark called the “Ruthless Elimination of Hurry”. Invites out later today…

Day 6

Days 6 gives us the secret to the life with God we want, a mind governed by the Spirit…

Devotional Point 4 today: You become what you give your mind to. The goal of reading scripture is to take on the “mind of Christ”…

Scripture 4 today: “The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.” Romans‬ ‭8:6‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Reflection 4 today: The one thing we know about the world we live in is that we do not have to go out of our way to have our minds be governed by “the flesh“. It is just a factor of the world we live in, which is an ever increasing load of flesh“. The reason why we have to focus on scripture is that the only way to have our minds changed is by replacing the bad with the good, scripture.

Question for the day: What is one way you could fill your mind with thoughts of God more regularly? start the day with the scripture, stay through the day with the scripture, the end the day with a scripture…

Day 5

Day 5 gives us the key to fighting the lies of Satan: the truth…

Devotional Point 4 today: Jesus has come to liberate us with the weapon of truth…

Scripture 4 today: “and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.” ‭‭2 Timothy‬ ‭2:26‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Reflection 4 today: The work of Satan is to “capture“ Christians in his lies and distortions and distractions. He prefers not to kill them but to capture them alive and use them to infect others… Satan prefers to get people to believe half the truth just like the church has persuaded people to believe that if they just pray the sinners prayer they are “in” and are full Christians. He tells them don’t worry that “believe in your heart” part or that “turn you back on sin” part, just say the prayer and you are in…

Question for the day: How has satan entrapped you? More ways than I can count…

Day 4

Day 4 gives us the advice we need to survive today, don’t. E deceived…

Devotional Point 4 today: reality does not adjust itself to our illusions…

Scripture 4 today: “I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments.” Colossians‬ ‭2:4‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Reflection 4 today: we live in a world today where we are being bombarded constantly by arguments of one sort or another. However this word “deceive“ is used only here and one other place and refers to a very deep deception on the basis of arguments that actually make sense. I think the principal issue for us today is that of distraction, the world we live in wants to distract us with arguments that on the surface appear quite solid. However we can’t get sucked into this ever.

Question for the day: The question isn’t: Do you have faith? But who or what do you have faith in? The more I exercise my faith the more I build my faith…

Day 3

Day 3 gives us the bottom line for living in this world and it’s relentless deceptions…

Devotional Point 4 today: the devil’s means are lies…

Scripture 4 today: “Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.” ‭‭John‬ ‭8:47‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Reflection 4 today: Jesus nets it down to the very simple truth: you can’t hear God’s words because you are not of God… During this past “broadcast cycle” of the church, the big “win” for churches was the number of people who prayed the “sinner’s prayer”, and quite a few were conned into doing just that, and giving them the impression that they were now “Children of God” when they neither believed in their hearts nor turned their backs on sin, the ultimate deception…

Question for the day: How does the devil lie to you? Trying to get me to think something is important when it isn’t.

Day2

https://youtu.be/AoJkxz9vjXY

Day 2 reminds us of the fact that we are living in a digital modern-day Babylon for which we have answers…

Devotional Point 4 today: Babylon is not an easy place to live…

Scripture 4 today: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you,” ‭‭1 Peter‬ ‭1:3-4‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Reflection 4 today: The world we live in is a modern day “Babylon“. It does not want to be nice to us, it does not wanna be your friend, and it seeks to destroy us in every way possible. Once you see if is it really is, it is much easier to rest in the hope of Jesus resurrection. Are difficult things going to happen? Of course, and on a daily basis. However the more we train ourselves in the faith, the better result we will have…

Question for the day: How might living in Babylon strengthen rather than weaken your faith? Keeps us focused on what God is doing…

Day 1

Day 1 sets out the reality of the fights in front of us, the 3 enemies of the soul…

Devotional Point 4 today: “the three enemies of the soul.”

Scripture 4 today: “Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” ‭‭1 Timothy‬ ‭6:12‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Reflection 4 today: we are waking up this morning to a world of deep conflict, both ideological and physical. The physical conflicts as regards Christianity, are mostly restricted to countries like China, North Korea and other such places. However the ideological conflicts threaten to completely destroy the church as we know it. Quite possibly quite a bit of the Church as we know it could use a bit of destroying. Our battle is with what the author is calling the three enemies of the soul, it is a very big battle.

Question for the day: Why is the world such a mess we ask? Why am I? The battle is in the world we live in are down to battles with the world, the flesh, and the devil…