DAILY QUIET TIME GUIDE BREVARD COMMUNITY CHURCH UNDER GOD? 5/31 & 6/03 HOW TO HAVE A DAILY QUIET TIME The QT Guide is designed to help you MOVE with God through Bible Reading, reflection and prayer. It can be completed in a about 7 mins. ½ Minutes Preparing Your Heart: Invest the first 30 seconds preparing your heart. You might pray, Lord, cleanse my heart so You can speak to me through the Scriptures. Make my mind alert, my soul active, and my heart responsive. Surround me with Your presence during this time. 4 Minutes Listening To God: Take the next four minutes to read the Bible. Your greatest need is to hear a word from God. Allow the Word to strike fire in your heart. Meet the Author! 2 1/2 Talking To God (Prayer): After God has spoken through His Book, then speak to Him in prayer. DAY 1 Mark 10:42-45, Acts 10:34-35, Lamentations 3:22-23 Pledging Our Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Many people around the world might be surprised to learn that American Christians recite a pledge of allegiance to the American flag. Many American Christians might be surprised to learn our treasured phrase under God was actually not an original part of the pledge from 1887. The phrase wasn t actually added until 1954. It s easy to look back to that time and imagine it must have been the good old days of a country that really was once somehow under God. And it s easy to look around today and feel like our position as a nation under God is slipping away. Yet we the squarely under-god Church don t ever need to respond to changing times with fear, anger, or vengeance. Why? Because our leader doesn t live in a White House, black house, penthouse, or rent house He lives in God s house. He lives in us. The Church. The Church owes allegiance to our Savior. As Jesus-followers, we don t just go to church, we are the Church, and we exist for the world. We know power comes from private prayer, not public-opinion polls. Despite controversial headlines every evening, His mercies are new every morning. We not a party, not a country, not a government we the Church are one nation under God. Pray: Jesus, when You came, everyone thought You d overturn governments, but instead You changed hearts. Will You change mine? Show me places where fear and politics have vetoed the power of Your love working in and through me. My allegiance belongs to You. Amen.
DAY 2 Philippians 3:20, 1 Peter 2:9, 1 Corinthians 12:12-14 One Nation I was raised in a wildly patriotic, flag-flying home. I love my nation. Always have. Always will. I honor those who have fought around the world for our freedom. I appreciate those who serve our communities. I appreciate our opportunities to gather and worship freely, start businesses, have as many kids as we want, and raise them however we want. I feel blessed to live in the United States of America the land of the free, home of the brave. While we may be strong, powerful, and prosperous, we can sometimes confuse all those good things with God s exclusive blessing. We are not God s only nation. We re not God s favorite nation. As a matter of fact let this sink in America is not the promised land, and Americans aren t His chosen people. Pause. Now, let s consider who we really are. I m an American. But I m not just an American. I am, first and foremost, a Jesus-follower. The name of Jesus Christ (which we carry as Christians) should determine who we are and how we live. When we identify with our nationality first, we may become consumed with things that distract us from our primary mission as followers of Jesus. As Christ followers, we re not just here to defend our freedoms; we re here to help people find freedom in Christ. All the Christ-followers in the world make up the Church, one nation under God. We, the people of God, are the Church. We re just passing through this earth, so our citizenship to the nation we live in is only temporary. Our permanent citizenship is with Heaven. Our earthly citizenship may tell us we re American, Albanian, Algerian, or Australian, but our heavenly citizenship says something greater. We may be loyal to our country, and great things can come of that. But we worship a different King. A King whose name is higher than any other name. PRAY: King Jesus, we re thankful for the freedom and blessings Your sacrifice brought us. Give us the boldness to live as Your holy nation no matter what s going on around us. Your Word says that together we are Your body, Your hands, and Your feet, showing the world how much You love them. In Your name, amen. DAY 3 2 Corinthians 5:17-20, Ephesians 2:10, Matthew 5:14-16 Ambassadors As you read the account of Jesus life written by His follower and friend Matthew, you ll see that Jesus talked a lot about the Kingdom of Heaven. It s interesting to me that the Jews who Matthew was originally writing to already thought they were in God s Kingdom. They believed, like many of us do today, that they were already part of God s chosen people because of their nationality. Jesus made it clear that we become citizens of the Kingdom of God by putting our faith in Jesus and giving our lives to be His follower and friend. Being a citizen of God s Kingdom gives us incredible rights. We re adopted into God s family and given full access to God as His son or daughter. We can approach our King boldly and pray in Jesus name. We can overcome the power sin had over our lives by tapping into the same power that brought Jesus back to life. We will escape the sting of death by passing from this life into Heaven when we die. 2
Being a citizen of God s Kingdom also gives us incredible responsibilities. As citizens of a heavenly nation, we re His ambassadors to wherever we live on Earth. An ambassador is the highest-ranking diplomat sent as a representative from one nation to another. What an honor! As Christ s ambassador, you were not elected by people. You were chosen and appointed by God! He offers us acceptance and purpose. When we believe He has chosen us, even the deepest feelings of rejection can be replaced. When we believe we re appointed for His work, that lack of self-worth is turned upside down. As Christ s ambassador, you re not just a regular person; you re a priest of God! You may have ideas of what it means to be a priest. But Jesus once-and-for-all sacrifice changed all that. Priests no longer have to carry people s prayers and offerings to God. All of us can now come to God with confidence. There s nothing regular about you! You re set apart for a purpose. As Christ s ambassador, you also carry His name and His message. When Jesus was on Earth, He was the light of the world. But now He calls us that! The world is getting darker. Christians are being persecuted in horrifying numbers. But just like we see in Acts, the Church only grows stronger when we re persecuted. But when the world grows darker, the light shines brighter! Pray: Father, thank You for bringing me into Your family and giving me a role in Your Kingdom. I accept the rights that come with being Your child. I accept the responsibility of being Your ambassador. Help me to represent You well in my community. In Jesus name, amen. DAY 4 Daniel 1:1-8, 1 Peter 5:6, 1 John 2:15-17, 2 Timothy 3:12 Under God? Have you ever been around someone under the influence of alcohol? It affects the way they think, the decisions they make, what they think is funny, the way they talk, who looks attractive to them, their behavior, and what they love. Alcohol lowers their guard and makes them more vulnerable. But drunk people are usually terrible judges of how drunk they really are. What if we re more under the influence of culture than the influence of God? Do we look like everybody else? Are we entertained by the same things? Laugh at the same jokes? Do we raise our kids the same way? Spend our time like everyone else? Spend our money like everyone else? Base our morals on what culture says is okay? If there s little difference between the way you live and everyone else around you (besides where you spend an hour a week on Sunday), you might be under the influence of culture and not realize it. Daniel made some culture-defying choices as a young man that made his life so amazing he has his own Old Testament book. Daniel was born as a Jew in Jewish culture but lived most of his life in the incredibly powerful culture of Babylon. King Nebuchadnezzar defeated his nation and dragged off the best and brightest into a systematic training program designed to strip them of everything that made them Jewish and turn them into Babylonians. They changed these Hebrew teenage boys names from names that honored the true God Yahweh to names that honored pagan gods. They changed their language. They changed their clothes. They changed the food they ate. They taught them their history, their philosophy, their sciences, their everything. The Babylonians had an intentional plan to change the way Daniel thought, believed, and behaved. But Daniel 1:8 says Daniel resolved himself to live under God. 3
If we re going to live faithfully under God in a culture that s opposed to God, we re going to have to make some predetermined resolutions too. The gentle drift of compromise lures us out from under God s will. The driving force of media and false worldviews leads us to believe things that simply aren t in line with God s truth. Warning: If you choose to live under God rather than under culture, people will laugh at you, people will pressure you, and some won t understand. But I m not worried when I m persecuted. I m worried when I m not persecuted because that means I m blending in. I d rather be remembered for standing out than forgotten by blending in. In what areas do you need to resolve to live under God? Maybe for you it s not defiling your body with too much alcohol or too much food. Maybe not defiling your mind with pornography. Maybe not doing things God designed for married people to enjoy with anyone you re not married to. Maybe eliminating shows, music, movies, games, or online entertainment you can t picture Jesus being entertained by. Maybe only using language you d use in front of your pastor (or your grandma, whoever you respect more). Maybe fully engaging in church by living generously, dying to self, and serving and loving others. Ask God. After all, He already knows exactly which areas of your life aren t under His authority. Pray: God, You re my King, my Lord, my Master, my Supreme Ruler, and my Righteous Judge. Help me identify the ways that my lifestyle is under the influence of my culture. I want to live fully and completely under You no matter what the cost. In Jesus name, amen. DAY 5 Ephesians 4:3-6, John 17:20-23, Romans 12:5, John 13:34-35, Acts 4:32-35 Indivisible So far in this Bible Plan, we ve reapplied some terms from American government to who we are as the Church. Indivisible is a word we use to describe our nation, but I think what we see is anything but. We can easily get worked up by it all. But what if all of that passion, indignation, and energy turned on the real problem facing us? It s a way bigger issue that the Church is divided than it is for any particular nation or other group of people to be divided. Why? Because God created the Church to be one, Jesus prayed before going to the cross that we would be one, and the Holy Spirit empowers us to be one. Guess who has the most interest in the Church being at each other s throats? Our enemy. And that s a singular enemy, not plural. The church down the road is not our enemy. That denomination that does things differently from us is not our enemy. The worship leader who plays songs you don t like is not your enemy. We have one enemy, and his mission is the same as it always has been: to steal, kill, and destroy. To steal our unity, kill the power of our local gatherings, and destroy our credibility and influence with the world we re called to reach. With different kinds of churches around the world and even in our own communities, how do we become unified? We have to start focusing on what we re for and stop focusing on what we re against. We re for the lost finding Christ. We re for the broken becoming whole. We re for the hurting finding healing. We re for lifting the name of Jesus higher than the name of our local church, denomination, or ministry. We also need to admit how desperately we need each other. We simply cannot significantly impact the world alone. We can t even reach our own city alone probably not even our own street. We need all kinds of churches to reach all kinds of people. Unity is not uniformity! We have strength in our diversity! Our style of doing church isn t the best or only way. It s an expression of how we worship. Jesus sent us all on one mission The Great Commission. He told us where (the whole world), what (the Gospel), but He didn t say how. How is 4
just a method. One message. Many methods. Paul laid this approach out clearly in all of his varied approaches to presenting the Gospel based on the diverse audiences he preached to. Let s not get hung up on the how. But the simplest way to show the world we are one boils down to one word: love. Jesus said this is what we should be known for. Not for our buildings. Not for our t-shirts. Not for our music style or our hairstyle. Not for the way we vote or the things we boycott. And for sure not the way we berate each other on social media. He said the world would know that we re His followers by the way we love each other. Pray: Father God, thank You for adopting such a beautiful diversity of people into Your one big family. Expand our hearts for our brothers and sisters living in extreme persecution. Expand our hearts for the other churches in our community. And most of all, help us be the answer to Jesus prayer that we would live in unity loving each other in a way that makes the world take notice. In Jesus name, amen. 5