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Monthly Archives: January 2014

Comparing Translations (Bible Study 101)

Comparing Translations (Bible Study 101)

1 John 3:16-22 By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 17 But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? 18 My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. 19 And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him. 20 For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. 21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. 22 And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.(NKJV)

A great way that God opens the truths of His Word to you is through comparing different translations of the Bible. Each will seem to reflect on the other, and your favorite will most likely become much clearer to you. Don’t pass over when you don’t understand; stop and search deeper, and pray that God will help you understand.

16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 19 This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence 20 whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22 and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. (NIV)

16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 17 But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. 19 By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; 20 for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. 21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; 22 and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.(ESV)

16 This is how we’ve come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed his life for us. This is why we ought to live sacrificially for our fellow believers, and not just be out for ourselves. 17 If you see some brother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God’s love? It disappears. And you made it disappear. 18 My dear children, let’s not just talk about love; let’s practice real love. 19 This is the only way we’ll know we’re living truly, living in God’s reality. 20 It’s also the way to shut down debilitating self-criticism, even when there is something to it. For God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves. 21 And friends, once that’s taken care of and we’re no longer accusing or condemning ourselves, we’re bold and free before God! 22 We’re able to stretch our hands out and receive what we asked for because we’re doing what he said, doing what pleases him. (The Message)

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Posted by oneminuteministry on January 6, 2014 in Daily Devotions

Sermon Link

05 Jan

Here is the link to today’s message

https://www.dropbox.com/s/pvn8h2ww9cjna3v/New%20Years%20msg.docx

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Posted by oneminuteministry on January 5, 2014 in Daily Devotions

Stay or Go?

04 Jan

Stay or Go?

Mark 6:11-12 And whoever will not receive you nor hear you, when you depart from there, shake off the dust under your feet as a testimony against them. Assuredly, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city!” 12 So they went out and preached that people should repent.

I have been awake with a heavy heart this morning for the lost. Personal examples have abounded recently, those in my circle, some close to me, that just don’t “get it”. People that have known me at my worldliest, known me at my worst, and I have testified of the change in me through Christ. Invitations in more than one way denied, still bound by the grasp that the world and sin has upon them. It truly hurts when you so desire for those whom you have known forever to still be lost in sin or false hope. That is a pain I cannot find the words for.

This chapter in Mark is one that many new converts and all that come to live their lives as disciples struggle with; why don’t those close to me understand? Jesus had grown up a simple carpenter’s son, hiding his deity, and then began to preach and fulfill the calling on his life as God. He was rejected by those close to him, and he simply moved on. Christ sends his disciples out to evangelize and heal the sick in this chapter in Mark. He tells them to go unprepared, only to take the Good News that lies in them. Mark 6:8 He commanded them to take nothing for the journey except a staff–no bag, no bread, no copper in their money belts– 9 but to wear sandals, and not to put on two tunics. Those that God had prepared their hearts to receive him through their message would provide for all their needs. They were told to abide in the Spirit and discern those they encountered; to know whether to stay or to keep moving on.

That is hands down one of the hardest things in ministry; the idea of moving on. I have heard of my friends in India speaking of this; you just keep sharing and sharing until someone answers that tug of God on their heart. Then you invest in that person, and urge them to begin to share and seek to make disciples themselves. The only thing that we can continue to do for those that deny, is pray to God for them to humble themselves and repent. It is never our words that save, only our words that delivers the message that can. They must soften their hearts to God’s tug on them and repent. Mark 6:11 And whoever will not receive you nor hear you, when you depart from there, shake off the dust under your feet as a testimony against them. Assuredly, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city!

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Posted by oneminuteministry on January 4, 2014 in Daily Devotions

Card denied

03 Jan

Card denied

Colossians 3:1-3 So if you’re serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. 2 Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ – that’s where the action is. See things from his perspective. 3 Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life – even though invisible to spectators – is with Christ in God. He is your life. (The Message)

Why don’t we get it? Why do we let every other thing in this world take precedence? Anything and everything seems to come before living our lives as disciples of Christ. We mumble some prayer of supposed salvation and return to our worldly lives supposedly secure in that 60 seconds of a lifetime. We see everything else in our lives as priorities above asking the Lord what He would have us do for the day. The distractions that Satan puts in our pathways are successful in keeping our priorities askew. We think every work demand, recreation demand, stress and strain demand, is more important than seeking God’s Will for our lives for each day. We are doing life all wrong; we are doing life on our terms, doing life in the reactive tense rather than the proactive tense. We are doing life our way, by our strength, by our pride and priorities. That is not how God designed us to live.

Charles H. Spurgeon once said. “If the convert declares that he knows the Lords Will but doesn’t mean to attend to it, it is your duty to assure him that he is not saved.” Whoa…. Like uttering a prayer and returning to the lifestyle with no evidence of Jesus Christ in our lives? Nowhere in the Bible did Jesus say to utter a prayer; He said to “take up your cross and follow me.” He called us to make him the number one priority in our lives; the top of our every day list; by which all else is measured and accounted to. God knows our hearts, and the levels of love and priority of which He holds there. What lies above him on your priority list today? Have you sought Him today in prayer and His Word?

Proverbs 8:17 I love those who love me, And those who seek me diligently will find me. Surely you must see how our world is so unstable on so many fronts. Surely you must see how our world is so far from God. Our world is in desperate need of a Savior, and one has come, yet is he being cried out for in the wilderness as John the Baptist did? Is He being proclaimed by his disciples that walk the streets and the internet each day? Is He being presented as the Lord of this life, into eternal life, or is he an afterthought as a get out of jail free card? The get out of jail free cards is only in a fantasy game; we will all stand before a Holy righteous judge one day and give an account of our lives to him. What will you say, when He knows the truth, before you speak it?

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Posted by oneminuteministry on January 3, 2014 in Daily Devotions

Tags: disciples of christ, Jesus Christ

A Cry for Revival – Day 2

02 Jan

I asked permission to reprint this powerful devotional today by Pastor Dean Burris. It really struck me when I read it earlier today, and I wanted to share it with you. Oh how I yearn for revival in me and you. My message this week is one of questioning where our hearts lie; are we pursuing the faith we claim; are we seeking revival?

A Cry for Revival – Day 2

Yesterday, the last words of the poem we read were, “My children, it is time!” Time for what?? It is time for a fresh, powerful, life-altering visitation from the Holy Spirit in our lives and church! It is time that our passion for Jesus Christ be ignited and that our lives burn brightly for His glory. It is time for revival!
Well, what is revival? To revive means to bring something back to life, to re-animate, or re-invigorate. Revival is a season when the Holy Spirit moves powerfully among lifeless, powerless and sleeping believers awakening them to spiritual vigor. It produces a deep conviction over sin and spiritual slothfulness and ignites the fires of devotion, prayer and evangelism. Believers are dramatically revived and the lost are dramatically and powerfully brought into the Kingdom. Revival is the “sanctifying energy of the Holy Spirit, converting the hardened sinner and reclaiming the backslidden and dormant believer . . . Behold, God showers his rain from heaven, and it (the hardened, backslidden heart) is suddenly softened. One sermon may prick to the heart. One drop of a Saviour’s blood, distilled on it by the Spirit, in the preaching of the Word, melts it like wax. The drunkard is made sober, the adulterer chaste, Zaccheus merciful, and raging Paul as tame as a lamb.” That is revival and that is exactly what we need!
In 1802 Rev. Jesse Edson wrote from Halifax, Vermont, about a revival being poured out there: “The Holy Spirit seemed to come down like a rushing, mighty wind, to melt the souls of God’s children, to cause sinners to tremble, stubborn wills to bow, and hard hearts to relent. Numbers flocked to Christ as a cloud, and as doves to their windows.”
One of the great revivals in scripture is found in 1 Samuel 7: ²And all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord (they mourned because it seemed the Lord had abandoned them).
³Then Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, “If you return to the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths from among you, and prepare your hearts for the Lord, and serve Him only; and He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines.” ⁴So the children of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtoreths, and served the Lord only. And verse 10 shows God’s response, “But the Lord spoke with a mighty voice of thunder from heaven that day.”
We need to hear today the mighty, thunderous voice of God in our lives! We need revival! Begin asking the Holy Spirit to reveal to YOU your need for revival. Ask Him to make you completely dissatisfied with a spiritually mundane life. Plead for more! Do you long for more of Christ at work in you? Do you mourn for more of God? Ask today for revival . . . in you.

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Posted by oneminuteministry on January 2, 2014 in Daily Devotions

Tags: Cry for Revival, hearts, holy spirit, The Holy Spirit

Eternal resolution

01 Jan

I went back and read this post from last year; it still applies today.

Eternal resolution

01 Jan

Eternal resolution

1 Thessalonians 4:1 -2 Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God; 2 for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus.

This morning is sort of weird. I seemingly have a lot on my mind, yet in the same sentence I feel blank. I have really felt burdened after yesterday with God, and His showing me how much I need Him and how far I must go for Him. Pride creeps in and makes us feel proud, yet at no point in the Christian life should ourselves feel elevated. Pride is at the root of all sin and a great tool of our enemy who uses it to draw our attention away from God. This morning is the day of resolutions; a day of all the things we will say we desire to do or change by our willpower to achieve that goal. Goals are a great thing if we seek God in them. Do we rely on 12 step programs or prayer to achieve them? Programs elevate us, prayer elevates God.

Paul was writing to the the Thessalonians encouraging them in the growing of their faith and spreading of the Gospel. Paul spends the first part of chapter 4 speaking to them about sexual purity, and how to live a Christian life (4:1-12). He encourages them to live peaceably with others; to set a good example in their work ethic; to not become wrapped up in the chaos of the world that surrounded them; to lead by example. 1 Thessalonians 4:11 and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you. Paul knew the struggles they faced and we face many of the same struggles today. We live in a sexual exploited society; we live in a entitlement society; we live in a selfish society; we live in a society that is beginning more and more to persecute the church, even in a nation founded on the freedoms of it.

If today is a day that you set your heart on a goal, why can you not make that goal to seek God and the things of God? Why can’t you make the conscious effort on something that matters eternally, much more than any bad habit that is temporal? Why can’t you make today the start of growing your relationship with your Creator and Savior the greatest resolution ever? Today could be the first day of the rest of your eternal life if you truly seek to change through the Good News of Jesus Christ. Have you been playing Christian but yet never sold your soul out for Christ as a disciple? Is your name on a Most Wanted poster at the gates of hell? Make today’s resolution on of a life consecrated to seeking God and the things of God and you will be eternally rewarded. Matthew 6:33 Seek Ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. True change begins with Christ; true change continues daily in Christ; true change is rewarded eternally, but begins today.

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Posted by oneminuteministry on January 1, 2014 in Daily Devotions

Tags: Lord Jesus, resolution, Thessalonians