HABITS
Tuesday
1.18.22
"No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it." - 1 Corinthians 10:13 NRSV
Good Day Sisters and Brothers. I thank you for allowing me to go through my "reset" last week. I needed it and I hope it helped as you go through yours.
This week we are dealing with "habits". Things we do that become our routine, some good some bad.
The people of Corinth were "okay". Meaning that for a group living in occupied territory, they had some means. Y,es the Romans were there, but they were a port city, they had commerce, they had developments, they were about as "okay" as a group could be considering their circumstances.
In their commercial success, they became comfortable, self-indulgent, and began to center their lives on their lives around self-satisfaction.
The people began to develop "habits", " habits" that began to distance them from the teachings and the worship of Jesus, while giving power to their "habits".
Paul, writes to them then and reminds us today that worldly "habits" can be defeated. That our "habits" do not have a hold over us. That Jesus gives us the power to recognize our "habits", and defeat them.
These "habits" are tests. Tests that seduce us with self-indulgence or tests that trick us with self-doubt.
Sisters and Brothers, as we continue through this year, let us take an honest assessment of our selves... What "habits" do we have?
Are they helpful or harmful?
Any thing, any person who attempts to separate us from the love of Jesus is a bad "habit".
Let us strengthen our habit of relying on Jesus, praying and praising Jesus, the habit of believing Jesus no matter how unbelievable things feel or look.
Let's make Jesus the "habit" we never break.
Be Blessed, Beloved.
- Rev. Damon
© 2022 Faith First Project
Wednesday
1.19.22
"And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." - Colossians 3:17 NRSV
A habit is a choice. A habit is a conscious decision to say or do something. A habit develops can development into a pattern which then can develop into a way of life.
As believers in Jesus Christ, I ask, what are our Holy Habits?
Not just prayer. Not just listening and singing songs of praise.
As today's scripture says, "everything".
As we go through today, take account. Do we do and say everything in the name of Jesus? Everything?
Do we fall in the habit of doing what is easy, acceptable, peer approved, or to elevate ourselves?
Sisters and Brothers, imagine a block, a neighborhood, a city, a country, a world where all those who believe did and say everything in the name of Jesus...
How can there be discrimination in the name of Jesus? How can there be hunger and homelessness in the name of Jesus? How can there be police misconduct in the name of Jesus?
How could there be silence and inaction in the name of Jesus?
Our Lord Jesus Christ requires us to have Holy Habits. Not just in the church, but more importantly, outside the church.
Remember, we are to do EVERYTHING in the name of Jesus.
Be Blessed, Beloved.
- Rev. Damon
© 2022 Faith First Project
Thursday
1.20.22
"But there are also many other things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written." - John 21:25 NRSV
1Jesus turns water into wine at the wedding
2 Jesus heals an official's son
3 Jesus drives out an evil spirit from a man
4 Jesus heals Peter's mother-in-law
5 Jesus heals many sick and oppressed at evening
6 First miraculous catch of fish
7 Jesus cleanses a man with leprosy
8 Jesus heals a centurion's paralyzed servant
9 Jesus heals a paralytic who was let down from the roof
10 Jesus heals a man's withered hand on the Sabbath
11 Jesus raises a widow's son from the dead
12 Jesus calms a storm on the sea
13 Jesus casts demons into a herd of pigs
14 Jesus heals a woman in the crowd with an issue of blood 9
15 Jesus raises Jairus' daughter back to life
16 Jesus heals two blind men
17 Jesus heals a man who was unable to speak
18 Jesus heals an invalid at Bethesda
19 Jesus feeds 5,000 plus women and children
20 Jesus walks on water
21 Jesus heals many sick in Gennesaret as they touch his garment
22 Jesus heals a gentile woman's demon-possessed daughter
23 Jesus heals a deaf and dumb man
24 Jesus feeds 4,000 plus women and children
25 Jesus heals a blind man
26 Jesus heals a man born blind by spitting in his eyes
27 Jesus heals a boy with an unclean spirit
28 Miraculous temple tax in a fish's mouth
29 Jesus heals a blind, mute demoniac
30 Jesus heals a woman who had been crippled for 18 years
31 Jesus heals a man with dropsy on the sabbath
32 Jesus cleanses ten lepers
33 Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead
34 Jesus restores sight to Bartimaeus in Jericho
35 Jesus withers the fig tree
36 Jesus heals a servant's severed ear while he is being arrested
37The second miraculous catch of fish at the Sea of Tiberias
What are the habits of Jesus in your life?
- Rev. Damon
© 2022 Faith First Project
Friday
1.21.22
"They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption; for people are slaves to whatever masters them." - 2 Peter 2:19 NRSV
I almost didn't send a message this morning. I couldn't.
The Women of the Movement episode last night, I felt Emmit Till. I felt Mamie Till. And to hear details of how he was murdered...
On the day when Sen. McConnell acknowledged that African Americans are not "Americans" to himself and his colleagues.
When I could go to sleep, I went to bed angry. I woke up enraged.
But there is a word. Please read 2 Peter 2:19-22. Read it with a temper.
"Slaves to whatever masters them."
Their habit was and is hate. Their habit was and is to sustain inequality. Their habit was and is to maintain a social order with fear, intimidation, and violence. Their habit was and is to be evil. They commit themselves to these habits so much they become slaves to it, that it becomes their master.
But...
But there is good news for us. Verse 22 tells us that they get what they sow. The scripture says that what habits they have, the master they serve will not serve them well.
Sisters and Brothers, I say this to you. Let us make sure that our habits are always righteous. Let us make sure our habits are based in our praise of Jesus Christ.
Let us do our best to rid ourselves of habits of vengeance, rage and anger. Jesus does not want that for us, either.
Our God is a jealous God. Let us make sure that God is our Master. Jesus is our truth, no matter what the world says or does to us.
Let our habits change this world. In the name of Jesus.
- Rev. Damon
© 2022 Faith First Project