Thursday, April 23, 2009

Temptation devotion (very good)

Jan 22

Matthew chapter 4

summary of what happens in the chapter.


- Jesus was tempted by the devil

- Jesus picks his first disciple

- Jesus heals the sick

- Jesus Begins to preach


  • Do not put the Lord your god to the test
  • worship The Lord your god and serve him only
  • Follow me and i will make you fishers of men
  • While i was reading these verses in Matthew, the story that caught my attention the most was when jesus was tempted by the devil him self. First the tempter (satan) says of jesus " If you are the son of god then turn these stones to bread" Jesus quickly responded with scripture and says man dose not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of god.
  • The tempter then took him to a holy city and had him stand on the edge of a building and said "if you are the son of man then throw yourself down for as it is written "he will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against stone. Jesus again quickly responds with scripture " do not put the lord your god to the test". Scripture quoting is very powerful but we need to watch out because the tempter himself knows the bible very well and will try and twist gods words like he dose with eve in the garden of eden.
  • The tempter dose not stop there which should not surprise anyone because the tempter attacks day and night (rev 12:10). Satan takes jesus to a high mountain and shows him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor " all this i will give to you if you bow down before me and worship me. and jesus responds "Away from me satan! For it is written worship the lord your god and serve him only. WOW. Bow down before me and worship me. He went way to far with that one i think. This is the son of god, perfect in everything and he offers him some crapy kingdoms of the world if he worships him. I don't know about anyone else but i thought that was kind of a bold move and really funny that he would even try. But let me tell you something. Satan will do anything to get you away from god. he knows our weaknesses and where we stumble. alcohol, drugs, sex, gossip, stealing, lust, cursing, Hanging out with the wrong crowd and the list goes on. But we need to stand strong like Jesus and take action when tempted. Quote scripture if you have to, Pray and ask for gods help or just run from the temptation.
  • I know its hard because the things we are tempted with are the things we like and feel good, but that just makes us worshipers of our own selves. Im not perfect either and i fall into temptation once in a while but no ones perfect we need to be more like Jesus and do something when the tempter comes around.
  • This is a devotion that i did jan 22 and i came across it today and i felt like this is a huge event that happens in every persons life. It wasn't this long in jan tho, i added a bunch of new stuff to it as a went over the scriptures again. So i want to share and help you guys who are reading to get our of Satan's death grip of temptation.
  • fee free to go back to this story in Matthew Chapter 4 The temptation of Jesus.
  • some other verses I encourage you to look at if you are having problems with temptation are
  • -1 corinthians 10:13
  • -Hebrews 2:18
  • -Hebrews 4:15-16
  • -James 1:2-4 and 13-14
  • -1 Peter 5:8-10
  • -These are all scriptures that you can read about being tempted.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

5th section to port to base.

left, kids of the 5th section chilling around.
bottom, a mud house were clayton slept. and bottom left is me working haha. yeah me working. and the last on is the river were we bathed.



i'm going to make this short because it is getting really late and i do not feel all that great. We canm back from port and left and spent one night at the base. the next day we went to go stay in the 5th section for a week. While we were in the 5th section we started building a new church for the people. It was also a school for the kids. The first day in the 5th section i got sick with a bad cold most likely because we were sleeping out side were it gets really cold at night. You might not think it dose but it did. So im in the 5th section working and sick. This was not fun for me at all but while i was there i connected with the people so much. Everyone knew my name and by the end of the first day. Kids and adults were calling out mike mike mike mike while i was walking place to place. kinda feels good.
Showers..... wow that was an experience. We bathed in a river that was not to deep. It only got up to your thigh at the deepest point. There was a strong current that i like to think cleaned my body the most. Peterson told me that the last time he bathed here he saw a dead headless donkey thats belly was bloated floating down the river. So they waited 15 mins before going in. haha i thought that was funny.
Another part of the reason for us being in the 5th section was the crusade that we held every night in a open field where all the people in the 5th section were invited to come. We had dramas, music, talent shows and other contests, speaks and more. Lots of people came and heard about god and what god had been doing in peoples lives.
We then came back to the base for one day after the week in the 5th section was done. the church was build and everyone was happy.
We left to go to port again but i was only there for two day. I was sick again, this time i could not keep my food or liquids down and was throwing up everywhere. I was in bed and did not stand for two days. I did not eat anything for two days and i was so week. They sent me back to the base to rest and get better. the think it was food poisoning or worms by the way. we still don't know. I soon regained my heath and soon after that my feet where a little sore. I then got athletes foot and the whole bottom of my foot was coming off haha. The skin was like one huge blister. My foot is still healing but its not over yet. I woke up this morning with my eyes sealed shut. I ran to the bathroom and felt my eyes. There was a thick coat of hard mucus on my eye lashes. So i ripped it off and found my left eye as red as blood. It was mucusy and blurry. I also left my contacts in, so there ruined as well. SOooooooooooooo, now i have pink eye. its ok because i know god will heal me and protect me from anything else that comes my way.
other then all of that im just waiting till sat for the rest of my team to come back from port and see where were going next. keep praying for me.

again im not going over my spelling. sorry


Friday, April 3, 2009

were back...but going again

We arrived today at 1:00pm and we were suppose to et here at 8:00am. Ill tell you later.
we arrive in port au prince a nice house that what almost finished being made with tiled floors and a bathroom with a toilet and a square room for a kitchen. it was really nice compared to what i was expecting. We set up our beds on the floor and packed everything in the house and we were set. The next day we prayed and clean the house. we rested most of that day but then we went out to do our drama and dance at night. We went to the park in clercine Port au prince. When we got there there was so many people and really loud music. We soon found out that there was a Guinness party at the park that was averting Guinness. Not a good crowd. but there was no violence and not to much mocking. That was our biggest crowd all week, there were at least 300 to 400 people there possibly more.
The next day we went out to different schools in the morning and talked with the principles to see what days we could perform our freedom project. God opened doors and we were able to get all the days filled with different schools. We were surprised because they were in there exam weeks. That night we did our drama at another park in maigate Port au Prince.
ok im not going to start getting into to much detail anymore. We did alot of drams and went to school.

the next week we stayed in the 5th section for a week also. It was probably one of the hardest but most amazing experience i have had. Every night we held a crusade in the middle of a field that was in the middle of no where. hundreds of local people would come and watch our dramas and pastors speak. During the day we were building a church and and school in the 5th section.
the 5th section was a great experience and i made alot of friends. we bathed in the river that had a hefty current to it and was completely brown but fun. wow there is so much more to say but i am extremely tired and need to pack and wash my clothes and we leave again for tomorrow. i might not be able to talk to you mom for a while because i dont think were coming back anytime soon. And were not going to mexico anymore were staying in haiti and might go to the dominican for a couple weeks. BYEEEEEEEE