Category: Bible

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The scripture for today, November 3 (11/3), is Luke 11:3 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

HS-COVER-KINDLE-GOLD“Give us each day our daily bread.”

This is part of the ideal prayer that Jesus taught his followers to say. We claim to agree with it. But do we completely?

Do we feel like it is our hard-earned money that bought that bread? Do we claim it is our ability to cook that created that bread? Do we claim it was the hard work of the farmers and their equipment that brought us the grain from whence the bread is made? Or the mills that ground it into flour? Or the stores that brought the flour to the consumers?

Ultimately we must look past all of this to that which is beyond our control. It is God who makes the sun to shine down upon the seed. It is God who makes the rain to come down to water it. It is God who places life in the buried wheat germ for it to reproduce with a flourish.

Many activities of man bring us our daily bread. But ultimately it is God the Creator who makes it all possible. He not only makes it possible for good people, he brings bread also to the bad. He loves everyone so.

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The scripture for today, November 2 (11/2) is Proverbs 11:2 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

“When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.”WORSHIP THE FIRST-CENTURY WAY-COVER-KINDLE

The word, disgrace, comes from the Hebrew qalon meaning confusion. It is also translated dishonor and reproach.

Pride is so hard to control. With the church or clubs or other organizations, we think our ideas, our points of view, our ways of doing things are the right ideas views and ways. We accuse others of not cooperating if it is our ideas, views and ways they don’t go along with. It is so hard to give up our ideas views and ways for the sake of peace.

Even in doing daily business, our pride shows up. We become impatient with clerks in stores who do not help us, with other drivers on the road who are too slow for us, with people delivering things to our homes who do not deliver them right to our door, with kids throwing rocks at things that belong to us, people who try to cut in line ahead of us, fellow workers who take credit for our work, and on and on.

It is hard to sit by and let others be praised when we do better work than they do, or we work harder than they do, or they get the promotion we deserve.

How do we control our pride? Perhaps by comparing ourselves, not with others around us, but with Jesus. In the same circumstance, what did he do?

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The scripture for today, November 1, is Hebrews 11:1 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

HS-COVER-KINDLE-GOLD“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (KJV).

Notice, faith is not based on a feeling. It is full of substance, for it is based on evidence. What evidence?

First, faith is complete confidence that the Bible is divine. We know this in large part because the prophecies about large nations and empires during Bible times came true after the lifetime of the prophets. Today, most people never heard of many of those large nations and empires because their destruction was so complete. But an investigation of encyclopedias shows that, in Bible times, they did exist.

Second, faith is complete confidence that Jesus on earth was divine. We know this in large part because numerous prophecies about his birth, ministry and death came true centuries after the prophecies were made. No one man could have contrived and forced all those prophecies to be fulfilled in his lifetime.

Finally, faith is complete confidence that the account of Jesus’ life was written accurately by witnesses who saw him and talked with him. These witnesses afterwards traveled the world telling people about him, suffering hardships, and often torture and death. They would not have gone through all this for a lie. Further, we have manuscripts that date back to less than a century of the actual events, something no other ancient writing can do.

Yes, faith has substance because it is based on evidence. And in the Bible, we have all we need.

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The scripture for today, October 31 (10/31), is 1st Corinthians 10:31 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

0-Cover-KINDLE“So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”

How is your everyday life while around other people? What kind of employment do you have? Secretary, engineer, manual labor, going to school, teaching school, keeping your home, watching your children?

Some jobs are exciting, some are boring. Some require decisions, some require none. Some can involve a little bit of misrepresenting the truth. Some may be under a boss who is mean. Some may be among fellow-employees who shirk their duties and try to get by with doing as little as possible. Some may be among people who steal from the company.

Always remember that, wherever you are, that is God’s assignment for you in this universal battle between Good and Bad. You must do whatever you do in your daily life as good and honestly as possible. Will others notice? You bet they will! Will they resent you? Maybe. Will they blame God for the (good) way you act? Deep down the resenters probably will. But at least it will make them think about God.

Then some day when they have a problem they are desperate to work through but cannot, who will they turn to? You. And God.

Be courageous. Stand firm. Do the right thing. And ultimately God will be glorified

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The scripture for today, October 30 (10/30), is Hebrews 10:30 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

CHANGES IN WORSHIP-COVER-KINDLE“For we know him who said, ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay’ and again, ‘The Lord will judge his people.’ “

In the Law of Moses, people were expected to avenge those who did not follow the law. Some things were even punishable by death.

But Jesus told us to forgive people so that God in turn will forgive us (Matthew 6:14).

What is forgiveness? It is not condoning the bad someone did. Forgiveness is letting go and letting God do any punishing that may be required. Forgiveness is wishing the other person well. You may not trust the other person to not do the bad thing again, and you may forever fear that person. But you can always hope and pray that their lives and hearts will change for the better some day. No one is so bad that you cannot wish them well and pray for them. That’s forgiveness.

Vengeance only prolongs the pain; vengeance is hard on us. So, as the old saying goes, “Let go, and let God.” God will do his part ~ the hard part. He has left the easy part for us.

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The scripture for today, October 29 (10/29), is John 10:29 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

Campbell-Cover-KIMBLE“My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.”

No other person can take our salvation away from us. They may badger us, belittle us, torture us, kill us, but they cannot take our salvation away from us. The only one who can do that is ourselves.

The Apostle Peter said, “Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall….Be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position” (II Peter 1:10; 3:17).

Hebrews 2:1 says, “We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.” Jesus himself said, “All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved” (Matthew 10:22).

Let us continue to read the scriptures for ourselves (God speaking directly to us) and praying (us speaking directly to God) and meet with other Christians to encourage each other and be better able to stand firm.

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CrucifixionThe scripture for today, October 28 (10/28), is Matthew 10:28f as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

“Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father.”

This scripture indicates that sometimes God’s allows us to “fall to the ground” ~ our bodies suffer, or we are killed. How can that be? After all, God is so loving. Surely a good God would not allow any harm to come to someone if he truly loves them.

But we all have our assignment from God in this war between Good and Evil. Just as Job in the Old Testament lost his entire family and entire wealth and then his health, he refused to blame God. He even said, “Shall we accept good from God and not trouble?” (Job 2:10).

Satan causes bad to happen to us. Why? In order to get us to blame God for it. Our assignment is to refuse to deny God. That way, Satan loses one more battle, and God wins one more.

There is an old Christian song called “Victory in Jesus.” How can we have victory in Jesus if we do not have something to be victorious over? Romans 8:37 says we are more than conquerors. How can we be conquerors if we have nothing to conquer?

Let us say with James (1:2) that we consider it pure joy whenever we face trials. Hard to say? Of course, it is. But it could turn your life around.

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The scripture for today, October 27 (10/27), is Mark 10:27 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

0-COVER---Star-Song---flat“Jesus looked at them and said,  ‘With man this is impossible, but not with God: All things are possible with God.’ “

Can we be perfect? God let mankind try for many centuries to be perfect.

To one group of people he gave over 600 laws and said, “If you keep these, you will be perfect.” But, as hard as the Jews tried, no one could keep the Law of Moses perfectly.

To the rest of the world he basically said, “Try to figure out for yourselves how to be perfect.” So they tried all kinds of religions, but with all of them, they could not be perfect.

Finally, mankind was ready for Jesus. He came to earth and lived that perfect life that is impossible for us to live. He became the perfect Lamb of God, and became our sacrifice for our sins, for Romans 6:23 says “the wages of sin is death.” He paid the price for us.

So now, according to Romans 6:3-4, just as Jesus died on the cross, we too can 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 too can be buried in a watery tomb of baptism. And finally, just as Jesus was raised up out of his tomb the Savior, we rise up out of our watery tomb the saved.

Then God considers us perfect too. God cannot associate with sinners in his heaven. He can only have perfect people in his heavenly home. Impossible for us to live there with him some day? Yes. But, God sent Jesus to fix that problem. With God, nothing is impossible.

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The scripture for today, October 26 (10/26), is 1st Corinthians 10:26 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

HS-COVER-KINDLE-GOLD“For ‘The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.’ “

This is a thanksgiving scripture.

The beautiful part of God’s creation is that he left a lot of it undone for us to finish. After all, we are created in his likeness.

He left the stones and clay in the ground so that we could dig it up and build cities. He left the wool on the sheep so we could shear it and make warm garments. He left the trees growing tall so we could hew them and build barns and houses. He left the gravel in the ground so we could harvest it and build roads.

He left the ore unmined so we could mine it and make sky scrapers, airplanes, ships, trains, automobiles. He left the water in the lakes and seas so we could capture it and create power and transportation ways. He left the beautiful stones unseen so we could dig them up, shape them, polish them, and make beautiful decorations.

Yes, we were created in the likeness of our Creator. He loved to create. So do we. So, whenever we make something good from his creation, we honor him.

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The scripture for today, October 25, is Hebrews 10:25 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

WORSHIP THE FIRST-CENTURY WAY-COVER-KINDLE“Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another ~ and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”

Some people declare, “I can walk through nature ~ the temple of God ~ and feel God is closer there than in a church building.” Well, do they really do it? How often? The purpose of the church meeting is not so much to encourage ourselves as to encourage others (we encourage others and get encouraged in the process) along with worshiping God.

Look at the context. Verse 23 says “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess” and verse 24 says, “Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.” How do we do these things? A lot of it is done during our congregation’s worship and encouragement service.

And what comes after our verse for today? Verse 26 says, “If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left.” Meeting together with other congregational members is one of the major things that keeps us from
falling.

Should we meet once a week? This scripture says to meet “all the more as you see the Day [of Judgment] approaching. Many say, “But that’s too inconvenient.”

It was inconvenient for Jesus to leave a perfect heaven for an imperfect earth. It was inconvenient for him to leave the company of angels for the company of sinners. It was inconvenient for him to do this for 33 long years. Inconvenient taking the blame for our sins, and then taking our punishment. Inconvenient experiencing agonizing spiritual death when God left him on the cross, and then that agonizing physical death.

Do we really know inconvenience?