Bible Verse of the Day

Monday August 1st thru Saturday August 6th

 

 

 

Monday August 1st

Psalms 119:114

114	You are my refuge and my shield; I have put my hope in your word.

 

Psalm 119 has become a very popular Chapter for the Bible Gateway Verse of the Day, in the last couple of months. Being the longest Psalm as well as the longest chapter in the bible, there are many messages to be gleaned from this wonderful Psalm.

We can come to know God on a very personal level, but only through His Holy Word. There will be times that we will have to suffer in private, those times God is our refuge. He is the safe harbor in which we can securely rest. Then there will be other times that we are called on to fight the spiritual battles against the evils of this world. At those times He will be our shield. Paul tells us in Ephesians 6:16 to “take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.” God is our shield but as Paul tells us we must “take it up,” we must raise it up in order to use it. If we only band the shield to our arm it will not be able to protect our hearts from the flaming arrows that Satan will be shooting at us. We must lift it and hold it high in order for it to protect us.

The hope that we have is not like the hope that the world sees, ‘I hope This or that will happen,” “Hope in your word” is an assured belief that what God has promised in His Word, He will bring about (Romans 8:23-25; Hebrews 11:1; Acts 2:26; Romans 12:12).

Tuesday August 2nd 2016

James 1:22

22	Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.

 

Doing God’s word here in this verse is speaking of obedience, to follow God’s will for your life. Sometimes we are tempted to move away from what we know God wants us to do. This is not discounting the reading and study of the Word of God, however obedience should be the fruit of that study. When we become comfortable in the fact that we have and are studying God’s word without following what it teaches us, we are deceiving ourselves.

Jesus brought forth this same principle at the end of His “Sermon on the Mound” (Matthew 7:24-27). He said that “the one who heard the word without doing it was like a man who built his house on the sand, but the one who heard God's word and did it was like a man whose house was built on a rock.” In order to endure the storms that are inevitably going to come in all of our lives, we must both hear and do God’s will for us from His Word.

Some preacher or Bible teacher may eloquently and persuasively present a message on the Gospel of Christ Jesus, or fully explain a certain section of the Bible and it sheds light so that we can fully understand what the writer had in mind. However, when the sermon is finished or the Bible Study class is done, it is far from done. What remains is for the hearers to do what they have been taught from God’s Word. If one is content with the sentimental approval and appreciation or enjoyment of the spiritual hors d’oeuver they have just partaken of, then they are deceiving themselves.

Charles Spurgeon once told this story that drives home the point: “When Donald came out of kirk sooner than usual, Sandy said to him, What, Donald, is the sermon all done? 'No,' said Donald, it is all said, but it is not begun to be done yet.”

 

Wednesday August 3rd 2016

1 Samuel 16:6-7

6	When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, "Surely the LORD’s anointed stands here before the LORD."
7	But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."

 

God had told Samuel to go to the house of Jesse, the Bethlehemite, to anoint the new king of Israel from among his eight sons (1 Samuel 16:10-11). When the sons of Jesse were passing by Samuel, He thought Eliab had to be the Lord’s choice for King. As the story continues we find that David was not among the seven that passed by Samuel. This would indicate that possibly Jesse did not think as highly of David as he did of his other seven sons. Apparently, Samuel was judging Eliab by his appearance, as Jesse was judging David not to be fit to be among the group that was presented to Samuel.

When Samuel had seen the seven sons of Jesse and had made his choice, he asked Jesse if that were all of his sons, to which Jesse replied, there was the youngest, David who was watching the sheep. When David was brought before Samuel, God told him to anoint this one, because he is My choice.

The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart: First of all, Jesse made a mistake that many parents have made down through history. Jesse did not hold an equal admiration and approval for all of his children, he may have seen David as a servant instead of a son, because while the rest of the sons were at the house to meet Samuel, Jesse had left David out in the fields working.

Secondly, this is a lesson for all of us that have judged someone by their appearance rather than who they are, in their heart. When we see someone with tattoos covering the majority of their body, several body piercing or multiple colored hair, how many of us have not looked at that person with less than the respect we should have shown them. We all have our own ideas of what is normal and acceptable dress and appearance. As humans we sometimes tend to have boundaries on what we accept on either side of that normality.

John 7:24 tells us to “stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly."

 

Thursday August 4th 2016

Jeremiah 33:1-3

1	While Jeremiah was still confined in the courtyard of the guard, the word of the LORD came to him a second time:
2	"This is what the LORD says, he who made the earth, the LORD who formed it and established it —the LORD is his name:
3	’Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’

Jeremiah was being held prisoner by King Zedekiah of Judah, because he had prophesied that Babylon was going to succeed in taking the Nation of Judah into captivity. Moreover, they were going to take King Zedekiah into Babylon as a prisoner as well (Jeremiah 32:1-5). Zedekiah was the last King of the Nation of Israel.

This is what the LORD says, he who made the earth, the LORD who formed it and established it —the LORD is his name: God introduced Himself here as the architect and creator of the earth (Jeremiah 32:7; Genesis 1). He said this to show His power in what He was about to promise to do.

Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know: God was telling the people of Judah, through the Prophet Jeremiah, that if they came to Him in a faith-filled prayer, they could be confident in His answers to those prayers. This was a time of fear and confusion for the people of Judah. They were enduring and suffering the horror of the siege from the Nation of Babylon and the soon promise of judgment. Jeremiah had already prophesied that they were going to be taken prisoner by Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and serve him for seventy years. God’s plans for the nation of Israel were unknown to most people, however, He would show them some of these things in answer to the Prophet Jeremiah’s prayer.

God always stand ready to respond to the call of the hearts of human beings, however, we must first ask God for help and support (Matthew 7:7; James 4:2). God will make Himself known to us, as He has since He created man and woman. In order to Make Himself known to us He wants to hear from us, He wants us to reach out to Him. This is the reason that prayer and bible study are interconnected. Our communication with God is a two-way path, prayer takes our petitions to the Throne of God and God’s Holy Word is what brings the answer to us. We do have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that will lead, guide and direct us into what direction we should be moving, but this happens in conjunction with the Bible. A shallow prayer life brings forth a shallow pool of blessings, a median prayer Life brings forth a moderate number of blessings, but a deep, committed and consecrated prayer life brings about blessing that we could never fathom or even imagine.

 

 

Friday August 5th 2016

Psalm 119:130

130	The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.

 

I guess by now we are all familiar with this Psalm, the longest Psalm and the longest chapter in the Bible. This is the seventh time a verse of scripture from this great Psalm has appeared as verse of the day since June (Psalm 119:7; 14; 30; 59-60; 93; 114).

The unfolding of your words gives light: The word unfolding in this verse brings to mind the unfolding of a tent entrance. When the Children of Israel spent forty years in the wilderness they all lived in tents. There was only one entrance to the tent, the front flap and when it was unfolded it allowed light to come into the tent.

When we unfold the entrance of our hearts, it will allow the light of God’s Word to come in and illuminate the truth, that we so desperately need. It will make the everyday situations that we have to face become more clear and easier to handle. It is a sad state of affairs, that with God’s light shining all around, some today choose to leave their heart flap closed and miss out on the Light of the World, Christ Jesus (John 8:12). The Light of the World does not find an entrance into some minds and souls, because they are closed and blocked with self-importance, narrow-mindedness and unconcern.

It gives understanding to the simple: Contrary to some belief, it does not take a PHD in theology to understand what God is telling the world, through His Holy Word. All that is required is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and a great thirst and hunger for the truth. The Word of God is so powerful and amazing that even a child, or one whose name is not followed by initials, can understand and realize more of what God is teaching than the world’s greatest philosophers.

 

Saturday August 6th 2016

Psalm 119:160

160	All your words are true; all your righteous laws are eternal.

 

Psalm 119 shows up for the second day in a row. There is enough information from God, in this longest of all Psalms, to warrant much study and investigation.

In looking for one adjective to describe God’s word, it becomes challenging because God’s Word is true but also infallible, dependable, unfailing, reliable, trustworthy, perfect, flawless, and the list could go on and on. God’s word is true from the first word in Genesis to the last word in Revelation. Every word in the Bible, though written by a person of God, is God directed and God breathed.

Satan has tried to block God’s plan of Salvation from the beginning, he has never stopped and never will, until he is thrown into the “Lake of burning sulfur” along with the Beast and the False Prophet (Revelation 20:10). He tried to stop the building of the church in the first century AD, as we have seen in our study of the History of the church (Monday night Bible study). That didn’t work so now Satan is trying to place doubt in peoples’ mind as to the authenticity of the Word of God. There are major Denominations today that are saying that the Bible is not actually the Word of God but only the inspired Word of God. This means that some person may have written the Bible, with the leading of God but with their own opinions and theories. This is being done so that man can change the precepts, principles and teachings of the Bible to go along with modern political correctness. This is Satan attempting to place doubt on the truth and authenticity of God’s Word so that people will pay less attention to it.

The Word of, and from God, is just as solid and true today as it was when He walked in the Garden of Eden, during the cool of the day, and asked Adam “Where are you” (Genesis 3:8-9). It will be the same for the rest of the time we are in the flesh here in this life and for the life to come for eternity. There will always only be a few that realize that and follow Christ Jesus (Matthew 7:14).