Praying Pint

 

 

Good News –  Gospel –  Repentance –  Forgiveness –  Redemption –  Salvation –  Eternal life

Jhn 3:16-17   “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

  Condemn –  Perish –   Saved –  Eternal Life   

Jhn 3:19  And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.

Loved Darkness –  Evil –  Judgment

Rom 1:20-22  For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools,

Invisible Attributes –  Eternal Power –  Divine Nature –  Clearly Perceived – Creation

Without Excuse –  Did Not Honor God –  Did Not Give Thanks To God – Futile Thinking – Foolish – Darkened –  Fools

Rom 1:24  Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity

Rom 1:28-31  And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.

Lusts –  Impurity –  Debased Mind –  Unrighteousness –  Evil –  Covetousness –  Malice –  Envy –  Murder –  Strife –  Deceit

Gossips –  Sladerers –  Haters of God –  Insolent –  Haughty –  Boastful –  Inventors of Evil – Disobedient – Foolish – Faithless

Heartless –  Ruthless

Rom 1:32  Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

Rom 3:18  “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

 Psalms 36:1   Transgression speaks to the wicked deep in his heart; there is no fear of God before his eyes.

 Proverbs 8:13    The fear of the LORD is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.

 Proverbs 23:17     Let not your heart envy sinners, but continue in the fear of the LORD all the day.

No Fear of God – Pride – Arrogance –  Evil – Perverted Speech –  Envy

Psalm 119:78. May the arrogant be ashamed, for they subvert me with a lie; But I shall meditate on Your precepts.

Isaiah 45:16   They will be put to shame and even humiliated, all of them

Jeremiah 17:13.  O Lord, the hope of Israel, All who forsake You will be put to shame.

Ezra 9:6  and I said, “O my God, I am ashamed and embarrassed to lift up my face to You, my God, for our iniquities have risen above our heads and our guilt has grown even to the heavens.

Job 8:22  “Those who hate you will be clothed with shame,

Daniel 12:2 Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.

 Psalms 35:26   Let them be put to shame and disappointed altogether who rejoice at my calamity! Let them be clothed with shame and dishonor who magnify themselves against me!

Arrogant –  Ashamed –  Lie –  Humiliated –  Forsake You –  Embarrassed –  Guilt –  Hate you –  Disgrace

Everlasting Contempt –  Disappointed

How can the Gospel be preached, spoken, and offered without the proclamation of the need due to our sin? God’s grace, mercy, and love are truly blessings beyond our imagination. We do not fully understand their depth and width due to our limited understanding of the absolute Holiness of God, yet our need for them in light of our sin. 

We begin to scratch the surface of it when we begin to understand Sin. Without a basic understanding of sin, there is no application for the Gospel in our lives. We can not understand the basis for God’s grace, mercy, and love. There is no reason to fear God. Without this basic understanding of sin being jointly proclaimed and declared with the Good News of Jesus Christ people will shallowly come to God seeking the benefit of eternal life, but not for the forgiveness of Sin. The need fo repentance will not be recognized. The brutality and cruelty of all the physical violence Jesus bore on His body will not be understood. The penalty He bore was OURS! It was due to our SINs! His agony and death to redeem us and give us eternal life. How can the need for the Gospel be presented without the declaration of Sin?  It can not.

A person should feel shame, guilt, hopelessness, despair, conviction, worry for their souls, helplessness, unworthy, fear, judgment, etc…. in light of the Holiness of God and hearing of the Gospel when the understanding of sin is exposed to their hearts and minds.  The fullness of God’s grace, mercy, and love is only understood in the light of His holiness and our sinfulness. Sanctification, growth, and maturing in a Christian’s life continue in this understanding of sin and holiness until their death. 

 

 

For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty…. Together to the place called in Hebrew, Armageddon.
Revelation 16:14, 16

Napoleon Bonaparte is reported to have called the plain of Jezreel “the most natural battleground of the whole earth”—a place where “all the armies of the world could maneuver their forces.” This vast plain in central Israel spreads out from the base of Mount Megiddo. Mount in Hebrew is har—added to Hebrew megiddon it results in Armageddon, the site of the final battle when Christ returns to judge the nations and establish His Kingdom on earth.

This battle will occur at the end of the seven-year Tribulation when Christ returns to earth from heaven with the armies of His saints. Most of the nations of the world, deceived by the Antichrist, will array themselves to fight against Christ but will succumb to His judgment (Revelation 19:11-21). Following this victory over evil, Christ will inaugurate His thousand-year, righteous rule centered in Jerusalem.

Thank God today that a final battle is coming when righteousness will triumph over evil—and peace will prevail.

 

 

If you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

–Colossians 3:1

How do you maintain your focus as a citizen of heaven while you’re still a resident of earth? It all comes down to understanding what it means to be heavenly minded. In Colossians 3:1–2, Paul wrote, “Keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.”

You may have heard the popular criticism that some Christians are so heavenly minded that they’re of no earthly good. But that’s a false dichotomy. The only way we will be any earthly good is by being heavenly minded–as long as we understand what that means.

Most of us think of our lives in two parts: life on earth right now and life in heaven after we die. We imagine a line of demarcation between the here and now and the hereafter. But when Jesus spoke about eternal life, He was not talking about a period of life that begins the moment you die. He was talking about a quality of life, not a quantity of life. Eternal life begins the moment we’re saved and extends beyond the grave into eternity.

So what does it mean to “keep seeking the things above, where Christ is,” as Paul said in Colossians 3:1? It doesn’t mean focusing on things in heaven, such as the angels, pearly gates, and streets of gold. No, to be heavenly minded means to set your mind on Jesus Christ and to become like Him so that you can experience the same joy He experienced here on earth. Even when people were seeking to destroy Him and the world was collapsing around Him, Jesus experienced inexplicable joy. He had fulfillment in His earthly life and assurance about His future because He was in a right relationship with His heavenly Father.

Paul was saying you don’t have to wait until you die to enjoy the benefits of heaven; you can experience the same quality of life that Jesus experienced by becoming like Him. To be heavenly minded simply means to conform your affections, attitudes, and actions to those of Jesus Christ. When you’re a heavenly minded Christian, you love what Jesus loves, think like Jesus thinks, and act like Jesus acts in every situation. Being heavenly minded is not about your location in life; it’s about the foundation of your life, and that is Jesus Christ.

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What is missing in this devotion is the ultimate purpose, reason, and meaning of “Heavenly minded” – “Seeking Things Above”.  The purpose, reason, and meaning  – “To honor and glorify Jesus Christ in all of our thoughts, words, and actions – all of the time”.

 

 

 

If you seek [wisdom] as silver and search for her as for hidden treasures; then you will discern the fear of the LORD and discover the knowledge of God.

–Proverbs 2:4–5

If you want to get a grip on God’s Word, you have to listen to the preached Word of God, you have to read the Word of God, and third, you have to study the Word of God.

There is a difference between a tourist and an explorer. A tourist goes to a city, hits the high points, and then moves on. But an explorer takes time to navigate the city and ask questions in order to get the most out of their visit. In the same way, to get the riches and the benefits of reading the Bible, you need to study it.

There are four tools every Christian should have in order to understand the Bible:

1. Study Bible. A study Bible not only has the text of God’s Word, but it also has explanatory notes, articles, and charts that will help you understand what you’re reading.
2. Concordance. A concordance is an alphabetical listing of every word in the Bible, along with the instances in which each word appears. For example, if you look up love in a concordance, it will list every verse in the Bible that uses the word love. Concordances typically show you what the original Greek or Hebrew word meant as well.
3. Bible dictionary. A Bible dictionary is like an encyclopedia in one volume. Let’s say you’re reading about the temple, and you wonder, What did the temple look like in Solomon’s day? You can look up “temple of Jerusalem” in a Bible dictionary and see the different versions throughout history.
4. Commentary. As you dig deeper into God’s Word, you may want to buy a commentary on each book you study. But to start out, I recommend getting a commentary on the entire Bible. If you have difficulty with a verse, you can look it up and see what scholars have said about it.

Many years ago, I visited the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College. The center had a display case filled with interesting things, but one item that caught my attention was a Bible that had been given to Albert Einstein. On the flyleaf was an inscription: “Straws on the surface flow, but he who would search for pearls must dive below.” It doesn’t matter how smart you are–if you want to discover the riches of God’s Word, you have to dig beneath the surface.

 

 

Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.
Ephesians 4:29

The question then is, how do we build a person? First, think of how we would tear down a person. By harsh criticism, negative comments, discouraging or disparaging words. So how would we build up a person? By encouraging words, helpful actions, motivational or nurturing speech—according to the needs of the moment. The goal is to “impart grace to the hearers,” which means to benefit the person rather than corrupt the person. When constructing a building, individual parts are added according to need: lumber, bricks, wire, plumbing, paint, and more. Each part plays a role in constructing the house. And speech can do the same thing by adding a timely and beneficial word that will add to a person’s growth and development.

Look for an opportunity every day to impart grace to someone by using timely and beneficial words.

 

 

 

Therefore take up the whole armor of God…. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth.
Ephesians 6:13-14

Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians is a defense of his apostleship in the face of opposition and attacks from false apostles (2 Corinthians 11:13-15). He was in a spiritual battle, to be sure. But he made it clear that spiritual warfare is not a physical battle using the world’s weapons of war. Instead, it is a battle of thoughts, arguments, and ideas waged in the battlefield of the mind (10:3-6). That is, it is a battle for the truth.

The battle for truth began in the Garden of Eden when Satan lied to Adam and Eve, contradicting what God had told them (Genesis 3:1-5). And lies remain Satan’s chief weapon. If he can convince us to doubt God’s words, he will have weakened the foundation of our faith: the truthfulness of God and His promises. That is why when describing the Christian’s spiritual armor, Paul calls the Roman soldier’s belt the belt of truth. We are sanctified—conformed to Christ—by the truth of God’s Word (John 17:17).

Just as Jesus rebuffed Satan’s temptations with the truth of God’s Word, we must do the same (Matthew 4:1-11). Truth wins the spiritual war.

The truth of Scripture demolishes speculation.

 

 

Christ doesn’t love us because of our merits. He knows we’re sinners. He loves us just because He loves us. He gave Himself for us, unworthy as we are. In the same way, the love of Christ within us seeks to serve, not to be served.

We all need a purpose that’s bigger than our own entertainment, and yet this is the norm for those caught up in the things of this world and what it has to offer. Let us not seek the entertainment of this life as our purpose. 

Growth and maturing are offered to us through the Holy Spirit. 

We’re called to be filled with the Spirit. In doing so, we find the Spirit begins to develop character traits within us: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. 

God never promises that His people will all be rich in material things in all seasons of life.  Don’t make wealth your goal. Don’t be afraid to benefit others. Work hard, and trust God.

I have been confused by the hostility of family and friends. I look at people I have known all my life–so hate-filled that they agree with opinions they would never express as their own.

Whether we’re a professional athlete, a newsletter writer, a business person, a teacher, a plumber, or anything in between, we have an opportunity every day to honor God in our work with the gifts He’s given us, and to show the love of Christ to those around us as we do.

Those who are poor in spirit willingly ask, “Lord, is this pursuit or possession for Your glory or mine?” He delights in answering prayers like this and will uncover pride hiding in places we least expect. 

I wanted the reward and not the struggle. I wanted the result and not the process. I was in love not with the fight, but only the victory.

Do you know what made the first-century church so effective? They weren’t rusted together by traditionalism or frozen together by some doctrinal belief. No, they were melded together by their genuine love for one another.