Talking With God In Prayer (Day 3 of 4)

RECEIVING FORGIVENESS

1 John 1:9 — "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

Talking to God:
Silently confess the things you have done that are hurtful to others. Ask God for forgiveness. Then thank Him for forgiving you.

Diving In:
At your next family meal, have everyone wear earplugs or earphones but talk as usual, without trying to help each other hear what you are saying. Also wear them as you clear the table as a family.

Going Deeper:
When you don't come to God to be forgiven, it is as if you refuse to listen to Him. By not hearing God, you separate yourself from Him, just as you did when you suddenly could not hear your family well. Read Psalm 32:5, "I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, 'I will confess my transgressions to the Lord' — and you forgave the guilt of my sin." When you ask for forgiveness, God forgives you. It is as if He removes the earplugs from your ears, and you can hear Him again.

Talking to Each Other:
—Have you ever kept something you did wrong a secret? If so, how did trying to hide this secret make you feel?
—What might keep you from going to God and confessing a sin?
—How do you feel when someone forgives you for something you've done wrong?

Bengals Tecmo Super Bowl Season — Week 7

Coming off a nice win last week in Buffalo, the Bengals were again on the road for Week 7 Tecmo Super Bowl action. This time, they were trying to tame those pesky Lions in the Motor City of Detroit.

Before the game, the Bengals once again welcomed back Brandon Tate who suffered an injury a few weeks back while returning a kickoff.

Detroit quickly got things started on offense with a flea flicker play that found Nate Burleson deep. This got the Lions in deep Bengal territory with a fresh set of downs.

But as the Bengals D has proven all season long, it is tough to score against them in the red zone. A Geno Atkins sack of Matthew Stafford on third down forced the Lions to settle for a David Akers field goal.

Unfortunately for Cincinnati, the Detroit defense came out ready to play. An Ashlee Palmer sack put Andy Dalton in a third and very long situation.

This would force the Bengals QB into making an ill-advised throw on the next play that resulted in an interception.

With the decent field position, Stafford quickly found Burleson deep again. But this time, he took it all the way to the house for a touchdown. So the Bengals would find themselves in a hole early, down 10-0.

Just when the Bengals thought things couldn't get much worse, disaster struck on the next Bengals possession. On second down, Dalton was unable to find anyone open so he tucked the ball and tried to will his way to a first down. But the dangerous Detroit defense made him pay, leaving the quarterback injured and unable to get off the field on his own.

Backup quarterback Josh Johnson would get the call. And what a position he would get thrown into as his team was already down by two scores on the road.

His first official passing play as a Bengal would be incomplete, forcing Cincinnati to punt the ball away, still down 10-0 in the second quarter.

Vontaze Burfict, however, continued his breakout season with a sack, leaving the Lions with a third and long situation.

But this time Stafford would find Calvin Johnson deep for the first down, keeping their drive alive.

Again, the Lions would find themselves in a third and long situation, but not only did a pass to Burleson get them a first down, he again took it all the way for the score. This gave Detroit a comfortable 17-0 lead late in the first half.

Keeping the momentum going, Ndamukong Suh squashed Josh Johnson on the next Bengal drive for a sack.

But Johnson quickly shook off the first-game jitters and found a wide open Jermaine Gresham for the first down. 

Johnson would connect again with Gresham, this time in the back of the end zone for the touchdown, and Johnson's first official score as a Cincinnati Bengal.

Heading into halftime, the Bengals trimmed that 17-point deficit to 10, giving them huge momentum heading into the locker room.

Once the Detroit Lions heard about the Bengal Marching Band's performance of "Blurred Lines" several weeks back, the Lion Marching Band came back with a medley of their own. They excited the crowd with a trio of Miley Cyrus hits, including "Party in the USA," "We Can't Stop" and her latest single, "Wrecking Ball." It will be interesting to see if Cincinnati tries to top that in the coming weeks.

Continuing what they started at the end of the first half, it didn't take long for the Bengal offense to shred up the Detroit defense. A 70-yard drive was capped off by a touchdown run from BenJarvus Green-Ellis, cutting the deficit to just three points.

The Bengals defense was clicking too as they immediately recovered a Matthew Stafford fumble, putting Josh Johnson and the offense inside the red zone.

Johnson then found Orson Charles in the end zone for the score, giving the Bengals their first lead of the game at 21-17.

Just when Mike Zimmer thought he had the Lions figured out, Reggie Bush broke free for a 51-yard touchdown run, shifting the lead back to the Lions, 24-21.

It was more bad news for the Bengals, as Brandon Tate yet again got injured on a kickoff. This spurred chatter among Bengal fans wondering if Special Teams Coordinator Darrin Simmons brought Tate back into action too soon.

But the Bengals would go on to get the ball to about midfield before another Suh sack left the Bengals at 4th and 20 in Lions territory.

Cincinnati elected to go for it, and it was none other than "The Law Firm" yet again bailing out the Bengals, as he took a short pass and muscled his way to the first down.

This would set up a short touchdown toss to newcomer Tyler Eifert who got in the red zone for the first time this Tecmo Super Bowl Season. And more importantly, he gave his team a 28-24 lead over the Lions in the fourth quarter.

From that point on, the Detroit Lions just collapsed. A fumble on the ensuing kickoff led to a safety, giving the Bengals a 30-24 lead.

The Bengals would take the opportunity to run the clock down some with a few plays for Green-Ellis. With just 1:12 left in the game, Mike Nugent drilled a 40-yard field goal, giving Cincinnati a 33-24 lead.

 

And how do you follow up a game-changing safety play? With another safety. This time, Domato Peko planted Stafford on the ground for the two points.

This would seal the game for Cincinnati as Detroit was now all out of timeouts. The Bengals managed to escape a wild one on the road with a 35-24 victory.

Josh Johnson filled in for the injured Dalton nicely, completing 63 percent of his passes for 172 yards, three touchdowns, and zero interceptions. He also got a lot of help from BenJarvus Green-Ellis who had 80 yards on the ground to go along with 55 yards receiving. The extent of Andy Dalton's injury was unknown at the end of the game. We hope to have more information next week.

With the win, the Bengals move to 6-1 and find themselves with a two-game lead in the division as Cleveland fell on the road against the Packers.

Cincinnati will try to keep their momentum going next week as they welcome the New York Jets to Paul Brown Stadium.

Talking With God In Prayer (Day 2 of 4)

PRAISING GOD IN PRAYER

Psalms 145:3 — "Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable."

Talking To God:
Praise God for making you and everything you have, including food, a home and people who love you.

Diving In:
Think about the things you're grateful for. Make a list of 10 of them. Tell someone why you're grateful for each, and praise God for all that He has given you.

Going Deeper:
Through the use of short blessing prayers that relate to everyday life, people learn to praise God and express thanksgiving. The moment you open your eyes in the morning, you might pray, "Thank You, God, for my eyes. Thank You for sight." While getting dressed, you could pray, "Thank You, God, for meeting my needs — giving me clothes to wear, such as these," and at the first sight of the sun, you may declare, "God, You are so great! Thank You for your creation." Psalm 145:1-2 is a great example of how to praise God: "I will exalt you, my God the King; I will praise your name for ever and ever. Every day I will praise you and extol your name for ever and ever." Praise God today and every day!

Talking To Each Other:
—How did writing down a list of things you're grateful for change your attitude?
—If you praised God for everything He has given you, how long would it take?
—How might praising God change you?

We should not make God our Plan D

The property my wife, Carmen, and I own was developed just a couple of years ago. If you had been standing at the site of our home a few summers ago, you would be standing in a small forest of trees.

Most of the trees have been cleared out with the exception of some that circle around the property. But there are still some large tree roots buried in the ground. There are also several rough spots where the lawn needs to be smoothed over.

Someday we hope to have all the roots removed and all the rough spots smoothed over, but in the meantime, there is still plenty of grass that needs mowing.

With all the obstacles I have mentioned, driving a riding lawnmower has certainly been an adventure on our property. It has particularly been an adventure for me because I’ve never really had a lawn our size to mow.

So from the very start, I had to learn the basics of operating a riding lawnmower before I did anything. I also had to learn the proper settings to maneuver around the rough terrain of our yard.

I thought after going through my first summer last year that I had mastered the art of battling our lawn. But about three weeks ago, I realized I still had plenty to learn.

I was riding along the slope of our yard where it meets the road. As I was driving through a gap, I must have jarred something loose in the steering.

From that point on, the lawnmower became very difficult to steer. I did manage to get most of the lawn mowed before the steering became impossible to use. As I was finishing up, I really could not turn left or right. So it was everything I could do just to get the mower back in my garage.

Knowing that I am not a mechanic of any kind, I had a real problem that I needed to solve.

My first plan was to just use my push mower. But then I remembered it needed repair work, too, as the gas tank had fallen off last year.

My next plan was to go on Facebook and ask everyone if they could refer me to a good lawnmower repairman. The only response I got was my friend Jonathan telling me to go buy a goat.

My third plan was to search through the Yellow Pages for a local business. I called a couple of different places, but the first one said it would cost $60 just to have someone look at it before they even did any work. The other place said they were backed up for four weeks with repairs.

So after Plans A, B and C failed me, I turned to the old faithful plan of asking my family and in-laws for help.

Luckily, our family friend, Donnie, came to the rescue and discovered the problem. Thanks to his help, we are now in the process of getting the mower repaired. Hopefully I will be back out there mowing the obstacle course I call “my yard” in no time.

But during this process of getting my lawnmower repaired, I tried every which way to solve the problem on my own before I turned to my family, which is what I probably should have done from the start.

This is a lot like the way we try to solve all the big problems we come across in life. We feel we can tackle all of life’s obstacles on our own. Then when everything we try ends up failing us, we finally turn to God and ask him for help.

In reality, we should be turning to God first and asking Him from the start how we should solve our problems. He should not be our Plan B or C or D.

In Psalms 32:8, the Lord tells us “I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye.”

And Proverbs 3:5-6 reminds us to “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”

I believe this applies to all of the situations we may find ourselves in. We should seek God first when we’re dealing with important things like family issues or work issues. We should also seek His guidance first for the smaller things — like how to deal with a messed up lawnmower.

But whatever situation we find ourselves in, our Plan A should be asking the Lord to direct our paths. Then we won’t even need a Plan B or C or D.

Talking With God in Prayer (Day 1 of 4)

GOD LONGS FOR YOU

Matthew 28:20 — "Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen."

Talking to God:
Thank God for all the ways He loves and cares for you. Ask Him to show you how much He wants you to talk with Him daily.

Diving In: 
Line up a number of small glasses next to the kitchen sink. One by one, fill the glasses. Discuss how you could fill every container in your house and water would still flow out of the faucet. In a similar way, God's longing for you won't end.

Going Deeper:
God is available to you at all times. Just as you can fill another glass with water simply by turning on the faucet, so you can enjoy God's presence by going to Him in prayer. Read Isaiah 30:18 - "The Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!" God wants you to grow closer to Him, to be filled with His love and peace, because He longs for what is best for you. Although God works on your behalf, He wants you to respond to Him, showing a willingness to share your life with Him. One way you can do that is by talking to Him daily.

Talking to Each Other: 
—Who is your favorite person to talk to, and what makes the person your favorite?
—Tell about a time when you really wanted to talk to this person. Why did you long to talk to this person?
—Why might God long to be gracious to you?

Gossip (Day 7 of 7)

Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. (Ephesians 4:29 KJV)

Gossip (Day 6 of &=7)

Proverbs 12:18 "There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword: but the tongue of the wise is health."

Loose lips sink ships.

Hung by the tongue.

Open mouth; insert foot.

There are so many phrases that describe the dangers of not having control of your mouth and the things you say. Gossip is no exception.

Gossip is one of those things that is so easy to justify especially if we have been hurt.

Here are two basic principles for gossip: Those that gossip to you will also gossip about you. And, if you are not a part of the solution, you shouldn't be talking.

Is God really that concerned about gossip? Does He really care about what we say? Take a look at God's Word to learn how to use your words!