The Overflow Devo by Lecrae (Day 4 of 8)

In the 1800's, a ragged-looking boy walked for miles through the snowy streets of Chicago, determined to attend a Bible class that was conducted by D.L. Moody. When he got there, he was asked, "Why did you come to a Sunday school so far away? Why didn't you go to one of the churches near your home?" He answered simply, "Because you love a fellow over here."

The Bible tells us in 1 John 4:8 that "God is love." It is not simply that God "loves," but that He is Love itself. Love is not merely one of His attributes but His very nature.

Many are ignorant as it pertains to God's love, and because of this, there is very little real love for God among Christians. Most of our hearts don't yearn for God because we don't understand His love for us. The more we understand his love for us, the more our hearts will be drawn out into love for God.

"I love Lucy." I love NY. NBA — "I love this game." TV — "I love money." Everyone uses it, but few understand what depth love has. So when it comes to the love of God or divine love, we just cut and paste their definitions on God.

For each of us, there is always an object of this affection of ours. But, whether we are saying, "I love pizza," or "I love my wife," with our love, there is always a reason or condition.

The first aspect of God's love we must understand is that it is unconditional or uninfluenced. This means that there is nothing about the objects of God's love that prompt Him or motivate Him to love them.

While we love people for reasons or conditions, God loves freely and spontaneously without conditions. He doesn't love us because we are cute or have money, or because we lived perfectly or did something right or pray everyday. He loves us because it's His will to do so.

Deuteronomy 7:7-8 states, "It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you..."

His love is sovereign. Because God is God, He does as He pleases; because God is love, He loves whom He pleases. God declares, "Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated (Romans 9:19)." Yet there was no more reason in Jacob why he should be the object of divine love, than there was in Esau. We try to earn respect from people, and we fight for peoples' love. We spend our lives trying to win over people —NOT GOD. There was nothing in me to attract the heart of God. My heart was deceitful and desperately wicked.

The only thing I motivated God to do was to hate me and throw me into the darkest pit of Hell. I did everything to repel him, everything to make him despise me — sinful, corrupt, no good thing in me."

Love was the reason that brought Christ to Earth!

"For God so loved the world he gave his only begotten son...(John 3:16)."

Christ died not to make God love us but because he did love us!

If you ever doubt the love of God, you go back to the cross. You think God isn't loving toward you? Go back and look at the person of Christ.

Satellites & Sirens "Anchor"

Satellites & Sirens is a synth and guitar driven Christian rock band from Nashville, Tennessee. Members include Geoff Hunker, lead singer and founder of the band, as well as Jonathan Dimmel (drums), David Troyer (guitar), and David Willey (bass/synth). Formed in 2006 on Craigslist, the band is still in its infancy but gaining attention from big names such as MTV who featured the band as its “Needle in the Haystack” spotlight artist for the week of Monday, June 21.^[1] Furthermore, the single Anchor climbed several charts including the Weekend 22, which airs on stations nationwide.^[2] Their self-titled album debuted March 2010 with Word Records.

The Overflow Devo by Lecrae (Day 3 of 8)

I was once a slave to sin. I couldn't help but answer every beck and call. Porn, pre-marital sex, drugs and theft mastered me. Romans 6:20 says that "when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness" (ESV). What that means is that it was easy to avoid righteousness and obedience to God. I was free from the conviction of my evil crimes. I could live reckless and ruin my life and feel no godly remorse at all. It's a sad place. Romans 6 speaks about people who, like myself, were likely slaves to gross sin.

Paul goes on in verse 21 to basically ask these people, "What was the benefit of all your sin of which you were now ashamed?" Imagine the internal and external wounds acquired from living apart from God. Some may have been ashamed of all their fighting, lying and cheating. Others may have had battle scars, diseases and emotional damage from their sin. None of us receive any godly or good reward from our sin. We never achieve satisfaction by sinning, and a life marked by sin ends in eternal suffering away from God.

Verse 22, however, gives us the good news that we can and have been set free from the bondage of sin. We are no longer slaves to sin. Imagine you leave one job for another, and your former boss demands that you come in to work today. Of course you'd decline because you no longer work there! You have a new job. Similarly, we are no longer slaves to sin but slaves to righteousness. When sin demands we come in for work, we now have the right and power to say, "NO!"

Our new life in Christ has earthly benefits such as peace, joy and growth in godliness. More importantly, it all culminates in eternal life with God in Heaven. Thank God He's called us to "turn up" through turning to Him. Our sin leads to death, but God graciously frees us and offers us life.

Read Romans 6 to study more about this devotional.

Welcome to the new age of Cumberlands Football!

This is a promotional video for the upcoming season of University of the Cumberlands football. Cumberlands is a local liberal arts college affiliated with the Kentucky Baptist Convention. This video should give you chills if you're a fan of the team, or football in general. Check it!

Don't be a cheapskate with the Lord

 Those who know me best know I always try to save money any way I can.

While I’m out at the grocery store, I carefully go over each item on my shopping list to make sure I find the lowest price. I rarely buy a name-brand product, and I’ll even check the price per ounce to make sure I’m getting the most food for my money.

One time when my mother was visiting, she noticed I was using the fold-top sandwich bags instead of the kind with the zipper. She then declared jokingly, “Wow, Brad, you really are cheap.”

And if I’m making a larger purchase — like a TV or household appliance — I will compare prices at every single store, and then check websites like Overstock or Amazon to make sure I’m not missing out on a slick deal.

At home, I always monitor the thermostat closely to help minimize the power bill each month. I wear long sleeves, long pants and house shoes pretty much at all times during the winter so I can keep the temperature below 70 inside as much as possible.

On most days, my wife, Carmen, works during daytime hours and then I head to my job here at the office in the evenings before she gets home. So I’ve received text messages from her when she gets home that simply say, “Brrrrrr.” Because if no one is home at all, you can bet your bottom dollar I leave the heat turned way down.

Oh, and I will absolutely choose the gas station that is selling gas for a penny cheaper even if I have to wait a little while longer.

So while some of you may call me “cheap,” I just like to call it being frugal.

However, with one particular aspect of my finances there is something I, myself, would call cheap. That’s my history of not giving back monetarily to the Lord.

A lot of folks go out and buy boats or take extravagant vacations instead of giving to the church. I don’t have that kind of money to make those decisions. But I have in the past put every single one of my bills and other payments above giving my tithes.

I’ve always told myself, “I need to take care of my needs first and then if I have anything left over, I’ll give the church some of it.”

More often than not, this has led to me giving little or nothing at all when the offering plate gets passed around.

But a while back in Sunday school, we were discussing tithing and it really convicted me. Others in class were talking about how they immediately go ahead and write a check as soon as they get paid every other week.

And then it hit me that we are not here to just be comfortable and enjoy our nice, cozy houses with our nice, cozy recliners and big screen TVs. We are here to do the Lord’s work and give to the Lord’s ministry first and foremost.

I realize that we are going to have financial burdens. My car has had more work done on it than I care to mention. And several trips to the imaging center for MRI’s have left me with a huge amount of doctor bills.

So it is very easy to tell yourself that you need to take care of all these things first. I understand that. I’ve been there.

But if you make giving back to the Lord your top priority, he will take care of everything else for you one way or another.

Proverbs 3:9-10 says, “Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.”

So I will absolutely continue to save money any way I can at the grocery store or on my power bill, but I will no longer be a cheapskate when it comes to giving and trusting the Lord.

The Overflow Devo by Lecrae (Day 2 of 8)

When I was in school, my values were twisted. The only solution people offered me was a firm talk about changing my behavior. They told me my behavior would get me killed or in jail. They told me to stop doing what I was doing. They wanted me to modify my behavior. That was a pointless effort though, because my behavior was informed by my values. What I needed was new values. My behavior wouldn't change unless my values changed, and my values wouldn't change unless I was somehow transformed into a new person.

I desperately needed what's called a worldview transformation.

See, worldviews are subtle and deep-seated, and they are usually taken for granted, since we can't see, hear or touch them. Worldviews are our culturally structured assumptions, values, commitments and allegiances that create our perception of reality. Basically, they explain how and why you view the world the way you do, and then govern how you respond to the world.

My worldview was not my behavior, but my behavior was conditioned by my worldview. The only way I could see things different is if God opened my spiritual eyes to a Biblical worldview. Anyone can read the Bible, but it takes the supernatural power of God to give someone a transformative understanding of it.

In writing to the Ephesian churches, Paul prays this: "...that...God...may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints..." (1:17-18 ESV). Paul is praying that the Ephesian churches would be illuminated to the truth — truth which only the Holy Spirit can reveal to them. In order to hear from God through His word, we must be made alive; we must be born again.

Second Corinthians 5:17 reads, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." The Holy Spirit of God not only rebirths us, but continues to transform us and our worldview to His own.

Ephesians 1:17-18 "That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.

2 Corinthians 5 "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."

The Fab Four