Category: Bible study

The Vision God Wants Us to Follow

Do you remember in High School taking all those tests in order to reveal what path you were best suited to prepare for in your life. These are the tests designed to let you know if you are good at academics or at working with your hands. The counselor would glean what you are best at all from filling out a series of questions and filling in the little bubbles with your number 2 pencil. 

As Christians we sometimes have the same problem, we do not know what God wants us to do with our lives so we pick up this book or that questionnaire all geared at showing us what God’s will is for our lives. We live in a world that needs to know now what is going on, we do not like to wait for anything. Think about where we would be without the microwave oven and the drive thru window at your favorite fast food restaurant. I think a lot of our problems today stem from our inability to slow down and take it easy.

When it comes to God’s will for our lives sometimes we have to step back and take it easy until God reveals what it best for us and what area it is best for us to focus our vision on. Some people spend most of their live waiting for their place in god’s work to be revealed. In my church I have seen people who were retired from one job suddenly enlightened by God o what is to be to course for the remaining years of my life. Myself I an in my forties and have finally discovered that God wants me to teach and to teach others about Him and His love.

The point is that eventually the vision God has for your life will come, but until them we need to understand that God’s vision is eternal not ethereal as ours is. That is the vision we are to follow until God reveals what He wants us to do with our lives

A FATHERS WORDS OF INSTRUCTION! Gods Word (The Bible), gives life to those who meditate on it, and apply it to their life. It changes us in a …

bible.com/bible/100/pro.4.23.NASB1995

A FATHERS WORDS OF INSTRUCTION! Gods Word (The Bible), gives life to those who meditate on it, and apply it to their life. It changes us in a …

Contentment

Can I find contentment no matter what the circumstances?

Read these two verses written by Paul and you will find your answer
2 Corinthians 12:10
Since I know it is all for Christ’s good, I am quite content with my weaknesses and with insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Philippians 4:11-13
Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to get along happily whether I have much or little. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything with the help of Christ who gives me the strength I need.

Contentment is found not in what you have but Who you have in your heart

Can I find contentment in wealth?

Everybody who has money always wants a little more and when they get a little more they still want a little more. It is clear that money and material blessing cannot in and of themselves provide happiness. True contentment comes from and centers on God. Jesus says that we can have material blessings but we must be careful not to let those blessings become the center of our contentment

Paul deals with the issue of wealth and contentment in 1 Timothy 6:17 when he states
Tell those who are rich in this world not to be proud and not to trust in their money, which will soon be gone. But their trust should be in the living God, who richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment.

And the writer of Hebrews also states in Hebrews 13:5
Stay away from the love of money; be satisfied with what you have.

It is hard to be content with what we have when we see others who always seem to have more than us, but in the end it wont really matter. As the old saying goes “you can’t take it with you”.

God can and will give you peace and contentment

We look and look and do not find, why? , Because when we try to look we are looking in the wrong place. 

For years I was like the world looking for contentment in whatever way I could find. The problem was that I was only content for a little while then I needed something else to help me be content. It was only when I came to Christ that I understood what contentment really is . 

I think Isaiah 26:3 sums it up best
You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, whose thoughts are fixed on you!

Peter who gave His life to and for Christ sums up the whole idea of being content when he says in 2 Peter 1:3

As we know Jesus better, his divine power gives us everything we need for living a godly life. He has called us to receive his own glory and goodness!

To paraphrase a popular slogan
Know Jesus, Know contentment
No Jesus, No contentment 

There is one final question that needs to be asked

Are you content?

If not ask God to fill you with His contentment.

A Little Work

A little work never hurt anybody?

Proverbs 12:24 says to “Work hard and become a leader” .

If you look at the first part of the verse God calls us to work hard and become a leader: a leader not so much as a manager, but as an example to others. People will see your hard work and want to know why you are doing what you are doing. This will give you an opportunity to tell them about Christ.

When we are lazy the opposite will happen. Our witness will dwindle as will our reputation.

Why is laziness so bad?

Now look at the second part of this verse. Proverbs 24b “be lazy and become a slave”.
If we are lazy it is no benefits to others or us. We are slaves to our lifestyle, never moving forward but always staying right where we are. This means that we are dependent on others to help support us and take care of us sometimes physically most of the time spiritually. God calls for us to do our best for His sake not ours. 

The funny thing is that when you work for the Lord it does not seem like work but more of a pleasure. If you do not think that God frowns upon laziness look up these other verses in Proverbs.
18:9 A lazy person is as bad as a someone who destroys things. 
21:25 the desires of lazy people will be their ruin
Well you get the picture. In the end person’s laziness will be their ruin.

What happens to us when we are lazy?
Proverbs 24:34 says that a little extra sleep, a little more slumber a little folding of hands to rest- and poverty will pounce on you like a bandit.

This verse shows us that laziness will bring a person down to the point of being impoverished both in physical needs as well as spiritual. There are two things to point out here. When we are lazy we end up being a burden on systems like welfare and church aid which means that some people who really need the help are not going to get it. If we are able to do are share we should be doing it.

The same is true of Spiritual needs. If as a brother or sister in Christ we are not doing our share to further the Kingdom of Christ here on earth that means that others who are serving God will have a heavier burden to carry. I read somewhere that if everyone who claims to be a Christian did his or her share of the work this country would see a revival the likes of that has never been seen before.

I don’t want to sound like a broken record but from these verses in Proverbs you can see the dire consequences of laziness. Not only is laziness a physical problem, because it is the root cause of things like obesity, but it is also a spiritual problem because it makes us weak an ineffective when it comes to our service to the Lord. 

In closing remember these words of Paul in Romans 12:11 Never be lazy in your work, but serve the Lord enthusiastically