Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Day 1 - Week 11 - Ready for a tougher one?

You may get tired of me going over our verses, but you'll just have to bear with me.  I HAVE to recite them periodically so I can keep the ones I've already learned firmly placed in this somewhat mushy brain of mine!  AND as a result, even more firmly embedded in my heart!

So do you use this time to exercise your brain along with mine? Hope so!  Here we go....

Four Corners of the Bible:
Genesis 1:1 "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."
John 1:1 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
John 1:14 "And the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.  We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only, who came from the Father full of grace and truth."
John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life."

Romans Road:
Romans 3:23 "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."
Romans 6:23 "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord."
Romans 5:8 "But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
Romans 10:9 "If you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord' and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."
Romans 12:1 "Therefore, my dear brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.  This is your spiritual worship."

The Gift of Scripture:
2 Timothy 3:16 "All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness."

This past week has impressed upon me the value of Scripture in so many different areas of life, and how I have often undervalued it in so many areas of my personal life.  I could be much farther down my road of faith had I used Scripture to its maximum profitability.  If I had turned to Scripture when I needed to be taught, convicted, corrected and just for the continual training that I have always needed, I would have made better decisions, avoided some pitfalls and been a better example to others of God's activity in my life.

But one of the most wonderful things about our God, and about the message of Christianity, is that He continually allows us to not only start over, but to use our past, whatever it may be, to build on our future and to allow Him to use the things we have gone through to enhance our lives, not detract from them.   Many Christians I know with the strongest testimonies are those who have come the farthest and can closely identify with people who struggle with many of the same things they did  in the past.  Many times our histories become our ministries.

So...what will this week's verse impress upon us?  It is a little more difficult passage, but again broken down becomes fairly easy to grasp.  This is an Old Testament verse from the book of Joshua:

Joshua 1:8, "This book of instruction must not depart from your mouths; you are to recite it day and night, so that you may carefully observe everything written in it.  For then you will prosper and succeed in whatever you do."

Wow - that's quite a bit.  But I think by the end of this week we will grow to love this verse and wholeheartedly embrace it. 

Remember what we send last night about a more rigorous training routine!  Let's get moving!


1 comment:

donna said...

You are such a slave driver - - Each day we live is a New Beginning. Walking with Jesus and talking with him. A daily ritual, of devotional and praise for God. Asking and learning and receiving. Careful and steadfast reading and studying Scripture. It is only through God's Love that we live fulfilled and fed by His Word.

I really like that, "our histories become our ministries".