Remnant Warriors of The RefugeCommunity - Murrieta

09/12/2021

September 12 / Daily Devotional / Kenny Luck

Dysfunctional Spirituality
“He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8)

You may have fallen for the oldest trick in the book. You can’t fake it. Conviction without character is a C-A-T-A-S-T-R-0-P-H-E. Get this: no rearrangement of bad eggs can ever produce a good omelet. So start over! Work it from the inside out, beginning with your motives. Find good ones, and then you’ll get good results.

Satan’s goal is dysfunctional spirituality. He’s working overtime to create inauthentic, judgmental, insecure, and insulated Christians so in love with acting “Christian” that they don’t have a clue what it means to be one. They’re uncomfortable around people who aren’t Christians, they don’t know how to engage them, and they make “spiritual” excuses for not connecting with them: They’re bad influences, unrepentant, making bad choices. Should people who don’t know Christ already know how to act like Him? Religious attitude confuses people and kills our compassion.

Religious guys don’t understand the faith they claim. They are not neighbors. They are synthetic, shallow, and too afraid to reach out to people not like themselves. They are dysfunctional, appearing sane but acting goofy in the face of huge needs around them. In the end, it’s about them, their agendas, and their convenience while people lie dying by the side of the road. They have “rules of engagement” that say to the outsider “you can meet me on my terms when it’s convenient for me, but I refuse to get messy”.

Father, help me to be genuine. Help me look at my motives.

08/03/2021

08/03/2021

August 3 / Daily Devotional / Kenny Luck

Rationalization

It’s an interesting word, Google it.

Any time you’re coming up with good reasons to do evil things (especially religious-sounding ones), look over your shoulder. Rationalization is Satan’s most productive way of encouraging self–deception. This evil-inspired logic provides safe cover for Satan to hide himself in your thinking. With his encouragement, a little lawyer in your head will come out to strongly defend an attitude or action that is inconsistent with your faith, the Bible and Christ’s example. The voice offers intellectual, rational, logical, and persuasive justification for immoral behavior. And worse the little lawyer sounds like you. In fact, he is you, but he’s being encouraged by Satan with plenty of logical ammo. We don’t have to wonder why men become so smart and so dumb at the same time. We can all justify our wrong behavior and grow stupid enough to believe our own logic. Satan figures if we are dumb enough to hang ourselves by the noose of self-deception, the least he can do is provide the rope of rationalization.

A good example presented in the Bible is Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5). God’s people were doing some pretty radical things at the time like selling goods and homes and giving it to the church. “A&S” take this action to a lower level. They are pimped by Satan to sell some property but keep some of the profit and let on like they were giving it all to the Lord. Seemed logical and reasonable after all it was all their money. How cunning. It wasn’t the money, it was the deception.

Father, you have taught me. To your own self — be true.

08/03/2021

Good Morning Warriors...

07/29/2021

July 29 / Daily Devotional / Kenny Luck

A Thank You is in Order

Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. I Thessalonians 5:18

The Holy Spirit says to me, pause … and take your pick of some of your blessings. My sin has been forgiven. I have his Word and the Holy Spirit in my life for guidance. I have access to the peace that passes all human understanding, meaning everything is going to be OK. I have the promise of the Creator of the universe. I have the privilege to do the good works that he has prepared for me, not my works but His. His Spirit is present with me right now. He has given me specific gifts meant only for me to use, even when I am blind to them. That’s just the tip of the iceberg, for instance all the physical needs that he meets for me personally and through others.
For every blessing, a thank you is in order. What are the results of saying thank you many times on a daily basis? I begin to appreciate my life as it is. I stop comparing and feeling jealous over the life others lead. I start solving the mysteries related to my restlessness. I gain increasing levels of contentment. I am more willing to work with the difficult circumstances in my life, versus running or withdrawing. I feel more joy, peace, and satisfaction. I am freer in my worship; I’m more welcoming and patient. I’m more loving and kind. I’m much easier to approach and less judgmental. I am less confrontational. Not surprisingly, my relationships with God and people get a lot better.

Wow! For lack of a better word, AWESOME!

Father, as your Son Jesus has said, “I am the way the truth and the life”

07/26/2021

July 26 / Daily Devotional / Kenny Luck

Discontentment

Counsel and sound judgment are mine; I have insight, I have power. Proverbs 8:14

Negative emotions give Satan the tools he needs to control me. Wherever you find ingratitude, discontent, jealousy, envy, anger, resentment, coveting, constant complaining, and the relational fractures they bring, there’s no need to look far for a villain. Just say, “Hi, Satan.” He knows that if I am ungrateful in an area of my life, I will have a hard time believing God in that same area. So discontentment is just the opening Satan needs, because I will stay stuck, get frustrated, and be looking for solutions outside of God in that area. Once again it looks like there’s a boy in a man’s body on the warpath, causing all sorts of damage.

Israel received multiple blessings from God during the Exodus; and yet, as God blessed them, His people became more difficult to please, demanding, discontented, and ungrateful. Their example, the apostle Paul told the Corinthians, was given to us as an object lesson on how not to work with God. The key to winning this battle is same today as it was back then: reflect, remember, and say “thank you” continuously.

If you’re a dad you know what it feels like to have ungrateful kids. The miraculous became mundane and indifference replaced gratitude. The fear of the Lord and accountability to God were replaced by presumption and entitlement, which resulted in a causal attitude toward God’s commands.

Father, thank you for your thoughts that warn of discontentment