THINK VICTORY! JJ DID TIE BUCKLE

JJ DID TIE BUCKLE

"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

Good morning, brothers. For the next five days, my good friend and co-worker, Pastor Mike Woods will be sharing our devotional thoughts to kick-start your day in THINKING VICTORY. Pastor Mike is a graduate of the Colony of Mercy and is Director of Addiction Recovery Ministries for Men at America's KESWICK.

I recently spent 3 days canoeing 28 miles and camping along the banks of the Delaware River with men from my church. It was a retreat unlike any other. We looked at the character qualities of leadership and what it would take for us to be the men of God that we are called to be. One thing that impressed me while out there was the way all of us looked out for one another. We helped each other with setting up camp, breaking it down, loading the canoes, making sure the dads with their young sons (we had 3 boys under 10 yrs. old with us) were able to make it down the river.

In preparing for the trip, each canoe had three colored cards. Red was that there was a problem with one of the canoes and that we needed to stop and help the canoe in trouble. Yellow was to indicate a "Rally Point." A rally point is a place on the bank of the river that if any canoe lagged behind and lost the rest of the group, they were to wait at the rally point for the other canoes to find them. Green meant that there were no problems and that the group was together. The next series of Freedom Fighters will focus on the character qualities of leadership that that were explored over those Three days as well as the Spiritual applications of the three cards.

To aid in remembering the qualities of leadership that men of God must build into their lives, Our lead Pastor Bob Nash shared an acrostic that covers each aspect - JJ DID TIE BUCKLE. Bob learned this from his days serving in the US Marine Corps. The first letter J stands for Justice.

Justice implies that which is right or righteous. The Random House Unabridged Dictionary defines Justice as the quality of being just; righteousness, equitableness, or moral rightness. If you think about it, Jesus called those who hungered and thirsted for righteousness blessed (Matt 5:6). Those who practice justice do what's right because it's the right thing to do - and this is what is pleasing to God. There is not even a hint of favoritism because he deals equitably with everyone he comes in contact with. Micah 6:8 reminds us that "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." One of the men I had the privilege of serving with was John Caruthers. This was his life verse. He would preach with passion to us to "Be Right."
"Be Reasonable." "Be Real." John had an uncanny way of getting your attention in his teaching. He is currently walking the streets of Gold at home with our Savior. John modeled this quality of Justice while he served at the Colony.

Well, how about you? Are you hungering and thirsting for righteousness? Do you act justly? Perhaps there may be someone who has impacted your life with this quality. If you were to attribute this quality to someone (whether it be a bible character, friend, co-worker, etc) who would it be? Ask God to build this quality into your life with increasing measure.

Great Quote: The soul that waits upon the Lord is the soul that is entirely surrendered to Him, and that trusts Him perfectly. Therefore we might name our wings the wings of Surrender and of Trust. If we will only surrender ourselves utterly to the Lord, and will trust Him perfectly, we shall find our souls "mounting up with wings as eagles" to the "heavenly places" in Christ Jesus, where earthly annoyances or sorrows have no power to disturb us.-- Hannah Whitall Smith