"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." (Genesis 1:1) "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made." (John 1:1-3) "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;) That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full." (1 John 1:1-4) Last year, our congregation did several ladies vs. men Bible bowls and 1 John happened to be one of the books. Before that, I had never before made these connections. I'm just fascinated now by these passages. I could read John 1 over and over. If I were given a chance to sit down and talk with one of the 12 apostles, I think John would be the one I'd choose (with Peter coming in close behind). John is known as the disciple of love and I think 1 John especially bears that out. I am certainly not an expert on the book, but an in-depth study of 1 John (with connections to Genesis and John) should certainly be in the top five of every Christians study list. Just random thoughts again today. Happy studying in the Word!
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"Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth." (1 John 3:16-18) Do we love the church enough to lay down our lives for them? We should have the attitude of being willing to serve our Brothers and Sisters in whatever need they have. Let's not simply tolerate our fellow Sisters, but LOVE them as Christ did.
What Do You Live For? I was in the store the other day and saw a sign that read, “I Live for Fishing!” It reminded me of similar signs I have seen, such as, “I Live for Football!” or “I Live to Shop!” It seems many people spend their days looking forward to the time they can engage in their favorite pastime. They plan ahead for where they will watch the Monday Night football game. They might even rearrange their schedule so nothing will interfere with it. They spend their free evenings or extra time in the day looking for the latest sale or bargain. What would happen if people showed the same devotion to Christ that they show to their favorite pastime? What would happen if Christians lived their lives in such a way that their lives proudly displayed the sign, “I Live for Christ?”
~What if we looked forward to and planned to attend every worship service, Bible class, Gospel meeting, and singing night for one year, even if attending meant we miss an activity? Can you truly say, “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go into the house of the LORD”? (Psalm 122:1) ~What if instead of watching our favorite TV show in the evening, we opened our Bibles with our families? The Psalmist said in Psalm 1:2, “Blessed is the man whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night.” Job says in Job 23:12, “I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food.” Can the same be said of us? ~What if our spare 15 minutes before the next activity was spent reading our Bibles or learning a new memory verse, instead of checking Facebook or Twitter? Psalm 119:11 says, “Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” God’s word will never get in our hearts if we don’t work to put it there! ~What if we sacrificed 15 minutes of sleep and spent that time in prayer to God? 1 Peter 5:7 tells us, “casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.” ~What if the same devotion was given to our children learning who God is as to them learning their math facts or their spelling words? Sure that 100% is important, but which do you think will be more valuable on life’s Final Exam? “It is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). James 4:14 asks, “For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.” The same holds true for our children. Our time with them is very short. Therefore let us, “walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” (Ephesians 5:15-16) What would happen if we all strove to live our lives this way? The result would, unquestionably be stronger families, more faithful members of the Lord’s church, stronger congregations, and a deeper relationship with our Lord. Let us all strive to live our life in such a way that we proudly display the sign, “I Live for Christ!” ~AB "And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end." (Luke 1:28-33) There are wonderful examples of mothers all throughout the Bible - good ones and bad ones. When I think of Biblical mothers, I suppose I'd have to put Mary, the mother of Jesus, at the top of the list. There is a responsibility placed on all mothers to raise a child in the way he should go, but Mary had even more placed on her shoulders. I cannot even imagine how it felt to be raising the Son of God. There are those in the religious world that place her on a pedestal. They say she was a sinless lady. While I agree that she had to be sexually pure, there is nothing to indicate she was sinless. In fact, there is definite proof that she did have sin. The Word says, "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;" (Romans 3:23) So, I know that she had to have some sins. But for her to be chosen for such a high honor, she had to have been a very godly woman. God choosing her for this high honor puts her in the ranks of people like Enoch who walked with God, Noah who saved himself and family from the flood, and David chosen to rule God's people. I wish that I could sit at Mary's feet and learn from her. I wonder how she learned to be a godly parent? Nowadays we learn from example and from the Bible. Who helped her to be the mother of the Son of God? She had the Old Testament scriptures. When the family moved to Nazareth she was away from her family so evidently there was no extended family to help her out. No, I imagine that the mother of our Lord had to rely heavily upon the Holy Scriptures and prayer. Could we not do the same? Our days should begin on our knees both to speak to and listen to our heavenly Father. He speaks to us from His Word. Won't you listen?
"And the LORD appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day; And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground, And said, My Lord, if now I have found favour in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant:" (Genesis 18:1-3) Here is something interesting I learned in my husband's sermon tonight. When you see 'LORD' written in large text in some Bibles (here in the KJV), it is a Hebrew word for Jehovah. But notice in verse 3 there is another word, 'Lord' with a capital letter and lower case letters for the rest of the word. This second is the Hebrew word, 'Adonay'. One may think here, that Abraham didn't realize this was God in a fleshly form, but the term 'Adonay' is only used with God. How did Abraham know this was 'Adonay'? This could be an interesting study for someone wanting to dig deeper!
"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up." (Deuteronomy 6:4-7) The principle here is that we should teach our children about God all through the day. In order to do this, there are many things that our family has been doing. Some of these things we have added recently. I am by no means an expert and I sure don't have it all together, but I thought it might be helpful to some. 1. I need to make more of an effort to start our day off with a devo, but it is usually a flurry of activity. I'm cooking and getting breakfast ready, and the kids have morning chores. Then breakfast and the schedule has them doing penmanship while I clean up after breakfast (if Facebook doesn't distract me first!). By the time we get to what we call “School Time Bible Time” it is 9 AM or later. In our STBT, we read a Bible story, I say a prayer to start our school day and we sing, “Grow, grow, grow.” Lately my one year old has been saying, “Jesus” so we sing Jesus Loves Me while she smiles. We were also reading through the selected Psalms for a Bible bowl, but now we read Discovery magazine from Apologetic Press. 2. Either during gaps in the schedule (when do we ever have those!) or when their school work is done, we have started reading from Proverbs. What ever the date is, they read that chapter. The goal is that we talk about the things we read. Some days I emphasize a certain character trait. Honestly, most days I'm thankful we at least read it. The goal is that we discuss these things together. 3. In our homeschool, I chose curriculum that teaches Bible in every subject. I love this! The word is getting in their hearts through every school subject. 4. During lunch, Daddy comes home from work and either he or I will read the daily Bible reading. Sometimes this is a tag team effort. This year we decided to read through chronologically. It has been interesting. We are almost through the Old Testament now. 5. At bedtime, we have Bible Time. This consists of a story, discussion time and each member of the family prays. Even the baby has a sign prayer we help her with. At 1 yr old she's beginning to do some of the signs herself! 6. Teachable moments. These are times throughout the day that give us an opportunity to teach about God and His Word. I'm sure I miss a lot of these! My favorite is to show nature and talk about God's creation, but there are a million (and more!) ways to use teachable moments! 7. Bible games. Lately our favorite is the 'name game'. One person starts by saying a Bible name, say for example, Noah. The next person has to choose a name that begins with an 'h', like Hosea. Then the next person has to choose one beginning with an 'A', and so on. These are some of the things that we do. Please leave a comment and share something(s) your family does!
"Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding." (Proverbs 3:13) Reading through the Proverbs, I've been reading a lot about wisdom. A lot. It amazes me that Solomon was such a wise man and yet turned his back on God toward the end of his life. Marrying the women from foreign countries was just the beginning of his downfall – the top of his slippery slope away from God. James talks about wisdom as well: “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” (James 1:5-8) We need wisdom in every area of our lives. I pray for more wisdom as a parent and how to use my money wisely. Often through proverbs, the word prudence is mentioned. This word keeps popping up in my brain. I think it is a very important word for many reasons. Let's look at this word today. Dictionary.com defines this word as: noun 1. the quality or fact of being prudent. 2. caution with regard to practical matters; discretion. 3. regard for one's own interests. 4. provident care in the management of resources; economy;frugality. And prudent as: adjective 1. wise or judicious in practical affairs; sagacious; discreet orcircumspect; sober. 2. careful in providing for the future; provident: a prudentdecision. I think all these words in the definition – caution, regard, care, discreet, careful – are words implying the application of wisdom. How we use wisdom in our lives is very important. What good did it do Solomon to have all that wisdom, but he didn't apply it to his life. We need to pray for wisdom AND understanding. Then, as the Proverb says, we will be happy.
Today, I wanted to share with you a couple of verses I learned in the Loving Your Husband study book I've been doing. I've read through the Bible at least 3 or 4 times, but never looked at these verses in quite the way Ms. Patsy presents them in the book. Before I get to them, I have to admit something to you. I don't always speak in a loving manner to my family. I used to blame it on the way I was raised, it was how my parents talked. I used to say, “A tiger can't change its stripes.” But deep down verses like, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,” (Phil. 4:13) or “With God all things are possible,” (Mark 10:27) made me feel miserable. I began to realize that I could change and should, but how? These verses are really helping me to feel as though my heart is changing for the better. Here's the first one: “And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” (Romans 5:5) Another version says the love of God is poured out in our hearts. I haven't studied to see which one is more correct, but the idea is the same. 'Shed abroad' makes me think of icing on a cake. It is spread all over our hearts, liberally. With all this love from God, how can we not let it spill out to others? “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: ...” (Proverbs 23:7a) The other verse I learned in Loving Your Husband is this one: “And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.” (1 John 4:16-17) The last line is the clincher: “because as he is, so are we in this world.” The first verse tells us that “God is love.” We are to be like Him. We should not help but be love and show love to the world around us. I have these verses written on cards where I can see them everyday. With words like these written upon my heart, I cannot help but be what He wants me to be.
How many of us can say that we truly built our house of love on Biblical love? Even in the best of houses there is always room for improvement, but I would say that most of us need some help in our marriages. Loving Your Husband by Patsy Loden is wonderful! I thought my marriage was fine until I looked into the mirror of the Word using this book as my guide. I have learned so much with this book. I highly recommend it to all wives! Click here to order Loving Your Husband from Publishing Designs! Teacher's manual also available.
Click here to order the video lessons and other Loving Your Husband materials from World Video Bible School! “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.” (1 John 2:15-17) 1 John is one of my favorite books and this section is one of my favorites in the entire Bible. These verses hit me at a time when I was trying to hold on to some physical things. Someone encouraged me to give them up, but I simply would not. Until I read this verse. These are powerful words! If we love the world and the things of the world, then the Father is not in us. If He's not in us then we have no hope. We will burn with the things of this world and the others that love those things. Let's not be that way, but focus our eyes higher! “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.” (Colossians 3:1-4)
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