Wow! You all have been faithful for seven months now. With only five months left of 2020, if you have been following the reading plans, it’s smooth sailing from here on out. And we’ll cover that in our August preview after today’s Daily Devotion. The great one, Mr. Chris Tomlin, released a fun album collaborating with some of country music’s biggest names. Here’s one his new tracks below.
uly 31
2Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. 3And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. 4Pray that I may proclaim it clearly as I should. 5Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. 6Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. (Colossians 4:2-6)
Mrs. Z had read these verses earlier this month and asked me what I thought it meant to season your conversation with salt. We had a decent conversation about what it meant, and I thought rationally for once in my life. I began with the reference, considering the time period Paul wrote this letter. Salt was used for two things: preserving meat and the main source of flavor for any food. But looking at the entire verse: let your conversation always be full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. If you are going to know how to answer everyone, then I think the salt reference has to do with flavor. Keep your conversation full of grace, but give it some flavor. Mix it up, have fun, reach more people, reach all people. Keep your words, actions, deeds full of grace, but have fun. No one likes unseasoned, bland food. If you are going to be salty, be the kind that adds flavor to the world.
Reading plan: Reflect on all we have read this month.
Deeper reading plan: Isaiah 65, 66
Prayer and meditation: Pray for our country. Pray for love to conquer all. Pray that Christ infects our hearts and ignites a final fire of revival to sweep this land.
Fitness challenge: Free for all Friday-4 exercises at descending intervals (you’ll need a watch for this). We’ve done upper body, lower body, and abs. Today, we’ll do total body. For each exercise you will do six sets, each set is one minute. First set is a minute of straight work (do as many as you can), second set starts with 10 seconds rest, followed by 50 seconds of work. Next set is 20 second rest, 40 seconds of work. (Each set is 1-minute with your rest sets growing by 10 seconds until your last set is 50 seconds of rest and 10 seconds of pounding out reps).
- Hand-release push-up
- Tuck Squats
- Supine Bicycle
- Burpees
AUGUST
Reading Plan: The main reading plan for the New Testament gets easier and easier. I pray that you utilize the extra free time to devote to continuing to be the hands and feet of Jesus.
Deeper Reading Plan: Just like the NT reading plan, the OT is much easier to read this month. We’re only going to cover two books: Jeremiah and Lamentations. It’s August, it’s hot. Spend some time in the A/C growing closer to God.
Prayer and Meditation: we will continue to focus our prayers on the recovery of this country and the world from COVID and for healing for this hurt world over recent events. And we will continue to plead for a final revival that will change this world forever.
Fitness: It’s hot where I live so we are going to back the distance down on our long runs and sprints. Just keep working on improving your speed. This will be the last month we follow the classic calisthenic workouts.
Service and Church: Keep looking for ways to serve one day a week and hopefully we see churches reopen this month. When they do, get involved and become a servant for your church body.
Common Sense Reborn 