Devotions for the God Guy , livre ebook

Baker Publishing Group - Michael DiMarco

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379 pages

English

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What does it mean to be a guy who follows God? That's the question bestselling author Michael DiMarco helped teens answer in God Guy. And now in this 365-day devotional, he guides guys ages 14-18 on a daily journey of learning more about who God is and who he created them to be.Each one-page devo contains a Scripture verse of the day along with a brief reflection that unpacks spiritual truths about becoming a man of God. And in each entry Michael challenges guys to choose God's way in every area of their life--with their thoughts, actions, and daily choices about everything from friends to faith.

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Publié par	Baker Publishing Group
Date de parution	01 octobre 2011
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781441233868
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0461€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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© 2011 by Hungry Planet
Published by Revell a division of Baker Publishing Group P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287 www.revellbooks.com
Ebook edition created 2011
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means for example, electronic, photocopy, recording without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
ISBN 978-1-4412-3386-8
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
Scripture is taken from G OD’S W ORD ®. © 1995 God’s Word to the Nations. Used by permission of Baker Publishing Group.
Published in association with Yates & Yates, LLP, Literary Agents, Orange, California.
Cover design and creative direction by Hungry Planet
Interior design by Michael J. Williams
Introduction
The God Guy wants what every other guy wants: to be accepted and respected. He wants love and laughter. He wants adventure and ease. But his life, like everyone else’s, isn’t perfect. It’s messy and lonely, it’s stressful and hard, but one thing sets his life apart, one thing makes his life amazingly different from others, and that’s his heart. His heart is set on something above, something greater than him that gives him strength and hope. He has found the truth, and the truth is that God lives. He lives above and he lives within. The God Guy calls him Father, he calls him God, and he calls him his salvation.
Because of that the God Guy wants more than anything else to hear from him . He wants his words to ring in his ears. This makes a God Guy crave more from God. It makes a guy look for him, listen for him, and wait for him. When other people are sleeping, the God Guy is waking up to wait and watch for him. He knows that a day that starts off in God’s presence is better than a day when he is forgotten or pushed aside for other more pressing things. Sure he has a lot to do, sure he is tired, but when a guy is hungry, he’s got to feast on what fills him up the most.
If your life isn’t what you would like and you wish you had more of God in your life, then you’re on the right path. A desire for more is the first step. Your willingness to be uncomfortable, to be put out, to be tired all mean spiritual success . Each day you are given a finite amount of time, and often it doesn’t seem like enough time to do all the things you have to get done. That can mean that God, in his graciousness and kindness, gets pushed to the bottom of the list. All that does is ensure that you will do life today on your own strength and not on his, and that leads to exhaustion and stress. But when you start your day off waiting for your orders from him and watching to see what he wants you to do next, life becomes almost effortless. Time seems to become more abundant.
In his book The School of Obedience , Andrew Murray calls this time spent with God the “morning watch.” He challenges students all over the world to be faithful enough to devote a significant amount of time to the one they love the most, and to give their most important time at that. Take a look at his call to begin living a life fully devoted to the one you love the most by practicing the morning watch:
You tell me there are many Christians who are content with ten minutes or a quarter of an hour. There are, but you will certainly not as a rule find them strong Christians. And the Students’ Movement is pleading with God, above everything, that He would meet to train a race of devoted, whole-hearted young men and women. Christ asked great sacrifices of His disciples; He has perhaps asked little of you as yet. But now He allows, He invites, He longs for you to make some. Sacrifices make strong men. Sacrifices help wonderfully to wrench us away from earth and self-pleasing, and lift us heavenward. Do not try to pare down the time limit of the morning watch to less than the half-hour. There can be no question about the possibility of finding the time. Ten minutes from sleep, ten from company or amusement, ten from lessons. How easy where the heart is right, hungering to know God and His will perfectly!
If you think you are too busy to spend a half hour with God, make a list of everyone you spend more time with in conversation during the day and list God below them. Yikes, right? My hope is that with the help of Devotions for the God Guy and maybe even the book God Guy and the God Guy Bible , you will find the passion and desire to devote more of your time to the pursuit of God and watching for him each day. But if you are ready right now, then by all means go for it. Give your time to him and watch how it impacts your day and even your life . As you do you will notice that your emotions are less explosive, your fear diminishes, and your stress lessens. The more time you spend with God, the more things you can actually get done. If you want to spend your day in devotion to God, in obedience, and as far away from sin as possible, then you have to get close to him, talk with him, and listen to him.
I pray that God will give you the desire for more of him and the urgency to wake before the sun. Pay attention to your sleep pattern if you find yourself awake in the early morning, then consider it his calling you to his side. Crawl out of bed and dive in. If you aren’t sure what to do, consider reading your daily devotion and then praising him and thanking him for who he is. Confess your sins and offer your repentance, then dive into his Word. Read. Study. If you need help knowing what to read, pick up the God Guy Bible and use the guides in the back. Get yourself some good worship music; it can really help you to get into the worship mood and draw you closer to him.
There is not one right way to devote your time to God . If this doesn’t work for you, then try something else. If you have the God Guy Bible , you’ll find a lot of ideas for study in the front of it, so check that out. Just don’t delay. If you want more of him, then now is your time and this is your call. Devote yourself to more than a superficial reading of these devos read, pray, study, and listen. When you do, you’ll find your faith growing deeper and your love growing stronger.
I am praying for you, God Guy. I pray that God will be your everything and that you will discover his true worth. If you’d like, come by GodGuy.com and hang out. Tell me how your morning watch time is going. Share your ideas for study and get more ideas yourself. All for one and one for all! Let us lean on one another as we make this walk of faith. I look forward to hearing from you. Enjoy your God Guy journey.

Michael
Obedience and Grace
I don’t reject God’s kindness. If we receive God’s approval by obeying laws, then Christ’s death was pointless .
Galatians 2:21
When it comes to God’s Word, there are two popular lines of thought. One is that your salvation depends on doing all that it says. This is called legalism, and it’s wrong. Salvation doesn’t come from anything other than the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. When you turn your life over to him and make him your Lord, then you are saved. Period. The end.
The other line of thinking when it comes to God’s Word is that because of his grace, or great kindness, we are free to break the rules because his grace is relentless and he’ll forgive us for it all, so why worry about it? This kind of thinking goes like this: “I really want to do this sinful thing, and since it’s too hard to say no, I’m just gonna do it and then ask for forgiveness later.” This way of thinking is just as bad as legalism, and it becomes a way of life that is contradictory to God’s Word. God’s grace isn’t cheap, and it’s not meant to be abused or used as a loophole to sin.
The truth about God’s grace and your salvation is that you don’t need to keep any rules to be saved or to keep yourself saved, but you love him because of what he’s done for you. And out of that love flows your obedience to his Word. Only God himself gives you the power to keep his law. People who try to keep it on their own are gonna fail; it’s just too hard. But through the help of the Holy Spirit, you can be faithful.
The law is powerless to save you and powerless to change you, but as you fall more and more in love with God, you will find yourself changing more and more into the image of Christ. That’s because of his Holy Spirit in you. As you become more like Christ, you will naturally be pulled into a fascination with God’s Word. You will want more and more of its life-giving message. You will want to know more about the God who saved you so that he may be the only one you serve, and you will find following his law becoming your joy and not a chore.
As you read God’s Word, remind yourself of the gospel message. Speak it to yourself. Remember the life of Christ, his death, his burial, and his resurrection. And know that only this unmatched sacrifice saved you. Your life is a miracle. Your mind being opened to the life of Christ in you is a miracle. Your God has reached down and placed his hand on your shoulder, and because of that you are different. If you don’t feel different or believe you are different, then take some time to read God’s Word. Get to know him and his unfathomable kindness in that while you were dead because of your failure, he made you alive together with Christ (see Eph. 2:5).
Nothing can keep you from this salvation but your own decision not to accept it. It is there for you today: accept it and your life will be forever changed. What you could not do before, you will do today. What you were ruled by yesterday, you will be free from now. God promises to save you all you have to do is believe it.
If the light hasn’t come on for you yet and you aren’t sure if you are saved or not, stop by www.godguy.com and do some digging. You can start to answer the question of your salvation. Don’t put