The Flying Truth

"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." Galatians 5:1 Sitting here this morning I really did not know what I wanted to write about. I had an idea, but was not sure. Basically the idea for tomorrow's devotional was going to be today, then I got an idea. I decided I wanted to end the month right and went with a 2 parter (alla Lazarus from 6/11-12/2018). I chose a topic that was near and dear to my heart and is relevant to the culture. Plus I am on the brink of ICMC (International Campus Ministry Conference) 2018 in Cincinnati, Ohio which is for the Church of Christ; and the theme is “Break Every Chain”. When I first starting this the countdown said, 6 days 3 hours 6 minutes and 44 seconds. I leave the 4th and I cannot wait. The description for the conference is, “The world is enslaved, but no one sees it. Chains are everywhere, but no one notices. Link by link and yard by yard

"I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts every nation the one who fears him and does what is right." Acts 10:34-35 The one great thing about God is he shows no favoritism, unlike what the devotional title says. He accepts all people, it does not matter the color of you skin, what your gender is, what your age is, whether your poor or rich, or even where your started from. Jesus lived this kind of lifestyle. He healed people that were deemed untouchable by cultural standards. He talked with women, the poor, the rich, the young, and the old. He stepped out of cultural norms on a number of occasions. As long as you showed faith and feared the Lord you were good in his eyes. He saw the best in everyone. God created us all to be different, but to be equal at the same time. We come from the cut out of him image ( Genesis 1:27 ). Galatians 3:26-29 says, "So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who

"Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell." Matthew 10:28 Growing up we are afraid of so much, as we grow these fears grow with us. The fears tend to become more real, they go from being afraid of the dark to being afraid of death. As a college student we are afraid of getting bad grade and how we are able to do everything. As a senior in college, one of my biggest fears now is figuring out what I want to do after college (specially since all my plans go flipped upside down last semester). One thing that usually stays consistent in life is the fear of death. The other day the devil tried to get me off guard with an anxiety attack on this topic (while writing up a devotional). We fear several different aspect of deaths. We fear how it is going to happen, when it is going to happen, will my family be stable, who is going to be effected, what happens when you do die, and wi

"Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper." 1 Kings 19:11-12 Another devotional means another quick Bible Study. This verse comes from off the back of the story of Elijah running away from Jezebel who threaten his life. Elijah runs to Beersheba where he prays that God will take his life. Which God responded with sending an angel to smack him in the back of the head and said "get up and eat" (v. 4-5). The angel then came back a second time and told him the same thing and to leave Beersheba. Elijah then traveled 40 days and 40 nights (coincidence? I think not) to Horeb, which is also the mountain of God. God asked him what Elijah was doing and Elijah told him his problems, God told him t

“Immediately the boy's father exclaimed, 'I do believe; help me with my unbelief!'" Mark 9:24 This in my opinion is the most underrated verse in the Bible and the most underrated prayer anyone can pray. This is something that we should be praying and checking on a daily basis. The father showed huge vulnerability to God and that is all God really wants from us, he wants us to be open-hearted and open-minded. He wants us to trust him and love him with all our heart. Going to do a quick Bible Study, this verse comes from the story of one of the many exorcisms throughout his ministry. This was right after the transfiguration on the mountain. Jesus and his disciples were walking up on some of the disciples who were surrounded. A guy had brought his son who was possessed by a spirit that sent him into seizure fits. None of the disciples were able to get the spirit to come out, Jesus called the disciples and a crowd an "unbelieving generation" (v. 19). The fa

"Jesus said to him, 'Away from me, Satan!'" Matthew 4:10 Today you woke up, congratulations. You are already one step ahead and above the competition. I have talked about this a few times before ( Loaded on 5/30/18 and The Upside Down on 6/1/18) and I am bound to talk about it some more in the future, but we are in a constant daily war. The thing is we already know who is going to win and that is our God. Everyday is a new battle to the war and we choose who wins based off who we feed ( Wolves on 5/22/18), either the flesh or the spirit. God wants us to choose him daily and everyday is a second chance to make him first in our life. Every morning (I try) to start my day off with a prayer. The first thing I do when I wake up is thank God for another day, I was once told it is a blessing and that we should give him praise. Jesus taught how to pray, he taught us the “Lord’s Prayer”. The Lord’s Prayer is in Matthew 6:9-13 which says, “Our Father in heaven, hallowe

"Now if the foot should say, 'Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,' it would not for that reason stop being part of the body." 1 Corinthians 12:15 Okay, open your Bibles up to 1 Corinthians 12:12-31 . We all have gifts and talents. There is no gift or talent that is greater or more special than another. God has given and not given us these gifts for a reason. That reason is for his glory and benefit. He is the one that created us and he is the one that gives us the gifts. Some of our gifts that God gives us comes in due time, in his time and his timing is perfect. He knows when the it is the right time. He has a plan for all of us. He uses us all in different and special ways. Verse 12 goes on to say, "Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ." The body of the Church is made up of all us. There are so many parts to anything, anything with great detail and purpose is made up

"I might be the reason why my friends don't turn to Jesus, I been holy on the surface but a heathen in the DMs." -WHATUPRG "be a man" (nobigdyl. nobigdyl. - be a man (Audio) ft. WHATUPRG ) Whatuprg (what up rg), is another up and coming Christian rapper. He just released his debut album, Pleasant Hill , which was amazing. The bar that I chose comes from a song he is featured on, be a man by nobigdyl (off his debut album SOLAR which was a killer album that released last Friday). As soon as I heard this line it hit me in the face and heart harder than a Tyson punch and I let out a "woo" and made face twisted like I just ate something sour. I instantly felt it, I connected to it; not really to the DM part (but sometimes women can be a part of my downfall, I will touch on that later). But I connected more with the first part. There are times I feel like I fail to bring my friends to Jesus. Out of my original friends, from high school and baseball, I

"Yeah, I know the person in the mirror's not a perfect one I look at him every day and think he's not enough My life's a book that I don't really like to open up I'm twenty-six, but I feel like I live in chapter one I skim through it, I've been through it, they laugh at us You think it's funny, yeah, laugh it up I always felt like no one listened to me, that's how I grew up Church is where I found God, but it's also where I learned to judge Yeah, I had to learn there's a difference between What you want, and what you really need I've always been motivated by comments from people tellin' me Things they think I'll never be, and then I become it, this is my everything There's so much that goes on in my head that people will never see You probably be terrified of my memories, don't lecture me Let me be, let me see, let me breathe, how they remember me Doesn't alter who I am as a person to

"Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt." Exodus 22:21 Sorry, not sorry if I offend anyone with this devotional. I am tired of people destroying families, destroying lives, and hating other people just because they are different. Fun fact of the day, we are all different. That was God's plan, he created us all differently equal. We are all created in his beautiful perfect image. What is even more disgusting and disturbing is that people are using the Bible as the "okay" to justify all of this. They have no idea what they are talking about and I will explain as we go on (sneak peak: Acts 10:28, 34-35 ). It is said several times in the Old Testament how to treat a foreigner. God constantly reminded and told the Israelites that they should not oppress the foreigners because they were once foreigners in Egypt and they have witness first handed how it feels to be a foreigner, and they know how the Egyptians treated them. The sa

"Ah, Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you." Jeremiah 32:17 It all starts in Genesis, which means birth, genealogy, or history of origin. Genesis is the story of where it all began. Genesis 1, "in the beginning." Before anything, on day 0, God created the heavens and the earth. There was nothing on the earth but darkness and emptiness. On day 1, God said "Let there be light" (v. 3-5), God created light in order to separate day from night. On day 2, God said "Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water" (v. 6-8), God created the sky. On day 3, God said "Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear…Let the land produce vegetation" (v. 9-13), God created land, seas, and produced vegetation. On day 4, God said "Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from t

"Anxiety is fear mixed with control, when you can't control something the only thing left to do is rage." Andy Mineo "Anxiety" There is a rush. You cannot feel your feet, they all of a sudden go numb. You get sea legs, your knees are now your elbows. Your head is going a millions miles a minute. Your heart is beating right out you chest. The voice in the back of your head is so loud all you can think of doing is squeeze your hands against your ears hoping the voice does not push your brain out. Have you been there? Well, same. It is called an anxiety attack. They can be a common thing. For me, this semester they were almost a daily occurrence. Anxiety is not fun at all, it is not a joke, and it is real. It is your mind controlling your body, it makes you feel like everything is fake. It is sort of like an out of body experience at times. The great thing about anxiety is that it believes in equality, because it does not discriminate. It affects everyone. It