Wednesday, April 30, 2014

1 Thessalonians 1

- vs. 1-2 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy remembered the Thessalonians in their prayer.  Instead of talking about them, they remembered them in prayer.
- vs. 3 Work of faith - doing something with faith or while having faith.  Labour of love - sometimes its not easy to love people or certain activities, but we are doing it out of love.  Endurance of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ - the endurance come from hope in the Lord Jesus -"those who trust in the LORD will renew their strength; they will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not faint." - Isaiah 40:31  see also Psalm 23
- vs. 5 "God backs up His Word with power.  When the unsaved ask for proof, we have it.  If any person obeys the command to repent and trust Jesus Christ, he will experience the power of the gospel.  God will transform him on the inside by giving him a new heart with new desires.  instead of drinking in iniquity like water, he will begin to thirst after righteousness.  he will be born again.  God will make him a new creature, all of which will give him "much assurance." - The Evidence Bible by Ray Comfort
- vs. 7 The Thessalonians modelled the apostles and then those who were in contact with them modelled their behaviour.
- vs. 8 "the Lord's message rang out from you," they not only modelled how to live but also preached the Gospel of Jesus.
- vs. 9-10 they turned from idols to God - to serve the living and true God and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead - Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.  We need to be patient while we wait for the Lord's return, and yet we need to live for Him and preach the Gospel of Jesus.  "The Lord does not delay His promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance.  But the Day of the Lord will come like a thief; on that day the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, the elements will burn and be dissolved, and the earth and the works on it will be disclosed." 2 Peter 3:9-10


Monday, April 28, 2014

Romans 1

- vs. 3-4 concerning His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who was a descendant of David according to the flesh  and who has been declared to be the powerful Son of God by the resurrection from the dead according to the Spirit of holiness. Notice how Paul writes that Jesus was declared to be the powerful Son of God not by someone's mouth but by the resurrection from the dead.  This reminds me of the words of Jesus from Luke 19:40 - He answered, “I tell you, if they were to keep silent, the stones would cry out!”  God wants to have us proclaim the Gospel of Jesus, but if we won't, God can use any means to do so.  He made a donkey speak and can use any part of creation to speak.
- vs. 5-6 Paul now talks about how he and the other apostles are now being used by God to spread the word around the world.
- vs. 7 is just one example that we are called saints when we are born again, not by man canonizing us.
- vs. 12 it's not only those Paul is speaking or writing to that need encouragement it is "mutual". Sometimes we hold our pastor's in such high esteem, but don't think they need to be encouraged. Hebrews 10:24-25 addresses this.
- vs. 17 "from faith to faith" - what does this mean?  I found an article by John Piper, on the last page he has this explanation: "So here in Romans 1:17 it says, "The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith." That is, when the revelation of the gift of righteousness meets with faith it leads to future faith. Faith is the initial window of the soul that lets the light of the revelation of righteousness in. And when the light of God's gift of righteousness comes in by faith, it powerfully works to awaken and sustain and engender more and more faith for the years to come." The link can be found here for that page.
- vs. 18-23 God's invisible attributes are plainly seen by creation.  When you look at a building you know there must have been a builder; the building did not just randomly form from random materials floating in the air.  You know it had a builder, the same thing when you look at the earth and humans, you know that all of these things could not have simply formed over time (who created time) and from random materials (where did the materials come from).  We know that a Boeing 747 couldn't be made by a powerful tornado that randomly put all the pieces together and made this jet.  It says that we are without excuse, and for whatever reason we trade all of the things of God for man made things.
- vs. 24-25 notice how Paul all of a sudden mentions sexual immorality.  The passage wasn't talking about it but all of a sudden he mentions it.  That is how quickly sexual immorality can slip into our lives! This is something I was referring to in my previous post The War At Hand, how we can go from an amazing time of fellowship, worship, prayer, etc. and then when we are back down the temptation is overwhelming!   Look at Jesus, He was baptized and then came the temptation after the glorious experience of the Spirit descending on Him like a dove and the Father saying He is pleased with (who doesn't want their father saying he is pleased with him).  So, Jesus went from a glorious experience into the desert and was hungry and thirsty and tempted.  A bit of a sidetrack, but remember what Satan ultimately wanted? He wanted Jesus' love and affection...he wanted Jesus to worship him, the created, rather than the Creator (who is to be praised forever, amen).
- vs. 26-27 they went from who knows what sort of sexual immorality (maybe constantly looking with lust in their hearts?), to now they have gone to unnatural sexual relations.  So even though the relations they had before, it was immorality because it was outside the bounds of marriage which is what God created and then they, living in their sexual immorality turn to unnatural relations.  This is how it works.  We start off doing something small (so we think) and then that doesn't satisfy anymore, so we need to "upgrade" to something different to find pleasure and than that doesn't satisfy as much, and it keeps going downhill from their and we keep doing worse and worse things in the sight of God and He gives us over to our degrading passions which really are degrading us inside and out.  "Run from sexual immorality! "Every sin a person can commit is outside the body." On the contrary, the person who is sexually immoral sins against his own body." 1 Cor. 6:18.  This is something we need to remember like Joseph did and called it a great evil and sin against God, he ran from the situation!  We need to run from it right away when we are tempted.  God help us with this, You are faithful to lead us out of temptation and not let us be tempted more than we can handle, so please help us when we are in a situation to get out of it and give us wisdom to not go into tempting situations or places that would tempt us.
- vs. 28-32 they didn't acknowledge God and then were "given over to a worthless mind to do what is morally wrong."  I have seen too much when people are totally stuck in their sin and they don't acknowlege God and in their own minds they believe that they are not wrong and that they can and should continue in what they're doing.  Here is the list that Paul adds:
    - Unrighteousness (some manuscripts have sexual immorality) - living blatenly against God
    - Evil - they don't care about other people, their only concern soon becomes themsleves and will 
      do whatever it takes to get their pleasures fulfilled at the expense of others.
    - Greed - this goes along with the last explanation.  The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.
      People want and want and want, it is really evident in our society today.  It is also very easy to 
      get caught up in that way of living.
    - Wickedness - Don't care for the things of God, rather the things of darkness.
    -  Full of:
      - Envy - (the sound of a spoiled brat) "I want it" - wanting and wanting
      - Murder - hating others and killing physically as well
      - Quarrels - "I'm always right."
      - Deceit - willing to lie to others to get what you want.
      - Malice - "the intention or desire to do evil; ill will" - the desire is not to do good to others, but
        evil.
    - They are:
      - Gossips - yapping about others issues instead of trying to help the person
      - Slanderers - putting down others
      - God-haters - its not that they just want to live to please their flesh, they actually turn against
        God and His people - oppose/opposition.  Does this sound familiar with athiests these days?
      - Arrogant - thinking they are the world's smartest and wisest, yet the Bible refers to them as fools
      - Proud - they are proud of everything wicked they do.
      - Boastful - they boast in their arrogance, they boast about their sin and how good they think they 
         are.
      - Inventors of Evil - they create new ways that they can go against God.  Brag about this, boast                
        about it, post it on the internet, make movies about it and drag others down with them.
      - Disobedient to Parents - the ones that are to love and care for their children are being  
        disrespected by their children and not showing any care for what their parents are trying to teach 
        them.  At the same time these days, parents are doing the previous things mentioned as well.
      - Undiscerning - ignorant/not knowing what is right or wrong anymore.  If others think its right
        who am I to say its wrong, is what they think and is becoming a popular thought process in our
        culture.
      - Untrustworthy - you just can't trust them...that is a hard for me because I know what its like to 
        not be trusted (as a child this was the case for me) and now that I'm older, I don't like not being 
        able to trust someone.  I'd rather see you as the above and honest...at least I would know where
        you stand, but when you are untrustworthy...
      - Unloving - not patient, kind, gentle - looking for wrong in others, all the opposite of 1 Cor. 13
      - Unmerciful - the One who died to take my place for my sins is a merciful and just God-the Bible
        says that He is love.  I thank God that He is - these traits.  
vs. 32 They know full well God's just sentence - that those who practice such things deserve to die - they not only do them, but even applaud others who practice them.


Genesis 1


 


- In the beginning God - this is the key verse for Christian's regarding our origins.  God always was and always will be.  He is outside time and space as we know it and He created time and space as we know it.
- vs. 3-4 I am not sure if this was the sun and moon or someone has said that because God is light (1 John 1:5) that He hid himself to create the darknes...I'm not sure about this one.
- vs. 24 Then God said, “Let the earth produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that crawl, and the wildlife of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so.
- vs. 26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, all the earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.”
- vs. 28 God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth.”  God has given us control of the animals and the earth, we want to take care of it as best as we can as well as the animals.  Proverbs 12:10a: A righteous man cares about his animal's health.  I know some people have a hard time with us as humans eating meat.  Check out these verses.

The War At Hand

There is a debate happening right now over the name of the 3rd The Hobbit movie - for now it has officially been named "The Battle Of The Five Armies", I knew that when I started this blog it would be a bit of a battle to keep it up to date...most importantly my time in the Scriptures.

I find that when I go to the men's group through my church and have a good night with the guys in the Scriptures, praying and encouraging one another, the temptation that week is horrendous! 

With this blog happening, I find that all of a sudden I am having a hard time getting into the Scriptures!  I open up the Bible and find that I can't focus on what I'm reading.

The battle can rage on about what the title of The Hobbit will be, but the battle is always going to rage on "For our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world powers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens." Ephesians 6:12

Saturday, April 26, 2014

Matthew 1


- God changed Abram's name to Abraham "for I will make you a father of many nations." Abram was the first God told to change his name.

The following list has the number of times that the person's name is in the Bible with the link to BibleGateway.com
- Abram - 54 - God changed his name to Abraham.
- Abraham - 236
- Isaac - 128
- Jacob - 375 - God changed his name to "Israel because you have struggled with God and with men and have prevailed.”
- Israel - 2,405
- Perez - 17
- Hezron - 19
- Aram - 145
- Amminadab - 14
- Nahshon - 11
- Salmon - 5
- Boaz - 27
- Obed - 26
- Ruth - 23
- Jesse - 34
- "King" David - 838
- Solomon - 234
- Rehoboam - 48
- Abijah - 24
- Asa - 51
- Jehoshaphat - 74
- Joram - 25
- Uzziah - 28
- Jotham - 25
- Ahaz - 40
- Hezekiah - 121
- Manasseh - 125
- Amon - 16
- Josiah - 49
- Jechoniah - 2
- Shealtiel - 12
- Zerubbabel - 23
- Abiud - 1
- Eliakim - 14
- Azor - 2
- Zadok - 49
- Achim - 1
- Eliud - 2
- Eleazar - 70
- Matthan - 1
- Jacob - The father of Joseph the husband of Mary of gave birth to Jesus.

I understand that the following images may not make the blog look pleasant, but as I was searching for a photo to put at the top of the page, I found these other charts and thought they were useful.





Friday, April 25, 2014

Introduction

I suppose I should have an introduction to a blog. I am starting this blog so that I will continue with the blog :) I would like to read through the Bible, there is a Bible reading plan by Grant Horner that I have attempted twice before, but fizzled out. It is a lot of reading in one day for me as I like listening to audio or have visual instead and I believe that is why I have fizzled out. Also, I do like studying and find sometimes if I am wizzing through the material than, I may not get as much out of it and it may not be as beneficial for me, in my mind at least. So, that is why I have started this blog, so I can type down information that I have learned from my reading and apply it to my life. I would love to have an entry everyday with reading that I have done, I know that it may not happen that way, but it is still a goal of mine. - Justin