Fri/Sat/Sun—September 8–10•Your Way or His Way? For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. (Colossians 1:16 MSG) Johnny Cash grew up a poor, young country boy in Arkansas. He served in the military and when he returned home, he married and sold appliances for a living. He worked nights playing the guitar and eventually signed a record deal. When he hit stardom, he hit trouble. The more records he sold, the worse his personal life became. Johnny became a drug addict and once was arrested with over 1000 pills on his person. Along the way, he lost his wife, friends and business associates. On May 9, 1971, Johnny Cash sat in a small church in his hometown and listened to the preacher. At the end of the sermon, the preacher invited all to come forward and make things right with God. Johnny got out of his seat, went forward, took a deep breath and put his faith in Jesus Christ. In the midst of tremendous success and fame, he found a lot of pain and made a terrible mess of his life. He was rich and famous and miserable. He had tried to be independent. He had made extreme choices and he hit bottom. His salvation experience and new dependency on God made an outward, dramatic, visible change in his life. Our lives may not be as exciting or extreme. But we’ve all tried to be independent and make things happen our way. When life is not going our way, we work harder, earn more money, change jobs, divorce, remarry and make other changes in life. We hope those alterations will make a difference, but those changes don’t transform our hearts. As Johnny Cash found out, God is the only change that matters. Only He can transform our hearts and lives. MIMBS 8 Are you trying to live life your way or His way? Have you come to the same place that Johnny came to on that Sunday morning in church? How are you able to live that out every day? Daily Reading: Isaiah 1:1–7:25, 2 Corinthians 10:1–11:33, Psalm 52:1–55:23, Proverbs 22:26–23:3 FOR YOUR SMALL GROUP September 4–10 Read aloud the devotional titled, “Dependent or Independent” on page 46. ■ What is the main difference between the two? ■ What mixed messages do we get about dependence and independence? 48
20220MM
To see the actual publication please follow the link above