God calls His children to study, understand and defend the truth because the truth does matter to God. Faith, in and of itself, is not what God is looking for. It’s not enough to be sincere or intense. Faith, in and of itself, has no magic power. It’s a faithful, reasonable trust in the truth that matters to God. Trust placed in the correct and true God of the universe is what matters to God. That’s why God is so particular about truth and calls us to have an accurate understanding of who He is. And that’s why God has called us to treat heresy very seriously.
“Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take them into your house or welcome them.Anyone who welcomes them shares in their wicked work.” 2 John 9-11 NIV (emphasis mine)
As I was driving home, the driver in front of me slammed on his brakes, which meant I had to slam on my brakes! My right arm flew over to protect the child in the passenger seat. Only there wasn’t a child in the passenger seat, and there hasn’t been for the last 30 years!
I had to laugh at myself, and I wondered if that habit was going to stay with me for the rest of my life. It made me think of all the good things that could become a habit. Spending time with God and reading the Bible each morning before you start your day is the most important habit you could ever develop.
“I rise before dawn and cry for help; I have put my hope in your word.” Psalm 119:147 NIV
“I never saw a useful Christian who was not a student of the Bible.” D.L. Moody
“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.” 2 Timothy 2:15
A Little-Known Story About D.L. Moody
The first meeting I ever saw him at was in a little old shanty that had been abandoned by a saloon-keeper. Mr. Moody had got the place to hold the meetings at night. I went there a little late; and the first thing I saw was a man standing up with a few tallow candles around him, holding a negro boy, and trying to read to him the story of the Prodigal Son and a great many words he could not read out, and had to skip. I thought, ‘If the Lord can ever use such an instrument as that for His honor and glory, it will astonish me.’ As a result of his tireless labor, within a year the average attendance at his school was 650, while 60 volunteers from various churches served as teachers. It became so well known that the just-elected President Lincoln visited and spoke at a Sunday School meeting on November 25, 1860. (Wikipedia)
“I’ve noticed that everybody who is for abortion has already been born!”
President Ronald Reagan
“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” Psalm 139:13-16 NIV
I never knew how much I could love someone until I had a baby.
If you want to know the Bible, you have to read the Bible, all of it, not just your favorite parts. If you don’t know the Bible well, you are vulnerable to deception. And that is exactly why so many Christians are deceived by false teaching.
The Bible consists of 66 books: The Old Testament (39 books) and the New Testament (27 books). If we are to understand the whole counsel of God’s Word, we must read and study all of it.
Every book of the Bible contributes to our knowledge of God. The Old Testament contains well over 400 verses and allusions that point to the coming Messiah.
You can read the whole Bible in one year by reading for about 15 minutes per day. This is not difficult to do! I highly recommend it! I have been doing this since 2019, when my pastor shared a one-year Bible reading plan. It changed my life!
It seems like most Christians would rather read a book by a well-known minister rather than read their Bible, but remember this: Jesus has sent the Holy Spirit to guide you into all truth. You will be surprised by how much you will learn!
“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17 NIV (emphasis mine)
In Psalm 119, King David wrote:
“I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways. I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word.” vv15-16 (emphasis mine)
“Your statutes are my delight; they are my counselors.” v 24
“Your word, Lord, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens. Your faithfulness continues through all generations” vv89-90
“If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction.” v92
“Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.” v105
“You are my refuge and my shield; I have put my hope in your word.” v114
“Great peace have those who love your law, and nothing can make them stumble.” v165
“He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way.” Psalm 25:9 NIV
“As we journey every day, requiring His grace afresh every morning, may we remember that He guides us every step of the way in what is right. It is not our intellect that directs and sustains us on the right path, but it is God who does that. Christ is the one who is our wisdom (1 Cor 1:30) and gives us discernment (Phil 1:9).
And as he guides, our posture has to be one of humility, acknowledging that we completely rely on Him in every way, for His word says that he guides the humble.” Manu, from her post, Rest Your Gaze on God
This is the story of a man who lusted for what he should not have seen and the sin that spiraled out of control.
King David was a man after God’s own heart, a good man who trusted God in all situations. He was surrendered to God’s will. He was a musician and wrote songs praising the Lord. Yet he lusted after a woman he should not look upon – Bathsheba, a beautiful woman married to one of his elite military commanders, Uriah the Hittite. David saw her bathing, and he sent for her, committed adultery with her, and she became pregnant.
David tried to cover his tracks by summoning her husband Uriah, who was away at war. He assumed Uriah would sleep with Bathsheba, and it would look like he was the father of the child.
However, Uriah refused to go home while the soldiers under his command were at war, and he slept outside the palace instead. David was so desperate to cover up his sin that he sent Uriah to the front lines, where the battle was fiercest, so that he would be killed. And so he was. The sin of “lust of the eyes” spiraled out of control and ended in murder.
“For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.” 1 John 2:16
Yet God called David “a man after my own heart.” How could David, a man of God, fall to such depths of sin?
“I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfill all my will.” Acts 13:22
“There is no limit to the depths of sin a person is capable of once he or she starts to walk away from God. Committing just one sin often makes people callous to bigger sins, until they find themselves doing things they never imagined they would do.”
Pastor David Jeremiah
Nathan the prophet visits King David
Nathan said to David,
“There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor.The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.”
Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.
David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die! He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.”
Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man!“ (2 Samuel 12:1-7a)
The consequences of David’s sin were severe. The child born to him by Bathsheba became sick and died; and calamity never left David’s household.
Broken-hearted over what he had done, David cried out to the Lord, repented of his sins, and was forgiven. In his sorrow, David wrote Psalm 51.
“Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean. Wash me and I will be whiter than snow.” (vs. 7)
“Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.” (vs. 10-11)
“My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.” (vs. 17)
Once forgiven and the weight of his sin lifted, David wrote this Psalm:
“The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” Psalm 103:8-12
David experienced the overwhelming power of God’s forgiveness and mercy – forgiveness for sins which were evil in the sight of the Lord. Forgiveness is an indescribable experience that leaves one changed forever. It brings with it a deep understanding of God’s mercy and love. It brings relief from shame, relief from guilt that is too heavy to carry. And it is available to us today.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16
May we forever praise Him and bring glory to His Name.
“You can never learn that Christ is all you need, until Christ is all you have.”
Corrie ten Boom, Holocaust survivor and author of The Hiding Place
All Scriptures from NIV
Read the story of David and Bathsheba from 2 Samuel here.
“God desires that His children not only receive His grace but understand why it is precious. Through the Son, believers learn to value mercy because they see what it cost…In Christ’s submission to the Father’s will, the depth of divine mercy is revealed. The Father’s justice and compassion meet perfectly in the cross. In that sacred union, the believer learns both the seriousness of sin and the magnitude of grace.”
“If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come!” Matthew 18:6-7 NIV
As we reflect on these words of Jesus, let us consider the spiritual needs of our children and ask the Lord to give us wisdom and discernment so that we can protect them and teach them what is right.
Once there was a very popular preacher. So many people crowded into his church services that the church had to be enlarged. He frequently preached at other churches, as popular preachers often do.
The preacher wrote beautiful Christian songs that were popular with churchgoers. Soon, he began a series of weekly prayer meetings in addition to regular services.
What made this preacher so special? I believe it was his life journey.
All the experiences in our past have shaped us into the person we are today. This preacher, at one time, was a vile sinner, cruel and having a hardened heart; a man without compassion or mercy.
Is it possible for such a person to have a complete turnaround? Can a hardened sinner become a saint? Can a depraved evildoer become a man (or woman) of God?
Ask the woman who washed Jesus’ feet with her tears and dried them with her hair, anointing them with costly perfume. When an indignant Pharisee questioned Jesus about allowing this sinful woman (probably a prostitute) to touch him, Jesus said this:
“Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”Luke 7:47 NIV
Have you guessed the preacher’s identity yet? You won’t find him on YouTube or TV. He was born in 1725.
Before he gave his life to Christ, he was the captain of slave ships. I can only imagine the horror of such ships. Still, it is well documented that slave ships provided such wretched accommodations that many men, women, and children died before arriving at their intended destination. In the words of a former slave, Olaudah Equiano, “The shrieks of the women, and the groans of the dying rendered the whole scene of horror almost inconceivable.”
Who was this forgiven reprobate turned preacher-songwriter?
His name is John Newton, and he wrote these famous words: Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I’m found, was blind, but now I see.”
This celebrated hymn touches my soul because I know that what God’s grace and mercy did for John Newton, He did for me.
As you listen to Amazing Grace, thank God for his mercy and forgiveness. The more we have been forgiven, the more we love Him. That’s what Jesus said.
“Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” Isaiah 1:18 KJV
“He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.” Titus 3:5 NIV
Real Christian Women 