Posts Tagged ‘theology’

Spiritual Training 15 October 2012

Posted: October 14, 2012 in Acceptance, Bible Study, Encourgement, Inspiration, Personal Growth, Proverbs, Romans, Spiritual Training, trust in the Lord with all your heart, Uncategorized, Under Gods Command
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Under Gods Command

Romans 1:11-13 I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith.  I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles.     

A reading of the first few verses of Romans relates Paul’s ardent desire to visit Rome and the sovereign hand of God that had prevented him from getting there for quite some time.  The combination of these two factors – Paul’s impassioned desire to go to Rome and God’s severing “no” resulted in his sitting down to write this letter to the Romans.  This letter is a powerful exposition of the Christian faith and has helped countless millions of believers across the centuries since Paul first penned it to the group of believers in Rome.

Lets Bring it Home: Perhaps there are some “no’s” in our lives that God is planning to use greatly if we would just faithfully do what lies directly ahead of us instead of worrying about why we did’ get our way.

Spiritual Training 13 September 2012

Posted: September 13, 2012 in Acceptance, Bible Study, Encourgement, Inspiration, Personal Growth, Spiritual Training, trust in the Lord with all your heart, Uncategorized, Under Gods Command
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Under Gods Command

Judges 18:18-21 When these men went into Micah’s house and took the carved image, the ephod, the other household gods and the cast idol, the priest said to them, “What are you doing?” They answered him, “Be quiet! Don’t say a word.  Come with us, and be our father and priest.  Isn’t it better that you serve a tribe and clan in Israel as priest rather than just one man’s household? Then the priest was glad.  He took the ephod, the other household gods and the carved image and went along with the people.  Putting their little children, their livestock and their possessions in front of them, they turned away and left. 

 Through this entire incident, no one desired to worship God; instead, they wanted to use God for selfish gain.  Today some people go to church to feel better, be accepted, relieve guilt, and gain business contacts or friends.

Lets Bring it Home: Beware of following God for selfish gain rather than selfless service.

Spiritual Training 12 September 2012

Posted: September 12, 2012 in Acceptance, Bible Study, Encourgement, Inspiration, Judges, Personal Growth, Spiritual Training, trust in the Lord with all your heart, Uncategorized, Under Gods Command
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Under Gods Command

Judges 17:5-6 Now this man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and some idols and installed one of his sons as his priest.  In those days Israel had no king, everyone did as he saw fit. 

Today, as in Micah’s day, everyone seems to put his or her own interests first.  Time has not changed human nature.  Most people still reject God’s right way of living.  The people in Micah’s time replaced the true worship of God with a homemade version of worship.  As a result, justice was soon replaced by revenge and disorder.  Ignoring God’s direction led to confusion and destruction.  Anyone who has not submitted to God will end up doing whatever seems right at the time.

Lets Bring it Home: This tendency is present in all of us.  To know what is really right and to have the strength to do it, we need to draw closer to God and his Word.

Proverbs 7:1-5 Wisdom for the Soul

Posted: September 7, 2012 in Acceptance, Bible Study, Encourgement, Inspiration, Personal Growth, Proverbs, Spiritual Training, trust in the Lord with all your heart, Uncategorized, Under Gods Command
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Under Gods Command

Proverbs 7:1-5 My son, keep my words and store up my commands within you.  Keep my commands and you will live; guard my teachings as the apple of your eye.  Bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart.  Say to wisdom, “you are my sister,” and call understanding your kinsman; they will keep you from the adulteress, from the wayward wife with her seductive words. 

Sons often neglect their father’s instructions and warnings. If they forget them, they will not be ready, when temptation is in their eyes, ears, heart, and loins. And the temptation here is dangerous and powerful – a beautiful and skilled adulteress (7:5-27). The same lesson applies to young women, when they are infatuated with a handsome man. Solomon begins and ends his warning with appeals to remember his advice (7:1-4,24).

The dangers of not remembering are great. How will a young man resist, when his eyes are full of her beauty, his ears full of her flattery, his heart full of her offered love and submission, and his loins full of desire (5:3;6:24-25; 7:13-21)? How will a young woman resist, when her eyes are full of his manliness, her ears full of his flattery, her heart full of his attention and affection, and her body craves his full embrace (Gen 34:1-3)?

By nature, a son does not value his father’s warnings. He deceives himself to believe that his father is out of touch with the world, that his father overstates the danger, that his father wants to deprive him of pleasure, that his father never met a desirable woman, that his father did not have sexual lusts, or that he can escape the consequences his father describes. All these are damnable lies from a foolish youthful heart and the father of lies.

Sons must trust fathers and esteem their advice and warnings. Every father was once a young man with the same desires and temptations. But a father has survived youth and reflected much on what is best for his son. He has long-term success in mind, not short-term pleasures that will ruin his life! Fathers love their sons more than any woman will ever love them, even a virtuous wife! Young man, keep your father’s commandments!

Young men must resist the attraction and temptation of a whorish woman by having their minds firmly established in their fathers’ commandments long before they encounter this very dangerous creature. Once they are even slightly captivated by the appearance, flattery, or offers of a seductress, it becomes almost impossible to recall any warnings.

But what will a young man do, whose father does not teach or warn him about such a woman? He will be helpless before the drawing power of her body and wiles. Such fathers are accomplices in the destruction of their sons! Though he may have advised and warned about many dangers, he neglected the most harmful. Fathers, save your sons!

Reader! God your Father has given His commandments and law to you. Do you keep them as the apple of your eye? Do you read them daily? Do you meditate upon them? Do you tremble before their warnings and rejoice at their instruction? Or do you deceive yourself that you can forget or neglect them and survive? Do not be a fool!

 

Spiritual Training 06 September 2012

Posted: September 6, 2012 in Acceptance, Bible Study, Encourgement, Inspiration, Judges, Personal Growth, Spiritual Training, trust in the Lord with all your heart, Uncategorized, Under Gods Command
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Under Gods Command
Idolatry in the tribe of Dan

Judges 17:1-3 Now a man named Micah from the hill country of Ephraim said to his mother, “The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from you and about which I heard you utter a curse-I have that silver with me; I took it.” Then his mother said, “The LORD bless you, my son!” When he returned the elven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, she said,  “I will give it back to you.”  When he returned the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, she said, “I solemnly consecrate my silver to the LORD for my son to make a carved image and a cast idol.  I will give it back to you.” 

Micah and his mother seemed to be good and moral and may have sincerely desired to worship God, but they disobeyed God by following their own desires instead of doing what God wanted.  The attitude that prevailed in Micah’s day was this: “Every one did as he saw fit” (17:6).  Everyone should already know that making carved images and idols are against Gods Commands.

Lets Bring it Home: This is remarkably similar to today’s prevailing attitudes.  But God has given us standards.  He has not left our conduct up to us and our opinions.  We can avoid conforming to society’s low standards by taking God’s commands seriously and applying them to life.  Independence and self-reliance’s are positive traits, but only within the framework of God’s standards.

 

Spiritual Training 24 August 2012

Posted: August 24, 2012 in Acceptance, Bible Study, Encourgement, Inspiration, Personal Growth, Spiritual Training, trust in the Lord with all your heart, Uncategorized, Under Gods Command
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Under Gods Command
Practice what you preach or teach
 
Romans 2:17-24 Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and brag about your relationship to God; If you know his will and approve of what is superior because you are  instructed by the law, if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth, you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal?  You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?  You who brag about the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? As it is written. “God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentles because of you. 

Those of us who have grown up in Christian families are the religiously privileged of today.  Paul’s condemnation applies to us if we do not live up to what we know.  Paul explained to the Jews that they need to teach themselves, not others, by their law.  They know the law so well that they had learned how to excuse their own actions while criticizing others.  We face this today in our daily walk.  We need to remember that we cannot please God without a proper relationship with him.  As Jesus pointed out, even withholding what rightfully belongs to someone else is stealing, and looking on another persons with lustful, adulterous intent is adultery. Before we accused others, we must look at ourselves and see if that sin, in any form, exists within us. If we claim to be one of God’s people, our life should reflect what God is like.  When you disobey God, you dishonor his name.  People may even blaspheme or profane God’s name because of you.  What do people think about God from watching your life.

Spiritual Training 23 August 2012

Posted: August 23, 2012 in Acceptance, Bible Study, Encourgement, Inspiration, Personal Growth, Spiritual Training, trust in the Lord with all your heart, Uncategorized, Under Gods Command
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Under Gods Command

Samson: His story is told in Judges 13-16

 Samson: It is sad to be remembered for what one might have been.  Samson had tremendous potential.  Because Samson wasted his strength on practical jokes and getting out of scrapes, and because he eventually gave it up altogether to satisfy the woman he loved, we tend to see him s a failure.  We remember him as the judge in Israel who spent his last days grinding grain in an enemy prison, and we say, “What wasted potential!”

Yes, Samson wasted his life.  He could have strengthened his nation.  He could have returned his people to the worship of God.  He could have wiped out the Philistines.  But even though he did none of those things.  Samson still accomplished the purpose announced by the angel who visited his parents before his birth.  In his final act, Samson began to rescue Israel from the Philistines.

Interestingly, the New Testament does not mention Samson’s failures or his heroic feats of strength.  In Hebrews 11:33, he is simply listed with others “who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised,” and in other ways were given superhuman aid.  In the end, Samson recognized his dependence on God.  When he died, God turned his failures and defeats into victory. 

 Samson’s story teaches us that it is never too late to start over.  However badly we may have failed in the past, today is not too late for us to put our complete trust in God.  

Spiritual Training 21 August 2012

Posted: August 21, 2012 in Acceptance, Bible Study, Encourgement, Inspiration, Judges, Personal Growth, Spiritual Training, trust in the Lord with all your heart, Uncategorized, Under Gods Command
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Under Gods Command

The Death of Samson

Judges 16:27-30 Now the temple was crowded with men and women; all the rulers of the Philistines were there, and on the roof were about three thousand men and women watching Samson perform.  Then Samson prayed to the LORD, “O Sovereign LORD, remember me.  O God, please strengthen me just one more, and let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes.”  Then Samson reached toward the two central pillars on which the temple stood.  Bracing himself against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other,  Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” Then he pushed with all his might, and down came the temple on the rulers and all the people in it.  Thus he killed many more when he died than while he lived. 

In spite of Samson’s past, God still answered his prayer and destroyed the pagan temple and worshipers.  God still loved him.  He was willing to hear Samson’s prayer of confession and repentance and use him this final time.

Lets Bring it Home: One of the effects of sin in our lives is to keep us from feeling like praying.  But perfect moral behavior is not a condition for prayer.  Don’t let guilt feelings over sin keep you from your only means of restoration.  No matter how long you have been away from God, he is ready to hear from you and restore you to a right relationship.  Every situation can be salvaged if you are willing to turn again to him.  If God could still work in Samson’s situation, he can certainly make something worthwhile out of yours.

Spiritual Training 17 August 2012

Posted: August 17, 2012 in Acceptance, Bible Study, Encourgement, Inspiration, Judges, Personal Growth, Proverbs, Spiritual Training, trust in the Lord with all your heart, Uncategorized, Under Gods Command
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Under Gods Command

Samson and Delilah

Judges 16:20 Having put him to sleep on her lap, she called a man to shave off the seven braids of his hair, and so began to subdue him.  And his strength left him. 

Delilah was a deceitful woman with honey on her lips and poison in her heart.  Cold and manipulative, she toyed with Samson, pretending to love him while looking for personal gain.  How could Samson be so foolish?  Four times Delilah took advantage of him.  If he didn’t realize what was happening after the first or second experience, surely he should have understood the situation by the fourth time!

Lets Bring it Home: We think Samson is foolish, but how many times do we allow ourselves to be deceived by flattery and give into to temptation and wrong beliefs?  Avoid falling prey to deceit by asking God to help you distinguish between deception and truth.

Spiritual Training 15 August 2012

Posted: August 15, 2012 in Acceptance, Bible Study, Encourgement, Inspiration, Judges, Personal Growth, Spiritual Training, trust in the Lord with all your heart, Uncategorized, Under Gods Command
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Under Gods Command

Samson and Delilah

Judges 16:04-05 Sometime later, he fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sroek whose name was Delilah.  The rulers of the Philistines went to her and said, “See if you can lure him into showing you the secret of his great strength and how we can overpower him so we may tie him up and subdue him.  Each one of us will give you eleven hundred shekels of silver.   

Judges 16:15 Then she said to him, “How can you say, I love you, when you won’t confide in me?  This is the third time you have made a fool of me and haven’t told me the secret of your great strength.”

Samson was deceived because he wanted to believe Delilah’s lies.  Although he could strangle a lion, he could not smother his burning lust and see Delilah for who she really was.

Lets Bring it Home: How can you keep your desire for love and sexual pleasure from deceiving you?

1) You must decide what kind of a person you will love before passion takes over.  Determine whether a person’s character and faith in God are as desirable as his or her physical appearance.

2) Because most of the time you spend with your spouse will not involve sex, your companion’s personality, temperament, and commitment to solve problems must be as gratifying as his or her kisses.

3) Be patient.  Time and observation often reveal what is beneath the pleasant appearance and attentive touch.

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