Each of us has built, is building, or will attempt to build a variety of things throughout our lives. Whether it be a career, a relationship, a marriage, or a family, we build over time and then we seek to protect that which we have invested our time in.
When we work solely by way of self-sufficiency, we are working in the dark, out of sync with God’s plans and purposes for good. When we seek to ensure that the Lord be the master builder of all that we undertake, we can be confident that He will establish a lasting result that is solid and true. While we are to remain watchful over all that is in our care, it is in God’s hands that we must ultimately place our reliance for security.
This morning, let’s keep this verse in mind and take a moment to seek the Lord’s guidance before hammering the first nail of the day. With God’s direction, we have the opportunity to make something built to last.
Jeff Deal
The Feast of Tabernacles was an eight-day feast, to remember how the Lord had provided for His people in the wilderness. As the people would gather at the steps of the temple, the priests would fill up big pitchers of water and bring them to the steps, pouring them out as the people sang about the coming Messiah. On the eighth day, they would go to the pool to fill the pitchers, but instead would leave them empty, turning them over on the steps but with no water coming out. It would represent how God brought them to the promised land, with rivers and streams to drink from.
So now Jesus stands up on the eighth day and cries out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” As the people were crying out for water in the wilderness, Moses beat on the rock and life-giving water came forth. Here Jesus says, “If you’re thirsty, come to me, and I will give you life.” He was beaten, He suffered, and died so we might live.
John adds here that, “He spoke concerning the Spirit, that those who believed in Him would receive.” The Holy Spirit that would bring new life to the believer and would flow from the life of those who believe as we live this new life for our Savior.
Pastor Doug Hardin
Being in the will of God is the best place to be! Sadly, many people fight against the will of God and they miss out. God has the best plans for your life and if you want to live the best life, live in the will of God. God wants to show you His will even more than you want Him to reveal it. You can know the will of God for your life by reading His word and prayerfully asking Him to show you. So many people chase after the things of this world and they are like fireworks, just a flash in the sky and then they are gone, but those who do the will of God endure forever. How are you living?
For the King,
Pastor Daniel Batistelli
Paul didn’t know most of these people yet he never neglected to include them in his prayers. It’s easy to say we will pray for someone but Paul states that before God Who sees EVERYTHING, he has indeed lifted them up in his prayers. They were on his list and he didn’t skip over them.
Spurgeon wrote, “No wonder that they prospered so well when Paul always made mention of them in his prayers. Some churches would prosper better if some of you remembered them more in prayer.” Pray for your church and its leaders today and watch the amazing results as God answers those prayers.
“Always in my prayers,”
Pastor Gerard Deleeuw
You’ve probably heard the above verses at a wedding ceremony you’ve attended, but have you really looked at them? We should all have this kind of love for our spouses, but the truth is we’ve probably failed many times. There’s an exercise we’re often told to do by putting our names in the place of the word “love” in these verses. Does Ron suffer long? Is Ron kind? Sometimes, I suppose, but all the time? Not even close. And that’s the first set of verses!
Of course, the only one who could succeed in this name game is Jesus Himself. He is all of the above and more and it makes Him the perfect Savior for us.
If you find yourself failing in some of these areas, maybe you need a little more Jesus in your life and a little less of yourself. We’ll never be perfect, but at least we know the One who is to help us along.
Looking for more of God’s love in my life,
Pastor Ron Kitchell
We have all heard the expression, “talk is cheap,” and the Bible certainly agrees with that sentiment. One attribute of a true believer in Jesus Christ is that he or she will submit their lives to His Word and direction in obedience. It is one thing to know what God wants, yet an entirely different thing to act upon what you know. God’s Word leads us to life. From the direction to faith in Jesus to daily walking in His grace, His Word is a guidebook, an operator’s manual for the saints to follow.
May this truth fill your heart and mind this morning. Are you a “doer” of God’s Word? Will you be making decisions today that are made only because you belong to Jesus and are seeking to obey Him? To hear and not do is deceptive, it will fool us into thinking all is well. Yet as James says here, the blessing is found with those who hear and do!
Seek to hear and do His Word today!
Pastor Jack Abeelen
Have you ever discovered some new insight or detail in a passage of scripture that you have read multiple times in the past? There is a little detail that is revealed here in Mark’s account of Jesus calming the storm that is not detailed in the other two gospel accounts of this story. Verses 35 through 41 of Mark 4 tell the familiar story of Jesus and His disciples caught in a boat during a severe windstorm. Jesus slept peacefully while the disciples fretted as the boat took on water. They woke Jesus, Who with a few words, immediately calmed the storm, demonstrating His divinity.
The detail that I had not noticed before was that other little boats were also with Jesus. I am not entirely sure why God only recorded this particular detail in Mark, but it is an interesting one when you ponder it. For one thing, this detail reveals to us the fact that the disciples were not the only witnesses to this fantastic miracle. The riders on the other boats most certainly would have experienced the same terror as the disciples, and therefore the same relief when calmness fell on the sea as Jesus commanded, “Peace be still.” These additional eyewitnesses would be able to later corroborate and confirm Mark’s gospel account to doubters, detractors, and naysayers.
By the Holy Spirit, God’s Word speaks to us, and He may want to teach us something new in passages that we have read before. We must habitually be in the Word of God in order to create the opportunities for God to teach us something new or give us new insights, and we need to read with a prayerful expectation that He will reveal His truths to our heart. If we read without focus and intensity, we are going to miss what He wants to teach us. Lord, by your Spirit, draw us into your Word daily, and give us hungry hearts looking to be fed with your truth.
Jeff Mericle
In Romans 6, Paul exhorts true believers to remember that our old nature was crucified with Jesus on the cross so that we are no longer slaves of sin, but free now to obey God. One very practical way Paul shows us how to stop letting sin reign in our lives is to compare being a slave of sin to being a slave of God.
There is good news and bad news here. The bad news is that we are all slaves. The good news is you can choose your master. You are a slave of the one whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience to God, leading to righteousness. One master hates you and wants to deceive you, take you captive, and lead you to death with him in hell. The other Master loves you, died a most horrible death to pay for your sin, and wants to give you fullness of joy now (Psalm 16:11). So, before making your choice, consider where each master is leading you.
Paul continues this comparison through the end of the chapter, finally asking in verse 21, “What possible benefit were you deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed, for the end result of those things is death? But now, having been set free from sin and enslaved to God, you have your abundant fruit of holiness that leads to everlasting life.”
Paul ends chapter six with the sober pronouncement: The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23).
Tom Day
The proverb here tells us that what we speak will distinguish between those that are wise and those that are fools. Those that are wise will take information and properly apply that knowledge in such a way that when they speak, they impart words that are accurate, true, profound, helpful, insightful, etc. However, those that are fools, words of stupidity come flooding out of the mouth that are crass, inappropriate, worthless, and/or harmful.
You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to be wise because there are plenty intelligent fools out there. To be wise is to know the Lord, to know His Word, and to walk according to His ways. You spend your time doing that and I bet you would have some things worthy of sharing unlike 95 percent of the posts, tweets, and vlogs I come across these days.
Pastor Jason Witt
I have seen this verse posted in just about everyone’s house I’ve been in. I even have it in my own house. The children of Israel had seen their share of false gods throughout the land. Their fathers even worshiped some of them. The question that Joshua asks the children of Israel was pretty straightforward. Who are you going to choose to serve? These false gods or the Lord?
When I look at this verse posted in my house, I take it seriously. It means to me that I have made a commitment to the Lord; that I will serve Him and Him only, with all that I have. I will lead my family according to all His ways. I will teach the word of God to my children, I will talk about them daily, and write them wherever I can (Deuteronomy 6:6-9). Every day I wake up, I will choose to serve the Lord. Even if everyone says I’m wrong, I choose to serve the Lord.
Choosing to serve the Lord,
Joshua Navarro
