October 22, 2015
When you want to talk about faith, this is one of the most plentiful lessons in the bible ! I looked in a concordance ( everyone should have this who reads the bible) and there were pages of verses on faith in the bible. So I went through and picked some good ones and about an hour later a friend calls and asks what we doing in bible study. When I told him faith, he said , " I love Hebrews chapter 11 !" I am sad to admit this, but I had forgotten all about this chapter! This is a very famous chapter in God's word and is known as," God's hall of fame on faith ". So, we studied Hebrews Chapter 11, and loved it !!!
I went through this chapter, which has 40 verses, and circled the phrase " By faith". I count 17 times this is used. When a phrase is repeated twice in the bible close to each other, it is used as a verbal exclamation mark. So when I saw 17 times it is obvious that God is trying to show us that faith is important to Him. If that is true we better figure it out and do it !! Since it is a Fruit of the Spirit we know that faith in God or His word comes from God and that we are not born with it (physically) nor can we get it, or can we make it grow ! So, how in the world can we expect to do anything if we have no control over it ?
Faith is like a spiritual mustard seed. If you plant it in Jesus,( get born again) water it with God's word, (bible) and allow the Holy Spirit to guide and lead you, (listen and obey God's word) it will grow to huge heights !! The only control we have is to give control to God. Which means we should read God's word, listen to what it says, then do what it says. Done properly and consistently over time, we will begin to walk by faith and not by sight. That is when God is free to work in area of our lives !!!
In Hebrews chapter 11 it lists many people from the Old Testament and tells why God credited them with faith. There are 11 people listed and what they did..... and that's the key. Faith is the substance of things hoped for. ALL of them listed required ACTION. So we can learn from this that God is pleased when we do something based on the 3 things discussed earlier. Caution... do not ever run off and do something and expect God to bless it. Listen, read, pray about it .... and if you know it is of God DO IT !!
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
Saturday, October 24, 2015
Fruit Of The Spirit ... Love (Part II)
October 15, 2015
Last week we looked at what love is or is not according to 1 Corinthians Chapter 13 (also known as the Love chapter). This week we will look at what love looks like as it is worked out in the believer. Let's be clear that we are not capable of love on our own ! God's word says that the heart is evil above all things and also says we love because God loved us first !!! So when true love is in the believer certain things will be obvious to everyone around. This is how we will know who belongs to God in heart and not just in words !!! When God's word tells us to judge the fruit, He is talking about being able to judge between good and evil, and more importantly between sheep and wolves in sheep's clothing !
We will take a look at 5 versus that will show some of the things that true biblical love should produce. Love is talked about hundreds of ways and times in the Bible. I picked 5 to show a couple things that every believer should be able to judge when we are trying to decide if the spirit we are looking at is good or evil.
1) Psalm 5 : 11 But let all those who rejoice who put their trust in you; Let them ever shout for joy, because you defend them; let those also who love your name be joyful in you .
Look at the key words in this verse rejoice, trust, shout for joy, defend . The final line sums up what we should know. If someone loves your name they will be joyful in God !!! Have you ever met someone who always has a certain peace and joy in them no matter what they are going through ? This could be a clue that this person has the Holy Spirit in them !!
2) 1 John 5 : 1 Who ever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves Him who is begotten of Him.
Sometimes it is hard to see a simple truth in God's word because of the language and sentence structure. The first sentence is the truth about being born again !! If you believe in your heart that Jesus is the Christ, you are born again !!! The next part tells about Jesus is the bridge between God and man. If you love Jesus then you will love the one who sent Him. So when we are judging the Spirit if they are not born again....you will know they are NOT capable of biblical love.
3) Psalm 97 : 10 You who love the Lord, hate evil. He preserves the souls of His saints; He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked.
One of the prayers I pray is a lot is to look at sin and to see sin as God sees it. If you hate evil you have the love of God in you. In return God preserves the souls of his saints....We get to go to Heaven. The second line confirms this by restating that God delivers his saints of the hands of evil (the devil).
4) Deuteronomy 30 : 20 that you may love the Lord your God that you may obey his voice and that you may cling to Him ....
This verse shows that if a person loves God he will listen and obey God's voice. How do we do that ? By reading God's word and doing what it says. So if you are trying to judge the spirit in a person and they live their life NOT according to God's word you should walk away ! The only way you can know what that looks like is to know God's word !!! Get busy reading so you are not deceived !!
5) 1 John 2 : 5 But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know we are in Him.
This restate in the new testament what was discussed in the last verse. John is saying if you keep God's word then the love of God is in you and that is how we know we are saved. BUT you can only know that about yourself and others if you know God's word !!!
Next week we will start on Faith as the next fruit of the Spirit. I hope you enjoyed and learned from todays lesson. Hope to see you next time !!!
Last week we looked at what love is or is not according to 1 Corinthians Chapter 13 (also known as the Love chapter). This week we will look at what love looks like as it is worked out in the believer. Let's be clear that we are not capable of love on our own ! God's word says that the heart is evil above all things and also says we love because God loved us first !!! So when true love is in the believer certain things will be obvious to everyone around. This is how we will know who belongs to God in heart and not just in words !!! When God's word tells us to judge the fruit, He is talking about being able to judge between good and evil, and more importantly between sheep and wolves in sheep's clothing !
We will take a look at 5 versus that will show some of the things that true biblical love should produce. Love is talked about hundreds of ways and times in the Bible. I picked 5 to show a couple things that every believer should be able to judge when we are trying to decide if the spirit we are looking at is good or evil.
1) Psalm 5 : 11 But let all those who rejoice who put their trust in you; Let them ever shout for joy, because you defend them; let those also who love your name be joyful in you .
Look at the key words in this verse rejoice, trust, shout for joy, defend . The final line sums up what we should know. If someone loves your name they will be joyful in God !!! Have you ever met someone who always has a certain peace and joy in them no matter what they are going through ? This could be a clue that this person has the Holy Spirit in them !!
2) 1 John 5 : 1 Who ever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves Him who is begotten of Him.
Sometimes it is hard to see a simple truth in God's word because of the language and sentence structure. The first sentence is the truth about being born again !! If you believe in your heart that Jesus is the Christ, you are born again !!! The next part tells about Jesus is the bridge between God and man. If you love Jesus then you will love the one who sent Him. So when we are judging the Spirit if they are not born again....you will know they are NOT capable of biblical love.
3) Psalm 97 : 10 You who love the Lord, hate evil. He preserves the souls of His saints; He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked.
One of the prayers I pray is a lot is to look at sin and to see sin as God sees it. If you hate evil you have the love of God in you. In return God preserves the souls of his saints....We get to go to Heaven. The second line confirms this by restating that God delivers his saints of the hands of evil (the devil).
4) Deuteronomy 30 : 20 that you may love the Lord your God that you may obey his voice and that you may cling to Him ....
This verse shows that if a person loves God he will listen and obey God's voice. How do we do that ? By reading God's word and doing what it says. So if you are trying to judge the spirit in a person and they live their life NOT according to God's word you should walk away ! The only way you can know what that looks like is to know God's word !!! Get busy reading so you are not deceived !!
5) 1 John 2 : 5 But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know we are in Him.
This restate in the new testament what was discussed in the last verse. John is saying if you keep God's word then the love of God is in you and that is how we know we are saved. BUT you can only know that about yourself and others if you know God's word !!!
Next week we will start on Faith as the next fruit of the Spirit. I hope you enjoyed and learned from todays lesson. Hope to see you next time !!!
Tuesday, October 20, 2015
Fruit Of The Spirit - Love
October 8 , 2015
We started talking about love this week and went to 1 Corinthians Chapter 13. This is known as the Love Chapter! In this letter that Paul is writing to the Corinthians he spends 13 verses telling us what biblical love looks like. It is not a warm fuzzy feeling or an emotional response.... it is a choice.
We then went through this chapter and looked at each characteristic of biblical love. Paul says if he had all gifts without love... he would have nothing. If he had prophecy, all mysteries, all faith, but had no love, he had nothing. If he sacrificed his belongings to feed the poor, and gave his body a sacrifice and had not love, it profits him nothing ! The point is love is important !! However, Paul is now going to go through and list the things that love is and isn't. As you read them notice that each is a choice that you can make !
Love suffers long --- This is a choice we make to not be rash with people we love but to give them and God an opportunity to grow.
Love is kind --- This is a choice we can make on how we treat people by showing God's love to them.
Love does not envy --- When we look outside of God and envy something or someone else, that is a choice to not trust God !
Love is not puffed up --- Do not act like boys in a locker room and brag or boast, but choose in God's love to be humble and thankful.
Love does not behave rudely --- How you treat people matters ! We must always choose God's love to help us to treat others well.
Love is not provoked --- When we threaten or speak ill of others that is not showing God's love. This choice of behavior is suited to the father of all lies !!!
Love thinks no evil --- When we choose to look at people and at sin as God does, we will have little time to thin evil thoughts.
Love rejoices in truth --- When we lie, we disrespect God and who we are dealing with. But most of all we are being a very poor witness for Jesus !
Love believes, bears and hopes all thing --- Love that is from God is strong and everlasting. From now to eternity nothing can come between the love God has for us !! We should go and do likewise !
Paul goes on to show that all of the spiritual gifts are to be used here on part, but when we die the only thing that remains is the love. He also talks about thinking as a child when he was a child etc.. Very famous verse but what he was saying is when you know the fullness of love and the source of love, then it is time to start acting like an adult about love and stop acting as a child !!! He closes the chapter by saying of faith, hope, love ..... love is the greatest of these !!
In past times when I have taught on fruit of the Spirit, I would save love to the end. However, I now realize that this is sooooo important to ALL the fruit of the Spirit that I teach it first and we will spend 2 or 3 weeks on love !!!
We started talking about love this week and went to 1 Corinthians Chapter 13. This is known as the Love Chapter! In this letter that Paul is writing to the Corinthians he spends 13 verses telling us what biblical love looks like. It is not a warm fuzzy feeling or an emotional response.... it is a choice.
We then went through this chapter and looked at each characteristic of biblical love. Paul says if he had all gifts without love... he would have nothing. If he had prophecy, all mysteries, all faith, but had no love, he had nothing. If he sacrificed his belongings to feed the poor, and gave his body a sacrifice and had not love, it profits him nothing ! The point is love is important !! However, Paul is now going to go through and list the things that love is and isn't. As you read them notice that each is a choice that you can make !
Love suffers long --- This is a choice we make to not be rash with people we love but to give them and God an opportunity to grow.
Love is kind --- This is a choice we can make on how we treat people by showing God's love to them.
Love does not envy --- When we look outside of God and envy something or someone else, that is a choice to not trust God !
Love is not puffed up --- Do not act like boys in a locker room and brag or boast, but choose in God's love to be humble and thankful.
Love does not behave rudely --- How you treat people matters ! We must always choose God's love to help us to treat others well.
Love is not provoked --- When we threaten or speak ill of others that is not showing God's love. This choice of behavior is suited to the father of all lies !!!
Love thinks no evil --- When we choose to look at people and at sin as God does, we will have little time to thin evil thoughts.
Love rejoices in truth --- When we lie, we disrespect God and who we are dealing with. But most of all we are being a very poor witness for Jesus !
Love believes, bears and hopes all thing --- Love that is from God is strong and everlasting. From now to eternity nothing can come between the love God has for us !! We should go and do likewise !
Paul goes on to show that all of the spiritual gifts are to be used here on part, but when we die the only thing that remains is the love. He also talks about thinking as a child when he was a child etc.. Very famous verse but what he was saying is when you know the fullness of love and the source of love, then it is time to start acting like an adult about love and stop acting as a child !!! He closes the chapter by saying of faith, hope, love ..... love is the greatest of these !!
In past times when I have taught on fruit of the Spirit, I would save love to the end. However, I now realize that this is sooooo important to ALL the fruit of the Spirit that I teach it first and we will spend 2 or 3 weeks on love !!!
Sunday, October 18, 2015
Purpose of New Blog
The purpose of this blog will be to make weekly notes from our Bible Study class held on Thursday nights. We started going through the bible from Genesis to Revelation about 2 years ago, and just finished 1 Samuel. We decided to take a break and do a topical study on Fruit of the Spirit ! We just started that about 3 weeks ago, so decided this would be a good time to start this blog.
My only regret is that I did not start this blog earlier !! But will spend the next couple of weeks bringing this up to speed. My hope is that for people who either can't get out or won't go to a bible study class will use this blog as a way of learning God's word with easy and simple language. Yet with very useful and relevant information.
I pray that those that read this blog will not only enjoy it but will also share God's word. When we get through with the study of Fruit of the Spirit, we will begin again to go through the bible starting with 2 Samuel. If you would like to listen to God's word, chapter by chapter, you may find it on our web site at prayer box ministry . org !
My only regret is that I did not start this blog earlier !! But will spend the next couple of weeks bringing this up to speed. My hope is that for people who either can't get out or won't go to a bible study class will use this blog as a way of learning God's word with easy and simple language. Yet with very useful and relevant information.
I pray that those that read this blog will not only enjoy it but will also share God's word. When we get through with the study of Fruit of the Spirit, we will begin again to go through the bible starting with 2 Samuel. If you would like to listen to God's word, chapter by chapter, you may find it on our web site at prayer box ministry . org !
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