James 3:17:
17. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.
Lord, give me this wisdom as I go through my day. May these traits be evident in my life. I know that only You can make me pure, peaceable, and gentle. Thank you, Lord.
Romans 1:19-2019. Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath showed it unto them.
20. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
I saw this verse on my verse-a-day calendar at work yesterday. Man, it’s a good one. This totally refutes the idea that God created us and then left us to fend for ourselves. He is everywhere and He shows that to us through creation. This just popped into my head, but the next time that you feel like God is too far away to care about you, let creation be a reminder to you that He is omnipresent and omniscient and that He loves you more than anything. This isn’t exactly what these verses are talking about, but it’s just some food for thought.
Romans 2:13-15: 13. ( For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.
14. For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves:
15. Which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)
Gotta run, but just thought these verses were interesting. These verses show that Man is born with a conscience. Don’t know what else to say and REALLY have to go.
Matthew 4:19: And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.
Pastor made a great point about this verse yesterday. Christ doesn’t say, Follow me, and become fishers of men: He says, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. The key thing in this verse is not being fishers of men, but rather following Christ. Once we do that, He will take care of making us who ought to be.
I Corinthians 10:31: Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.
This verse has to be one of the most self-explanatory verses in the whole Bible. However, just a quick thought: if you want to do something to the glory of God, but you can’t, what’s wrong with that activity that prevents you from glorifying God through it? Should you even be doing it at all? Probably not. This could be another quick check to tell whether or not something is okay to do or not.
Scripture found at dynamicbible.com, the King James Version of the Holy Bible with interactive Strong’s Concordance numbers and Cross References. Now with Google Maps satellite images of Bible locations!
I Corinthians 9:26-27:
26. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air:
27. But I keepunder my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.
Paul is stressing the importance of keeping a pure testimony before the lost so that, when he has given the Gospel to someone, they can’t point at his life as an excuse to not accept it. Now, to accomplish this he says he keeps his body under subjection. This simply means that he is always in control of what he is doing. Like a runner (to use Paul’s illustration) or any other type of athlete, you must be in complete control of your body at all times. In any competition, the key to beating your opponent is to catch them off balance. For instance, in wrestling, the heaviest and the most muscular don’t always win: it is the competitor that is the most skillful at using his body mass as leverage to topple his opponent that wins.
But, how do you keep your spiritual body under subjection, or in complete control? How can we make sure that we are in complete control of our bodies and minds so that we can take on the challenges that come our way every day? Well, first of all, we need God’s help by reading His Word and communicating with Him through prayer. Then, we can help ourselves by not filling our minds with the garbage that our opponent is trying to use to de-sensitize us to his attacks. Also, you can avoid a lot of problems by not taking things into your body that are designed to change the way you think and act (specifically, alcoholic beverages, drugs, etc.).
For instance, go to any baseball game around the country and watch the people who come in the stadium. They’re vibrant, excited, rallying around their team, and ready to have a good time. Then, watch the people who leave the stadium at the end of the game after drinking beer the whole time. Those people will more willingly do things in that state that they would never have dreamed of doing (or at least would have been ashamed of doing) as they walked into the stadium at the beginning of the game. What made the difference? The alcohol made the difference.
As Christians, what are we allowing to control our behavior? Are we allowing the Spirit to convict us of sin, or are we allowing Satan, through his subtle attacks, to desensitize us to the seriousness of sin and its consequences? Are we living lives where we allow God to control us and the situations we face? Let God be in control and don’t give room for Satan to weaken you so you won’t end up with your face on the mat, unable to move, in excruciating pain, listening to the ref declare your opponent victorious.
I Corinthians 8:2: And if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know.
Wow! If this doesn’t humble you, I don’t know what will! This chapter doesn’t really deal with this, but just looking at this verse (hope I’m not taking this out of context) made me think: What am I learning every day? Two seconds before I went to the Dynamic Bible website, I was reading through the user manual (yes, I’m one of THOSE guys) of a Photoshop-type program that I downloaded for free called GIMP. I was reading that manual to learn more about making images that I can use to make a website for myself. Anyway, I’m saying all this to say that every day, I’m bombarded with new things at work and at home and everywhere I go; but what am I learning? Am I learning how to be a more effective employee? Am I learning about how to design machines? Am I learning how to strengthen my marriage? Am I learning how to strengthen my relationship with God? Am I learning the things that I “ought to know?”
Just thinking through this verse has challenged me to filter what I’m allowing into my mind, and question whether it is really stuff that I “ought to know.”
Please forgive me if I have slaughtered the translation/application of this verse. These are just the thoughts that came into my head as I was reading it.
I Corinthians 7: The whole chapter.
I Corinthians 6:12: All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.
This verse delves into that very sensitive area of Christian liberty, but I do want to just write a couple of things this verse made me think about. First of all, we, as Christians, are not confined to living by a rigid set of rules and regulations except for those in Scripture. We have choices to make: what is expedient? what will bring us under its power? First of all, blatant sin is both inexpedient and subjugating. But what about all that other stuff in your life that isn’t quite so cut and dry as, say, taking God’s name in vain or murdering someone or stealing someone’s car? I think what Paul is trying to say when he says, “I will not be brought under the power of any” is that if we are being controlled by something in our life, there is a good chance that sin is involved.
I Corinthians 5:9-10: I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:
Yet not altogether the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.
I would like to expound on this verse and the ones following these, but I really have to go to work and will add my comments later.
