Category: Bible

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The scripture for today, June 9, is Job 6:9-8 found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

0-BOOK 7-SHADOW OF DEATH-Cover“Oh that I might have my request, that God would grant what I hope for, that God would be willing to crush me, to let loose his hand and cut me off!”

Job was suffering terribly. The Bible says he had sores all over his body. There were other symptoms listed elsewhere in Job that indicate he had a form of leprosy. Now he just wanted to die.

When we get into a life problem that seems hopeless, do we just give up and say, “God, I can’t go on like this. Just take my life right now. It’s too hard. I can’t do it any more.”?

God knows what you are going through. God knows that Satan is attacking you. When things are desperately low, your job is just to hang on. It often takes God time to shift around a lot of other people’s lives in order to alleviate your pain.

Remember, God hurts just as much when you suffer as when he watched his own Son suffer on the cross. His Son’s suffering accomplished something wonderful for others. So too, some day your suffering will somehow in some way accomplish something good. And ultimately, just by surviving, Satan loses and God wins.

This too will pass. You may not think so, but it will. You may think you will never smile again, never want to go around people again, never sing again. But you will. Just like Job did.

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WORSHIP THE FIRST-CENTURY WAY-COVER-KINDLEThe scripture for today, June 8, is Romans 6:8 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

“Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.”

We all want to live with Christ, but how do we die with him? Earlier in this same chapter, God inspired the writer to say this: “We died to sin….don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead…we too may live a new life” (Romans 6:2-4).

So, just as Christ did a physical action to die for us, we do a physical action to die with him. And just as Christ’s physical death overcame spiritual death, so our physical action overcomes our spiritual death. Then we are born again, or as this verse says, we “live a new life”.

Some say this is water salvation. But it is no more water salvation than the cross was wood salvation. We live in a physical world and God has us sometimes do physical things in order to obtain a spiritual outcome. Our singing praise songs is a physical thing, but it is no less spiritual in its outcome. Our eating the Lord’s Supper is a physical thing, but it is no less spiritual in its outcome.

Have you died with Christ?

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The scripture for today, June 7, is Ephesians 6:7 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

0-Cover-KINDLE

God had just previously said that we were to obey our earthly masters (bosses). But, as hard as you try, sometimes what you may be told to do is very hard to do, especially if your boss is rude, or someone was promoted ahead of you, or you feel like s/he is being a “slave
driver.”

At times like those, do what is asked of you anyway, knowing that you are really doing it for God. The next verse says, “because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free.”

What you do as an employee in a difficult situation does not go unnoticed. God sees and God will reward you.

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The scripture for today, June 6, is 1st Timothy 6:6f as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

“But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.”

0-BOOK 4-FOLK HERO-COVER

Still, don’t we all do it? Compare what we own with what our neighbor owns? Work and strive to gain more and more? A long time ago, a man wrote a book called, “How to Want What You Have.” He emphasized that, to people who are never content with what they have, happiness is always right around the corner. If we could just buy that object, or get that house, or obtain that promotion. But once we get it, we are only satisfied briefly before happiness slips away again, and we decide we would truly be happy if we could buy yet another object, or get yet another house, or obtain yet another promotion. And so we live our lives.

Let us dare to look around us today and tell ourselves, “I have all I need.”

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The scripture for today, June 5, is Deuteronomy 6:5 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

Old Testament Scroll

Jesus said this is the greatest of all the commandments (Mark 12:29). He didn’t say that any of the Ten Commandments were. He chose one of the over 600 commandments God gave to Moses in the Old Testament. It might have been lost in the crowd, but Jesus called it out and gave it special attention.

Although we no longer keep the Old Testament Law of Moses, we do have the New Testament Law of Jesus. There aren’t as many commandments, but there are some. Sometimes Jesus’ law repeats something in the Old Law such as the one above. But it was his choice what to carry over, not ours.

Some people don’t even know that they’re obeying any of the Laws of Moses. Well, then, all we have to do is read that Law and see if we recognize anything we’re doing.

Do we love the Lord our God enough to no longer keep even one of the commandments in the law of Moses, or do we say the church cannot function if it gives up certain ones? Do we love the Lord our God enough to keep all of the commandments of Jesus or do we say the church is too modern now to keep certain ones?

Let us not be like the clay telling the potter what to do.

Let us love the Lord our God with ALL our heart, soul and strength.

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The scripture for today, June 3, is Romans 6:3f as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

WORSHIP THE FIRST-CENTURY WAY-COVER-KINDLE

Oh! Baptism does all that? Some people say no, but God says yes. Indeed, in baptism we obtain a new life ~ are born again. And in baptism we are freed from sin ~ forgiven. Look at it this way:

Just as Jesus died carrying our sins on himself, we die to our sinful nature ~ the part of us that sins and doesn’t care. Then just as Jesus was buried in his tomb, we are buried in our watery tomb. And just as Jesus came up out of his tomb the Savior, we come up our of our tomb the saved ~ with a “new life” and “freed from sin.”

Everything works together beautifully ~ hearing, believing, confessing, dying to sin, being baptized. What an honor and privilege we have been given to imitate what he did for us! And for those reasons!

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The scripture for today, June 2, is Galatians 6:2 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

“Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”0-BOOK 7-SHADOW OF DEATH-Cover

In case you’re thinking people should take care of their own burdens, you are right. But the term “burdens” here refers to overloads.

The main reason this is hard to do is that taking on someone else’s overloaded burdens upsets our daily routine and our peace of mind. It is inconvenient.

Just remember, it is always inconvenient for those people to have an overload of burdens. They don’t want them. Many times they didn’t ask for them. But even if they did ask for them with foolish acts, can we not roll up our sleeves and help them out?

What if Jesus had said, “Hey, it’s not my problem! Those people on earth mess up their lives all the time. Why should I leave the comforts of heaven to live among sinners and misery?” But he didn’t say that. Thank God he didn’t say that.

Inconvenient for him to take our overloaded burdens to his cross? Yes. Did he want to do it? No. But he did what was necessary to rescue us. Do we really and truly want to be like Him?

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The scripture for today, May 31, is Deuteronomy 5:31 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

“But you [Moses] may stay here [on the mountain] with me [God] so that I may give you all the commands, decrees, and laws you are to teach them to follow in the land I am giving them to possess.”

Many people believe that the “Law of Moses” consisted only of the Ten Commandments. But there was much more. It took Moses 40 days to write them all down. How many? Over 600 “commands, decrees and laws.”

Some people today want to dip back into the Law of Moses to get showy types of worship ~ candles, incense, stoning for adultery, instruments of music, choirs, animal sacrifices, separate priesthood, special clothing for priests, and tithing to pay for it all. Jesus nailed the old law to the cross (Colossians 2:14) and created a much simpler New Testament/Covenant! “By calling this covenant [testament] ‘new’ he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear’ ” (Hebrews 8:13). Not part of it. All of it.

Thank God we do not have to keep all those 600+ commandments in the Law of Moses. They were controlling and tedious, and some were impossible to keep. Why would God give a law impossible to keep? To help us understand that it is impossible for us to be perfect. Finally, understanding that, He was ready to send His Son to earth to be perfect for us.

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The scripture for today, May 28, is Luke 5:28 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

0-BOOK 3-HEARTS AFIRE-COVER“And Levi got up, left everything and followed him [Jesus].”

This Levi was a tax collector, who, in those days, was allowed to set his own tax rates so he could pocket some of it for himself. Why would such a man follow Jesus, a man who apparently didn’t have much money of his own? He had to trust Jesus and believe that he was truly a friend.

And why would Jesus ask him? Jesus was certainly taking a chance, since the uppity leaders of society and their religion openly declared Jesus a bad person for associating with “sinners and tax collectors”. Jesus, in turn, had to trust and believe in Levi.

A lot of Christians brag that their only friends are those who worship with them. They don’t really trust anyone else, so don’t really want to be anyone else’s friend. Well, how are you supposed to bring anyone to Jesus? Jesus went out to “seek and save the lost.”

And sometimes there is a visitor at worship who isn’t dressed right ~ perhaps with uncombed hair, or smell from no shower, or makeup put on too heavy, or clothes not in style, or maybe even dressed too richly. Are we ashamed to be seen with them? Jesus wouldn’t have been. He was color blind, style blind, class blind.

Today, reach out and make friends with someone you have been staying away from. Jesus did. And thereby, you will be like him.

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The scripture for today, May 27, is Job 5:27 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

New Testament Parchment“We have examined this, and it is true. So hear it and apply it to yourself.”

How many times have we gone to worship or listened on TV to a minister/priest/rabbi/imam and believed everything he said because the speaker looked so holy and convincing? Isn’t that confusing when so many different religious leaders teach different things, often conflicting?

What is the answer to this dilemma? Examine the Bible for yourself! You’re smart! You can do it!

The best way is to get a concordance. It has every word in the Bible alphabetically, and every scripture that contains that word. If you want to know God’s opinion instead of man’s, use your concordance and look up every passage your chosen topic appears in. You can buy one (it is the size of a large-city telephone book) or use one on the internet.

Then examine everything God ~ not man ~ has to say about anything. Then there are no doubts. Then you know the truth and are ready to apply it to yourself.