Feed the Fire Devotional, August 30, 2010

ACTS Update 08/30/10


Dear Sisters,

Good morning! There seems to be a lot of countdowns going on lately. We’ve been counting down the days until school starts and the kick-off meetings to our local GEMS season. We understand countdowns and what it means to count the cost of school supplies for the kids. Yet, the most important cost we need to examine in our lives is the cost of being His disciple. Let’s think on that together this week.

COUNT THE COST

Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it?

Luke 14:28

As middle daughter Stephanie and I were unloading her groceries into the pantry of a small on campus apartment she’s sharing with five other girls this school year she told her friends, “I’ve got food! I figured I better stock up while my mom was here with the checkbook!”

They laughed and identified. With tuition, books, plus the responsibility of purchasing and preparing their own food, they were indeed counting the cost.

When Jesus taught about counting the cost of being a disciple He compared it to tower building and military strategy. “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way of and will ask for terms of peace” (Luke 14:28-32).

To be Jesus’ disciples we must also count the cost. True disciples that are feeding the fire do not coast into the Kingdom or compartmentalize their love for God into a 15-minute devotional time in the morning and their service into an every other week GEMS Club night.

To be a passionate disciple of Jesus comes with conditions. Jesus said, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters – yes, even his own life – he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26-27).

“Simply put, if you’re not willing to take what is dearest to you, whether plans or people, and kiss it good-bye, you can’t be my disciple” (Luke 14:33, MSG).

Oswald Chambers wrote, “The only men and women our Lord will use in His building enterprises are those who love Him personally, passionately, and with great devotion – those who have a love for Him that goes far beyond any of the closest relationships on earth. The conditions are strict, but they are glorious.”

PASSION Step: List the people, plans, and possessions that are dearest to you. Do you love these things less than Christ?

Our LORD was not referring here to a cost which we have to count, but to a cost which He has already counted.

Oswald Chambers

Grace and peace,

Lenae

Weekly Devotions

Every week, the Area Coordinators and Leadership Trainers receive an email devotional from our trainer, Lenae Bulthuis. I would like to share these devotions with you from time to time. They are usually based on the theme and are great tools for preparing your hearts to show a fire for God to your GEMS. Here is the devotional from today, August 16:

GOOD ZEAL


It is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good, and to be so always and not just when I am with you. Galatians 4:18


What are you most passionate and zealous about? The Barna Group recently released a study that tracked America’s priorities. They reported, “Family and faith continue to be the most common priorities of Americans, though these have waned in importance since 2006. Meanwhile, other elements such as health, leisure, money, and professional success are more likely to be identified as American’s top priorities.” Over the past few years, family and faith have shown a drop in priority, while health, wealth, leisure, personal comfort, success, financial stability, and lifestyle balance are on the increase. Do you and I identify with these statistics?

In the book of Galatians Paul wrote, It is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good (Galatians 4:18a). Paul knew all about being zealous for wrong things and even confessed that to the Galatians earlier in his letter. You have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. I was advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own age and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers (Galatians 1:13-14).
Paul was a zealot for destroying God’s church, and an enthusiast for the traditions of men. The horrors! Yet to the Jews he was a hero! His actions were progressing his career path at rates beyond his peers. His persecution campaign had the stamp of approval from the high priest who provided arrest warrants for any disciples that Paul found in the synagogues.
How clearly we see that Paul was zealous for the wrong things! Is it as easy for us to notice when we’re zealous for the wrong things? When we compare our lives to the world and sometimes even to the church, we may see heroism. Yet, when we make the correct contrast, comparing our lives to God’s Word instead of the world, we may see the horrors of our priorities – bowing down to other gods instead of God who must be our first love (Exodus 20:3-6, Mark 12:30-31).
God’s Word says, Be zealous for the fear of the LORD (Proverbs 23:17b). Be an enthusiast for demonstrating fear, reverence, and piety to God. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding (Proverbs 9:10). When we fear God, we’ll get wisdom to choose His priorities and have knowledge and understanding to how the Holy One desires for us to live.
What are you most passionate and zealous about? Remember, it is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good (Galatians 4:18). Look to the Good Book to learn what God says is truly good.
PASSION Step: Evaluate your priorities. Make course corrections as necessary.
That which is striking and beautiful is not always good;
but that which is good is always beautiful.
Anne de 1 Enclos

Reminder

Remember to send in your registrations for Fall Workshop SOON! Registrations must be postmarked by August 15 in order to qualify for the $25 fee. Please email if you have any questions!!

Devotional from GEMS

What We Must Not Forget Over Summer Vacation


Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them.Deuteronomy 4:9

In a web article titled, What I Forgot Over Summer Vacation, Lisa Tolin writes, “Most kids love the idea of forgetting about school during the summer months. But they may be taking that goal too literally. University of Missouri psychologist Harris Cooper finds that children typically forget between one and three months’ worth of schooling during the summer.”

In Deuteronomy 4:9 God warns us about forgetfulness! Like children, it’s counsel that may especially be needed over the summer months. Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them.

The Israelites had seen a great many things! Before their very eyes they heard the voice of God speak out of fire, and experienced miraculous signs, wonders, and awesome deeds (Deuteronomy 4:33-34) all for this purpose: That you might know that the LORD is God; besides him there is no other (Deuteronomy 4:35).

What great many things have you seen God do? Reflect on your faith journey, this past GEMS season, or your most recent time in His Word. What things must you not forget or let slip from your heart as long as you live?

The God of power who performed the miraculous signs and awesome deeds recorded in the Old Testament is still at work today; we just need to have eyes that are watching closely for His hand in our lives and in this world. He promises that if we seek Him, we will find Him, if we seek Him with all our heart and with all our soul (Deuteronomy 4:29).

If life is really dark for you and you simply can’t see Him, and you don’t feel His Spirit in your life, stop and ask: Do I believe in God? If your answer is yes, then He’s there. We see by faith, not sight (Hebrews 11:1).

Deuteronomy 4:9 contains a three-part S command:

1.See God at work.

2.Store up that memory in your heart.

3.Set off to teach the children.

It’s not enough to have a glorious scrapbook of His deeds within our hearts; we must tell the children and the children after them. Summer vacation or not, we are commissioned to go and tell girls everywhere about God.

Prayer Step

Be faithful in telling children about Jesus this summer. Pray that they and we do not forget God.

"If I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible that main cause of the ruinous revolution that swallowed up some 60 million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: ‘Men had forgotten God; that is why all this has happened.’”

Alexander Solzhenitsyn

These devotionals are available monthly on the GEMS Girls Clubs website.