June 14 Sunday devo

Psalm 06

01 O Lord, don’t rebuke me in your anger or discipline me with your rage.

02 have compassion on me, Lord, for I am weak. Heal me, Lord, for my bones are in agony.

This is the first of seven penitential psalms. David realized that he was suffering because of his sin and
he knew that if God would punish him according to God’s justice and his sin, he would be wiped out.
Here, David was honest to God, he asked God not to punish him with anger and justice alone, he asked
God to punish him gently and with mercy. And because of this, we move from agony of sin to rejoicing
because of God’s mercy. We move from focusing on ourselves to focusing on God and his merciful love.
David’s bones were agony as a result of sadness that was also a result of sin that resulted into becoming
away from God. Sin keeps us away from God and being away from him makes us sad, sickly and empty.
The only way back is to be honest to God and to repent.

Ccg

“save yourself form this crooked generation.”

Acts 02:14-41

Acts 2:38 Peter replied, each of you must repent or your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the
name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive of the Holy Spirit.

We may say that we have been Christians. But being a Christian means following Jesus. In this pandemic,
let us check once more if we are still the Christians we once were.

We are following Christ if we have:

1. REPENTED OF OUR SINS

-the only way to repentance is to change our direction – pointing our lives toward Christ. It is all about
selflessness and not selfishness. It is all about obedience and not rebellion. This might sound easy but it
does not end there. We should start from the very basic. Let us obey our parents and our leaders. do not
make excuses nor tell them you’ll do it later. All of these are a form of disobedience. Pastor talked about
us giving so much time to tiktok, social media, movies and all the other stuffs that seem normal in this
world. remember, we are not meant to be normal, we are meant to be like Christ. God allowed this
pandemic not for us to be drowned into sin but for us to be awakened and for us not think about
ourselves alone but also to think about God. Before this pandemic we always struggled and complained
about us not having enough time for God. But this time, we have more than enough time but still, here
we are, disobeying simple instructions from our leaders. We could not even make the effort to type our
devotionals, we could not even make the effort to come to church even when our house is near, we
could not even make the effort to share the gospel to our parents, we could not even make the effort to
have enough faith and go to church even when it seemed impossible. In the new testament, the early
chirstians risked their lives for Christ, and here we are, unable to offer little effort and time to read what
information our disciplers has provided nor give some effort to see the online service. All the things we
have done before this pandemic and all the things Christ has done for us on the cross would be such a
waste because if he comes now, we are not ready. If he comes now, we will be left behind. It’s sad
because instead of becoming more eager, we have gone far away from our goal – Christ.

2. TURN TO GOD

- If you have gone astray, it is not time to ashamed of your sins and rebellious actions. Being ashamed is
a form of pride – too afraid to surrender you’re your sins and lay it down and show to the world your
mistakes. Remember, in the new testament, only those people who let their sins be known such as Paul
were able to truly encounter Christ. No sin, left hidden would be vanished from our lives. In order for sin
to be taken out of us, we need it to be exposed – exposed to Christ’s light. Exposed in form of
repentance; come to Christ and depend on him. Ask for forgiveness, mercy, guidance and purpose. Do
not waste your life trying to make it meaningful because we aren’t really meaningful if we don’t have
God. Pens were made for a purpose – for humans to be able to write down… watches were made for a
purpose – for humans to know the time. if these two things were given to dogs, these things become
worthless because they aren’t used the way they were supposed to be used. We human beings were
made for a purpose – to glorify God and worship him in every way and in every part of lives. If we are
not for God, then he is not for us. Instead, we become his enemies – people to destoyed in order to
protect the godly. Pili ka, asa ka? Katong tao na magbag-o para sa Ginoo ug makabatun ug meaningful
life us madagayaon nga kinabuhi ug protectado nga kinabuhi ug nasalbar nga kinabuhi or katong tao nga
sigeg supak sa Ginoo, walay pulos ang knabuhi, igo ra para sa kalibutan pero mahanaw ra sa ulan.

3. BE BAPTIZED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT

- baptism identifies us with Christ and the Christian community. It brings us to discipleship and it is a sign
of faith. We are baptized in the water and then we should be baptized by the holy spirit every day. Only
through this can we be able to truly serve Christ. The holy spirit should be our guide and our pastor. Let
us not do things that will make him unhappy. Let us always consider his feelings. Let us not sin. Let us
not look at our cellphone first thing in the morning. Let us not give more time to facebook than God. Let
us not do things that will lead us away from God. The holy spirit will give us joy, peace, kindness,
goodness, patience, self-control, favor, anointing, blessings and all we need in serving God. with out
him, we become dull and we feel empty.

I hope that after reading this, we will be able to asses if we are still the Christians God expect us to be.
God bless us all.