Devotion

One 2 One

Devotion

New Disciplines

The believers studied what the apostles taught. They shared their lives together. They ate and prayed together. ACTS 2:42

Words from the Word

DEVOTION: being sincerely dedicated to something or to someone

SCRIPTURE: God’s word; the Bible

What made the early disciples strong in their faith was their devotion to God. This means that they loved Jesus so much that He was the most important person to them. They met regularly to listen to His word and pray.

The more we spend time with others, the more we get to know them and the stronger our relationship with them becomes. It is the same with our relationship with God. For our relationship to grow, we need to communicate with Him always. The two most important ways to do this are to read the Bible and to pray. When we read the Bible, God talks to us. When we pray, we talk to God about anything we feel or think about.

THE WORD

The Bible is God’s letter to us. He used men to write His word as they were led by the Holy Spirit. If the Bible is God’s word, then it is completely true and without mistakes.

16God has breathed life into all Scripture. It is useful for teaching us what is true. It is useful for correcting our mistakes. It is useful for making our lives whole again. It is useful for training us to do what is right. 17By using Scripture, the servant of God can be completely prepared to do every good thing.

2 Timothy 3:16,17

Fun Bible Facts

Did you know that about 50 Bibles are sold every minute? The Bible has sold more copies than any other book in history!

The Bible was originally written in three diﬀerent languages—Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek—in over 1600 years by around 40 men, most of them living hundreds of years apart. Still, they all tell the story of God and His people!

Moses wrote the ﬁrst ﬁve books of the Bible. Apostle Paul wrote at least thirteen books. More than 3,000 proverbs may have been written by King Solomon and most of the Psalms by King David.

Here’s how the Bible helps strengthen our relationship with God:

1. It helps us know God better.

By reading the Bible, we begin to understand who God is. Also, we see His character, His nature, what He can do, and what pleases Him and displeases Him. We begin to understand how much He loves us and how much we can trust Him. The more we know Him, the more we will follow Him.

So faith comes from hearing the Good News. And people hear the Good News when someone tells them about Christ.

Romans 10:17 (ICB)

2. It helps us grow spiritually.

Babies need to drink milk. They depend on the milk to help them become strong and healthy. In the same way, when we live our new life in Jesus, we need to read the Bible the way a baby longs for milk—always looking for it so we can grow strong spiritually.

The more we read and obey His word, the stronger our faith will grow.

2Like newborn babies, you should long for the pure milk of God’s word. It will help you grow up as believers. 3You can do this now that you have tasted how good the Lord is.

1 Peter 2:2,3

3. It helps us live the life He wants for us.

The Bible contains the many wonderful plans God has for our lives. He also shows us in the Bible the way we should live in order for us to experience the life He wants for us. We need to read the Bible every day and put God’s word into our minds and hearts so that we will not forget God and His ways. We also need to obey His word.

⁹How can a young person live a pure life? By obeying your word. . . 11I study your teachings very carefully so that I will not sin against you.

Psalm 119:9,11 (ERV)

Remember

God’s word helps us grow in our relationship with Him every day.

WHAT IS S.O.A.P.?

This is a popular way of doing your daily Bible reading and journaling. It stands for Scripture, Observation, Application, and Prayer. This is how to do it!

1. Set a time and place to read the Bible every day.

2. Follow a Bible-reading plan. Set a speciﬁc number of chapters to read every day.

3. Practice S.O.A.P.

SCRIPTURE

1 Samuel 17:32-51

1 Samuel 17:47

Read a portion of the Scripture slowly and thoughtfully several times. Choose the verses that spoke to you the most and write them down.

OBSERVATION

- David was so confident in battle because he knew that God was with him.

- He knew that it was God’s battle.

Reﬂect on the Scripture. Write down what you think the Scripture says about God and the people in the passage. Ask and answer questions based on the passage: who, what, when, where, why, and how. What ideas and words stand out to you?

APPLICATION

- God is with me, so I will not be afraid.

- I will rely on God because He fights for me.

If there is a truth about God that you should believe and remember, an attitude you should change, a sin to turn away from, a promise to claim, an example to follow, or a command to obey, write them down.

PRAYER

Lord, thank You for always being with me no matter what. Please give me the courage to face hard things. Holy Spirit, please remind me that the battle belongs to the Lord. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Respond to God's word in prayer.

PRAYER

Christianity is more than following a set of rules or a list of dos and dont's. It is a relationship with God. Communication is important in making our relationship with Him stronger.

“When you pray, go into your room. Close the door and pray to your Father, who can’t be seen. Your Father will reward you, because he sees what you do secretly.”

Matthew 6:6

God talks to us in many ways, but mainly through the Bible. When we read the Bible, we learn to listen to the sound of God’s voice. We talk to Him through prayer. God listens to us when we pray. God answers our prayers according to His best plans for our lives, and we respond to His word through obedience.

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

John 14:6 (ESV)

Jesus is our example. He told us to pray to the Father, not to anyone else. He also showed us how we are to pray through Jesus because He is the only way to the Father.

Remember

Prayer is talking to God and knowing Him as our Father.

The goal of prayer is not to be seen or heard by others. We are talking to our Father, not putting up a show.

Jesus also says we should keep our prayers simple. It doesn’t matter if our prayers are long or short. God knows what is in our hearts and He knows what we mean.

Jesus gave us a pattern for praying (Matthew 6:9–13).

“Our Father in heaven . . .”

God, who is all-powerful, wants to show Himself to us as a loving Father.

“. . . may your name be honored.”

God is holy. We should have deep respect for Him.

“May your kingdom come. May what you want to happen be done on earth as it is done in heaven.”

God is our King. We should live according to what He commands.

“Give us today our daily bread.”

We can trust God to provide what we need daily.

“And forgive us our sins, just as we also have forgiven those who sin against us.”

God is forgiving. He wants us to receive His forgiveness ﬁrst, and because of that we can forgive other people.

“Keep us from sinning when we are tempted. Save us from the evil one.”

God is our rescuer. He will keep us from evil and help us know the right thing to do whenever we feel like doing something bad.

As we read and obey the word and pray and trust God with our lives, let us not forget that God really answers prayers.

PERSONAL APPLICATION

When and where do you read the Bible and pray daily?

Have you joined a Victory group?

Have you forgiven everyone who has hurt you?

Begin praying for what God wants for you and your family.

Salvation

Once we were God’s enemies. But we have been brought back to him because his Son has died for us. Now that God has brought us back, we are even more secure. We know that we will be saved because Christ lives. ROMANS 5:10 Words from the Word HEAVEN: a place full of love and joy where we can be with God forever HELL: a place of torment; a fiery furnace; a place with the full wrath of God Salvation: to be saved or rescued from something The Problem: SIN Any thought, word, attitude, behavior, or action that hurts God, whether we think it’s small or big, is called sin. Sin is doing things our way instead of God’s way. Imagine that you did something bad to your best friend and because of it, you became enemies. Would you want to be enemies forever or become best friends again, as if you did not do anything bad? God wants to have a very close friendship with us. In fact, He wants to be our best friend. But our friendship with Him was destroyed because of one big problem. Do you know what that problem is? It is your sins that separate you from your God. He turns away from you when he sees them. Isaiah 59:2 (ERV) Sin creates a space that separates us from God. That space is so huge it cannot be measured. This means that sin separates us from God forever. Because He is holy and we are not, we cannot be with Him. Sin also makes us earn something. Have you ever experienced getting paid by your parents for doing house chores? You earned something because you did something. So when we do our chores, our parents pay us. We deserve to get it because we earned it. The Bible says that when we sin, the pay we earn is death. Death is what we deserve to get. Death means being separated from God forever in hell. Everyone has sinned. No one measures up to God’s glory. Romans 3:23 The Bible says all of us are sinners. Those who do bad things, like crimi- nals, and those who do good things, like teachers, dads and moms, boys and girls, you and I—all of us have sinned against God. It means all of us have disobeyed God. Any time we have lied, stolen, cheated, hurt others, or done something that the Bible says is sin, we destroy our relationship with God, who is holy. Being holy means He is perfect and has done nothing wrong. When you sin, the pay you get is death. Romans 6:23 Some people who feel far away from God think that if they do good things—go to church, read the Bible, give to the poor, or obey their parents—they will be closer to God. They think they can “earn” their friendship with God by doing good things. The Bible says that because of our sin, the only thing we earn is death, and there is nothing we can do to change it. The good news is that God loves us so much. He doesn’t want us to be separated from Him forever. Since there is nothing we can do to solve the problem, God is the one who made the solution. He made a way to bring us close to Him. The Solution: JESUS . . . but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. ROMANS 6:23 (ESV) God is a God who does only what is right. Because of this, He had to punish sin. But because He is loving and compassionate, He also does not want all people to be separated from Him forever. To bring us close to God, there is only one way: Jesus. Jesus, God’s only Son, is the only solution. He never sinned. He doesn’t deserve death because He never disobeyed God. That is why only Jesus can pay the penalty for our sin and remove the space that separates us from God. God sent Jesus to receive the punishment we earned. He became the sacriﬁce and paid the price for our sin by dying on the cross. He was willing to do this for us. Christ didn’t have any sin. But God made him become sin for us. So we can be made right with God because of what Christ has done for us. 2 Corinthians 5:21 What exactly happened on the cross? Jesus did two things through His death on the cross. First, He received the punishment that should have been for us. Second, He exchanged His sinless and perfect life for our sinful life. He took the punishment that was for us and He gave us His blessings. Can you imagine that He did that simply because He loves us so much? The Result: SALVATION When Jesus died on the cross, He cancelled our sin. Jesus died on the cross so that we could receive forgiveness for our sins, our relation- ship with God would be restored, and we could live with Him forever. That’s how good our God is! Because of His sinless life, Jesus did not stay dead. On the third day, He became alive again. Jesus won against death. That’s how powerful He is! “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16 (ESV) Remember In Jesus, we are given a great and precious gift — to live a new life! The Response: FAITH To have faith in God is to believe in Him. We receive salvation when we stop trusting in the good things that we do and put our trust in what Christ did for us on the cross. We receive God’s gift of salvation by faith. It is a free gift! Even if we don’t deserve to get the gift, He gives it to us because He is good. Receiving something from God that we don’t deserve is called grace. JUSTICE Getting punished for doing something bad MERCY Not getting punished for doing something bad GRACE Not getting punished for doing something bad and even getting something good that you don’t deserve We receive God’s grace when we realize our need for Him to save us, turn away from sin, and receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, putting our trust in Him alone for salvation. 9Say with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord.” Believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. Then you will be saved. 10With your heart you believe and are made right with God. With your mouth you say what you believe. And so you are saved. Romans 10:9,10 8God’s grace has saved you because of your faith in Christ. Your salvation doesn’t come from anything you do. It is God’s gift. 9It is not based on anything you have done. No one can brag about earning it. Ephesians 2:8,9 PERSONAL APPLICATION Do you want to have a personal relationship with God? Do you understand what sin is, and do you want to stop doing things that hurt God? Will you let Jesus lead you, and will you obey Him for the rest of your life? If your answer is YES, pray and believe this prayer with me! PRAYER FOR SALVATION Heavenly Father, I admit that I have sinned and that my sin separates me from You. I am sorry for my sin. I believe Jesus died on the cross for me so my sin can be forgiven. I believe Jesus rose from the dead and is alive. I receive Jesus as the Lord and Savior of my life. I will obey You and live for You for the rest of my life. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen. The Salvation Plan from the Book of Romans 23 Everyone has sinned. No one measures up to God’s glory. 24 The free gift of God’s grace makes us right with him. Christ Jesus paid the price to set us free. Romans 3:23,24 But here is how God has shown his love for us. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8 When you sin, the pay you get is death. But God gives you the gift of eternal life. That’s because of what Christ Jesus our Lord has done. Romans 6:23 Say with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord.” Believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. Then you will be saved. Romans 10:9 With your heart you believe and are made right with God. With your mouth you say what you believe. And so you are saved. Romans 10:10 Scripture says, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Romans 10:13 Remember Jesus’ death on the cross saved us from sin and gave us a new start. A NEW START Congratulations on getting the most wonderful gift that any person could ever receive! You now have a new start because of what Jesus did. The next six lessons will introduce you to some of the new things that have come.

Lordship

“So be sure of this, all you people of Israel. You nailed Jesus to the cross. But God has made him both Lord and Messiah.” ACTS 2:36 Words from the Word MESSIAH: Savior LORD: Master; Ruler; Savior; Chief Who’s the boss? Who calls the shots? Who makes the decisions? Before, it might have been you. Now, it’s Jesus. Jesus is your new master. When we receive Jesus as the Savior of our lives, we are also making Him the Lord of our lives. It means that He brings us closer to God, and He is now the ruler of our lives. And we obey Him. Have you ever received a pair of shoes and said, “I will only take the right shoe. I will throw the left shoe away.” We do not do that because we need both shoes. In the same way, when we receive Jesus in our lives, we cannot just receive Him as our Savior; we need to receive Him as our Lord as well. What does receiving Jesus as Lord mean? LORDSHIP & SALVATION Jesus is 100% our Savior because He paid for all our sins. He is also 100% Lord. It means that Jesus cannot be 99.9% Lord in our lives. We cannot say, “Jesus, you are the Lord in my life, but I will cheat a little in this test. I will not cheat in my other tests.” If Jesus is not 100% Lord, then He is not at all Lord in our lives. Making Jesus Lord is all or nothing. When we say Jesus is Lord, we should obey Him in everything. That means EVERYTHING. . . . because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ROMANS 10:9 (ESV) The Importance of “Lord” In the Bible, Jesus was called “Lord” 99 times in the book of Acts and 616 times in the whole New Testament. He was called “Savior” only 2 times in Acts and 24 times in the New Testament. LORDSHIP BEGINS IN THE HEART Lordship is obeying the commands of Christ not because we have to, but because we want to. It is not about following a set of rules or a bunch of dos and don’ts. We go to church, we read our Bibles, and we help our classmates, not because we are forced to do so or because we want to make other people happy, but because we love God. Even if you don’t tell your friends the things that you love to do, they will know. Your actions will tell them. If you love to read books, going to the library to read will make you happy. If you love to play soccer, you will play the sport even if it makes you really tired or if you get hurt while playing. No one forces us to do the things we love to do. We do them because we love doing them. The same is true with Lordship. When you decide in your heart to follow Jesus, your actions will show that you obey Him because you love Him. We have seen what God has done for us in saving us. God was willing to send His only Son to save us. Jesus sacriﬁced His life for us so that we may be forgiven and spend eternity with Him in heaven. What God desires is for our good. All God’s commands are for our good. God does not just want us to go to heaven, He wants to save us from the harmful eﬀects of sin while we live here on earth. As we understand the heart of God in His commands, obeying Him becomes a delight. But make sure that in your hearts you honor Christ as Lord. 1 Peter 3:15 LORDSHIP DEMANDS OBEDIENCE If our hearts say that we will follow Jesus, then our thoughts, words, and actions will show that we are obeying Him. When we call ourselves Chris- tians and followers of Jesus, we are expected to do what He says. The way we live should match the things we say. It’s not enough to say “Jesus is my Lord.” We must obey what He tells us completely and right away. For us to know what He is telling us, we need to read the Bible. Do you have a Bible? “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and still don’t do what I say?” Luke 6:46 LORDSHIP IS WALKING WITH GOD EVERY DAY As a follower of Christ, we make Jesus our Lord for the rest of our lives. Following Jesus is not a one-time action but something we do daily. We obey Jesus whenever and wherever we may be, not just in church. For our relationship with God to grow and become stronger, we must obey Him daily. It’s just like how we take care of our bodies. If we want to be strong and healthy, we eat healthy food, take baths, and brush our teeth daily. Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him . . . Colossians 2:6 (ESV) Remember The Lordship of Jesus is all or nothing. PERSONAL APPLICATION Does the way you treat other people (parents, brothers, sisters, classmates, friends, and others) show that you obey God? Does the way you spend your time show that you obey God? Does the way you use your money show that you obey God? Are there areas in your life, like your thoughts, words, or actions, that you need to surrender to the Lordship of Jesus?

Repentance

Peter replied, “All of you must turn away from your sins and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then your sins will be forgiven. You will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” ACTS 2:38 Words from the Word REPENTANCE: turning your back on sin and turning to God REGRET: feeling bad because of something you did or didn't do A coin has two sides: the head and the tail. Having new life in Jesus also shows two things—faith and repentance. They are closely connected to each other. You can’t have faith without repentance. Repentance is turning away from sin and faith is turning to God. Because we follow Jesus, we make the decision to repent and move in faith daily. REPENTANCE, SORROW, & CHANGE Turning away from sin begins when we are really sorry for our sins. There are two types of sorrow: godly sorrow and worldly sorrow. Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. 2 Corinthians 7:10 (NIV) GODLY SORROW -does not give excuses -says “I’m sorry because I disobeyed God by lying” -admits and takes responsibility for his or her actions -results in a changed life WORLDLY SORROW -only gives excuses -says “I’m sorry my mom found out that I was lying, but it really wasn’t my fault” -blames other people or circumstances -results in spiritual death which means being separated from God forever So I confessed my sins and told them all to you. I said, “I’ll tell the Lord each one of my sins.” Then you forgave me and took away my guilt. Psalm 32:5 (CEV) This “godly sorrow” acknowledges that our sin is ﬁrst and foremost against God. Godly sorrow is having a broken heart when we realize we have sinned against a holy God. It produces true repentance and a changed life. On the other hand, “worldly sorrow” only produces excuses. We say things like, “I didn’t know it was wrong,” “everybody’s doing it,” “he hit me ﬁrst,” or “it’s her fault." Godly sorrow means we know that what we did is wrong, so we would not do it again. That is why it causes lives to change. Worldly sorrow means we do not accept that what we did is wrong even if it is really wrong. But we will be more careful the next time we do it, so that we will not get caught. That is why it does not change our lives. It only results in spiritual death. “Live in a way that shows you have turned away from your sins.” Matthew 3:8 REPENTANCE & FORGIVENESS Then Jesus said, “A man had two sons. The younger son said to his father, ‘Give me my share of the property.’ So the father divided the property between his two sons. Then the younger son gathered up all that was his and left.” Luke 15:11 24 (ICB) “He traveled far away to another country. There he wasted his money in foolish living. He spent everything that he had. Soon after that, the land became very dry, and there was no rain. There was not enough food to eat anywhere in the country. The son was hungry and needed money. So he got a job with one of the citizens there.” “The man sent the son into the ﬁelds to feed pigs. The son was so hungry that he was willing to eat the food the pigs were eating. But no one gave him anything.” “The son realized that he had been very foolish. He thought, ‘All of my father’s servants have plenty of food. But I am here, almost dying with hunger. I will leave and return to my father. I’ll say to him: Father, I have sinned against God and against you. I am not good enough to be called your son. But let me be like one of your servants.’ So the son left and went to his father. While the son was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. He felt sorry for his son. So the father ran to him, and hugged and kissed him. The son said, ‘Father, I have sinned against God and against you. I am not good enough to be called your son.’” “But the father said to his servants, ‘Hurry! Bring the best clothes and put them on him. Also, put a ring on his ﬁnger and sandals on his feet. And get our fat calf and kill it. Then we can have a feast and celebrate! My son was dead, but now he is alive again! He was lost, but now he is found!’ So they began to celebrate.” The parable of the prodigal son is a beautiful picture of true repentance. The son claimed his inheritance while his father was still alive, but then spent everything. So he had to get a job feeding pigs. When the son realized his hopeless condition, he turned his back on his foolishness, walked away from his former life of sin and rebellion, and decided to return to his father. His father forgave him for what he did and welcomed him back. In the same way, our Heavenly Father is faithful to forgive us when we turn to Him and repent of our sins. “So turn to God! Give up your sins, and you will be forgiven.” Acts 3:19 (CEV) Some people think that God makes a list of everything that we do wrong. They think that God forgives our sin, but still keeps a record of them. But that is not what happens. When God forgives us, He also erases our record of sins. Imag- ine a sheet of paper full of all the wrong things we did suddenly becoming clean. Everything is erased. It looks as if we had never even sinned. But if we confess our sins, he will forgive our sins. We can trust God. He does what is right. He will make us clean from all the wrongs we have done. 1 John 1:9 (ICB) WHAT DOES GOD DO TO SIN? Here are some images the Bible paints to show us how God forgives us and what He does to our sin: God threw our sins to the bottom of the sea. He doesn’t want us to look at them again (Micah 7:19). God removed our sins away from us, as far as the east is from the west. Our sins can never come near us again (Psalm 103:12). We don’t have to carry our heavy sins. God already carried them on His back (Isaiah 38:17). God chooses to cover our sins so that He would not see them. He knows we sinned, but He is not making us pay for them (Romans 4:7,8). God chooses to erase our sins. He removes them from our record (Isaiah 43:25). God cancelled our sins by taking them to the cross (Colossians 2:14). God forgives our sins and makes us clean (1 John 1:9). NO REGRET Turning away from sin means we stop trusting in the good things we do and start trusting in Jesus alone. Before, we were going in the wrong direction. In Christ, we are now going in the right direction. Before, we were running away from God; now we are walking with Him. This is called repentance, and this is where a new life starts. It means living without regrets. Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret . . . 2 Corinthians 7:10 (NIV) Remember Repentance is turning away from sin and turning to God. PERSONAL APPLICATION Are there things you think, say, or do that don’t show obedience to God? Are there sins that you have turned away from, yet you still feel bad about?