Are You Confirming Scripture or Conforming it?

Oh, that you would bear with me in a little folly – and indeed you do bear with me. As the truth of Christ is in me, no one shall stop me from this boasting in the regions of Achaia. Why? Because I do not love you? God knows! For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light.

2 Corinthians 11: 1, 10-14

Commentary:

First get your Bible and read chapter 11 entirely. In this chapter Paul felt foolish rehearsing his credentials as a preacher of the gospel. The Corinthians, like some of us today, fall for smooth talk and messages that sounded good and seemed to make sense. We have with us today great eloquent speakers with an authoritative sounding voice who contradict God’s word. Beware! Satan and his servants can deceive us by appearing to be attractive, good, and moral. Many unsuspecting people follow smooth talking, Bible quoting, leaders into false worship. Don’t be fooled by external appearances.

Our impressions alone are not an accurate indicator of who is or isn’t a true follower of our Lord Jesus Christ. Ask questions of yourself, like does the speaker confirm scripture or conform scripture? Does he or she proclaim that Jesus Christ Messiah came into the world to save us from sin, died on the cross and rose from the dead on the third day and ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of God, His Father, and will come and judge us. A false teacher teaches for his own glory, not the glory of God.

Let God Help You Make Decisions

Do not be wise in your own eyes

Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil.

Proverbs 3: 7

Commentary:

Leaning has the sense of putting your whole weight on something, resting on and trusting in that person or thing. When we have an important decision to make, we sometimes feel that we can’t trust anyone, not even God. But God knows what is best for us. He is a better judge of what we want than even we are! We must trust him completely in every choice we make. We should not omit careful thinking or belittle our God-given ability to reason; but we should not trust our own ideas to the exclusion of all others.

We must not be wise in our own eyes. We should always be willing to listen to and be corrected by God’s word and wise counseling. Bring your decisions to God in prayer; use the Bible as your guide; and then follow God’s lead. He will make your paths straight by both guiding and protecting you. To receive God’s guidance said Solomon, we must acknowledge God in all our ways. This means turning every area of life over to him. Look at your values and priorities. What is important to you? In what areas have you not acknowledged him? What is his advice? In many areas of your life you may already acknowledge God, but it is in the areas where you attempt to restrict or ignore his influence that will cause you grief. Make him a vital part of everything you do; then he will guide you because you will be working to accomplish his purposes. Take self out of what you are thinking or doing and let the Holy Spirit guide, then and only then can the glory of what is being done can be for the glorification of God.

God Never Abandons

Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

2 Corinthians 4: 14, 17, 18

Commentary:

“For we walk by faith, not by sight,” 2 Corinthians 5: 7.

We have not seen Jesus, but we know he lives. We feel the wind, but we do not know where it comes from. The disciples had Jesus with them and at times even they didn’t understand. When we go through this life with all the ups and downs, at times we ask why. Paul reminds us that though we may think we are at the end of the rope, we are never at the end of hope. Our perishable bodies are subject to sin and suffering, but God never abandons us. All our risks, humiliations, and trials are opportunities for Christ to demonstrate his power and presence in and through us. No matter what happens to us in this life, we have the assurance of eternal life, when all suffering will end and all sorrow will flee away. (Isaiah 35: 10)

God the Creator

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his, we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Psalm 100: 1-5

Commentary:

God is our creator; we did not create ourselves. Many people live as though they are the creator and the center of their own little world. This mindset leads to greedy possessiveness and, if everything should be taken away, a loss of hope itself. But when we realize God created us and gives us all we have, we will want to give to others as God gave to us. Then, if all is lost, we still have God and all he gives us. God alone is worthy of being worshiped. Do you willingly and joyfully come into God’s presence, or are you just going through the motions? This psalm tells us to remember God’s goodness and dependability, and then to worship with thanksgiving and praise. So go and shout a loud joyful cry to our Lord and spread the word of Jesus Christ through the land.

The Power of the Tongue

Scripture: James 3: 1-7

Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check.

When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider that a great forest is set on fire by a spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil full of deadly poison.

Scripture Commentary

What you say and what you don’t say are both important. Proper speech is not only saying the right words at the right time. But it is also controlling your desire to say what you shouldn’t. Before you speak, ask, “Is what I want to say true? Is it necessary? Is it kind?”

Hold on to the Everlasting

Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible seed, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man is the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away. But the word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.

1 Peter 23-25

Commentary:

We were in the world living what we believed was a good life, doing what we wanted to do. We were in some cases lost because we were not living as God intended. But through the Grace of God we were reborn. That seed in us that was in sand is now planted in Our Lord Jesus Christ, in good spiritual soil. Now, with God’s love, we can take our eyes off of ourselves and see and do for others. God loves us so much, that he sacrificed his son for us. We are no longer a slave to sin. Peter reminds us in these verses that everything in this life – possessions, accomplishments, and even people – will eventually fade and disappear. Only the word of God is permanent. Stop grasping the temporary things and focus on Jesus Christ.

A Lifetime of Experience Should be Handed Down

It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto thy, O most High: For thou, Lord, hast made me glad through thy work: I will triumph in the works of thy hands. A brutish man knoweth not; neither doth a fool understand this. Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing.

Psalm 92: 1,4,6,13

Commentary:

When you get up from sleep do you thank God? Do you take your life for granted? Tomorrow is promise to no one, but if you are reading this, God gave you this day. What are you going to do in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ today? If nothing, you are like the brutish person who goes through life taking and not giving anything back that can benefit fellow people. When you are working for Jesus you are planting seeds that will flourish not only for yourself, but for many. If you are a child of God, being so is your gift to God – to work for him. Even in old age, a devoted believer can produce a large amount of spiritual fruit. Keeping your mind of God will give you a fresh outlook and will help you teach young people a lifetime of experiences being a child of God. If you are young, seek out an elderly person, and if you are old seek out a youth, and tell them about Jesus.

Don’t Be a Slave to Sin

In the same way, count yourselves dead in sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.

Romans 6: 11-14

Commentary:

“Count yourselves dead to sin” means that we should regard our old sinful nature as dead and unresponsive to sin. Because of our union and identification with Christ, we are not longer obligated to carry out those old motives, desires, and goals. So let us consider ourselves to be what God has in fact made us. When we were under the law, sin was our master – the law does not justify us or help us overcome sin. We have a new start, and the Holy Spirit will help us become, in our daily experience, what Christ has declared us to be. Without Jesus we would have no choice, we would have to apprentice ourselves to sin. The results would be guilt, suffering, and separation from God. Thanks to Jesus, we can now choose God as our master.

A Bad Day isn’t a Bad Life

And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillars, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you. And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord you God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed.

Joel 2: 25-26

Commentary:

When we go through this walk in our lives, we are encountering many things. A young man was going to commit a serious mistake, he dialed what he thought was his home phone number. But instead it was his best friend. He told his friend what he was going to do. His friend told him he was just having a bad day and not a bad life.

We go through these ups and downs for a reason. If life was always good you might feel like you don’t need God. When things are bad and we call on God for help. The helps us find our way out of it it’s a wonderful feeling to know how God has helped you. In these two verses God through Joel is saying if you repent, and live a Christian life he will save you. God’s intentions are to heal and to save.

Jesus Freed Us

For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions, that were under the first testament they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.

Hebrews 9: 13

Commentary:

When Jesus went to the cross and died and was raised from the grave. The need for sacrificing animals was removed. As well as the need for someone to ask the Father to forgive our sins. In the Old Testament this was done once a year by the high priest for the people. But Christ, through his death, freed us from the slavery of sin forever. His sacrifice is infinitely more effective than animal sacrifices. With the dead of Christ there is no point in returning to the sacrificial rituals. Christ shed his blood for our sins so that we wouldn’t have to experience spiritual death and eternal separation from God. Jesus is our source of life, not death. With what Jesus did for us, death has no hold on us. We are free.