Due to my illness, I can't sing very well. A few weeks ago my daughter asked me to sing Amazing Grace with her at church so I did. This was not very comfortable, but I did it anyway and it felt great!

Hey guys, last week was a little crazy and therefore we didn't have a devo. I appreciate all the emails about it. As we enter this Holy Week my prayer is that not a day goes by that we don't think about what Jesus endured during this week. I want to share a message that's been heavy on my heart this last week. I was reading in the book of Matthew 8:28-34. I have these versed probably a hundred times or more over the years and I recently noticed something...at the end of verse 34, the people ask him to "leave their region..." Why?
The people ask Jesus to leave because He made them uncomfortable. They were happy with their lives the way they were. They went to work, came home at the end of the day, and probably talked about what was going on in the marketplace. As Christians, we don't like to be uncomfortable. We don't like people to stir things up in our lives. We don't like to see homeless people, we don't our services changed, we don't like things out of the ordinary. We like to be in control of what's going on. This week I want to challenge you to do something uncomfortable. Don't ask Jesus to leave your region, instead, invite someone to church, call that someone you haven't talk to in a while, maybe go back to a church and visit...Just a thought!

Tony

John 3:30 I must decrease, Christ must Increase...

So many times throughout my life I enjoy hearing people telling me how great I am. A few weeks ago I preached a message that I was pretty proud of delivering. After the service I had several people approach me to let me know how much they had enjoyed my message. After about the third person came up, I started thinking, "how dare me to think that was my message!" That was not at all my message, that was God's message. God gave me that message, God delivered that message, and God let the people receive that message! All I did was to be a mouthpiece. I don't know how many of you have ever seen a mouthpiece, but a mouthpiece is usually pretty gross and stinks!
Over the last few weeks God has really been dealing with me about who He is and who I am. I am nothing without Him. The verse today is very simple...He must increase in my life and I must decrease! My prayer this week is that I become smaller so that Christ can become bigger in my life! God Bless you all during "spring break"!

Body of Christ...

We are the body of Christ...1 Corinthians 12:12

Have you ever been walking around late at night in the dark and accidentally hit your toe or your "funny bone"? Not so funny after all, huh? Scripture tells us that we are all a part of the body of Christ. When one of us is "injured" or not pulling our weight, then we are causing the body to limp. Day after day I watch my wife in amazement at how she is able to do things with one arm. My wife is not missing an arm or injured, but she has a very attached little girl that refuses to let her do anything with two hands. My wife loves our daughter so much that in order to please her, she is constantly learning to do things with one arm.
Sometimes I feel that maybe that's what I do to the body of Christ. I cause the body of Christ to limp because I'm not where I'm supposed to be with Christ. Maybe I'm not doing what I'm supposed to be doing. Throughout this week, let's ask ourselves, "am I causing the body to limp?" It's not easy doing things when we get hurt and limp. Let's not cause the body to be limping this week!

Tony