40 DAYS: Day 19

Mark 14:3-9 A woman anoints Jesus with Perfume

S (sin ... not giving everything to him)

P (promise to remember to do my devo's on a daily basis, not getting distracted and giving him my full attention)

A (attitude ... am i really giving everything to god?) 

C (command ... "")

E (example ... follow the woman in the story)

P (pray for strength and courage to put everything on God)

E (error to avoid ... don't be overcome with pride and take over everything)

T (truth ... God is almighty, you can't do anything without him)

S (something to praise god for? For my talents, skills, and knowledge that he's given me to use in school)

As I put myself in the position of the woman, It is really hard to comprehend her actions because it is completely opposite of my lifestyle today. I've been extremely blessed by God with all these amazing things and with a wonderful life to live. Therefore, its hard for me to relate to a poor individual who has nothing but still is willing to give everything to God. I'm wondering If I could do the same during that situation. Being spoiled, we usually take for granted what is given to us and It's really bad actually. 

I need to learn to be more thankful with everything I have and don't complain as much about anything that is small and insignificant in comparison to other people's lives. 

40 DAYS: Day 18

"And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins." 

Mark 11:25 

We must forgive to be forgiven

S (sin to confess? Am I holding anything against anyone?)

P (is there a promise that I should make?)

A (Do I need to change my attitude towards something?)

C (Is there a command I need to follow?)

E (Is there an example to follow?)

P (What prayer do I need to pray about?)

E (What error do I need to avoid?)

T (What's the eternal truth?)

S (what is there to praise god for?)

Through this simple verse, I've realized how little I've asked God to forgive me on anything. I need to remember that as a sinner, it blocks my path and light. I need to be able to relent to god meaningfully and remember to consistently do it on a regular basis to show my deepest apologizes to God. So my attitude change is to be more humble, to be more trustworthy in him. I need to follow these examples of my friends and my families. Lastly, I praise God for being constantly forgiving and for giving up his son so we are given this true blessing that we are clearly not worthy for. 

40 DAYS: Day 17

Mark 10:17-31 Jesus meets the rich young man

This passage is basically about how Jesus explains to the rich that in order to have a place in heaven, you need to use the commandment of "love your neighbours" This is done by giving all you have to the poor. In our society, this is very difficult because the mindset nowadays is to give and get something in return. No one really gives and expects nothing else in return. 

Therefore, we need to understand that we should be humble and willing to sacrifice everything we have all for God. This is because, once we die, what do we have? We don't have any materials or anything on earth but God alone. We lose everything except God and that is why we should put our entire focus on him and to do what he says because without him we are nothing. 

40 DAYS: Day 16

Mark 9:33-35 Who is the greatest in the kingdom of God?

Through this verses, I learned that the greatest in the kingdom of God is anyone who is humble, willing to be a servant for others and not just God. One who is helpful, loving, and caring is something that is well known and well recognized in God's view. 

I can apply this in my life by changing my attitude towards helping others. I find that when I help others, I will look for something in return in the future and I also get annoyed after a while if they take advantage of my help or they're not putting enough effort into my help for them. Therefore, I need to find ways to change this attitude and to continue to learn how to love them no matter how hard or how difficult it gets. I need to remember that everyone is God's children and that I should love them all and "welcome him in Jesus's name". 

40 DAYS: Day 15

Mark 8:34-38 Jesus teaches about taking up your cross

After this week's lesson on "Probing the text with questions" It really interested me and I was curious on how I'd encourage myself to continually apply the questions of S.P.A.C.E.P.E.T.S into my daily Devotionals or whenever I read into the bible. 

Sin to confess?

Our father in heaven, I thank you for all the wonders and amazing things you've given me in my life. I want to continually learn more and trust in you more God. However, I still find it difficult for some reason and I need to learn how to be able to apply the concept of "trust" towards you and also the concept of denying myself and taking up the cross. Please forgive me of my sins of pride that continually overcomes me everyday. In jesus's name I pray. Amen.

Promise to claim?

That my life will be saved if only I give my entire life to God.

Attitude to change? 

Continual efforts to rely on myself and no one else.

Command to follow?

Love the lord with all your heart, soul, and mind. (includes trust because love is based on trust.)

Error to avoid?

Being prideful in my knowledge and my skills and talents that God has given me

Prayer to pray?

To forgive me of my sins, to be less prideful, to understand that God is the one for me and that I am absolutely nothing without him.

Example to follow?

Jesus Christ and my friends and family that continually follow him.

Truth to believe?

He is almighty, everlasting, and will never change. He knows all about me and all I need to do is trust in him.

40 DAYS: Day 13

Mark 6:45-51 Jesus walks on water

Once again, I feel that God is constantly sending me messages and ideas of finding ways to trust him and why I should trust in him. I need to continue to find paths and ways to succeed in this and fully give my trust to him. I always ask people to trust one another but it seems contradictory when I can't even trust in the Saviour and God I love and gave my life to. This concept is actually  a lot harder for me to understand and put into action then I thought. I will continually pray for the support that I will learn to give my trust to him knowing that he has a plan for me and to know that whatever happens is his will and I need to be able to do things for him as he wishes me to.

40 DAYS: Day 12

Mark 6: 35-44 Jesus feeds the 5,000

This very well known miracle that Jesus shows everyone again spoke to me about my faith in Jesus. I seem to be constantly reminded that Jesus is the almighty saviour and that I am nothing without him. That I should put all my trust into him in order to see his amazing miracles and ways that I have never seen before.

I continue to learn about this and continue to struggle to find ways to completely give myself up to him and put my complete trust in him. I need to find ways and new goals for myself to slowly put my almighty trust in our amazing, just, righteous, and almighty God.

40 DAYS: Day 10

Mark 4:35-41 Jesus calms the storm

As I read this passage, it was clear that the disciples still had very little faith and had only just begun on their journey with Jesus. I guess the typical main passage or idea that you get away from this story is to have complete trust in God when faced with terrors that can even lead to your death.

We have been promised eternal life if we follow Jesus and believe that he is the one true God and Saviour of our lives because he died on the cross for us due to the love that God has for all. 

Therefore, when we go to funerals, as Christians, it is a joyous occasion because you are rejoicing that instead of death, your friend/family has gone to heaven where she gets to stay and live their life with God for the rest of their lives. 

With this in mind, it is hard to understand the real situation when you are placed in a possible death situation but the question comes to will you stand up for what's right in our belief of God? The answer is yes you should and we need to continue building up our faith in the preparation of Satan's evil temptations of rebuking God but saving our lives. 

40 DAYS: Day 9

Jesus heals a man with a shrivelled hand Mark 3:1-6

In these verses, it tells us of a story of when Jesus healed a person with a shrivelled hand. During this time, some of them were just constantly looking for excuses to accuse Jesus and his acts. So he would get arrested and wanted by the nation or the city. 

Therefore, during the Sabbath (holy day) they placed a man with a shrivelled hand to see if Jesus would do a miracle on him during the Sabbath. However in verse 4 he asks the people around him "Then Jesus asked them, "which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?" but they remained silent"

This really confused me. I understood that it is the law to do nothing but worship God during the Sabbath but why does Jesus relate this to good/evil and life/death? Is miracles really considered "work"? Knowing the concepts of Jesus, one of his commandments is to love your neighbour as yourself. Therefore, it is understandable to not just ignore the people in need because there was the parable as well about the good Samaritan. 

Another thing that stood out for me was the constant aim of the people to find faults in Jesus to sentence him to death or to get him sent to jail. This reaction of Jesus really shows me that if you want to be like him, you must be willing to get out of your comfort zone, don't go mainstream but to do what's right.

40 DAYS: Day 5

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." Philippians 4:6

Straight from God's word, God is telling us that we should not be "anxious" or worry about anything. Even though it's hard to because our requests may feel selfish, embarrassing, shameful and more. 

However, we need to all remember that our God is good, forgiving, and just. He understands all of us and he is never changing today, yesterday and tomorrow. He has suffered the most and because of his son, he understands all the pain and sufferings we have to go through. We shouldn't hide from him when we do something bad or sinful. We need to be able to accept that we are completely hopeless without him and in order to regain the hope, we need to continually ask for forgiveness without fear or pride but humbly bow down to him and surrender ourselves so we can put our complete trust towards him. 

40 DAYS: Day 4

"I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me."

Philippians 3:12

The topic written above in this paragraph was called "Pressing on towards the goal" 

Reading this, it was very hard for me to understand at first but after reading it over, I began to understand it a little but find it difficult to describe in words. 

What I took out of this passage is that our main focus should be continually focusing our lives towards Christ, building a foundation and a firm relationship with him. Therefore, we should have the willingness to press on and grab what we can and to learn what we can from what Jesus has given us.

In a literal analogy, if Christ Jesus came down to grab hold of you from dying (saving your life) a typical human response is to grab back holding firmly to the person who has just saved your life. We should not take him saving our lives as a burden but should be continually holding on, thanking him for everything he's done for us. For sacrificing his own life just to save us from danger. 

40 DAYS: Day 3

"For god is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him." Philippians 2:13

This verse was a great reminder to me about how God is in control and how he does amazing work through and IN you. It is also through his power that allows us to get the desire and the will to work and to help serve him. Therefore, with this will, he will give us power in order to do great things for him. 

However, you need to understand that this power comes with responsibilities and challenges. This could be going out of your comfort zone, giving up a good amount of your time and so on. 

As my friend Samantha Lee has said, God does have great plans for you but he doesn't necessarily call everyone to be comfy, happy, and do what they want. He allows this but his full purpose and call for you may have different plans then your own. You just need to understand the difference. 

40 DAYS: Day 2

"Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ"

Philippians 1:27a 

In this section of Philippians, Paul is thrown in jail because of his beliefs and his continual support for Jesus Christ. He writes this letter to explain to people how his actions of even being thrown to jail has allowed many others to courageously be more outward with their beliefs, sharing the gospel with the willing heart and following the steps of Jesus Christ like we are suppose to as disciples of Christ. 

This verse specifically talks about how living a life of Christ is difficult and the bible does say to be prepared to be discriminated against by the world because of satin. However, Paul explains that no matter what happens in any scenarios, we should continually prove ourselves and act with a heart that is worthy of the gospel of Christ. Therefore, even in the most painful or excruciation times, we should never contradict our beliefs and show others the true love and gift that Christ has given to us. 

40 Days: DAY 1

"Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus" Philippians 1:6 

The book of philippians is a letter written by Paul and Timothy to saints at Philippi.

In this verse, Paul and Timothy are explaining to the saints that God has been working in each and every one of us once we allow him and give him to opportunity to do so. Once we accept him and proclaim him as our Lord and Saviour, we need to ask him to work in our lives. 

Saying once you allow him, he will begin his work and once he begins, he will never stop. 

Our God is forever good so all his work will be good as well. Therefore, good is being produced within you

It's his "will" to continue working and

"carry it on" he will support, he will provide, persistence. 

Will never stop until it has been completed. 

Through emphasizing and finding these particular words in this verse, I have realized that once God has been accepted in your life, his aim is to continually produce work and be with you forever until the day of Christ. With God on my side, I am able to be satisfied and understand that all of my work should be a reflection of Christ for all of his work is good and I want to help him produce the good works that he provides each one of us!

Total and Complete Submission

"Submit yourself, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded" James 4:7-8

After coming back from Retreat, I've realized and learned many things I've never thought of before. The verse above practically sums up my experience and my new perspective in my spiritual life.

Through scouts, and my willingness to help others, I have become known and have become used to being the dependable one. Without knowing, this became my main goal and I've never thought of myself this way either. Therefore, hearing that I need to be dependent on God and he will lead the way, It's a very hard concept for me to accept because of my background. 

I feel that God has shown me this verse to explain to me that running from the devil will create a closer and better relationship with God and all I have to do is give my Total and Complete Submission of my life and values to him. This is because if we don't, why are we aiming to do all these things such as high marks and such? We should look to do all of this in his name and to use these skills and marks to give them all to God and his glory. 

My goal is to continue to learn about him and to give up my life to him and to give him my complete trust.