You have probably seen and heard this verse many times before, I know I have, but it is still a powerful reminder that none of our actions will please God if they are not mingled with faith. It is NOT "hard" to please God without faith, it is "IMPOSSIBLE". Notice the last part of the last phrase, God rewards those who "diligently" seek him. The Greek carries the idea of an investigation, searching out the details like the FBI in a missing persons case, but when it is personal there is more energy put into it. Imagine if the missing person were your loved one as compared to someone in another town. How different would your desire to solve the problem be? That level of concern, urgency, and energy should be put into searching out God and His will for your life. Now, obviously, God is not lost or missing or even hiding, but is close by (Acts 17:27-28). God could have chosen to use any number of words here, but He did not say - casually, sporadically, occasionally, intellectually, emotionally, frequently, fearfully, doubtfully, economically, distractedly, etc. God says that we must not only believe that He is, but if we are going to come to Him we must believe that He rewards those that diligently seek Him. By default then if we want to receive that reward we have to be part of the group that is seeking Him diligently (daily, determinedly, continually, willingly, faithfully, energetically, etc.). How are you seeking Him? How often? Would you call it diligently? Do you think God considers it diligently seeking? Consider 2 Peter 1:5-10
Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.
You have probably seen and heard this verse many times before, I know I have, but it is still a powerful reminder that none of our actions will please God if they are not mingled with faith. It is NOT "hard" to please God without faith, it is "IMPOSSIBLE". Notice the last part of the last phrase, God rewards those who "diligently" seek him. The Greek carries the idea of an investigation, searching out the details like the FBI in a missing persons case, but when it is personal there is more energy put into it. Imagine if the missing person were your loved one as compared to someone in another town. How different would your desire to solve the problem be? That level of concern, urgency, and energy should be put into searching out God and His will for your life. Now, obviously, God is not lost or missing or even hiding, but is close by (Acts 17:27-28). God could have chosen to use any number of words here, but He did not say - casually, sporadically, occasionally, intellectually, emotionally, frequently, fearfully, doubtfully, economically, distractedly, etc. God says that we must not only believe that He is, but if we are going to come to Him we must believe that He rewards those that diligently seek Him. By default then if we want to receive that reward we have to be part of the group that is seeking Him diligently (daily, determinedly, continually, willingly, faithfully, energetically, etc.). How are you seeking Him? How often? Would you call it diligently? Do you think God considers it diligently seeking? Consider 2 Peter 1:5-10
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Your thankful memory verse for the week:
“As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.” (Colossians 2:6-7) "Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints," (Ephesians 1:15-18) I want us to think about the wisdom part of this. What do we need more in this world than wisdom? Wisdom to walk righteously in this wicked world and wisdom to raise our children up to be righteous. I heard one sister say, "I don't do mornings without a prayer for wisdom." How about you? Is a prayer for wisdom on your lips daily?
"To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. The king shall joy in thy strength, O LORD; and in thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoice! Thou hast given him his heart's desire, and hast not withholden the request of his lips. Selah. For thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness: thou settest a crown of pure gold on his head. He asked life of thee, and thou gavest it him, even length of days for ever and ever. His glory is great in thy salvation: honour and majesty hast thou laid upon him. For thou hast made him most blessed for ever: thou hast made him exceeding glad with thy countenance. For the king trusteth in the LORD, and through the mercy of the most High he shall not be moved. Thine hand shall find out all thine enemies: thy right hand shall find out those that hate thee. Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of thine anger: the LORD shall swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them. Their fruit shalt thou destroy from the earth, and their seed from among the children of men. For they intended evil against thee: they imagined a mischievous device, which they are not able to perform. Therefore shalt thou make them turn their back, when thou shalt make ready thine arrows upon thy strings against the face of them. Be thou exalted, LORD, in thine own strength: so will we sing and praise thy power." (Psalms 21:1-13)
"A Psalm and Song at the dedication of the house of David. I will extol thee, O LORD; for thou hast lifted me up, and hast not made my foes to rejoice over me. O LORD my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me. O LORD, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave: thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit. Sing unto the LORD, O ye saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness. For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. And in my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved. LORD, by thy favour thou hast made my mountain to stand strong: thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled. I cried to thee, O LORD; and unto the LORD I made supplication. What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise thee? shall it declare thy truth? Hear, O LORD, and have mercy upon me: LORD, be thou my helper. Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing: thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness; To the end that my glory may sing praise to thee, and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks unto thee for ever." (Psalms 30:1-12)
"Michtam of David. Preserve me, O God: for in thee do I put my trust. O my soul, thou hast said unto the LORD, Thou art my Lord: my goodness extendeth not to thee; But to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight. Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another god: their drink offerings of blood will I not offer, nor take up their names into my lips. The LORD is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot. The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage. I will bless the LORD, who hath given me counsel: my reins also instruct me in the night seasons. I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope. For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore." (Psalms 16:1-11)
"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!
"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.
"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!
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