A Constant Consciousness of God

Jim Cymbala, to me, is my biggest hero of the faith. I love listening to his sermons reading his books, but one quote imparticular that sticks out to me is, “ A constant consciousness of God is the greatest defense against Satan”. This quote instantly forces us to ask the question, “ How can I constantly have a consciousness of God?”. When I began to think about this I realized several ways to accomplish this and they were very obvious.

The number one way to have a consciousness of God is through prayer. When I say this I don’t mean prayer before bed or before dinner. I’m talking about Prayer, sweat dropping, knee wearing, eye crying prayer. Maybe its in the car or in your office. For me it is a lot of times on the lawn mower where I spend a lot of my day. You understand what I am saying? We should constantly be in prayer. You can always be praying. When you are talking to a friend about a tough situation, then you should be praying. When your kids are headed to school we should be praying. THERE IS NO WRONG TIME TO PRAY. Maybe you need to pray to God to teach you how to pray. People often ask about your prayer life. Really though our LIFE should be full of prayer. It is not just suggested, but it is necessary for the Christian life. Jesus Christ prayed at all times and in every situation.

Another way to keep a consciousness of God is through the Word of God. You can’t avoid the fact that each time Satan tempted Jesus Christ, He quoted scripture. He knew the importance of memorizing scripture. Satan has no hold on the Word of God. Satan knows it is the extreme truth, but if he can lure you away from the Word of God then you now have left the path with no road map. The Word of God is life support, but only for those who depend on God for air. There are many verses in the Bible that tell us of the importance of the Word of God. For example Psalm 119:105 says, “ Thy (God) Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.” We could go on and on but one thing that is for sure is we NEED Gods word, and If we know we need it we should longing for it.

The last way for us to keep a consciousness of God is through our relationships. As Christians we should always be surrounding ourselves with men and women that remind us of His nature. I have no clue where I would be today if God had not placed people in my life that reminded me of the nature of God. If you are constantly studying something over and over again you will find yourself looking a lot like what you are studying. Lets not forget that the reason we study something is to know it more and more. We need to be very careful in who and what we let influence our life.

These are just a few ways to keep a consciousness of God, but what we can guarantee is that if you follow after God and obey these things you will find yourself constantly keeping your mind on eternal things and easily defending the enemy.

In Christ

TJ Earl

The Key To Education

So much more and more we are asking the question in ministry if education is important. I cant count on fingers and toes the amount of times in my life I have heard someone say, "Paul didnt go to seminary so neither will I!" This argument and many others are so heretical.
The Bible teaches educating ourselves in scriptures are important to our walk with Christ. This doesnt mean that we should all go to Bible college and to seminary but that we all should be well versed and educated in the Bible. In any other job or career, we are expected to know what we are talking about and to be "trained" in what we do. It would be foolish for me to walk onto a job and attempt to do my job with no training. As a matter of fact it would be unacceptable and I would be fired before I ever started.
In staff meeting this week Mark did a devotion on 1 Corinthians 9:24. Most all know this but in case you didnt, Paul is talking about the Isthmian Games and compares them to the Christian life. He talks about running the race and running it to win. In order to win it takes months and months of training. In that training comes choices and some of them harder than others. Take for example, right now I am trying to get back in shape. I am working out every weekday morning and I have to be very disciplined to do so. I could eat a huge burger every day ( like I want to ) or i could stick with tuna or fruit. One is much more desirable than the other, but the choice for me to win has to be the healthier one. If I am constantly taking bad choices I will surely disqualify myself from the competition.
You see my fear is that we as Christians are showing up on race day with no training and we are so out of shape we cant even complete the first leg. It takes determination and desire to finish the race. You cant be a halfway Christian just like you cant be a halfway marathon runner. As the body of Christ and for myself I want us to be running to win and putting our blinders up so that all we see is the crown. Keep your eyes on the prize!

In Christ
TJ Earl