Monday Devotional: Keeping It Simple

by Cranston Chester

But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (Matthew 6:33 NIV)

This scripture is one of my favorites in the bible because it has a way of recalibrating me whenever I am distracted or overwhelmed. Whenever I read this scripture, I am also reminded of what I must be doing as a child of God.

Am I seeking God to be blessed to show others what is going on in my life, or am I open to God’s will being done in my life so that He is glorified regardless of my situation?

If I were to look at my financial responsibilities as a husband and a father, it can be overwhelming especially during this financial season. This scripture speaks to me because I am reminded that it is God who created the earth and everything therein (Nehemiah 9:6). Because He knows what we have need of as His children, and I need to be about His business.

God has placed a lot of “talents” in our hands, let us use them to the best of our ability for His glory and honor. Whenever I get away from that and become focused on using His talents for my purpose, it becomes overwhelming and distracting. The Holy Spirit always reminds me that this is a faith walk and to keep focused on God regardless of our situation. We are only seeing the current piece in the puzzle of our life, but God sees the completed puzzle, and we know that He has nothing but good plans for us (Jeremiah 29:11).

Whether or not you went through a setback (financially, or emotionally), please be reminded that worrying will not resolve it. Commit it into His unchanging hands. Continue to stay focus on our Heavenly Father and what He reminds us to do on a daily basis.

“Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness”!

Monday Devotional: What Is Our Primary Purpose For Raising Our Children?

by Cranston Chester

Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these”. (Matthew 19:14 NIV)

As the father of toddlers, like our Heavenly Father who said “…plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11), I want nothing but the best for them. I’m often thinking that I would like for them to be scholars first then everything else thereafter. Even though that is wonderful, it never sat well with me because something was missing. In Proverbs 22:6, the scriptures say, “Train a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not turn from it”. (NIV). This scripture can be interpreted as each child has special gift(s) from the Lord and we have a responsibility to nurture them as parents.

And we should!

Then I remembered growing up as a child attending a missionary school in kindergarten. Whenever I remember the songs we sang, it always brought joy to my heart. It also convicted me when I was in the “world”. My eyes were opened to this scripture (Matthew 19:14) one day by a man of God when he said that our primary purpose for raising our children is for them to have a “personal” relationship with God the Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Everything else follows. We cannot answer for them on judgment day, but we can lead them to the Light that is higher than us.

We can have daily devotional time with our children and teach them how to pray. This should be a fun time because this is the least we can the do with the gifts(s) He blessed us with in our children. Continue to encourage them that they should always pray “first” whether they are in a good or bad situation. Also, continue to be the loving and caring fathers to them as your Heavenly father is towards you. Even when disciplining them.

Children learn mainly from what we do not what we say, we must have a personal relationship with God that is “visible” to them. Even though God blessed us all with free will, whenever our children become young adults, can we look ourselves in the mirror and truly say that we did all we can to lead them to Christ?

It is never to late. Simply, ask God to not only bless you with the wisdom, but to order your footsteps to teach your children about a personal relationship with Him. Then be open to His will being done in their lives!

Man2Man Recap: Be Mindful of the ABC's of Man

Brothers, what a blessing once again it was to come together as men of God and break the bread of life together - which is the Word of God. Today's speaker was Minister Mark S. Lewis and he introduced a powerful concept that he called "The ABCs of Man". Basically, if you go through the alphabet, what truths about the Bible and what it says about you does the Holy Spirit bring to mind?
He began with the powerful letter 'R':
We must REPENT, so we can be REAL, and then we will be RELEVANT.

Brother Stansbury shared how it is important to be VIGILANT, so that we are VIABLE and then we as men will have a VOICE.

Going in this same vein of thought, we turned to James 1:19-22 and this took us to the letter 'S':
Be SWIFT to hear, SLOW to speak, and SLOW to wrath - this is where we spent the majority of our lesson because there were some powerful revelations from that scripture.

Minister Lewis shared a recent experience where he asked a person a simple question and they began to give him a lot of details that (in his flesh) he really did not need to know. What he really wanted was the answer to his question and he could have easily cut the person off and asked for 'the abbreviated version'. However, he was SLOW to speak and SWIFT to listen, allowing the person to finish everything they had to share, and after it all, he thanked them and hung up the phone.

After getting off the phone, his wife shared with him that she was so proud that he had not cut the person off, because the person needed to share their heart - cutting them off may have hurt their feelings and ultimately weakened the power of Minister Lewis' witness and ministry.

Such a simple example illuminated to each of us how easy it is to hurt our witness, just because we want to speak, before we have listened to the person speaking with us. The last part of the S's is SLOW to wrath - often when we speak too quick, we stir up wrath in the other person, or if we misinterpret what they are saying, anger is stirred up in us. This leads to conflict that advances the enemy's agenda but does nothing to glorify God. SWIFT to hear gives us an opportunity to be true vessels of God's love and when we are SLOW to speak, our words are peppered with love rather than the wrath that might have otherwise been festered in the moment.

Man2Man Recap: God Watches Over His Word to Perform It

Brothers, what a wonderful morning we had today at Man-to-Man bible study! Elder Larry took us through a survey of the biblical truth that we are all created in God's image. The implication of this truth is that:

1. God watches over His Word to perform it
2. If I am in the image of God, I have the same authority in the Earth as He has in the heavens
3. Therefore, because God said it, there is no way I can fail (if I am walking in His Word)

The teaching flowed like this:

• Genesis 1v26: God created MAN (not specifically Adam) but MAN in his image and likeness and gave him dominion, authority and the ability to rule all created things -> this applies to us too
• Genesis 3:1-6 : Adam succumbed to the serpant (who was a created thing) and fell out of relationship with God
• Mark 1v9-13: The second Adam (Jesus) reversed what happened in Gen 3v1 -> He gave us back the dominion, authority and ability to rule all created things; we too are God's sons and he is greatly pleased with us

Why then do we focus so much on the fall in Gen 3v1 instead of the great endowment of power that God gave us in Gen 1v26?

We must walk in an understanding that "God watches over His Word to perform it." All He is waiting for is for us to use the power that is in His word. Therefore, when we are faced with a challenge, our weapon of battle should be The Word of God . . . it has power . . . but only if we use it.

Just test it and see.