Bible Verse of the Day

October 3^rd Through October 8^th  

 

Monday October 3, 2016

1 Peter 1:3

3-Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

There have been many writers and commentators that have referred to Paul as the faith Apostle, to John as the love Apostle and to Peter as the Apostle of Hope. This is because of the central themes of each of these great writers of the New Testament. In this letter from Peter there is some specific emphasis on Hope.

He starts off with praise to God, which is where we all should have our starting point for each and every heartbeat of our lives. Peter begins his thesis of this verse with, “In His great mercy,” everything we have of God is because of His mercy on us. Peter specifically talks about our new birth into the royal family of God and the hope that we have because of this. This is not a questionable hope as the world knows hope, but a living hope that we can know that we are born again as children of God.

All this is because of the great Love of God, who became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14), to live a life of true righteousness, that He knew we could never do. Then, in the greatest demonstration of love that has ever been revealed and displayed, He took the flogging, that we should have taken, and allowed them to nail him to the cross. He did not deserve that punishment, that should have been ours, but in His great love he did this for us, in His great mercy.

Then when all living, at that time, that were following Jesus, had lost all hope of any of the great truths that He talked to them about during His earthly ministry, God performed what is unquestionably the greatest miracle of all time. The tomb could not hold our Lord and Savior and He rose from the dead, giving us the living hope by which we can know we have eternal life.

Because of the Great miracle of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, there is a great miracle that is being performed everyday by God right now. That is the miracle of salvation, that leads to our new birth into a living hope of eternal life.

Tuesday October 4 2016

Proverbs 27:1

Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.

There are many places in the bible that talks about taking advantage of today while we have a today, this verse is one of the many. There is one that always stands out, recorded in 1 Kings 20. King Ahab of Israel was preparing to go to war against King Ben-Haden of Aram, Ben-Haden sent King Ahab a message, "May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if enough dust remains in Samaria to give each of my men a handful " (1 Kings 20:10). King Ahab of Israel sent Ben-Haden a message back, "Tell him: ’One who puts on his armor should not boast like one who takes it off’ " (1 Kings 20:11).

The fools of the world unwisely believe that they can affect the future and control the outcome of tomorrow, however, tomorrow and the entirety of the future is resting in the hands of almighty God.

Another great scripture that speaks of the dangers of putting things off until tomorrow is found in James 4:13-15:                                                                                                                    13-Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." 14-Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15-Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that."

Our lives do not belong to us, we were purchased by our Lord and Savior, Christ Jesus. He paid the ultimate price for us on the Cross of Calvary, He shed His perfect, sinless blood to justify us before God. What the foolish of this world fail to understand or comprehend, is that we live or die, as God wills.

 Wednesday October 5 2016

Isaiah 55:6

Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near.

This theme of reaching out to God right now, and not putting it off until tomorrow or a later date that would be more convenient for you, is found throughout the bible. Our bible verse for yesterday was on this very subject (Proverbs 27:1). We find this also from our James study, (James 4:13-16).

There are many other places in the bible that talk about this same theme, here is a list of just a few, perhaps you can find more. Psalm 103:13-17; 1 Timothy 6:16; Psalm 90:4-6; 1 Peter 1:24-25.

The Prophet Isaiah is trying to electrify upon God’s people an awareness and appreciation of, this is the time that God can be found, so seek after God today, do not put it off until tomorrow. The Prophet is not saying that God is hiding Himself and today is the only day he can be found. God can only be found when the hearts of people are persuaded to look for Him, this desire in our hearts to seek after God, is a gift from God. The idea here is not that God will not be here tomorrow, He is eternal, it is that we may not be here tomorrow.

There is another thesis that can be found in this warning to the Children of Israel from Isaiah (55:6). There was coming a time, not too many years from the time that Isaiah wrote this, that the Promised Messiah would show Himself on the earth. There would be many that would deny Christ Jesus as the Son of God, and miss out on the greatest blessing of all, eternal life. 

If we fail to seek after God, when this gift of desire is placed in our hearts, we may very well lose some great blessing that God has in store for us. There are also many today, that lose that greatest blessing of eternal life, by putting off accepting Christ as their Savior until a later time in their life.

Thursday October 6 2016

Isaiah 26:4

Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD, the LORD himself, is the Rock eternal.

Saturday August 27^th our verse of the day was from this chapter (Isaiah 26:3) 3-You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.

In trusting the Lord forever, we will find the peace that is found in the previous verse. Trusting in God must be a lifestyle, not just something we talk about when the subject comes up among other brothers and sisters in Christ. We Trust in the LORD forever because He is the Rock eternal. He is the foundation of all that exist, the giver of life and the sustainer of life, without Him any foundation we might have will be unstable at best. 

There are times that we might experience, tragedy, persecution or poverty, but in all we must maintain our faith that God will use everything in our lives for good, for His good and our good as well (Romans 8:28). We sometimes become impatient and want the solution to our problem right now, because we do not see that whatever tribulation we are going through is going to mature us, in our role as soldiers in God’s army. Satan will tempt us to try to pull ourselves out of the trial God is putting us through, when in fact we should let the trial run the course God has mapped out for us (James 1:2-4)   

The Rock eternal: This is not saying that our Lord and Savior, Christ Jesus is a solid rock that we can stand on, but The Rock Eternal. This concept brings to mind a rock cliff, that the ones that are trusting in the Lord and Him only, can find shelter from all of life’s storms and enemies. The inspiration for the old hymn written by Augusts Toplady, Rock of Ages, was taken from this verse.   

 Friday October 7 2016

Psalm 62:1

1-Truly my soul finds rest in God; my salvation comes from him.

There is no definitive evidence from the Bible that the setting of this Psalm was during the rebellion of Absalom, (2 Samuel 15-18) however, David wrote this Psalm while he was in the desert of Judah, facing treason from someone. He courageously faces his enemies as we see in verse 3-4, but his main and major focus throughout this Psalm is on God.

Truly my soul finds rest in God: It is a natural thing for humans to consider reason in a situation, when we ought to believe and trust in God. We instinctively want to work out our problems, on our own, when we should be still and let God work. Time stands still for no one and the trials and hardships that we will face will continue on twenty-four hours a day seven days a week. The only rest we can ever know is if we give our problems to God and then get out of His way. Then and only then will we find rest for our souls.

My salvation comes from him: Jesus has made it crystal clear that the only way to salvation is through Him (John 14:6). The Gospel of Christ Jesus is unambiguously clear about salvation by grace through faith, and not by any works we might do (Ephesians 2:8-9). Still people want to think that there is something they must do in order to be saved. These acts of self-work include baptism, following a certain set of rules, belonging to a certain denomination, speaking in a language unknown to man, and the list goes on and on.

David knew that his salvation came from God, and that there was nothing he could do himself to assure an eternal life in God’s kingdom. There has always only been one way to be saved, from the beginning of sin in the world till now, that is faith and trust in the promised Messiah. Before the Cross it was belief in the promise of the coming Savior and since the Cross it is belief in Christ Jesus as the true Messiah, the true Savior of the World. 

 Saturday October 8 2016

Isaiah 43:11-12

11- I, even I, am the LORD, and apart from me there is no savior.

12- have revealed and saved and proclaimed — I, and not some foreign god among you. You are my witnesses," declares the LORD, "that I am God.   In as crystal clear terms as can humanly be made, God is saying He is the only God, and apart from Him there is no way to salvation. In the second verse Isaiah talks about foreign gods, however, these are created by man and in no way can they lead to salvation and eternal life. Paul refers to Satan as “the god of this age” in 2 Corinthians 4:4, this was a pattern of Paul’s writing, he did not mean that Satan was the true God, but so many see him as a god and follow his evil ways.   Salvation has from the beginning of time been accomplished by the same method, trust in the true Messiah, the only savior of the world. As has been mentioned many times in this daily handout, in Sunday school class, bible study class, the worship service and in individual discussions, before the Cross salvation was attained through trust in the promise of the coming Messiah and since the Cross it is through trust in Christ Jesus as the true Messiah of the world.   This theme is repeated throughout the Old Testament, still millions of people did not accept Christ as the Messiah when He stepped onto this world as the God Man. Even though it is again repeated in the New Testament, there are untold millions that do not accept Christ Jesus as the Savior of the world, the only way to heaven.   Those before Christ mistakenly believed that the Law was given for them to follow, even though none could follow it. So in their foolish pride they reverted to self-righteousness, which is no righteousness at all. God’s Law has always been, and still is today, a gauge in which we measure our sin. Even today, when the gospel is so readily available, because of pride, so many want to think they can do it their own way, and do not need Christ in their life.

 

 

 

 

 

Bible Verse of the Day

September 26^th Through October 1^st

 

 

Monday September 26 2016

Hebrews 10:30-31

30-For we know him who said, "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," and again, "The Lord will judge his people."

31-It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

First of all, I have a correction to make from the PPT slides for Sundays message. I had a verse from 1 Samuel 6:7; that should have been verse 16 instead of verse 6; a typing error when I formatted the Power Point program. I do apologize for this error and I pray that it did not cause anyone any inconvenience. Someone pointed it out to me after the service and I do appreciate that. I have told all of you to always check the word of God no matter who gives you some scripture, I want all of you to feel comfortable in coming to me with whatever God has laid on your heart. Our verse of the day for this past Saturday, the 24th, was also from the 10th chapter of Hebrews, in which we went over the general aspects of this chapter, so we will not repeat that this morning.  There is a lot of misconception abounding surrounding this verse. The major consensus, among those that do not take God’s Word in the context it should be viewed, say this verse is talking about judging others and that is God’s job not ours. We can see how that could be misconstrued if this verse was a standalone thesis, but in context with the rest of the chapter, as well as the rest of the book of Hebrews, in conjunction with the New Testament itself, and its relationship with the Old Testament, the idea here become very crystal clear. If we look back to verses 26-30 we will see that, 26-“For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,” and verse 29 speaks of “trampling the Son of God underfoot.” The legalist or Judaizers of Paul’s day wanted to hang on to the Law of Moses and make Christianity a sect of Judaism. This was done because they wanted to be able to say I did this and I did that, depending on their own work instead of the Grace of God, through Faith in the Work of Christ Jesus on the Cross. These 1st century people had received the truth from God through Paul, Peter, James and John as well as other faithful servants of Christ, however they wanted to continue their animal sacrificial system of Justification. In verse 26 we see that if the truth, that the sacrifice of Jesus was the last (It is finished) sacrifice needed, is rejected, there is no sacrifice for sins is left (26b).   Given this information, as well as the other teachings in the New Testament about false teaching and legalism there can be no question this is where the message of this verse is centered. There is still legalist out there today that want to use this verse, out of context, to say that if a person continues in sin they will lose their salvation. Let us not be taken in by Satan’s lies and those that are led by Satan to spread this misinformation.

Tuesday September 27^th 2016

Matthew 6:33

33-But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness: In Matthew 6 the greatest sermon ever preached continues from chapter 5, The Sermon on the Mound. It also continues and finds its conclusion in chapter 7. This great message from Christ Jesus in this chapter touches on, ways in which we can live in order to please God, how materialism can cause great damage to our walk with God and how to get past any apprehension or worry over such matters.

We all have some manner of priority list that we live our life by. There are some that believe that God should be on this priority list somewhere, preferably at the top of the list. The problem with putting God on our priority list is that there will come a time during an attack of Satan, we will be tempted to relegate God to another position on our list. We must put God first in our lives and then under that start to schedule our priority list.

There are not very many times that we will have to choose between our admiration and reverence to God and our love for our spouses or being a good worker. We will be loving, kind and considerate to our spouses and reliable workers because we have put God first in our lives, over and above any priority list that we might generate.

If we diligently and with all of our hearts seek God’s kingdom and His Righteousness He will open the door of our hearts and come in to our lives (Revelation 3:20; Romans 10:13). 

And all these things will be given to you as well: If we put God over and above our worldly priority list and seek after His plans and agendas for our lives, He will provide for all of our needs, this is the promise here.  The problem comes when the division between our needs and wants becomes fuzzy, and we don’t feel like God is providing enough, and we begin to seek after our own worldly wants that we see as needs.

Later on in this chapter, (verse 24), Jesus tells us in no uncertain terms that we cannot serve or seek after money and still serve God. We all make this choice when we first repent and accept Jesus into our lives as our Lord and Savior. Our sanctification, our daily walk with God, will either bolster and highlight that resolution or repudiate and contradict it. 

Wednesday September 28 2016

1 Corinthians 2:14

14-The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.

In this 2^nd chapter of 1 Corinthians Paul continues speaking on the differences between human wisdom and Godly wisdom. He shows how God reveals His wisdom to people, that is through the Holy Spirit of God.

It would be impossible for someone that does not have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to accept what God has to offer. The person without the Spirit of God would only be looking at the temporal instead of the eternal. You cannot see, feel or touch eternal life in a natural setting, so it would seem foolish for someone without the spirit, to focus on things that cannot be viewed with natural vision. Moreover, someone in the natural world would be looking for “the bottom line” or “what’s in it for me,” where someone who has access to the supernatural, would understand that all of the gold and silver, fame and fortune, is but a temporary thing.

This person without the Spirit of God, reading God’s Holy word would be like someone reading text from a language they cannot understand. In this case they would need an interpreter to allow them to comprehend what they were reading. This interpreter, in the case of God’s Holy Word, is the Holy Spirit, who will respond to anyone that is truly, with a repentant heart, seeking the truth.

We must keep in our mind that this chapter is not speaking to how people understand the Bible in a universal logic, but Paul’s message here is on the central and essential message of the crucified and resurrected Savior. Paul argues here, and in much of his writings, that it (The resurrection of Christ Jesus) would be essentially inconceivable to the mind without the Spirit.

 Thursday September 29 2016

John 3:20-2

20-Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.

21-But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.

 

John 3 is centered around the new birth, as Jesus explained it to the Pharisees, Nicodemus, who did not understand what Jesus was talking about. There are still many today that fail to understand what the concept of the new birth is all about. There is a movement this day among some Christians, that we should not use the term “Born Again” because of the misunderstanding surrounding that requirement for entering the Kingdom of heaven, and it offends some people.

In the 1960’s the State of Virginia passed a law that would require a certain amount of “Foot Candles” of light in the bars and saloons. The saloon owners had the light levels in the bars so low that it became a danger to the people in the bars. This is a prime example of how sin likes the darkness instead of the light.

The light Jesus is talking about here is symbolic, Him being the “Light of the World, ” and those that want nothing to do with Him remaining away from that light and in the darkness of sin. People that consistently reject Jesus see themselves as people that have moved away from superstition and have learned to deal with all the world problems on their own. To say that they would need someone else to support them in their everyday problems would indicate a weakness, and their pride won’t let them do that. It boils down to pride or humility, some see humility as a weakness, however, humility is power harnessed by the Holy Spirit.

Those that fight against Jesus and the Gospel do so because they love their sin, but don’t see it as sin. They also do not want to accept the fact that there is a God, and He will judge their sins. When we talk about the love of sin that will separate one from God for eternity in an awful place called hell, we thing of the big sins, but the sin of trying to be the Lord of one’s owns life is enough to send one to hell.

Friday September 30,2016

Philippians 1:9-1

9-And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight,

10-so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,

 

Our last verse verses of the Day from Philippians 1 was Thursday August 18^th, the 21^st verse.

For a Christian to prosper and flourish in their walk with Christ Jesus, they must get to know him better and get closer to him. We all have people that we know and if we want to get to know them better and get closer to them, the only way is to spend time with them and put their needs before our own. The same goes for Jesus, the only way to get to know Him better and get closer to Him is spending time with Him; prayer, bible study, worship services, Christian fellowship, Sunday school, and putting His will before our will (Matthew 22:36-40).

The love that Paul is referring to here is not a visionless, selfish love that was centered around, “what’s in it for me.”  This was the love that was Christ centered, an unconditional love, that had knowledge and depth of insight. The closer we get to Christ Jesus the more our love for Him will grow, and the more our love for Him grows the more we are going to want to know about Him and get closer to Him.

Paul was well aware of the hazards and perils of haphazard and insensitive love, he had reprimanded the Corinthians for their self-glorification love that brought about absolutely no knowledge and depth of insight (1 Corinthians 5:1-7).

In order for anyone to determine what path is the right path, what turn to take at the cross-roads, we must have the love of, and for Christ Jesus in our hearts, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Paul wants us to be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, blameless is not void of sin, it is walking in the light of Jesus and reflecting that light to a lost world, from a clear and clean reflector.

Saturday October 1 2016

Matthew 5:11-12

11-"Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.

12-Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.   Verses 11-12 explains and sheds light on the last of the eight Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mound (5:3-5:10). In the sermon on the mound we will find that Jesus talked about many things that were not relevant to the lives of the ones that were present at the time. This would indicate that Jesus was speaking to people down through the ages, as well as the ones present that day.   In verse 10 the persecution is because of their righteousness itself, and in verse 11 they are persecuted because of Jesus Himself. This might show that the lives of Christians then and now should be lived following the example of Jesus. It was not too many years after this sermon that that persecution began, the study of Acts and the writings of Paul and other New Testament writers show that with crystal clarity.   12-Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you: James talked about this in his writing, (James 1:2). This assures us that even though we might go through trials and tribulations now, the reward that will come later in heaven is much greater that any suffering we might go through here on this earth. Moreover, we are in great company, the Prophets that came before, went through much persecution.   The ones that are persecuted are done so because of the values found in these beatitudes, as well as the gospel itself. The Christian values are completely opposite from the standards and ethics of the world, and people lash out at what they do not understand. The persecution we go through is not as drastic as what the prophets of old had to endure, however, if no one is speaking ill of us, we must ask ourselves one critical question. Are the traits, morals and ideals of the beatitudes reflective of the way we live?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bible Verse of the Day

September 19^th Through September 24^th

 

 

Monday September 19 2016

Ephesians 4:29

29-Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

Verse 29 is the fourth of five exhortations that Paul gives to the Ephesians, as well as all his readers down through the ages, in this chapter. “Unwholesome talk” includes dishonesty, lying, complaining, as well as any conversation that might cause hurt or dissentient throughout the body of Christ. In an indirect manner, it could also be said that it might include false teaching being brought into the church.

We should only communicate to others, things that are going to be beneficial to them, talk that will hold our brothers and sisters up in esteem, all for the glory of God. When we complain about something in our lives, we are not only speaking against God, but we could be causing discouragement in those around us. Let us remember that one of the true fruits of the spirit is love, when we communicate these complaints to people that love us, it could be a cause of disappointment or despair in that person. At the very least it could be said that it will not benefit those who listen.

When someone brings up something that they say is in the Bible and it is false teachings, this is something that should be addressed immediately. False teachings most certainly are not helpful for building others up according to their needs and they will definitely not benefit those who listen.

 

Tuesday September 20^th 2016

Joel 2:23

²³ Be glad, people of Zion, rejoice in the Lord your God, for he has given you the autumn rains because he is faithful. He sends you abundant showers, both autumn and spring rains, as before.

Because of the poetic and prophetic nature of this book, it is somewhat difficult to take one single verse and isolate a specific message from it.

First, we will take a general look at the book itself. It has three chapters and the general theme of the book is encouraging those that have drifted away from God, or do not know Him, to come or return to Him. Although Joel does give us the name of his father, Pethuel, he does not give us any information about himself. Because of no mention of any specific times or incidences we cannot know precisely when the book was written. It is believed by most students of the bible that it may have been during the reign of Joash, however there are more theories as to when it was written.

The book is centered around an invasion of locus that destroys all plant life, however Joel symbolically describes these locus as an invading human army. The book is foundationally centered around two incidences, the invasion of the locus and the outpouring of the permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit. During the first sermon ever preached in the modern Christian world, Peter talked about a prophecy from this book being fulfilled that day (Acts 2:16-21; Joel 2:28-32). 

The dominant theme of the book of Joel is the final judgment of God when he pours out his wrath and judgment on the unbelieving world, the time of tribulation. Throughout the Old Testament all of the prophets spoke of the coming of the messiah, to take away the sins of the world. The people were satisfied with attempting to keep the law by their own works. They did not understand that the animal sacrifices were but a silhouette of the ultimate one-time last sacrifice that would come at the Cross of Calvary (Hebrews 10:10).

There will be a coming of the “Day of our Lord” when He will judge the world. For those that have placed their faith and trust in the substitutionary atonement of Christ Jesus there will be great glory and eternal bliss. For the ones, whether now or in days past, that have tried to come to God through good works there will be great suffering and an eternal punishment.     

 

Wednesday September 21 2016

2 Corinthians 13:14

¹⁴ May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

This verse is the final words, in the last letter from Paul to the church at Corinth, before his third and final visit to Corinth.

You will not find, in the New Testament, another blessing in which the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are refer to together, outside of this one. By mentioning all three degrees of the Trinity, Paul was most likely praying that the Christians in Corinth would be fully blessed by all that God is. An authentic Christian is one who looks and lives for as well as relishes in the grace of Christ Jesus, God’s Love and the intimacy and spiritual union of the Holy Spirit.

It was Paul’s aspiration that the Christians at Corinth, as well as all Christians down through the ages, might live in accordance to the Love and Grace of God shown by the work of Christ Jesus on the Cross of Calvary, made available to us through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. When one chooses to live by faith in accordance with the Grace of God, all self-interest and self-audaciousness will disappear from their lives. Qualities like pride, dissention, conflict and resentfulness will be restrained in the life of one that follows Christ Jesus. This all, of course, could not be without the indwelling of the Holy Spirit of God, leading, guiding and directing our lives.

When we have fellowship with the Holy Spirit, we will have the grace of Christ Jesus and the Love of God, and it works both ways, because all three are indivisible. When the Body of Christ, represented in any local church, understands this and lives accordingly, gets their lives right with God, there will be an indescribable revival of a magnitude unknown to mortal man. 

 

Thursday September 22 2016

Romans 15:7

7-Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.

In the Study of the New Testament, specifically the study of the history of the beginning of God’s Church, we find that the Jews wanted a division between them and the Gentiles. They did not want to accept salvation by grace through faith, they wanted to continue trying to live by the law. This would have created the Jewish Christian church and the Gentile Christian church, which Christ did not want. He made that very clear through some of His faithful servants like, Paul, Peter, John and others.

Paul is saying that there should be no divisions in Gods church, we should accept one another just like Christ accepted us. Jesus did not accept us because we were faultless and without sin, because of His great love He covered our sins and faults. In the first century the division was the Jews and Gentiles, today there are too many divisions to name. These numerous divisions do not agree, receive or accept those that are outside of their division. It would be difficult or maybe even impossible to bring praise to God outside of His will, His will is there be no divisions in the Body of Christ.

One more note, the word denomination means division, which we will we talking more about this Sunday.

Friday September 23 2016

Romans 5:3-4

3-Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;

4-perseverance, character; and character, hope.

Romans chapter 5 will be familiar to soul winners, the 8^th verse being part of the “Romans Road,” 8-But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Earlier in this book Paul had demonstrated and confirmed the thesis of “justification by faith,” as shown to be true by evidence from the Old Testament, as he had in several other writings of his. In this chapter Paul talks about the great blessings that come to those that are justified by faith, as oppose to those that think that their good work will get them a right standing with God.

The list of blessings that come from “justification by faith” are listed in this chapter, however, the full blessings from this could not be counted by means of human numbering or reasoning. First Paul shows that there is peace with God (Verse 1), secondly, the grace of God is freely given (verse 2a). The third blessing in the list in this verse leads us to our verse today (3-4). It begins in verse 2b and goes through verses 3 and 4, that is we can praise God in our trials and tribulations because we know that they are for our own good. The sufferings and trials that we go through will serve to mature us into better Christians, more effective followers of Christ Jesus, as we have learned in our study of the book of James. This concept can also be clearly shown in the book of Job as well as the 12^th chapter of Hebrews.

Paul knew firsthand how we are able to glory in our sufferings, because he lived a life that led to trials and tribulations most every day of his ministry. Let us praise God when these trials come our way, because we know that we are going to come out of them, and come out on the other side of the tribulations, a more mature Christian, and a better and more effective servant of our Lord and Savior, Christ Jesus.

 

Saturday September 24th 2016

Hebrews 10:35-36

35	So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.
36	You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.

 The 10^th chapter of Hebrews is concerning something we have been studying in our bible study class for some time now. That is the transition from the 5th dispensation to the 6^th, and the problems people were having accepting that a new dispensation had come. The Jews of the first century wanted to hang on to the law because they were under the misconception that the law was given for people to follow. The law was given to show our sinfulness, still today there are those out there who want to live by the law instead of the Grave given by God through the work of Christ Jesus on the Cross.

The law and the animal sacrifices were only a shadow of what was to come, that is our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus (Hebrews 10:1). When Jesus shed His perfect, sinless blood on the Cross, that was the final sacrifice for all times, He canceled the sin debt we owed and nailed it to the Cross (Colossians 2:14).

In this verse the writer of Hebrews is telling his readers not to throw away their confidence for what looks like a better reward. They should continue on in their walk with Christ, no matter how glamorous the reward outside of Christ Jesus appeared. The reward that awaits us for continued faithful service, no matter how rocky the road becomes, is so far beyond any earthy gain that it cannot be measured with earthly degrees. There is no bible evidence that would clearly indicate the non-existence of Heavenly rewards, but of course the rewards are not why we serve Jesus, it is because we love Him with all our hearts, minds, body and soul.

The best way, and it could be said the only way, to assure that we do not get caught up in falling away from Christ, or feeling a complete separation from Him and experience constant failure, is to continue to make progress in our Christian walk. Understand what point we are at and see the next step or point we need to get to, and continue to work to that end.