Bible Study July 22, 2024

2 Corinthians 13:11 – 14

11 Finally, brothers, rejoice, be restored, be comforted, be like-minded, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you. 12 Greet one another with a holy kiss. 13 All the saints greet you. 14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.

We have shared the last couple of weeks as we began looking at the book of Acts about the church being established by Jesus and His giving of the Holy Spirit to empower people to do the work of sharing the gospel. I mentioned Genesis 1:26 where Moses wrote about the creation that “we made man in our image.” We being the Father (God), Son (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit. For some it may be difficult but accept it as the Word of God by faith.

Our earthly families are easily identifiable. We know what each person in the family does, who they are, how they share and interact with one another. Our Heavenly Family is the same way.

The heavenly family works together as the earthly family does to accomplish its goals. Our heavenly family works together to bring us closer to Him, closer in fellowship with our heavenly Father to help us walk in righteousness.

To know God is to know the Son and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is with us to guide us, to convict us of sin, to lead us into truth. We van only be led when we have Him as our guide.

“The three Persons in the Godhead are Three in one sense, and One in another. We cannot tell how – and that is the mystery.” Samuel Johnson.

God Bless.

Bible Study July 19, 2024

Ecclesiastes 4:9 – 10 (LSB)

“Two are better than one because they have good wages for their labor. 10 For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not a second one to lift him up.”

Two of the strongest words we find in our Christian walk are faith and hope. Faith is our hope for what we cannot see. We cannot see heaven yet; we cannot see the Holy Spirit yet faith and hope bring these to us. We cannot see the wind yet we know it blows around us.

John Bunyan wrote about faith and hope in Pilgrim’s Progress of two friends Faithful and Hopeful. Even when they are captured and their names give wise counsel.

No burden we have is to great for the Lord or to great for us to carry when He carries it foe us. I was in a meeting last evening where we have a mountain to move and as we concluded I mentioned that mountain that is before us. We may not yet know the answer but as I said God has the answer and we need to seek Him for His answer. That is where faith and hope enter in.

No burden is to great, no answer cannot be given. John 14:1 in the Message says “Don’t let this rattle you. You trust God, don’t you? Trust me.” Sometimes trust is all we have. We should be encouraging our friends when the mountain is in our way.

“A true friend never gets in you way unless you are going down.” Arnold H. Glasgow.

God Bless.

Bible Study July 18, 2024

Job 4:6

Is not your fear of God your confidence, And the integrity of your ways your hope?“

Words go out of style; names go out of style. No one I know has the name of my grandmother. Things change over time hopefully for the good. I remember living in Nashville and I heard the term in the south “fixin to do something.”

The same thing is true for words like holy, reverence, devout. We might practice some of them but seldom do we use them in a sentence or in conversation. They are simply lost words in our day.

Loss of reverence is of particular importance. We no longer revere many of the things our parents and ancestors had respect for. What happened to godly fear, reverence for holy God. Is it that we are too busy to give honor? Are we to consumed with everyday activities that this has taken a back seat to everything else that we find important?

Solomon wrote in Proverbs 28:15 “How blessed is the man who is always in dread, But he who hardens his heart will fall into calamity.? The Lord of Malachi’s day even demanded reverence. Malichi 1:6 says, “if I am a master, where is the fear of Me?’ says Yahweh of hosts?”

He should not have to demand reverence we should give it to Him.

“There is communion with God, in which the soul feels the presence of the unseen One, in the profound depths of its being, with a vivid distinctness and a holy reverence, such as no words can describe.” Samuel Robbins.

God Bless.

Bible Study July 17, 2024

Psalm 139:1 – 7

“O Yahweh, You have searched me and known me. 2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. 3 You scrutinize my path and my lying down, And are intimately acquainted with all my ways. 4 Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O Yahweh, You know it all. 5 You have enclosed me behind and before, And You have put Your hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is too high; I cannot attain to it. 7 Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?”

The Lord searches us and knows us much better than we know ourselves. But do we have a tendency to judge others more closely than we do ourselves. We must be careful about being overly introspective and to quick to criticize others. If we have misguided judgements we can easily hurt others.

Be discerning, allow the Holy Spirit to guide your thoughts and words. We must always keep in mind the Holy Spirit is the only one who can truly read our hearts. We do not have the ability to discern another’s heart nor should we try.

Psalm 139:23 – 24 says, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; 24 And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way.”

“The best of (us) are too apt to judge rashly, and harshly, and unjustly; but [God’s} judgement is always according to truth.” Matthew Henry.

God Bless.

Bible Study July 16, 2024

2 Timothy 3:14 – 17

14 “But you, continue in the things you learned and became convinced of, knowing from whom you learned them, 15 and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be equipped, having been thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

The scriptures are three things to us: a road map, a spotlight, and a coach. His Word will direct as a road map gives us direction now today we have GPS that has replaced the road map, but both give direction. We need to know the road we are on.

It is also a spotlight that illuminates our path. If we keep the light on then we will always know what is before us and what obstacles that exist that we must avoid. It is a light unto our path that will guide our steps.

Thirdly, it is a coach. A coach is a person who shows us how to better ourselves in anything we do. There are voice coaches that help singers, sports coaches that help us improve and hone our skills in order to improve out performance. Coaches are important to keep us working to improve our skills and show us where we need to make adjustments..

How much time do you spend with your light, map, and coach? It is vitally important that we utilize these tools to walk the straight path that Jesus has laid out before us.

“[God] has sent us sixty-six love letters etched in heavenly handwriting. And the more we meditate upon those words, the clearer His voice will resonate.” Hank Hanegraaff.

God Bless.

Bible Study July 15, 2024

Romans 8:28 – 30

28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose. 29 Because those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers; 30 and those whom He predestined, He also called; and those whom He called, He also justified; and those whom He justified, He also glorified.”

As you read these verses what are your thoughts?

• I’ll never have a problem,
• I’ll never get sick,
• No one in my family will ever die.
• No disease will ever overtake me.

Can you take verse twenty-eight literally that everything that happens to you is good? Recently Joe Bonsall dies from ALS.  I know a person reading this who has ALS so I ask is that good? Is cancer good? Is the loss of a family member good? I have my answer I leave it to you to answer for yourself.

Not all things work to the good if we were to leave it there, but we cannot. The key that question lies is in the next verse. They only work for our good if we are “conformed to the image of the Son.”

We will face many issues as we walk our path toward heaven on this earth and we may find health issues, friends and family may die to soon or die period those are not good things. How do we deal with such things.

Jesus suffered yet He found peace with the Father, we will suffer but we too can find peace with the Father through the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, “Come unto me all you that labor and I will give you rest.” Ask Him to come into your life if He isn’t there already and you will find the peace that  transforms you into His image.

“I may not the answers, but I do have Him.” Dave Dravecky.

God Bless.

Bible Study July 12, 2024

Proverbs 18:20 – 24 (LSB)

“From the fruit of a man’s mouth his stomach will be satisfied; With the produce of his lips he will be satisfied. 21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit.22 He who finds a wife finds a good thing And obtains favor from Yahweh. 23 The poor man speaks supplications, But the rich man answers with strong words. 24 A man of too many friends comes to ruin, But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”

Have you ever had a reversal of friendship? I had a neighbor in West Chester, Ohio who invited me to play golf in a retired league after I retired. I played two years in fact we rode in the same golf cart. We even shared time as several families at Halloween passing out candy to little kids. One day he brought up something in a discussion about politics and how I voted, although I refuse to answer that question to anyone he surmised I was more conservative than he. He mentioned one day that anyone who would vote for a particular candidate was an idiot. He then told me I was an idiot and the golf and friendship ended.

Who do you think of when you see a reversal of friendship – Job comes to my mind. His three “best friends” all gave him advice albeit bad advice. They came to outline Job’s failures and lecture him on all he had done wrong when if fact he had done nothing wrong.

Even at times siblings disagree and in some unfortunate cases there is ill will developing that leads to outright infighting. There is nothing worse that be at a celebration of life service to see families living in discontent.

Jesus is the best friend we can have and we should pattern our lives after Him.

God Bless.