GYC Canada: The Cross Connection: Love & Law Combined

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GYC Canada

Devotional Life

Gem Castor

Melody Mason

Devotional Life -  Part 1

You know in the Bible we see how God brought the children of Israel out of Egypt.

But what was his purpose when he brought them out of Egypt?

Was it his purpose that the children of Israel would be stuck in the wilderness?

His purpose was to take them to the promised land, right?

And that is the goal with each of us as well.

But the problem is, is we often get stuck in the spiritual desert.

And I really feel like that that's where most of us in Christianity are, unfortunately.

But 1 of my favorite promises, John 10, 10, says, I'm come, but that they might have life and life more abundant.

Not that we would barely survive, not that we would live in wilderness Christianity, but that we would have life and life more abundant.

But who is intent on stealing that life from us?

The first part of this verse says the enemy comes to steal, to kill, and to destroy.

He's trying to steal our life, he's trying to steal our joy, he's trying to steal our faith, and he's trying to steal the ability of us to go deeper in our relationship with God.

This quote from Inspiration says, most professed Christians have no sense of the spiritual strength that they might obtain whether they is ambitious, zealous, and persevering to gain a knowledge of divine things as they are to obtain the perishable things of this life.

Many are satisfied to be spiritual dwarfs.

I don't know about you, but I want to be a spiritual dwarf.

But I just want to give you some encouragement this morning.

If you feel like maybe that's where you are in your experience, it's actually the perfect place for God to begin his work in you.

If you feel like you're like, I'm in that desert and I'm not where I should be, but that's the perfect place to begin.

We're told in Ministry of Healing our only claim to His mercy is our great need and so when we actually recognize I'm thirsty, I'm hungry, I'm dry, I'm starving, whatever I need then that's when God can really begin his work when we recognize our great need.

So just briefly a little bit about my testimony.

I grew up in the church, Seventh-day Adventist Church, but to me it wasn't really a real positive experience.

It's actually a miracle through the grace of God and the people that he brought into my life that showed me what being a Seventh-day Adventist Christian is all about.

And like Justin was just sharing in his beautiful message, it's not just a bunch of do's and don'ts, it's about a relationship.

It's about that personal connection relationship and a vibrant life.

You know the problem for me growing up, I went to a church that professed to believe in a living God, but they acted like he was a dead God, like he's not really alive today, you know what I mean?

And that's the condition, unfortunately, of many of our churches, dry churches, is we talk and we profess to believe in a living God, but our works tell otherwise.

And what's even worse than that, our works deny.

In other words, we say we love Christ, and then look at how we treat each other.

Look at what we say against 1 another, and that is very, very painful.

I have family members that actually left the church because of fellow Christians.

It wasn't because of other people out there, it was because of the people that are professing, you know?

And so that's kind of the environment and the background.

It wasn't like I was rebellious against God.

I had parents that were very dedicated and very genuine.

I saw hypocrisy in the church, but I can say, And I just praise the Lord for this because I know that this is not often the case.

My dad would be up at 4 o'clock in the morning praying for his kids, praying for our community.

Like if something would happen and my dad would pray, God would work.

And so when we'd have, Daddy, would you pray for such and such?

Because I know God's gonna hear your prayers.

You know, so I saw genuine Christianity in my parents and their love for God, their love for other people.

My parents are some of the most generous giving people that I know.

You know, if somebody's in need, they'll help them.

And just to give you an example, we had a single mom with 8 children that was basically on the streets in a shelter and they took her in, single mom, 8 children, ages 1 to 13 and they lived with our family for 3 years before they moved on.

The woman remarried and is now happily remarried in a new family.

Those kids still call my parents like, almost like their grandpa and grandma because they just fell in love with our family, we fell in love with them too.

But I'm just saying, I saw genuine Christianity in my family and because of those things and other people that I met in my life, I began to recognize this is why I am who I am.

But again, just in my growing experience, I did want to serve God.

When I got to high school, I got into missions.

I just loved traveling and to be honest, I think I liked traveling more for the adventure of it than because of the good things for God.

It was just an adventure and I could come back and say, well guess where I've been and look at these pictures and places and so it's more for that in the early, early years of my life.

But as time went on, I began to recognize, I'll tell you a little bit more about that journey, God may have been doing good things but in the early part of my young adulthood there was not a lot of fruit and I didn't really understand why initially.

But God began to do a deeper work in my heart and he began to show me my desperate need of him.

And I remember when it really started coming more clear to me, like, Melody, do you recognize how desperately you need Jesus?

You know, cause to back up, Even though I struggled with the church and everything, if people looked at me in the church, they would say I was a model Christian, a model young person.

You know, I was doing the right things, saying the right things, I looked the right, you know, I was memorizing all my Bible verses.

And you know what happens when you're doing the right things and you're constantly applauded and praised for what you're doing?

And that is something I began to struggle with because unlike some of my other friends who were off making crazy, stupid choices in their life, I was actually doing things pretty good.

And so, time's going on and the spiritual pride is developing in my life and I didn't even realize it at first, but I remember, I mean it's like Melody always had the answers.

And when I was in high school my friends would come to me with all their problems and their sob stories and I'd tell them what they should do and it was good advice I was giving them.

But I remember thinking to myself, man, you know I have my struggles, but they're not like their struggles, man, you know.

And I didn't realize this, but pride is actually 1 of the greatest, if not the greatest, sin because it sheds us away from God because we don't recognize our great need.

Ellen White has a quote and I didn't put it up here this morning, but it talks about the fact how we look at the drunkard or we look at this person or that person and think, oh such and such, but we ignore the sins of pride and covetousness and these things which actually shut us away in our walk with God.

So anyway, God began breaking me and you know sometimes you pray you begin to recognize, Lord I need you to do something deeper in my life and walk with God.

And your heart is broken, and you're wondering, what is going on?

And it's because we have to be broken before he can actually do the work that he needs to do within us.

So God is showing me, God is showing me my need of the cross and he had to do it through a painful journey.

Now I don't know if any of you have heard my testimony, any of you heard my testimony on AudioVerse where I share a little bit more of my personal growing above and beyond faith when God is silent.

So I'm just going to give you a short little synopsis and I encourage you especially if this might be if you're struggling if there's anything in your life I wish I had time to share this whole testimony here but I don't.

If there's anything in your life and you're struggling and just saying, Lord, what are you doing?

I don't understand and your faith is wavering, you don't understand suffering, you're just struggling to hold on with life circumstances, whatever heartache you're going through, this applies to all of those situations.

My specific situation had to do in the area of relationships because when I was really young and growing up, my desire was to be what I thought everyone was supposed to be and you know, coming from a woman's perspective obviously, a wife and a mother and all of that.

And so I had some really heartbreaking situations that happened in my life as a single.

Devotional Life -  Part 2

Dear Heavenly Father, I just plead for your Holy Spirit right now, Heavenly Father, to speak through me.

I just ask that you will be glorified, that you will be exalted, that it will be your words and your message.

And Father, that the things that Jim and I share this morning will make a real and lasting impact on the lives of those here that these things they can take home and and see you work in their own devotional experience in a greater way.

So Father we just pray that you're glorified.

Thank you for your words and your wisdom right now.

Okay, growing above and beyond devotional life.

Okay, let me just ask you this morning, how hungry are you for a deeper experience with God?

Like do you really want a deeper experience with God?

Do you really want to experience a deeper personal revival in your life?

There was 1 young man that was talking with his pastor and he told him, he says, I want to experience revival.

I've prayed and prayed and I'm not receiving it.

So he's talking to the pastor and the pastor says, I'll show you.

The baptistry happened to have water in it that day and he says we're going to baptize you.

The man says I've already been baptized I don't need to be baptized and the pastor said you wanted to know how do I experience revival in my life?

How do I experience a deeper walk with God?

This is going to be an illustration and you're going to get wet.

So he takes him to the baptistry and he puts him under the water.

Well, he doesn't bring him up out of the water and the man begins to worry, what is he doing with me here?

And he begins to, and then a few more seconds go by and the pastor's still not bringing him out of Palo Alto.

Is the pastor trying to, what is he doing?

And he begins to thrash around and then about that point the pastor brings him up and he actually wasn't under the water that long but when you're not being brought up and you expect to be brought up you what is going on right so he's thinking he's about to be drowned and so he's sputtering and coughing he's like are you trying to do I thought you're just gonna put me into the water and bring me back up.

The pastor says, you asked, how do I experience personal revival, deeper walk with God in my life?

When you desire that as much as you desire that next breath of air, you will experience revival.

In other words, how much are we really hungry and seeking and longing for that deeper experience with God?

And both Jim and I can testify from our own different experiences.

It is that brokenness and desperate longing.

I was so broken in the testimony I shared earlier.

I actually suffered severe depression for several years.

So much so that I did not even want to live.

I didn't mention that in the earlier testimony, but I was in that experience and so coming out of that experience, as I'm recognizing I need more and I don't want to go back to mediocre Christianity like I had before.

I want to see that you're real and you're living in my life today, not just that you're the God of the Old Testament and the New Testament and I'm in the Modern Testament times and I need to see you living and alive today." And so I just started pleading with desperation, as I said, I'd be reading my Bible in the morning, just tears pouring down my face and just like, Lord, you said such and such.

And that's when I began to see God work and the scriptures began to come to life to me in a whole new way.

And so as we're talking about growing our walk with God, I have to say how much are you really seeking him?

Because if you're seeking him with a half a heart, Don't be surprised if you're not really finding much.

He says, if you seek me with all your heart, you will find me.

Search for him as for hid treasure, all your heart.

So today we're going to start, We have this last session this morning and then we're going to finish tomorrow afternoon.

I'm going to do this in a 2 part series, 10 Keys to Daily Revival in a Vibrant Devotional Life.

Today we're going to try to cover the first 7 keys and tomorrow we're going to finish the last 3 because we're going to spend a lot more time on some ways to bring your Bible study to life.

So I'm going to spend more time on that tomorrow.

So we're not going to cover all 10 keys today, but If you take any screenshots, by the way I don't mind if you do that, I can also share PDFs and you can go back and have the entire PDF presentation.

But at the end I'll have a summary that has all the keys all lined up in a row so you can see those as well.

So we're just going to go through these and I'll share some thoughts and Jim will jump in here and there and share some thoughts and we'll just go forward.

So key number 1, it's all about our priorities.

You know, You say, I don't have time to have my devotions.

But you know what, we all make time for what's important to us.

And so that's why we have to plead, Lord, change my heart.

You know I want a relationship with you, but to be honest, I have other priorities.

You have to help me see that this is life and death.

And you've probably all seen the illustration, you know, you put all the mundane sand in the jar and then you try to put the big rocks in and they don't fit.

The big rocks are the big priorities of your life, right?

And so you have to take those big priorities in your life, your time with God, you know, your time with your family, your time to take care of your health and different things like that.

You put those in the jar first and then all the mundane things, the sand, fills up and you can fit it all in the jar.

We love our food and I have to admit that I like my food too and if I, you know, miss a meal or 2, unless I'm specifically fasting, it's hard.

And think about the fact, If you were to go out and fight a physical battle or something like that, would you want to go out doing that after you had been fasting for a little while or you'd been dieting?

You wouldn't have the strength to fight, right?

But how often do we go out and fight spiritual battles every day with the enemy of our souls and we're dieting spiritually.

We're not eating, spending time in God's word.

So the first key is really about priorities and if your priorities are not just ask Lord please change my priorities, change my heart.

You know Daniel was willing to go to the lion's den not to miss his time with God.

He was not going to miss that morning, noon, and night prayer, whatever.

And it didn't matter if they were watching or they weren't watching.

And we're not willing sometimes to let go of a few minutes extra of sleep so that we can have that time with God.

So we need to pray that God will change that.

Key number 2, and I like to put this at the top of the list because this really is what everything else falls under.

When is it about a love relationship that is so intriguing?

You know, if you've ever been in love, you know you want to be around the other person and you're not like looking at your clock, how much more time do we have to stay together?

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Series

Devotional Life

Devotional Life - Part 2

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Parent Conference

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Recorded

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