Monday, November 29, 2010

Examples of Obedience

The next couple of days we are going to share with you some Biblical examples as well as recent examples of people who have obeyed in difficult circumstances. We hope you are encouraged by these examples and that they will give YOU encouragement to obey! Can you share with us an example?

Friday, November 26, 2010

Easy or Difficult?

Many Christians think obeying God is difficult. Why is that a misconception? Remember Matthew 11:30, "For my yoke is easy and my burden is light"? The Christian whose will is united with the will of God, will not find obedience to God's will a task. Rather, the Christian will find obedience a joy because he loves to serve and please his Savior. We need to recognize that attitudes of defeat and sorrow over what God has called you to do is sinful thinking. We must take our thoughts captive and chose to believe God's Word - that what He has called us to do, He will give us grace to do. So, how are you doing? Do you think that obeying God is difficult? How have you see God's grace working in your life as you seek to obey God?

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Obeyable Commands

Verse 3 in 1 John 5 tells us, "For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome." What an amazing and encouraging truth this can bring us as we seek to obey God's commands. We can be confident that His commands are obeyable because He promises that they are not burdensome! We spent some time today defining the word "burdensome." The thought behind it is that a burden is "heavy," "oppressive," or "grievous." These are not characteristic of God's commands. We read in Matthew 11:30 that Christ says "For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Praise God that what God has called us to is bearable, obeyable and can be done using His strength! So, how are you doing with YOUR calling? Are you trusting in this fact that His commands are not burdensome? Or, are you allowing your mind to be overwhelmed with the worries and cares of this life? We pray that this time of study would be an encouragement to you as you seek to fulfill God's calling for your life.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

1 John 5:1-5 - Introduction

We begin studying 1 John 5 today and want to introduce the first 5 verses to you. As you read these verses, do any of these verses sound familiar to you? We have talked about many of these things already and again John is weaving these truths in this passage as well. Here are some 3 important themes John mentions again in this section: 1) Faith 2) Loving & Obeying God 3) The Victorious Christian Life We pray that you will find encouragement again from John's words as you study along with us.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Overview of 1 John 4:19-21

As we wrap up chapter 4 of 1 John, we will take the next three days to talk about verses 19-21. What truths from these verses do you use to encourage others? How are these verses encouraging to you?

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Overcoming Fear

How can we overcome our fears? Well, surprise, surprise....we made a list! We explain this list today and tomorrow. This list can also be found on our study notes, along with the verses we give for each. 1) Spiritual growth 2) Love God & others because He loves me 3) Trust in His word 4) Prayer 5) Admonition from other believers 6) Hearing God's word (church, Bible studies, radio) Can you think of anything else to add to this list?

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Fear, cont...

As we continue to talk about fear from 1 John, we ask "what is the problem with fear?" Is it wrong to be afraid? As we talk about this, I hope you will see that when we fear, we are not trusting in God. We are choosing to not believe the promise that we read in Scripture, that we do not need to be afraid. Psalm 56:3 - "When I am afraid, I put my trust in you." At the moment you recognize your fear, you must trust in God! To continue along in your fear is sin. Again, the fear we are talking about in this context, is fear of God's judgment & guilt of sin. Are you choosing to meditate on God's truth or ignore His promises?

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Fear

1 John 4:18 talks about fear. This fear has to do with "punishment" or the coming judgment on the world. Fear is "dread, terror, state of severe distress, concern for impending pain, danger or evil." As we talk about fear in this context, it is important to remember that John is telling his readers that we do not have to fear the coming judgment. Believers have been redeemed and because of God's perfect love, we do not need to be afraid of God's wrath on the unsaved. Praise the Lord! Believers can be fearful of judgment or punishment of sin, but we can remember that God is faithful and will forgive (1 Jn. 1:9). Because of his perfect love, He has forigven us completely and will not hold us accountable for our sins. However, this does NOT mean that we won't suffer present physical consequences - say, a speeding ticket for driving over the speed limit. There are consequences for our sin, but God does not hold us eternally accountable for them as through Christ, they have been forgiven. Some Christians fear death....this ought not to be. For we know that if we are absent from our body, we are present with the Lord.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

1 John 4:15-21

We begin today digging into chapter 4:15-21 today. We chose to skip verses 15 and 16, only because we have discussed these verses in the past with other sections of our study. They are much a repeat of what John has already said, so to move on with our study, we are going to skip right ahead to verses 17 & 18. Over the next several days we are asking ourselves how these 2 verses fit together. We want to gain a proper understanding and so we hope you'll join us as we discuss the importance of these verses!

Monday, November 1, 2010

New link

We have posted a new link under the "Favorite Websites" section on the right side of our blog. The link is: Matthew Henry's Method for Prayer. On the right side of this website there is a link to join the daily email list of praying Scripture. We hope you look to see if this tool would be useful for you!