Bible Verses from Message of September 17, 2023

Scripture reference – Ephesians 4:7-17

Scripture describes the experience of unity – Psalm 133:1 “Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity.”

“Complete my joy of being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.” Philippians 2:2.

Satan will sir up unbelievers “19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do[b] such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” Galatians 5:19-21.

Christian unity is a high call “for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance. Philippians 1:19.

Unity refines us – “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.” 1 Peter 2:24.

That’s why we should “eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Ephesians 4:3.

Paul tells us to “22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” Ephesians 4:22-24.

Jesus gave us this commandment “34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” John 13:34.

Jesus envisioned a community willing to “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves” and “but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” Philippians 2:3 & 7.

The pursuit of unity is hard because love is costly.

Bible Study September 18, 2023

John 14:6-7 (ESV)

6 “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

I mentioned yesterday I used this passage of scripture in a recent celebration of life service. I shared that Jesus had gone away after calming the disciples minds and hearts to build our mansion. He is doing that as we await His return.

I was reading a reference to this passage which stated this is a both a positive and negative promise in the verse. Jesus laid out what would happen by choosing either direction – eternal heaven or eternal hell. Once we die our choice has been made. I encouraged people at this celebration of life to find Jesus by seeking Him or contacting me to discuss how they can.

People who do not know Jesus only go through the motions of life; Jesus came to give us abundant life. We may be a nice person but without a relationship we will not spend our lives with Jesus but we will spend eternity elsewhere.

In order to spend eternity in heaven we must be certain we know Him. Recognize our sin, repent, ask to be forgiven, thank Him for what He did on the cross and make Him Lord of your life. We do that by putting Him first.

Jesus is the “way, the truth, and the life.”

God Bless.

Bible Study September 16, 2023

Matthew 7:13 – 14 (ESV)

13 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”

I find Jesus words here different today than I had read them before. There are times when we read the scriptures and we see them directing a special message to us. I had always read that you have two gates one is narrow the other much wider. Today I saw it differently. He doesn’t begin by saying you have a choice but He says, “Enter the narrow gate.” Very specific which gate you enter. There are no options.

The narrow gate to the road may be farther down the fence row. It may require a few more steps. It may take longer for one to realize that the narrow gate is the right gate. You will find more people going through the wide gate and the wide gate will be passed through by those who:

• Do not follow the scriptures,
• Those who desire to rewrite the scriptures to satisfy their wants and desires,
• Those who simply think their way is better than Jesus’ way,
• Some just do not like to follow the Master.

But He makes it clear there is only one gate and it is a narrow gate. There is only one way to eternal life and that is the narrow gate that leads us there, This road will be harder the ground may not be as soft as you would like, you may stumble over a rock, there may be a snake in the road. He never promised us an easy walk but He did promise us an eternal home in Heaven as we grow in the image of Christ.

Look at the gates but choose the narrow one.

God Bless.

Bible Study September 15, 2023

Luke 7:33-34 (ESV)

33 “For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ 34 The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’

Seems like sometime no matter who you are or what you say it is wrong. We all know people who are constantly criticizing someone or something. They just seem to have what I call a “critical spirit” within them. They didn’t like what Jesus did, what John the Baptist did. I used to have a zone manager in the company I worked for and that person would seldom complement anyone or anything but they were excellent at criticizing everything. Interestingly no one wanted to be around them.

The Pharisees and Sadducees criticized Jesus for everything He did and when He did something good like healing on the sabbath they criticized Him for healing people. People criticized John for not drinking wine and Jesus for drinking wine. Religious leaders in the Jesus’ day could always find something to criticize Jesus for.

I have been criticized for decisions I made; you have been criticized for decisions you have made that is the nature of society. The church is criticized for not loving people when indeed it does love people, some have said the church is not loving because it does not accept all people. The church should be the one to accept all people after all the mission of the church is to build the kingdom.

A situation came up the other day and I was talking with someone about it. I have learned over the years if I am upset and want to respond in write it down and sleep on it before responding, I received that advice the other day as a reminder., thank you for that reminder.

We are blessed with two ears and one mouth; we should listen twice as much as we talk.

God Bless.

Bible Study September 14, 2023

Matthew 22:31 – 33 (ESV)

31 “And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God: 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.” 33 And when the crowd heard it, they were astonished at his teaching.”

Hope. This is a simple short word that has everlasting impact on a believer. It is what we look forward to our hope is in a future in heaven with God the Father, Jesus His Son, and the Holy Spirit. Hope for a future that is eternal. We do not want to get caught up in this world thinking it is all there is.

Tomorrow I will celebrate the second celebration of life for two men this week. On Tuesday it was for a man who had been blessed with ninety-five years on this earth. On Friday one for a man who had seventy-three years on this earth. Tuesday after sharing the unique things of this man’s life I shared from Luke 16 the story of Lazarus and the rich man. Lazarus was in Abraham’s bosom while the rich man looked up from his grave and saw Lazarus from his eternity. I asked them if they had any questions. I would love to talk to them about eternity. Friday I am sharing from the fourteenth chapter of John Gospel concerning Jesus promise to return to take us to our mansion in heaven.

Many people spend much of their waking lives involved in all that is going on forgetting the eternal. We tend to live in the physical realm. God is eternal, we are eternal. We should think of eternity in the realm of God is eternal and we are created to spend eternity with Him.

Jesus died for our eternity let us live for the “hope” that He has placed within us.

God Bless.

Bible Study September 13, 2023

Romans 8:9-10 (ESV)

9 “You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.”

Man is composed of three things a physical body, a soul (mind) and a spirit. However, man seems to enjoy living by the dictates of his body than his spirit. We should be living by the Spirit.

Hydrangeas are an interesting flowering plant. Cindy and I had them in our yard in Ohio and we simply could not get them to bloom. Even the man living behind us who was a member of the Hosta Society couldn’t help. I read today that if you plant rusty nails with a pink-blooming hydrangea it will change colors to blue. The color is affected by the pH factor in the soil. A change was made to the soil.

Do we need to change things in our life to make us bloom or maybe bloom brighter? Can we get away from being led by what our body wants and desires to what the Spirit desires for us? What would those changes look like? What if I decided to lose some weight so I cut back on or cut out sugar from my diet? Could we live with the reducing our desire for sugar?

Sometime we need to add an outside factor that we are not used to. You normally would not plant nails with a flower. You may not read the scriptures on a daily basis but give it a try even if you read the same scripture for a week or more until it gets rooted in your spirit. Satan may tell you that you do not pray enough don’t let him be the judge you judge yourself and if you are guilty then make some changes. This is one I need to do more.

Simply adding something or making a change can radically cause you to bloom.

God Bless.

Bible Study September 12, 2023

John 8:12 (ESV)

12 “Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Darkness is something many people fear, the unknown is right up there. I remember visiting a young man who was incarcerated for drug addiction. I met him both in the jail where he was serving and also in a treatment facility to help addicts. The jail was a dismal place we talked via a telephone and even the room I was in was an unpleasant surrounding. Interesting though I will call the one young man Mike to keep his anonymity he told me he was reading his Bible on a daily basis.

If it was that way to me what was it like being there twenty-four hours a day? I also met a second young man who had a similar problem with addiction, two different men but the same problem. I imagine living in addiction is a dark experience. In a jail there is evil all around. I believe it would be difficult to find any element of peace in a facility like that.

The darkness remained for both of these men until a change came into their lives. Both sought treatment and one overcame it Mike did not. One passed away once freed from the confines of the treatment center. The second young man now married with a family is doing well. Darkness can be overcome and it takes only a small amount of light to overcome the darkest of situations.

R. Douglas Weaver, A Cloud of Witnesses wrote this: “Holy Scripture is witness to the light of God that arises in the midst of the deepest darkness to illumine the darkness. Scripture is not witness to the light taking away the darkness or exempting people from confronting the darkness in which they live. John Chrysostom in his sermon on Matthew 4 pointed out that the light springs up on its own accord. No amount of human seeking will summon the light of God’s presence into existence. The light dawns. It bursts forth when we are enveloped in darkness. God seeks us, comes to us, and breaks into our darkness as only God can. We cannot summon the sunrise. We can wait and allow the light to illumine our very being as it dawns.”

God Bless.

Bible Study September 11, 2023

Deuteronomy 4:9 (ESV)

“Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children’s children—

I remember vividly as though it was yesterday I told Matt bedtime stories. I never told them the way they were written I always changed them and when he wanted the same story the next night I had better tell it the way I did the last time. If I didn’t he would correct me. Those were special times for me.

Reading the same story as written would have been regimented to me I like to change it up. Too often we get regimented in our routines and miss the spectacular because of the ordinary. Yesterday I had the opportunity to speak with a lady whose daughter has had cancer since she was four in various types. Today she is cancer free after some extensive surgical work and the healing hand of our Lord.

I visited with a man recently who has seen good things happen in his family all of which he gives to prayer and the mighty hand of God. A couple of weeks ago I was talking with someone who when I asked how they were doing said they went back to church for the first time in a long time. They also went on to tell me the message was just for them. These are all significant happenings in our lives that are no less than miraculous. Celebrate the victories.

Take the opportunity to share these experiences with others so they can see the hand of God is moving, tell your story it is a miracle.

God Bless.