One of my favorite parts of the movie, when I was little, was watching as the boy who loved chocolate falls into the chocolate river and was sucked up the giant tube. Now when I see the film I realize that this is exactly what happens to us when we do not follow the plans laid out for us in the Bible and instead we listen to the world and go after everything we want (and wrongly convinced) that we deserve.    The little boy who loved chocolate was spoiled all his life. His mom told him he could have chocolate whenever he wanted. People even thought it was cute as he would gorge himself on chocolate delights even as a toddler. But as he grew up it stopped being cute. By the time he reached the Wonka Factory he was not only obnoxious but unhealthy and obese too. When he saw a river of chocolate he could not do anything but jump in and get all he could. He didn’t care that the rules forbid this. He didn’t care that Wonka was warning him of the dangers. He didn’t even care that the mother who had made all his chocolate dreams come true was going to have a broken heart if he were swept away. He could only think about himself. So he dives in head first.

I challenge you this week to observe your life. Are there areas where you are so self absorbed that you are ready to dive head first into something that you’ve never taken to Christ? Are there things that you desire for your own life that do not line up with Scripture? If you are honest you will see that there are, and maybe you’ll even find there are a lot of areas like this. We all have them. But God can’t work in those areas until we recognize them and then start to eliminate them. The only way to do this is to allow HIM to be fully in the situation – to only do what you know He would want. To fully give up your own desires to accomplish HIS goals. Read John 3:22-30. John the Baptist understood this concept. Even though his followers were confused and even complained that Jesus was taking away focus from John, he (John the Baptist) still understood that the best thing for him and for his followers was for Jesus to have the spotlight. In verse 30 he said it bluntly and to the point, “He must increase and I must decrease.”    John knew that for him to receive full contentment and full success (eternity with his creator), that Jesus had to be the focus.

I can tell you first hand that I’ve had situations where I was waist deep in my own chocolate rivers and loving every minute of it. But slowly I started to see the damage of self focused living and I allowed Christ into the situations. He showed me that doing things His way, not only allowed me to enjoy the chocolate but also kept me from getting sucked up in the big plastic tube!
Have a wonderful week of following your Savior!

-Phil Venrick

That was unfortunate, because sin will make you stupid in the truest sense of the word!

We do see it clearly illustrated in the lives of Samson, King Saul and Sapphira. All three at one point in their lives were close enough in relationship to God to be selected for great things. As unconfessed sin crept into their lives, they became self sufficient and relied on their own wisdom and morals as if they were higher than God! All three traded reliance on God for self reliance and all three slid from the powerful life of surrender to God and His plans into three of the saddest demises the Bible records.
Samson was strong because he was dedicated to God, and as long as he embraced the signs of his devotion to God, (not cutting his hair) God’s power worked through him.    When Samson’s hair was cut and he lost his strength, and the sole reason was, he attributed to himself what in actuality was GOD working through him.    God permitted him to lose his strength to prove how powerless he was without the help of God. One of the saddest verses in the entire Bible is Judges 16:20, “The Spirit of the Lord had left him, BUT he did not know it.”    Because of arrogance and spiritual deafness, Samson ended his life tied to a mill stone, going around in circles, blind and ultimately crushed beneath a collapsed building. The end of his life could have been so different had he listened to God’s voice instead of Delilah’s. The fatal effects of sin happen when we exalt our own thoughts and wisdom over God!

King Saul had been given many gifts by God. He ruled Israel, was loved and used by God to prophecy and lead in triumph. At some point, jealousy and arrogance replaced humility and surrender to God and the mighty King fell on his own sword in suicide. I Samuel 16 record the beginning of the end….”And the Spirit of the Lord left Saul.” If God and His grace do not rule us, sin will.

Smack in the middle of the great revival recorded in Acts 4 & 5 is a woman named Sapphira. God is moving after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, on the day of Pentecost, and people are selling their land and contributing the money to the needs of the other believers so they all will have. Sapphira and her husband sell a piece of their property and decide to “ACT” like they did the same. Just to “appear” spiritual they decided to lie to the Holy Spirit. Ananias dropped dead in front of Peter who had confronted him.    Three hours later, Peter asked Sapphira about the same land deal, and she told the same lie as her husband…which Peter correctly pronounces as “they agreed together to lie to the Holy Spirit.” How can you be in the middle of one of the greatest outpourings of the Holy Spirit ever recorded and decide to lie to the same Holy Spirit? Absolute and complete folly of pride and exaltation of one’s self is the answer!    Sapphira dropped dead the minute her lie came out of her mouth. It was such an unnecessary ending….all due to self indulgence and selfishness.

To those who choose to live authentic lives of faith and honest surrender, God offers something very powerful. “He resists the proud, but offers grace to the humble.”
James 4:6

If you continue on in your own design and plan for life, you face certain resistance. If you acknowledge His Lordship in your life and humbly follow His leading, He offers grace… the greatest source of power and deliverance available in this life!

-Phyllis Johnson

The Command: You must die to yourself (Luke 9:23-25). That is a big church concept which means, you give up full rights to your life and give them to God to use in whatever way He sees fit to spread His kingdom and His great name. That means if you plan to go “right” with your life and God says go “left,” if you have died to yourself, you go left. It’s not a hard concept to grasp, but very hard to put into practice. It’s called “dying” to yourself for a reason. And it’s hard because of the war that happens inside of us. We at our very core believe we know what is best for ourselves. We believe that protecting ourselves and looking out for ourselves is of the highest priority. It’s our nature (this inherited thing called sin that plagues the entire human race).    Jesus says “if you want to follow me, you want to live the way I live…those things aren’t your highest priority. God is.
And if you would follow me you are going to have to battle and kill that stuff in you that tells you that you are most important.”    So it is hard (again…dying), but the end result of every man that truly follows Christ, is death to himself. You may ask yourself why does Christ ask this and not just working on becoming a better person? Because a life dead to itself shows true trust, submission and love for God. The great thing is we are not left to ourselves to do this. God gives us His Spirit to empower us to battle, and on top of that we know that while we battle, Christ has already won the war.

The Promise: If you are willing to give up your life for God to work in you and through you. And if you would count everything in your life (both good and bad) as nothing compared to knowing and being with Christ (Philippians 3:8), then the promise is that you will share in His life. Christ isn’t dead. He was resurrected and the promise is, if we identify ourselves with Him in His death (i.e….He gave Himself up for us) then we will also be identified with Him in His life. His everlasting life. Life that has no end. Life that is free from sin (not just our bad acts, but the deep down nature that causes us to want to sin).

God asks us to trade our life…for His. It’s hard to do…but it’s a pretty sweet deal.

“For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”
Colossians 3:3

-Chris Reed

It’s kind of funny to think about that situation in this way. And definitely funny to personify the traits of a donkey. But do you get my point? It would be so silly for the donkey to think that he was the one the people were going crazy about- wouldn’t it? He was carrying Jesus! Of course the people weren’t cheering for the donkey- they were cheering for Jesus! Surely the donkey wouldn’t be foolish enough to think that he was more worthy of the praise and adoration than the King he was carrying! But we do this all the time. We forget that we are the ones to carry the story of Jesus. Humbly. We are the ones who are to deny ourselves in order to follow Jesus (Matthew 16:24). Completely.    But how often do we do just the opposite? We want the glory, the honor, and the praise! We want to be the first and the best and the greatest! We often overthrow Jesus from the throne of our hearts- a throne that is rightfully His. How silly of us! Just like the colt knew that his role was to humbly carry the Savior of the world, we should know our role as well. It is much the same- to carry the light, love, and grace of Jesus to the world without letting ourselves get in the way. To serve- not to BE served. Jesus is the only one worthy of worship- our only job is to lift Him up.

“And they came to Capernaum. And when He was in the house He asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. And He sat down and called the twelve. And He said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.”
Mark 9:33-35

-Carrie Crawford

Realize that the sun rises and sets at your command. Once you have accepted this fact, you truly will be thinking like a rock star.
Even though I knew this was essentially what having a “rock star” mentality was all about, it blew me away to read this…to see it just laid out like that. This clearly, with no questions lays out how we are taught we should be, and unfortunately, I think we embrace this mentality too often in our own lives. I know I do…I get so caught up thinking about MY time, MY money, MY this, My that, ME, ME, ME.    When this happens, I take my focus off of God, the only one worthy of my focus and worship, and place it all on myself. And this is exactly opposite of how we are told we should be in God’s Word:

3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5    Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6    who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Philippians 2:3-8

From these verses we see the mentality we really should embrace…the same as that of Christ Jesus: humble, selfless and servant. While this is so difficult to do when everything else around us is screaming at us to be “rock stars”, with God’s help we can begin to change our mentality. One of my prayers is that I would have the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus each day. Even though I know too often I fail miserably at this, I am encouraged knowing that when this is my prayer, this is my heart, God is helping me along the way.

Look at your life and ask God to show you where there is too much self…to much “ME”. My prayer is that we all would switch from embracing the worldly “rock star” mentality to the godly “Jesus” mentality. Imagine how different things would be if our focus and energy truly was on HIM and not on “me.”

-Sara Miller

I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

Psalm 23:6b

When I think of what it will be like dwelling in the house of the Lord forever, I am overjoyed. I believe it will be far more amazing than any of us can ever imagine. At the last Summit we had here at the church, I remember standing there fully immersed in worshiping my Shepherd, and feeling as though I was getting a tiny glimpse of what heaven will be like…being in His presence and praising Him for all that He is. It felt so good, but I know that feeling will be multiplied by like a gajillion when we actually stand before Him on His throne. Not only will we be in His presence, but we will see Him face to face and the things of this world will be no more.

This is why we can have hope now in this fallen world…because we are promised forever in the house of the Lord. When I am going through tough times and hurting, knowing that the tears I cry and the pain I feel will not last forever is what helps me carry on. Because of this promise we are given an eternal hope:

He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken.

Isaiah 25:8

My hope is that if you are hurting and going through a difficult time right now that you would see it’s not forever. That you would find peace in knowing one day pain and heartache will cease to exist, and all that will be in its place is joy, peace and contentment.

Take a moment now to reflect on the words of this song, “Endless Hallelujah” by Matt Redman. Then thank Him for the promise of amazing things to come in heaven.

And we will worship, worship Forever in Your presence we will sing We will worship, worship You And endless hallelujah to the King No more tears, no more shame No more sin and sorrow ever known again No more fears, no more pain We will see You face to face See You face to face

-Sara Miller

As you might know, most of my adolescent years my parents where full time missionaries. Growing up on the mission field, missionary life was the only thing my brother and I knew. In our minds, every family traveled to foreign countries with 30 teenagers, built buildings and evangelized to the native people. I can still remember the time when I realized my family wasn’t the normal family. My Dad’s explanation was simple, but has stuck with me:

“But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”

Joshua 24:15

God had called us to serve Him and that is what we were doing.

I didn’t fully understand or appreciate the sacrifice my parents had made until I was much older. I didn’t realize how difficult it would have been to quit jobs, pick up everything and move 1000 miles away from family, to a town where you knew no one and your income was supplied by supporters and faith in God. Just as my father, I want to follow the calling God has for me.

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers by the mercies of God present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”

Romans 12:1

We need to present our bodies as a living sacrifice. Remembering God isn’t interested in the money we make or the things we own. He is interested in our hearts of service. It’s not about what we are willing to give God, it’s about following the calling God has for our lives.

Faith isn’t the ability to believe long and far into the misty future. It’s simply taking God at His Word and taking the next step.

- Joni Erickson Tada

-Joe Barber

Even though we are secure in our salvation and entrance into Heaven by Jesus’ blood (Rev. 1:5) we will be judged for our stewardship of all He blessed us with here on this earth. 1 John 3:14 assures us we have passed from death to life and will enter Heaven with the righteousness of Christ credited to our account but we will all stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ!

For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body.

2 Corinthians 5:10

God will still judge the justified! We are saved by His grace as Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works that no one should boast.” It is CLEAR we cannot save ourselves through works. BUT…works done after we are saved are special to God. The next verse (Ephesians 2:10) says, “For we are His workmanship, created in Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” These works honor God and we should want to please Him.

I Corinthians 3:8 states, “Each shall receive his wages according to his labor.” Good works are not for our justification or forgiveness of sins. They are for spiritual reward in this life and in eternal life. There will be different rewards in Heaven for those found faithful in this life. The way we live here will have eternal reward. The cup of cold water given in the name of Christ will not be forgotten! The self centered, indulgent Christian will not inherit the full blessing of reward in eternity.

How we steward all God blesses us with in this life has direct impact on eternity. Those who are pleasing to Christ will generously be rewarded and it is comforting to know we won’t be judged on anything from the time of our first birth, but only what we have done since our second birth. One of the things the Holy Spirit is so tender in doing is helping us with self introspection. His gentle leading causes us to practice I Corinthians 11:31, “If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.” Un-confessed sin, sin that we have rationalized and stayed in, will cause us great loss as we stand before our Lord.

I Corinthians 3 describes this well:

11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have—Jesus Christ.12 Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials—gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw. 13 But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value. 14 If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward. 15 But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames.

“For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God; for it is written, as I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.”

Romans 14:10-12

I have compiled a grouping of strong scripture for this devo that are quite sobering. But the reality is that God has given us EVERYTHING we need for living a Godly life (I Peter 1:3). If we relax in His love, flourish through His grace, soak in His Word, find rest in His presence and power in His Holy Spirit….HE will transform us (Romans 12) and we will inherit all He has planned for those who love Him!!

“Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I conquered and sat down with my Father on His throne!”

Revelation 3:20-21

“Well done thou good and faithful servant! You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much! Enter into the joy of the Lord!”

Matthew 25:23

-Phyllis Johnson

As I was preparing for last’s months the Current event, I ran across an amazing scripture in Revelation:

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.

Revelation 2:17

After praying and doing some research, I found some interesting things about this text. Christ was speaking to the church in Pergamum.

Apparently, this church had allowed some false teaching to take root amongst them – leading to sin and impurity. Christ is telling them that if they overcome this filth here on earth and if they refuse to tolerate such behavior, they will be rewarded in heaven with….

1. The hidden manna

2. A white stone with a new name on it

Let’s look at the hidden manna. Why is it such a great reward? It represents the nourishment we will receive from Jesus. In Exodus 16, we see that the Israelites were physically nourished by the ‘manna’ (thin flakes that were ground and made into cakes) that fell from heaven. In John 6…Jesus calls Himself ‘the bread of life’. He does this because our spiritual nourishment comes from Him. When we get to heaven – we get fed by Jesus. This is a feast to look forward to, friends! Speaking of feasts…

Let’s look at the ‘white stone’ with a ‘new name’ on it. Why is it such a great reward? While it isn’t as cut and dry as the manna….there are a few very probable meanings behind this: The white stone could have represented a ticket to a banquet. How fitting, because heaven is often times described as one big banquet of believers (Luke 14). Also, the ‘white stone’ might have represented an acquittal. Back in this day, if someone was being set free from the accusation of a crime, they would receive a white stone (A person being found guilty would receive a black stone). Again, how fitting. In heaven there will be no accusations against us…no more guilt and shame and finger pointing from the enemy. Incredible! As if the manna (Jesus) and the white stone (the banquet ticket/sign of acquittal) aren’t enough…the white stone will have a ‘new name’ written on it! We will not only receive a new heart in heaven – but a new name that fits our new character! What a reward!

Lord, help us to live with an eternal perspective. Help us to realize and understand that there is more to life than what we see and experience now. Let us live with hope…..with joy…..with excitement – as we look forward to eternity with You!

-Katie Harden