Day 20: What if I don't experience God?

Posted by: Caroline Enright (rising freshman at BHS)

Today’s devotional is asking where is God in the world, and am I still a disciple if I’ve never experienced God.

I honestly have this problem a lot in my life.  I hear all of these amazing stories about people feeling God and I’m like ok but what about me?  I also thought how can I follow Jesus if I have never really felt him.  Now I have seen God through people before like on choir tour, but I have never felt him hold my hand or anything. So what now?  How can I be a disciple of Christ if I have never felt him?

So two weeks ago I asked this at Wednesday night bible study and said that those miracles that the disciple saw through Jesus made it easy for them to be a disciple because they could feel God through those miracles that they saw every day.  But you never hear about someone being raised from the dead on the news every day.  Or do we?  What Jay and the girls at the bible study helped me realize was that miracles happen every day, and most of us look past them. We say oh that is just the doctors who saved that man’s life or it was just a surgery that made the blind person see.  The truth is that if we look at the simple miracles every day, everywhere you are sure to feel God in your life.   

Day 19: On fire for Jesus

Posted by: Nellie

Today’s devo is about being “on fire” for Jesus. There’s a guy in the scenario called Rob who is part of a group that meet everyday on campus for Bible Study, they wear Christian tees and they are always talking about Jesus to everyone. Now Rob is putting pressure on other Christians to join the group, saying “you’re not on fire for Jesus”.

To start with, I want to be on fire for Jesus. I don’t want to just call myself a Christian, and do nothing about it. The love and forgiveness that Jesus has shown for me, deserves more than just a “thanks” and turning up to Church once a week. I also don’t think that’s what Jesus wants. He calls us to follow Him, to put God first, and to put others before ourselves. Too many Christians are just happy to know that they are going to Heaven. I don’t think that’s ok. It’s not what Jesus calls us to, and they are missing out on the adventure He calls us to.

Does being “on fire” mean wearing lots of Christian tees, studying the Bible in school, and having Bible verses written all over your stuff? That might be what you want to do. And that’s fine. But you don’t have to do that. 

Should you study the Bible and pray? Of course you should. That’s part of growing as a Christian. Should you be willing to share your faith? Yes. But you don’t need to try to look like all the other Christians around you. What might it look like for you to be “on fire” for Jesus?

Day 18: Rumor has it...

Posted by: Nellie

So in today’s devo Sharon has broken up with her boyfriend because he was pushing her to have sex with him. Turns out, her boyfriend has been telling everyone that they have had been having sex, and there’s a rumor in school that she’s pregnant. What does it look like to be a disciple of Jesus?

Well here’s my take... she has every right to be annoyed and angry at her boyfriend for lying. Many people would say that she needs to stand up for herself, and protect herself. Sometimes that is true. But as horrible as it is to have lies being spread about her, she has nothing to hide. She has nothing to defend. She knows that she has been faithful to following Christ. 

Of course people have no right to say the things that they are saying, and in doing so, they are taking part in something that hurts others. But Jesus said do not return evil with evil. That we should love our enemies. In today’s Scripture, Jesus is on trial, with the chief priests accusing him of many things. He simply states the truth once, and then remains silent the rest of the time. Why isn’t Jesus defending Himself? 

I think Jesus knows that He only needs to answer to His Father. He serves God, not the people. Maybe Sharon needs to correct a few people. Maybe if she’s asks directly, she can tell them the truth. But in the end of the day, people are going to make their own mind up. Why should we waste our time defending ourselves and convincing people, when maybe we need to just be content in the truth, even if others don’t believe it.

Day 17: What do people see in you?

Posted by: Nellie
“I like your Christ, but not your Christians”. A famous quote from Ghandi. It’s pretty damning. I also think it’s pretty fair.

When people look at Jesus, they see a man who loved the unloveable. A man with a heart that bled for the broken and lost. A man that was able to see past a person’s background, their past, their mistakes.

In today’s Scripture, there’s an obnoxious rich man called Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus is a short man and can’t see Jesus through the crowd, so he climbs a tree. Zacchaeus is considered an outcast, he’s hated because of his job collecting, and probably cheating, with taxes. Yet Jesus sees him in the tree, calls him down, and asks to hang out with him.

When people see Christians, they don’t always see Jesus. I wonder what they see when they look at me? Do they see someone who loves others, no matter who they are, rich, poor, funny, boring, black, white, cool, uncool...? Do they see me as someone who gives people a chance, or who writes people off? As someone who builds people up? Or puts people down?

What do people see you in your life? 

Day 16: Just a nobody?

Posted by: Sean (the Intern)

Have you ever heard someone ask, “who all is there?” and then the answer to that question be nobody, when in actuality there were plenty of people there.   I have heard that question and that answer more times than I can count. 

In Luke, Jesus was teaching on the Sabbath and saw a woman that had been bent over for 18 years because of a spirit.  When Jesus saw her and healed her and she stood straight up immediately.  This crippled woman was the nobody that we so often talk about when we answer that question of who all is there.  This woman really was a nobody in her society.  She was a nobody for two reasons, the first reason was that she was a woman and the second reason was that she was crippled. Those two reasons in that time period pretty much made her the scum of the earth in everyone’s eyes, except for Jesus.  Jesus saw her and did not see woman who was a cripple he saw a child of God. 

So next time that you are hanging out somewhere and you are asked who is there remember that the people that you don’t know are not nobodies.  The rest of this week as you are going about your daily activities keep in mind that Jesus noticed the “nobodies” and loves them just as much as he loves us. These nobodies are people just like you.  These nobodies are the beloved children of God just as you are.  

Day 15: What will you dream about?

Posted by: Nellie

Today a bunch of us got together for a “Meet-me-at” with Lindsay and David to watch the new Disney movie Brave. It’s about a Scottish girl named Merida. She’s the princess in one of the native clans. (Of course they all speak with amazing accents!) In the movie her mother is forcing her to be a proper princess. Her mom (or mum if you’re Scottish) tells her how a princess should act. And, proper princesses are forced to marry someone from another tribe.

Merida decides she wants to change her fate. She doesn’t want her future to be decided for her. She has big aspirations to do what she wants with her life. “It’s not fair - it’s MY life”. 

In today’s Bible passage, there’s a Merida. A man comes up to Jesus and asks “what good thing must I do to inherit eternal life?”. He says he’s obeyed all the commandments. But Jesus tells him there’s one thing he lacks - “go, sell all your possessions and give to the poor”. Of course... he’s not happy. He wants to follow Jesus, but he also wants to have things his own way. In the story, the man goes away sad, because he was rich. I imagine that he might have been like Merida - “it’s not fair - it’s MY life”. 

It’s great to dream big like Merida. Like the movie Brave says, “your fate is in your hands”. But if we’re all about what we want, and our dreams, then we can’t follow Jesus. 

What do I want from my life? To dream about money, and success, and what I want? Or do I want to dream big about how I follow Jesus, and about what my life will look like if I allow Him to live through me everyday? What will you base your dreams around? 

Day 14: Perfect World

Posted by: Carter Heckle (rising freshman, MBA)

Today’s devotional is titled Living in a Perfect World. It is about a student who recently went to a church camp. He really liked it because of the positive atmosphere and the overall lack of bad influences, such as swearing and violence. When he got back, some of his friends told him he should go to a Christian school instead of a public school. He thinks God would want him to do that.

I personally don’t think it really matters what school you go to. You can be a Christian anywhere. I think that he could reverse the situation and look at the public school as an opportunity to serve Christ. He could be a true disciple and be a light in the non Christian school. In Mathew 28:19, Jesus says “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations.” The student would be following Jesus’ commandment by telling non Christians about God.  This relates to the bible passage because Peter wanted to stay on the mountain with Jesus. He thought it was a good place and he wanted to stay there, just like the student wanted to stay on the retreat. 

The moral of the story is that just because you want to be somewhere doesn’t mean you should be there. You could be doing something better for other people.