Week 1: Recharging Your Batteries

Isaiah 40:31

but those who hope in the Lord
    will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
    they will run and not grow weary,
    they will walk and not be faint.

Dana's Thoughts: 

Take some time each day to meditate on this scripture as you commit it to memory. Having hope that God is with you, can change your perspective on what you face in your day to day life. As you walk through your day, try to remember to "hope in the Lord" and cling to the promise that he will help you "run and not grow weary" and "walk and not be faint."

Day 40 - September 29, 2014

Today's Reading: 1 John 3:11:-24 (NIV)
¹¹ For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. ¹² Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous. ¹³ Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. ¹⁴ We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death. ¹⁵ Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.
¹⁶ This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. ¹⁷ If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? ¹⁸ Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. ¹⁹ This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: ²⁰ If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. ²¹ Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God ²² and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. ²³ And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. ²⁴ The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.


Dan's Thoughts: 
Last day of this blog being supplied to you.  You know what to do.  Live it out.

I miss you all.

Your Friend,
Dan

Questions For Reflection:

1.  Which verse stuck out to me the most?  Why?

2.  What is God telling me through this passage?

3.  What transformation in my heart needs to take place because of what this passage means?

Day 39 - September 28, 2014

Today's Reading: 1 John 3:1-10 (NIV)
See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. ² Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. ³ All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.⁴ Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. ⁵ But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. ⁶ No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him. ⁷ Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. ⁸ The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. ⁹ No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. ¹⁰ This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.

Dan's Thoughts: 
You have two days left.  Its time to break you off of my thoughts, and help you develop your own.  Read this passage and ask yourself key questions that help you apply these verses to your life.  You're in the captains chair now.

Questions For Reflection:

1.  Which verse stuck out to me the most?  Why?

2.  What is God telling me through this passage?

3.  What transformation in my heart needs to take place because of what this passage means?

Day 38 - September 27, 2014

Today's Reading: 1 John 2:15-29 (NIV)
¹⁵ Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father^[d] is not in them. ¹⁶ For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. ¹⁷ The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.

¹⁸ Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. ¹⁹ They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us. ²⁰ But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. ²¹ I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. ²² Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son. ²³ No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.

²⁴ As for you, see that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. ²⁵ And this is what he promised us—eternal life. ²⁶ I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. ²⁷ As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him.




²⁸ And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.
²⁹ If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.


Dan's Thoughts: 
What in the world do you love?  Often, that leads to compromise in your walk with God.  It's nearly impossible to love God and love the world.  Let the Holy Spirit direct you to places of worldly love that remain in your heart, and cover them with a godly perspective.  This was a long passage.  Pay extra attention to all of it though.  It's good stuff.

Questions For Reflection:

1.  Which verse stuck out to me the most?  Why?

2.  What is God telling me through this passage?

3.  What transformation in my heart needs to take place because of what this passage means?

Day 37 - September 26, 2014

Today's Reading: 1 John 2:1-10 (NIV)
My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. ² He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world ³ We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. ⁴ Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. ⁵ But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: ⁶ Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did. ⁷ Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. ⁸ Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and in you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining. ⁹ Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. ¹⁰ Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. ¹¹ But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.

Dan's Thoughts: 
Verse 4 jumps off the page to me: if we say we know God, yet ignore who he is and what he says, we completely miss the point.  Do you know God?  Do you act like it?  What part of your life still needs to transform to be more reflective of God at work inside you?  Often times, I find that I need to do a better job of loving people (verse 11).

Questions For Reflection:

1.  Which verse stuck out to me the most?  Why?

2.  What is God telling me through this passage?

3.  What transformation in my heart needs to take place because of what this passage means?

Day 36 - September 25, 2014

Today's Reading: 1 John 1:1-10 (the whole chapter!) (NIV)

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. ² The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. ³ We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. ⁴ We write this to make our joy complete. ⁵ This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. ⁶ If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. ⁷ But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. ⁸ If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. ⁹ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰ If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.

Dan's Thoughts: 

When was the last time you shared what God has done in your life with somebody else?  Do you proclaim with your words and your actions what God means to you?  What message do people hear from your life?

Questions For Reflection:

1.  Which verse stuck out to me the most?  Why?

2.  What is God telling me through this passage?

3.  What transformation in my heart needs to take place because of what this passage means?

Day 35 - September 24, 2014

Today's Reading: 2 Peter 3:14-18 (NIV)

¹⁴ So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. ¹⁵ Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. ¹⁶ He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. ¹⁷ Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position. ¹⁸ But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.

Dan's Thoughts: 

What do you need to do today to be at peace with God?  He's been patient with you (verse 15).  But now its time to do business with Him!  Turn yourself back towards Him.  Repent of your sin.  Rest in the forgiveness that comes from the grace of God himself.  He loves you. He loves you. He loves you.

Questions For Reflection:

1.  Which verse stuck out to me the most?  Why?

2.  What is God telling me through this passage?

3.  What transformation in my heart needs to take place because of what this passage means?