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.