John 14 : 15-16

John 14:15-16 NKJV

“If you love Me, keep My commandments.  And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever

Theme- obedience

So this is a good one, and a tough one, and really convicting. Starting out with the first four words, “If you love Me..", wow thats crazy. I love the lord with all my heart, soul, and strength (Deuteronomy 6:5), but thats rough because I'm still a sinner and make a lot of mistakes. And this say if we love God we should obey everything He commands, and I don't always do that. So do I really love God if I don't always obey His commands? "Yes", because we all sin and even those who were anointed by God still sinned like David and king Saul. He asked us for perfection, so His son gave it to Him. No matter what we do we will never be perfect, but because of thr blood of Christ we are seen as perfect in the eyes of God.

And in verse 16 He says, "And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever...". He tells us that He will give us a Helper, He will give us the Holy Spirit, and it will abide in us forever. How amazing is that not only will He shed His own Son's blood for us, so that we are seen as perfect. But also give us a helper to face the challenges that we will face, and also help us strive to keep all of His commands.

Application - when God tells me to love someone that I believe is hard to love, just be obedient

Acts 5 : 29

Acts 5:29 NKJV

But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: “We ought to obey God rather than men.

Theme - obedience

This is the verse that convicts me the most. Why listen to man that are sinful men when you have a direct connection with the one who created all things by talking, and can give you advice that will help you win life. This is convicting to me because whe. I was in school all I wanted was to be accepted and make people happy, so I would listen to what they had to say and would adjust my life. I'd do whatever they would do and what they said, because is was so called "cool". Why? Because I was a sinner that lives in a world that being an outsider isn't acceptable.

But then when I became a sinner that loves the Lord God Almighty, and learned that He wants the outsiders to make a huge impact on people (the cool people). He doesn't care what we've done and He doesn't want us to change because that what society is telling us we have to do, but change because of what God tells us in His word. So I learned that listening to what other sinnersthat live in the world have say about what I should do is no where even close to how good what God has to tell me. He gives me words of that will only lead to life and prosperity, when people that live in the world give me nothing but things that will lead me to destruction.

Application - pray for the outsiders in schools and at work that feel that they are the only christian in the world, that they just get encourage by the Spirit.

Romens 6: 16

Romans 6:16 NKJV

Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?

Romans 6:16 NIV

Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?

Theme - obedience

I take this as a warning. Be careful of what you say to someone or what you promise or what you barrow, because it could lead to destruction. I think of God when I see this, because He made promises and was certain that He could keep them all. God doesn't regret any promise He made! I've made decisions the past that only leaded to destruction, and made me a slave to addictions. I can also think to when I made a decision that lead to righteousness. The difference between the two decisions was the purpose, and the reason behind make that decision.

For example I smoked weed, stole anything, and watched porn. Why, because others did and I wanted to please everyone. Hint- not possible. The only thing that these things led me too was fake friends, emptiness, wanting more, gaps in my life, and nothing. Yes nothing aftwr doing all these things I didn't have what everyone thrives for in life to be accepted. My so called "friends" didn't care about my problems, and only wanted me around because of what I could give them.

On the other hamd when I made the decision to give these addiction to christ, I felt accepted. The nights I gave up these addictions were nights full of joy and freedom. Like the night a quite smoking weed which was 2/17/13, a day over two years ago. I ran from the hotel I was staying in to the concert my youth pastor John Reilly was leading, yelling and dancing because I was free. I made the decision that freed me from slavery and brought me into righteousness.

Application - read this verse everyday to remind what God did for me

Ephesians 6 : 1 and collosians 3 : 20

Ephesians 6:1 NKJV

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.

Colossians 3:20 NKJV

Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing to the Lord.

Theme - obedience

This was always a verse my parents would refer to when I was disobedient, so heard this a God amount of times as a kid. Jesus tells us to obey his every command and right them on the tablet of our hearts in proverbs 3, God is also our father in heaven. I was a very lucky child to have both parents,  and they both love the Lord with all their hearts. But I love to see these few words in ephesians 6:1, ".. obey your parents in the Lord.." if your parents aren't glorifying God in what they do, listen to go "obey your parents in the Lord" . God doesn't want you to obey Him, because ultimately are goal in life is to do what we can on earth to please God, and then gain life and be with our heavenly father.

I love in Colossians 3:22 it says, "Bondservants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but in sincerity of heart, fearing God.". We are bondservants of Christ we obey Him before anything else. A bondservant is a person that loves his master so much let he dedicates his life to his master until death. Jesus Christ is our Master and we shall dedicate our life to Him until death when we gain His permission to join Him in heaven. A bondservant obeys everything his master says, so when Jesus tells us to do something, we do it. Unlike our earthly parents God is perfect and knows all, so we obey Him before anyone.

Obedience was usaully really hard for me when I was in school. Because I would be hear something from people at school and they would contradict everything my parent said, but I'm was in a dangerous profession, I was a people pleaser. The job a lot of people said was impossible to do forever, but I pulled it off, so I thought. Until I started to lying to my parents, and putting my "so called friends" above them. Is when being a people pleaser got just a little bit harder. Then when I just out right stopped obeying my parents, is when my job in the people pleasing business was over. But I tried to please all my "so called friends" and my church friends by putting on different masks depending on who I was with. Not until Jesus wake me up to reality is when I relized, I can't do this anymore,  and dropped everything at His feet.

Applications - aks God for guidance so when I start disobeying Him, he will set me straight.

Hebrews 13 : 17

Hebrews 13:17 NKJV

Theme- Obedience

Obey those who rule over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you.

The first I think of when I read this verse are all thise stupid rules that don't make any sense. These rules are important ones I learned after going through a lot of frustration, when I started working for my dad's business. I grew up by doing anything safe or not, so that's how I started working. But did I quickly learn after being yelled at a lot by my dad and uncles, that being reckless outside of work is different then here at work because if I got here we could be sewed or they will have to pay workman's comp. So I learned that listening to those little stupid rules may even say your life and not give you many earaches from getting yelled at.

In a way I feel that this can apply with our relationship with God, it can just about sum up all the bad decision I made. Like if you heard me talk qbout my past, and the bad decisions I've made y'all can pretty much just figure it out. Whenever did one of those things God would let me know that He's watching, and I'd make up so stupid excuse why it's ok to do whatever I was doing. Like, "ohh its ok he's doing it, so why can't I", or "they won't even notice it's gone, so whats the big deal", or "But it will make them happy". Those are just some of the stupid things i would say to God.

So what ultimately get out of this is that God is only whatching over us, like any good father would. He only wants what is best for us, and being all knowing, I think it makes sense to listen. And this verse says, to submissive to the one that rules over you, and God rules over all things in heaven and earth. So we shall submit our entire beings to live for Him and Him alone.

Application - ask God to help me to submit everything to Him

Philippians 4 : 11

Philippians 4:11 NKJV

Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content:

This is it, the answer to having faith in Christ. In the next few verse Paul tells us the answer in knowing how to be content in any situation you are in. Take it from Paul he has been through the worst times and best times you can imagine. He knew how to be content with being locked up beaten and mutilized, being hungry, being filled, and being in the presence of God. Through everything he went through, he stayed content through all the situation that he went through. I can't stay content when one thing doesn't go my way, I may not show it, but I complain with whatever I have to deal with in my head . Paul tells us in verse 13 "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Such a well known verse, but I never thought of it as the answer to becoming content in whatever situation I'm put into.

Sometimes when I do these studies I wish I knew this back in the days that I fell away from God because then I would have relized I was an idiot. I remember saying, " nah I'm not one of those religious people.", "I hate going to church, but my parents make me". I said all these things before, I think back to those days and just saying, "Lord I'm sorry I was so blind." I'm still so sorry that I did all those things, but God cleaned that slate and gave it back to me and it was clean. And said, I don't remember a thing." Now God has blessed me to share my testimony with so many people and bless them and be blessed because I was able to share what He did through me.

Application - memorize this verse

Luke 3 : 14

Luke 3:14 NKJV

Likewise the soldiers asked him, saying, “And what shall we do?” So he said to them, “Do not intimidate anyone or accuse falsely, and be content with your wages.”

Theme - contentment

When I read the context of this verse I was even more confused, thenwhen I just looked at the verse alone. Then I thought what it means to be baptized and I see that when you get baptized you become of servant of Christ. And when a servant of Christ gets any kind of authority, he doesn't take advantage of his authority, so that he may increase his wages. Now some leaders do this but thier heart isn't truly after God, if they only "follow" him for the money.

I also look at the last part of this verse, “Do not intimidate anyone or accuse falsely, and be content with your wages.” and see that we are no better then the person next to us. Like say if your at work, a good boss isn't someone that just sits there and tells you what to do because he can. But he either shows you how to do it and helps you do it or does it because he doesn't need someone to do it. He leads by example, he does things because they need to be done, not tell others because he can, but he shows humility and compassion. 

We must be more like Christ, He had authority over the heavens and earth and still got on His knees so that he was able to was His disciples feet. The only human to have that kind of power over everything and, wash feet. I know for a fact if I had that power, washing some else's feet would be the last thing I would be doing. So for me I just want to walk into ever room thinking that everyone in there is way more important than me. Serve with humility and if I'm ever given power or authority over anyone, I want to be able to say God is happy with how I was a leader. And say that I served with humility,  compassion, and love.

Application - pray that God will break me and tell me that He is willing to rebuild me.