The Greatest Superhero: May 1st Devotional

      

The Greatest Superhero

May 1st Devo

1st Peter 1:9

      Batman. I'm sure that everyone of us have heard of the Caped Crusader, the Dark Knight. This vigilante of Gotham has stood as its "Savior" for eighty plus years (Bruce Wayne has aged pretty well hasn't he). Batman first came onto the scene in Detective Comics # 27 on May 1^st 1939 selling for only .10c.  Detective Comics (later to be known simply as DC Comics) built their brand on following the outrageous stories of various different hard-boiled detectives and their enemies.  These detectives would go toe to toe with gangsters, Nazi’s, and other low life criminals.  The introduction of Batman changed the trajectory of the comic industry.  The first story with Batman was entitled “The Case of the Chemical Syndicate.”  Batman has to quickly find the murderer of a chemical industrialist named Lambert before anyone else is hurt.  His quick detective work leads to the arrest of Alfred Stryker, a former business partner of Lambert.  The Batman would continue to be a regular in the Detective Comic series until becoming popular enough for his own series.   Little did this talented team of writers, pencilers, and colorists know that years later this comic would sell for MILLIONS of dollars. This comic started a phenomenon that has continued through multiple versions and story lines for over eighty years. Batman is one of the most commonly known Superheroes. The Dynamic Duo have continued to battle against a variety of different villains like Bane, Poison Ivy, Scarecrow, Two Face, Man Bat, the Riddler, the Penguin, and the list could go on and on.

      Gotham city was a crime ridden city that needed a Savior, a rescuer, a protector. Batman has done a fantastic job over the years but there is one thing that Batman can't save. For that matter, something that no superhero can save, our soul.  Why would our souls need saved? Because we are all sinners and sin separates us away from a God who loves us. We can't work to earn the forgiveness of one sin so God sent one who is totally perfect, Jesus. We needed someone to rescue us, to love us, to save us. 1st Peter 1:9 says "obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls." He has paid the price for our salvation through His precious blood. Jesus does what no superhero could ever do. Forgive you of past wrongs and offer a present hope for an eternity with Him.  Batman fights an unending battle with crime to no relief.  Christ on the other hand fought one battle for our sin riddled souls and came forth victorious on the third day.  Christ is the lone hero of our soul.

Sin's Trojan Horse: April 24th Devotional

Sin’s Trojan Horse

Genesis 3:6

April 24^th Devotional

 

   Most of the time history is simply about facts and dates. Other times history is rooted in a mix of truth and mythology. This particular day in history is a combination of fact and fiction, legend and lies, embellishment and established truth. Most of the information concerning the Trojan War is found in Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey (which are far from non-fiction). Legend has it that around the year 1194 BC Paris of Troy took the King of Sparta's (Menelaus) wife named Helen. Paris refused to give her back. This event sparked a great military response from the Greeks. The Greeks sent their best soldiers over the Aegean Sea via THOUSANDS of ships to Asia Minor. They were commanded by the famous General Agamemnon. This war would cause the names of Achilles and Odysseus to become famous legends. The Battle of Troy was a siege on the city that lasted ten long years with little progress by the Greeks. The Greeks devised a plan to trick the citizens of Troy. On this day, 1184 BC the Greeks constructed the "Trojan Horse" and placed it at the gates of Troy. The Greeks then entered their ships and pretended to sail off. The people of Troy thought that the Greeks surrendered and that the horse was a gift of victory. The citizens brought it into the city and celebrated. Little did they know what was inside the horse. That night the Greek soldiers, who were hidden in the horse, exited and started to sack the city and open the gates for the Greek army to return. Thus the Greeks found victory over Troy.

   Most of this account is probably speculation at best but it still makes for a fun story. But there is a spiritual application that IS NOT speculation. As Christians, we need to be aware of Trojan horses in our life. The goal of a Trojan horse is to look innocent or unattractive while designed for our destruction. One of the Trojan horses we battle with is sin. Sin does not always look ugly on the outside. Sin does not always scream out "I'm a sin." Sin offers temporal pleasure (Hebrews 11:25) with an eternal consequence. Sometimes sin looks good. Genesis 3:6 says “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.” The text makes it clear that the forbidden fruit in the Garden looked desirable to Eve. Let's be honest, sin sometimes looks good. We would lie if we denied that. BUT SIN'S outward attraction is nothing more than a poison that destroys us. We need to show caution and realize that just because it looks good or convenient does not mean it is indeed good. Let us have a spirit of discernment. As a child of God, we cannot afford to allow "Trojan Horses" in our life. They are created to harm and separate. Sin always takes you further than you want to go, keeps you longer than you want to stay, and costs you more than you want to pay.

God, We have a Problem: April 17th Devotional

 

God, We Have a Problem

April 17th Devo

Psalm 55:22

      On this day in 1970, the hobbled Apollo 13 spacecraft splashed down in the South Pacific Ocean. Apollo 13’s fame wasn’t the splashdown, instead, its fame was over the troubled journey the crew endured. On April 11th all of America watched as the Saturn V rocket carried the Apollo 13 crew from the launch pad in Cape Canaveral to the heavens. This same rocket was used twice the year prior, taking the Apollo VI and Apollo VII crews safely to the moon. The crew consisted of Fred Haise, James Lovell, and John Swigert. This was the fifth lunar mission commissioned by NASA and was supposed to be the third time man stepped foot on the moon. This journey would forever be remembered for a near tragedy. On April 14th the crew was about 210,000 miles from Earth, almost to the moon. The crew had been in flight for nearly 56 hours and had just finished a national tv broadcast. They were inspecting the craft when an explosion rocked the ship. At 9:08 Eastern time astronauts Swigert and Lovell radioed in saying "Houston, we’ve had a problem.” Oxygen tank 2 had exploded causing a major mechanical issue. This issue disrupted the flow of oxygen, electricity, water, and light to the vessel. This was a worrisome event because the ship was losing oxygen and fuel at an alarming rate. NASA quickly aborted a moon landing and started scrambling to find a way to get the three astronauts back home. Both the astronauts and NASA worked tirelessly to get the crippled and cold ship to circle the moon and loop back to head back to Earth. The crew had to abandon the Command Module and instead move into the LM (Landing Module). The Landing Module was only designed to get the astronauts onto the moon and back to the command module. It was not designed for a crew of three, nor did it have the appropriate amount of oxygen needed for the journey. The other complication was that it struggled to move the Carbon Dioxide from the module. The crew bunkered down in the nearly freezing temperature. Only by a miracle was the crew able to safely land back on Earth on April 17th.

      The movie Apollo 13 took from creative license when they changed the SOS to say “Houston, we have a problem.” Apollo 13 did indeed have a very real problem, one of a life-or-death nature. We as Christians have problems and worries too, but we don't say "Houston we have a problem." Instead, we should say "God, I've got a problem." Psalm 55:22 says "Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved." God invites us to come and lay down our burdens at His feet. We can take any problem to God, we can cry out to Him no matter what may be the case. God works in the impossible. God never panics when we cry out to Him. Unlike NASA’s ground control, God is perfectly in control. He already has it figured out. The word sustain in the passage is translated elsewhere as nourishing or feeding. The text seems to provide the image of God feeding us, and taking care of us as we cast our burdens on Him. God does not want the burdens of this life to destroy you or stifle you. He wants to take care of you as you travel through this pilgrim pathway. Cry out to Him, “GOD, I’ve got a problem; I need your help.” He hears you, He cares, and He is actively already working for your good and His glory.

Churches in Missions March 2022 Prayer Letter

Churches-In Missions 

P.O. Box 1559 Sanford, NC 27331

“Mobilizing the Church Through Short-term Missions”

      Easter is quickly approaching and all our eyes begin to turn away from the woes of this world to the hope that sprung forth from an empty tomb.  Our Savior, Jesus, suffered and died the death that we rightly deserved and rose from the grave promising eternal life to all who believe.  The world needs to hear this message, not just from missionaries but from all of us.  Each of us have been tasked with telling the world the Good News of Jesus.  I pray that you will be investing your lives into the unsaved that surround you during this season.  I pray that you will build relationships that lead to redemption.  I also want to remind each of us that Jesus did not merely come to this world to make bad people good, but instead He came to take dead people and bring them life (dead in our trespasses and sin).

      I wanted to give you a family update. Maggie and Noah competed in a speech meet at school.  They both did FANTASTIC.  Noah was able to recite his poem before the entire school.  Noah has been showing A LOT of interest in drama.  He recently recited a poem at a talent show in Martinsburg and played the part of Jesus in the 4^th grade play.  He also participated in his first archery tournament.  Titus has been growing in leaps and bounds.  He is learning how to read and recently lost his first tooth!  Maggie continues to impress us with her artistic talent and caring attitude!

      Our family also enjoyed a week at Myrtle Beach for our CiM personnel meetings.  Our meetings were so encouraging.  The mission loves our family and encourages us to spend as much time together as we can.  We love a mission that helps us to focus on our family.  Our personnel meetings were created to talk about the future of CiM.  We unveiled our new logo, talked about our new website, talked about future ministries opportunities, creating new Bible studies to reach men, and countless other blessings.  My family shared one of our goals for future ministry.  We have been collecting a lot of items recently.  These items help open the door for the Gospel in the communities in which we work.  Needless to say the items have outgrown our ability to house them.  We are asking the Lord to provide us with a large place to store the items.  This will elevate the overflow that we currently have.  We are going to start looking at potential places to rent in the next few weeks.  Maybe you know someone who has a place for us to use or maybe your church has an extra big room that is going unused.  Let us know.  We would LOVE to talk about finding a way to expand and grow our ministry.

      We wanted to thank the MANY different churches who have donated items for our upcoming trips.  We are packing the items during the week of Easter.  We look forward to sharing the Gospel with hundreds of people on that trip.  Pray for good weather and good success from April 22-24^th.  We have also been meeting with multiple different churches prepping their teams for upcoming trips.  We rejoice in the many different times we have been blessed to share the ministry!

      We are so thankful for each of your prayers and financial gifts.  We love each and everyone of you.  We are truly humbled by your partnership!  Keep praying for us as we share what God has laid on our hearts.  Also continue to pray for us as we grow our support to expand the work that God has for us.  We are overflowing with excitement to see what God’s going to do!

Gifts sent to:  P.O. Box 51519 Durham, NC 27717

Or give online via www.churchesinmissions.org      

Designate for Matt & Tiffanie Robinson

Check out https://robinsonsroadsidechats.blogspot.com/ for weekly devotionals

Noah's School Play

Titus at Mrytle Beach

Maggie Waving HI!

Breaking Up is Hard to Do: April 10th Devotional

Breaking Up is Hard to Do

April 10^th Devo

Acts 15:36-41

 

      On this day in 1970, Paul McCartney officially announces the Beatle's break up. Paul and John Lennon started the band in 1957. They were in their mid-teens and the band was originally named the Quarrymen. Over time Lennon and McCartney would add the likes of George Harrison and Ringo Starr. These young men in their late teens and early twenties started to play in different venues. The sound of their music was unique and it didn’t take long for this band from Liverpool to skyrocket to the top of the charts. Their first major hit was “love me do” which was recorded by the EMI Abbey Roads studio, which was the premier recording company at that time. One of the biggest highlights for the Beatles came in 1964 when they arrived in the United States for the first time. They played on the Ed Sullivan Show. Nearly 74 million Americans tuned in to hear this revolutionary rock and roll sound (that was about 40% of the population of the United States at the time). Their appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show opened up the door to Beatlemania and the British cultural invasion of America. The Beatles would continue to be a household name through the 1960s. The band would go on to record 21 main albums, but that does not include other compilations or singles released over time. They would write and play over 230 different songs. Of those songs, twenty were number-one hits on the Billboard Charts (a record to this day). They would sell over 600 million albums (also still a record). It looked like the Beatles would be a permanent part of the culture. But everything started to fall apart in the late 1960s. Tension began to build in the band. McCartney had been flirting with going solo and reportedly Lennon left the band in 1969 but the band kept it a secret until April 1970. There were also some major tensions regarding managerial decisions. The last Beatles appearance before the break up was a public concert on the rooftop of the Apple Building in London in 1969.

      The singer Neil Sedaka said it best, “Breaking up is hard to do.” It’s hard to imagine how a band as famous and influential as the Beatles could break up. They seemed like a perfect team. The Beatles weren’t the only famous team to break up; the Bible mentions a famous missionary team that had to go in two different directions. The book of Acts tells us about the great teamwork of Paul and Barnabas. They worked faithfully alongside each other during the first missionary journey. They even worked together to settle major issues at the Jerusalem council, but in Acts 15:39-40 we read “And there occurred such a sharp disagreement that they separated from one another, and Barnabas took Mark with him and sail away to Cyprus. But Paul chose Silas and left…” These two men loved the Lord but could not agree with each other. This very easily could have destroyed the missionary work of the early church, but God used the break up to create two mission teams that would take the Gospel to more places. That being said the believer should not desire to break up with each other. We should strive for unity, reconciliation, for harmony in the body. We will differ and disagree from time to time, but we should work to set aside our feelings and opinions and work together for the furtherance of the Gospel. Don’t allow unresolved conflict in the body of Christ to exist. If you are harboring ill feelings about a brother or sister in the faith, repent and release it.

Our Guide: April 3rd Devotional

Our Guide

John 16:33

April 3rd Devotional

      On this day in 1953 Triangle Productions introduced the world to the first official version of the TV Guide. Another version of a tv guide was published years earlier but it only contained information relevant to New York City. The magazine was a huge success in NYC and Triangle Publications purchased the rights to produce it on a more national basis. The first guide cover featured Lucille Ball and her baby, Desi Arnaz Jr. The picture was far from flattering but the publication was extremely well-received. The first TV Guide appeared on the newsstands in ten cities, costing .15c, and would go on to sell over 1.5 million copies. The first TV Guide was naturally a smaller magazine, consisting of only four main articles, a few reviews, and a schedule for shows running from April 3rd through April 9th. At that time there were only three major tv networks, ABC, NBC, and CBS. It was the best-selling publication from the 1960s into the early 1970s. The magazine naturally evolved over the years and became a staple item in almost every American Home. A quick way to date yourself is by your knowledge of the TV Guide. Many of us can remember the red tv logo with the words TV Guide blazoned on the upper left front cover. We can remember our family picking it up at the local grocery store. We can remember some incredible front covers, we can also remember our grandmothers religiously looking over the contents (especially when Soap Opera time came). Or maybe some of us tried the crosswords at the end of the book. Or maybe we can recall it sitting beside some very dated couch with floral or forest designs. The TV guide would continue to be printed for 53 years until the final print run in 2006, selling countless millions of copies during that time.

      The TV Guide was used to help us navigate the mysteries of what was on television each night. We would simply turn a page, run our fingers down to the right listing, and find out what time our favorite show aired and a few details about the show. Over time the Guide became dated and irrelevant. There is another guide though that is far older, far more published, and is never dated.  That guide is the Bible. Each Christian needs to be committed to spending time in the Word of God. We need purposeful time set aside to dive into the Word, but our study in the world is not a single-person operation, we have a God-given guide that helps direct us. Jesus spoke out our Guide to God’s Word in John 16:13, which says “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth…” The word guide here means someone who will lead you on your way. So who is our guide to the Word? Jesus said “the Spirit of truth”, referring to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit takes up permanent residence in our life once we are saved. As a believer, we need the Holy Spirit’s help to navigate the Scriptures. We cannot simply study and understand them on our own. This week ask the Holy Spirit to guide you in your Bible reading. Ask Him to open your eyes to the truth and ask Him to help you apply it to your life. Ask Him to lead you.