As a follow up to the devotional out of Luke 14 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfUEftR9gzE&t) - this brief devotional is focused on the day-to-day cost of discipleship for the believer.

"So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple." - Luke 14:33 Jesus is not afraid of us counting the cost of following Him; He doesn't hide it, or try to sell us on it. Following Jesus will require something of us, but in light of the cross... it's an easy decision.

A lot happens in the pit when God is involved. A LOT. If you've been in a pit - and most if not all of us have - you know this from experience. That pit could be depression, anxiety, fear, addiction, childhood trauma, unending financial stress. Anything that engulfs your whole person. What DOESN'T happen in the pit is God requiring us to dismiss or deny the reality of our circumstances and our feelings to prove that we truly love and/or have genuine faith in Him. And yet, that seems to be a massive misconception being perpetuated these days. So let's talk about it. In fact, we need to talk about it because that misconception has the power to prevent us from living in real relationship with God due to how poorly it represents the reality of His heart for us. The Bible shows us something very different than what that idea suggests.

Welcome to DeckDevotionals' first Small Group #StudySeries! In this video we're covering the identity statement of: I am a Child of God, He is the Father In the last video we talked about how we are intimately known by our Creator. This video follows that up in a really beautiful as it dives into how this relationship with the Father shows me that, not only am I intimately known, I am deeply loved. ----------------------------------------------------- A little bit about the study as a whole... The Lord recently spoke this to my heart... Everything I believe about myself indicates something I believe about Him. It’s an unavoidable truth, good or bad. My heart for this study is to dive into who I am in relation to who He is, what that tells me about His character, and how that has the power to impact how I live. The identity statements I'm covering in this study are: - I am redeemed, He is my redeemer (Hosea 3) - I am fearfully and wonderfully made, He is the Creator (Psalm 139) - I am a child of God, He is the Father (1 John 3 | Ephesians 1) - I am the bride of Christ, He is the groom (Matthew 25 | Revelation 19) - I am the sheep, He is the good Shepherd (John 10) - I am the branches, He is the vine (John 15) This study will NOT be shared daily on the Facebook page. I am doing this one in small group format via text, email or Facebook Messenger and videos that will be posted online at: https://www.deckdevotionals.com/identity.

I'm teaching Geometry at Grace Christian Academy this year (how that came to be is a long, cool story for another time) and today we started with conditional statements. In Geometry, this will end up sounding something like "If angle A in a right triangle is 45 degrees, then angle B is 45 degrees." But outside the classroom... conditional statements sound more like, "If I had more money, then I would be generous." "If my kids would listen better, then I wouldn't be so angry all the time." "He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much." Luke 16:10 Our character doesn't get to have conditions. Who we are isn't dependent upon our circumstances, our emotions, other people and their character, what we have and don't have... it's revealed by and within those things.

The past two months have consisted of me starting to unlearn some lies I didn't even realize I believed abut key things in my walk...like surrender. The picture the Bible paints of true surrender is different than the picture that had been painted in my head. Here's what I've learned, and the example Jesus set... You can read the full blog post at deckdevotionals.com/deckdevos.

When this quarantine started, I expected my devotional life to flourish... but that's not how it went at all. My devotional life struggled in a way I did not expect. While I feel like I wasted useful time, nothing is wasted with the Lord. Can you relate? Let me tell you how God used this time and John 15 to show me the reason for the rough patch, and how the only accountability we ever need in our devotional life is a heart that's desperate for Jesus.

Just a couple quick thoughts about Philippians 4:13, a verse we all know very well. This challenged my heart in a way that encouraged me in my walk with the Lord, and I pray it does the same for you.