study

February 24, 2017

Maturity Requires Daily Nourishment

even-smaller-bug-light1

9 I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding. — Philippians 1:9 NLT
Phil. 1:9-11 NLT

The way we keep on growing spiritually is to keep meditating on God’s Word. We must spend time alone with God each and every day. Reading God’s Word, meditating on it, praying and practicing what we have learned is the way we grow and attract others to Christ. We can only attempt to live pure and blameless lives, but it would be totally impossible without the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The time we spend in study will help us to live lives filled with the righteous character of God. This will bring praise and glory to God, which is our primary purpose for being here.


“The Gospel has come to you because it’s on its way to someone else.” -Anonymous

 

Post 2-24-2017

Advertisement
April 3, 2016

The Highest Compliment

even-smaller-bug-light113 The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus. — Acts 4:13 NLT   Acts 4:1-15

“For they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training”.  Using these oridnary men, God had drawn over 5000 men (plus the women and children} to Jesus.  Ordinary men and women are the ones that Jesus uses every day to draw others to Jesus Christ.  Ordianry men and women, people like you and me, are His choice to spread the Gospel.  Here are two ex-fishermen that Jesus has turned into “fishers of men”.  It is good to study and learn as long as our knowledge does not become our god.  It is good to study and learn as long as we remember why we are doing it.  Our studying and learning should be obedience-based and not outcome-based.  It is good to study and learn as long as we don’t use that as an excuse for not spreading the Gospel.  The time is here to put all that studying and learning to the use for which God gave us the ability to do it.  We, as Christians, should have only one goal in our lives that overrides everything else that we do.  That goal is to do everything for the glory of God.  If we concentrate on that goal each and every day. perhaps we will one day recieve the same compliment that Peter and John received here — “They recognized them as men who had been with Jesus”.  Do our lifestyles show others that “we have been with Jesus”?   Do people notice the presence of Jesus in our lives?  There is no higher compliment that we could pay a person than to tell them that we recognize they “have been with Jesus”.  
Post 04-03-2016
March 13, 2016

For His Glory

even-smaller-bug-light129 “The Lord our God has secrets known to no one. We are not accountable for them, but we and our children are accountable forever for all that he has revealed to us, so that we may obey all the terms of these instructions. — Deut 29:29 NLT

Mark Twain once said “It ain’t those parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand.”.  How true!  We are accountable for everything we understand about the Bible and we are accountable to learn and understand everything we can about the Bible.  We are also accountable to teach those truths to our children.  God has given us the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth.  As Paul directed Timothy, we are to study and work hard so we can present ourselves to God for His approval.
15 Work hard so you can present yourself to God and receive his approval. Be a good worker, one who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly explains the word of truth. — 2 Tim. 2:15 NLT

Ephesians 1:9 tells us that God has revealed to us “His mysterious plan regarding Chirst” and in 2 Timothy 3, He tells us what that mystery is:

 

16 Without question, this is the great mystery of our faith:

Christ was revealed in a human body
    and vindicated by the Spirit.
He was seen by angels
    and announced to the nations.
He was believed in throughout the world
    and taken to heaven in glory.

There are still mysteries to be revealed at a later date, but there is enough revelation available to us now to keep us busy learning, understanding and telling it to the world.  That is what we will be held accountable for and that is our misssion.  If we do this, God will get the glory and that is our purpose int the world — to give God the glory.

Post 03-13-2016

August 25, 2015

Never Alone!!

even-smaller-bug-light

10 God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. 11 We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, so that what you hope for may be fully realized. 12 We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised. — Hebrews 6:10-12 NIV

​Accepting Jesus as our Savior is the first step on a  journey from here to heaven. We know our destination and we know that our arrival has been secured by the blood of Jesus. The huge difference in this trip and one that we might plan to take here on earth is that we don’t know the specifics of the route.  Generally, we know that it is ever onward and upward, but what does that entail on a minute by minute basis?  We are facing a great unknown and we must take every step by faith.  

17 For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” — Romans 1:17 NIV

​So we​ must study the gospel to know the way.  There is no earthly GPS that is going to lead us to heaven. But, God, in His great mercy and love for us installed a guide within us when we accepted His Son as our Savior.  We must learn to listen to the Guide to stay on the path. The way will not always be smooth and level.  It can get rocky and there will be valleys and mountains.  Just remember that every valley has two mountains and we travel from mountain to mountain not knowing what is over the next  one.  The important thing to KNOW is that we are never alone and if we get lost on the journey, the great Shepherd will leave the flock, come find us and carry us back to the straight and narrow path.  

5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
6 in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight.— Proverbs 3:5, 6 NIV

Post 08-25-2015
July 26, 2015

Study Diligently, Study Intelligently

even smaller bug light

5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins. 10 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, 11 and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. — 2 Peter 1:​5​-11 NIV
​If we put in the time studying the Scriptures and following the leadership of the Holy Spirit, we will add all these things to our faith.  As we learn God’s Word, we will be able to access more and more Godly wisdom and power.  These attributes of Jesus will not only confirm our calling but will also makes us effective and productive disciples of Jesus. If we don’t spend the time we will never be able to see beyond our fleshly desires, thus appearing nearsighted and/or blind. Then we will not be able to lead others to Jesus Christ, which is the ultimate goal of any calling that God has placed on our lives. Unless we continue to study the Word, we will soon forget that we have been redeemed by the precious blood of the Lamb.
So, we need to be diligent and we need to be smart. 
Study the Scriptures
Meditate on the Scriptures
Always pray for the leadership of the Holy Spirit.
Repeat the story and rehearse all the blessings God has given us
Tell others about Jesus and what He has done for us 
Then others will say about us the same thing they said about Jesus.

52 And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man. — Luke 2:52 NIV

Post 07-25-2015