November 22 - 27, 2010

Monday November 22, 2010
Identity Theft
Read Mark 4:15

We hear a lot today about identity theft. Identity theft occurs when someone uses your personally identifying information, like your name, Social Security number, or credit card number, without your permission, to commit fraud or other crimes. The FTC estimates that as many as 9 million Americans have their identities stolen each year. In fact, you or someone you know may have experienced some form of identity theft. The crime takes many forms. Identity thieves may rent an apartment, obtain a credit card, or establish a telephone account in your name. You may not find out about the theft until you review your credit report or a credit card statement and notice charges you didn’t make—or until you’re contacted by a debt collector. Identity theft is serious. While some identity theft victims can resolve their problems quickly, others spend hundreds of dollars and many days repairing damage to their good name and credit record. Some consumers victimized by identity theft may lose out on job opportunities, or be denied loans for education, housing or cars because of negative information on their credit reports. In rare cases, they may even be arrested for crimes they did not commit. We are asked to be careful and we are asked to by plans that will protect our identity. Why? Because our identity is who we are and it is all that we have.

We find that it is the same in Spirit, as soon as God plants His word in us of who He is and who we are in Him, that the devil comes to steal our identity. Without your identity you are unable to function in the world. Without you knowing your true identity you are lost. One of the ways that the devil steals from us is through tempting us. By tempting and trying to confuse us about our identity he would have us to think that it is God is trying to cause us to fall; but in James 1:14-15 he tells us who the real culprit is (I like Peterson’s translation), Don't let anyone under pressure to give in to evil say, "God is trying to trip me up." God is impervious to evil, and puts evil in no one's way. The temptation to give in to evil comes from us and only us. We have no one to blame but the leering, seducing flare-up of our own lust. Lust gets pregnant, and has a baby: sin! Sin grows up to adulthood, and becomes a real killer (The Message). The devil will make us question God and who and what He is, His Word and who we are in Him. That is why it is imperative that we learn to hear God and recognize His voice when He is calling or speaking to us. When we open ourselves up to relationship with the Father and pursue a relationship with Him that we actually have true protection against IDENTITY THEFT.


Tuesday November 23, 2010
Are You Really Who You Say You Are?
Read John 5:19, 30; 15:5

Eve Just like Jesus was tempted in the area of her identity. The devil’s strategy has never changed. He tempted Jesus with the same thing. The two greatest challenges the devil has ever had are recorded in Genesis 3 and Matthew 4. They involved the temptation of Adam and Eve and of Jesus, the sinless Son of God. In both cases, the rewards of success would be great for the devil, having far reaching consequences. Hence, Satan employed every possible means available in both cases. He appealed to the woman alone; he often seeks to isolate us. He persuaded Eve to sin through the lust of the flesh, eyes, and pride of life. The consequences of Eve's sin were great and gained a definite victory for Satan. The devil also approached Jesus by means of the same three avenues of temptation. However, in Jesus' case, the devil failed. As a result of the devil's failure, there are many advantageous spiritual consequences that potentially and in reality affect all men.

The thing is we must be like Jesus when the devil comes with his temptation, we must know who we are in Christ and we must know The Word. Jesus knew the Word, because He is the Word and when the devil tempted He spoke the Word. He let the devil know where his place was and He let the devil know Who He Was.


Wednesday November 24, 2010
Prove It!
Read Philippians 4:13

The devil says, who is God and did he really say you are the Son of God. The devil tempted Jesus to fulfill a desire by exercising His own personal authority and power independently of God. As we, when we become believers the devil attacks us in very much the same way, the tries to get us to things apart from God. He tells us that we do not need God that we can do things on our own. He is tempting us to be God.

Jesus our example responded in this way when the devil tempted Him; Jesus knew what God was saying to Him in the scriptures and what He has said to me. Jesus used the Word of God to defeat the devil not His own personal authority but they authority of what God has said and is saying. Jesus tells us that He did nothing apart from God and we cannot either.


Thursday November 25, 2010
A Question Of Our Identity
Read 1 John 2:15-17

Satan tried to get Jesus to question God about who He had told Him he was. Satan wants to take our identity. He will try to make us doubt God’s love for us, His Word and who God says we are. The nature of temptation is always the same. The enemy always uses our natural cravings to take our focus away from God and put our focus on ourselves. He always wants us to question our identity. Our Image.


Friday November 26, 2010
What Were You Thinking Eve?

Have you ever thought that Eve being tempted was how she envisioned herself? This all started over an identity “image” crisis. Eve looked at herself and took her focus off the image God gave her. Could Eve have seen herself as second to Adam in God’s eye or that she was somehow inferior because of the position that God had given her? Or did she start seeing herself as second best, different and inferior than Adam? Inferiority destroys us by giving us a false reality of who we really are and how others see us. The reality is that God does not make inferior stuff. Because of feelings of inferiority and low self worth, Eve looked for position and supremacy so she could boast of who she was and what she had. She wanted to feel better about herself and feel accepted. She wanted her own place, not just being a part of a relationship. This is the nature of temptation. Any time we want to separate ourselves from God and each other we get separated from our true identity. Our true identity is found in Christ and in the Body of Christ. Your identity can only be found in him and in those that are connected to Him. God made man in His image and placed him in a place He prepared for him to grow, serve and find significance.


The Weekender November 27, 2010
The Security Of Our Identity

Read Galatians 5:26; Philippians 2:1-4: Luke 14:10-11
Have you ever been insecure? At first I wanted to resist the idea that I was feeling insecure because I knew a lot about my identity in Christ. I knew that I was a child of God, a friend of God and He had placed an awesome responsibility on my life. With that kind of identity, how could I possibly feel insecure? But I did. The truth was, I had hit a humdrum point in my faith walk with God and it triggered insecurity. The longer I sat in front of my computer considering my identity in Christ, the more I began to wonder where my security in Christ fit in, and if there was a difference.
I looked up both words in the dictionary and had to face that my answer was staring back at me. Identity refers to “The condition of being the same as a person or thing described” while security refers to, “The state of being or feeling free from fear, anxiety or doubt.” Well the light bulb came on - that was it. While I understood my identity in Christ, I needed to understand my security in Christ in order to be free from fear and doubt and move to the next level in my faith walk with God. I said a quick prayer asking God to give me something that would help me grow in my security. No sooner had I finished the prayer then a thought popped into my head “Being secure is knowing in my heart and soul who God is, who Jesus is, who I am and being able to put this knowledge to work in His Kingdom and using it to set me free. This thought lead me to discover that I believed in false securities and I had never recognized these as lies from the devil which pulled me away from God.
You know that as we discover, through a deeper revelation of God’s character and unconditional love, that being secure in heart is our rightful position as believers. The key however, is being willing to engage in the battle necessary to maintain our security. Security in heart is our most precious gift from God. But this gift must be battled for and protected because the enemy wants to take it from us. Having a deeper revelation of who God is, and also understanding who we are in God, equips us for the battle. And when we apply the truth of God’s Word daily, we are truly able to fight, win and stand strong in our security.
In a world that often will work to undercut your sense of worth, claim your identity and your destiny from Jesus: you are God’s Beloved.