Bible Study #727

The goal of Bible Study is not just learning, but living If you are saved, you will have a desire to be holy, a hunger for the Word, the inner witness of the Spirit, and a desire to share Jesus. These are the birthmarks of the believer. #727 12 May 15 Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit." Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. James 4:13-14 Grateful for . . . . THE WORD OF GOD ! (\0/) (\0/) (\0/) (\0/) (\0/) (\0/) Greetings! James does not condemn wise business planning, but rather planning that leaves out God. The people so depicted are practical atheists, living their lives and making their plans as if God did not exist. Such conduct is inconsistent with genuine saving faith, which submits to God. In a hypothetical but realistic scenario, James accused merchants who had big designs on making a profit of leaving God out of their plans. It is unclear whether the merchants were Christians, but verse 15 suggests that some were. Neglecting to entrust our hopes and plans to God and His counsel is paramount to arrogance and unbelief. If He is really the Lord of our lives, we see all things as coming from His hands and we speak of plans and outcomes accordingly. It is God's will that conditions the course of life. May God bless you this week! ♥ Memory verse for this week: 2 Tim 1:7 This week's Trivia's: [answer's below . . ] 1. Jesus said that those who take up the sword will die with what? 2. What object did Moses erect which, when gazed upon, would cure a fatal snake bite? * * * * * * * * * The chief of joy is to glorify God and to enjoy Him for eternity * * * * * * * * * BIBLE MEDITATION: “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.” Prov 3:5-6 DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT: If Jesus Christ is Lord of your life, you are going to give Him the first consideration in every decision you make. You will ask, “What is the will of God? What is the purpose of Jesus? What will glorify my Father?” Have you ever worked for a company and they decided to transfer you? So many people, because of their financial obligations, discuss it a little with family and friends, then make plans for the move. Sometimes the transfer happens so quickly, prayer has sometimes been forgotten. ACTION POINT: Friend, if God wants you to go, then go. If God doesn't want you to go, then you need to stay. But you’ll never know until you get alone with God and let Him tell you what He wants. from the Ministries of Love Worth Finding . . . by Adrian Rogers * * * * * * * * * Tell the Lord you want to be useful for Him and be used by Him * * * * * * * * * We have begun another journey and will learn from the book "Hard To Believe" written by John MacArthur. In his book John helps us to understand the high cost and infinite value of following Jesus. GBY . . . . . . . . . . HARD TO BELIEVE . . . . . . . . . . Chapter 10 . . TRAITORS TO THE FAITH . . NO PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP . . Spiritual defectors seek no personal relationship. John 6:36: “But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe.” This is the beginning of a benchmark passage that also reads as a somewhat sad soliloquy. In verse 37, Jesus said, “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me.” Why did He say that, all of a sudden? To whom was He talking? He had just told them that He was what they were looking for, the bread of heaven that gives eternal life to the world: “And Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never huger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst’” (v. 35). For any of us who go out to preach the gospel and proclaim the truth of Christ, for any who are brokenhearted and grieved over unbelief, we regain our hope on the solid promise that all whom the Father draws will come. This promise propelled Jesus into His statement in John 6:37-38: “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” He comforted Himself with the reminder that salvation was all the Father’s plan anyway. And when the Father drew people to Him, they would come. In verse 39, Jesus recognized that those people had absolutely no interest in a personal relationship with Him: “This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.” Verse 40 sums it up: “And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at t he last day.” Jesus found His confidence, His balance in the midst of this tension between Himself and those defecting disciples by recalling the inviolable purposes of God that would ultimately come to pass. MUMBLING MOCKERS . . Something else you inevitably will find true is that false Christians speak privately against the truth. When they’re away from the true disciples, they mock the faith, either by what they say or how they live. In John 6, they followed Jesus around, saying, “We want to make You King. Show us how to do Your works. Show us how to receive this eternal bread.” But when they got away from that scene, what they said was very different. Verse 41: “The Jews then complained about Him, because He said, ‘I am the bread which came down from heaven.’” They were—here’s one of those interesting Greek words, gonguzo—complaining, murmuring, mumbling, grumbling, speaking clandestinely against Jesus. When they were with the believers, they didn't do that. When they were with those who didn't believe, they mocked. Verse 42: “And they said, ‘Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that He says, “I have come down from heaven”?’” They were making a joke of it. It would be very interesting to hear what people who are faithfully in church every Sunday say about religion in their conversations during the week, when unbelievers surround them. Do they defend the gospel, or do they mock it? Jesus knew exactly what kind of mumbling and grumbling was going on. The people were mad because He had shattered their hope for free food. They had no interest in repentance or obedience or submission (which, by the way, is why you have to preach repentance, obedience, and submission). When they were away from Jesus and those close to Him, they jeered. No true lover of Jesus Christ would ever do that. From that moment on, a remarkable thing happened. Instead of making the truth simpler in response to their mockery, Jesus began to make His message more difficult and hid the truth from them. He did this throughout His ministry, often by speaking in parables. He didn't argue or try to press His case; He simple returned to His confidence in God’s sovereignty, as in John 6:44: “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.” Evil trees can’t bear good fruit, bitter fountains can’t yield sweet water, and no one gets saved without a sovereign, gracious calling from God. Among true believers and ridiculing defectors alike, God will fulfill His saving purpose. DIVINE HUNGER . . Defectors have no hunger for divine reality. John 6:45 says, “It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.” Jesus was quoting from Isaiah 54:13 as a representative of the prophets, thought Jeremiah, Joel, Micah, Zephaniah, and Malachi stated that same concept in their writings. Jesus was affirming the great truth of the doctrine of election when the Father chooses, the Father teaches; when the Father teaches, they learn, they’re drawn; when they’re drawn, they come; when they come, Jesus receives them; when He receives them, He keeps them; when He keeps them, He raises them to eternal life. And then the Father’s purpose is accomplished. John 46-51: Not that anyone has seen the Father, except He who is from God; He has seen the Father. Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is my flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world. This was tremendous teaching from Jesus about salvation. He was saying, “The Father, whom you haven’t seen, will draw you. If you will believe, you will have eternal life. I am the bread of life; it is Me you must believe in. and if you believe, you will never die, but live forever.” God promised salvation to all who believe in the person and work of Jesus Christ. But the mob didn't have any interest in that divine reality. They came around and sniffed a little, looked a little, admired a little, analyzed a little, philosophized a little, eulogized a little, and maybe even commended—a little. But that’s all. The key is in verse 51: “If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.” But the crowd had no interest in eating anything spiritual. What the Scripture meant by eating was the personal appropriation by faith of Christ and His work: to have eternal life, you have to believe in Jesus Christ, that He died as a sacrifice for sin and arose from the dead as testimony to His power and the perfection of His sacrifice. Jesus’ listeners didn't respond by believing; they responded by arguing in verse 52: “The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, ‘How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?’” They were saying, “This is ridiculous. What’s He talking about, cannibalism? There’s not enough of Him to go around.” They knew He was talking about spiritual realities, but they were mocking Him again. They really had no interest in divine things. Spiritual defectors never do. next week: . . GREAT CRY OF A THIRSTY SOUL . . and . . THE ONLY SOURCE . . and . . A KISS OF BETRAYAL . . * * * * * * * * * Don't grow alone, we need each other. Grow in a group * * * * * * * * * PARABLE OF THE PEARL OF GREAT VALUE * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it. Matt. 13:45-46 PEARLS WERE THE MOST HIGHLY valued gems in the ancient world, often purchased as investments, much like diamonds or precious metals are today. With pearls, a person could keep and conceal a great amount of wealth in a small space. The Jewish Talmud said the pearl was beyond the value of any set price, and that some ancients actually worshiped it. Elsewhere the New Testament uses the pearl as a representation of something of immense value and worthy of protection. When the Lord warns believers not to throw pearls before swine (Matt. 7:6), He underscores the priceless value of the gospel and its corresponding truths, which unbelievers despise as worthless. The apostle John envisions the New Jerusalem as a glorious city with twelve gates of pearl, and more precisely “each one of the gates was a single pearl” (Rev. 21:21). In this parable the merchant obviously considered the valuable pearl so precious and worth more than all his other pearls combined, because he no doubt included them in the sale of all his possessions, which he did to buy the one pearl. Jesus again illustrates the immense value of the kingdom of heaven and clearly implies that the merchant’s transaction was one involving his salvation. Purchasing the great pearl—the kingdom—represents obtaining God’s saving knowledge through trust in His Son, the Lord Jesus, and experiencing all the blessings which that relationship brings. It is another example of the greatest transaction any of us can make. Ask YOURSELF It’s really all about one thing, isn't it—giving our hearts to Christ without limitation or restriction. Consider today how the rest of your life is lining up under the one priority of walking boldly with Jesus. * * * * * * * * * Use your own gift, not for your glory, but for the glory of God * * * * * * * * * The Problem with Self-Esteem - Greg Laurie -www.harvest.org The second, like it, is this: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." There is no other commandment greater than these. -Mark 12:30-31 When Scripture says, "Love your neighbor as yourself," it is not saying, "First learn to love yourself, and then love your neighbor." Rather, it is saying, "It is obvious you already love yourself. Love your neighbor in the same way." It is this love of self, this obsession with self, that gets us into trouble. We don't need a better self-image. We don't need greater self-esteem. And we certainly don't need more self-love. But here is what we do need. Jesus said "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me" (Lk 9:23). Notice that He did not say, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him esteem himself " or "let him love himself." Rather, Jesus said, "Let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me." In the original language, the word deny means "to repudiate, to disdain, to disown, to forfeit, to totally disregard." That is not an easy thing to do. So in reality, the basic problem in our lives is not our spouse. It is not our boss. It is not our neighbors. It is not our upbringing. It is not low self-esteem. And it is not a poor self-image. It is the overt love of ourselves. Jesus said, "But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies" (Matt 15:18-19). So here is what it comes down to: the ultimate choice in life is between pleasing ourselves and pleasing God. * * * * * * * * * God wants us living as His Church - have a heart full of joy - joy comes to those who grow * * * * * * * * * Who is Guiding Your Life? … J. Vernon McGee Pride destroys the testimony of many Christians and makes them very ineffective for God. They go in for show, but they are only building a big haystack. They are not building on the foundation of Christ with gold and silver and precious stones. What is pride? Pride of heart is the attitude of a life that declares its ability to live without God. We find in the book of Obadiah that pride of heart had lifted up the nation of Edom just like Esau who had despised his birthright. Even in the home of Isaac, where there was plenty to eat, he liked that bowl of soup—he liked it more than he liked his birthright. In despising that birthright, he despised God. And now Esau had become a great nation that declared its ability to live without God. “Thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; that saith in his heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground?” (Obadiah 3). They dwelt “in the clefts of the rock.” They were living in great buildings which were hewn out of solid rock inside a great canyon and up and down the sides of it. They were perfectly secure—at least they thought they were. The Edomites had signed a declaration of independence. They had a false sense of security and had severed all relationship with God. They had seceded from the government of God. They had revolted and rebelled against Him. Now what is God going to do in a case like this? “Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the Lord” (Obadiah 4). The eagle is used in Scripture as a symbol of deity. The Edomites were going to overthrow God as Satan had attempted to do, and they were going to become deity. They were going to handle the business that God was supposed to handle. “And though thou set thy nest among the stars” – this was the sin of Satan, for he sought to exalt his throne above the stars – God says, “Thence will I bring thee down.” How many people today are attempting to run their lives as if they were God? They feel that they don’t need God, and they live without Him. The interesting thing is that when God made us He did not put a steering wheel on any of us. Why? Because He wants to guide our lives. He wants us to come to Him for salvation first, and then He wants to take charge of our lives. When you and I run our lives, we are in the place of God. We are in the driver’s seat. That is pride, and anyone who reaches that position—if he continues in it—is committing a sin which is fatal, because it means he will go into a lost eternity. * * * * * * * * The ultimate end to our spiritual growth is when He comes we shall be like Him because we shall see Him * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again Jn. 3:7 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Answers to this week's Trivia's: 1. Jesus said that those who take up the sword will die with what? A. The sword Matt. 26:52 2. What object did Moses erect which, when gazed upon, would cure a fatal snake bite? A. A bronze snake Num. 21 * * * * * * * * * Answers to Questions about Heaven . . . David Jeremiah Q. Does a person's earthly status as far as possessions or wealth affect his eternal resting place? While on earth, the rich man described in Luke chapter 16 was clothes in purple and fine linen, had many servants, and ate sumptuous meals (vs. 19-31). In contrast, the poor man Lazarus was covered with sores, subsisted on crumbs, and had only dogs to care for him. What a contrast! And yet in heaven, we learn that Lazarus went to Paradise, a place of comfort, while the rich man was sent to a place of misery. Only our spiritual status before God determines our eternal resting place. * * * * * * * * * Always pray to have eyes that see the best in people, a heart that forgives the worst, a mind that forgets the bad, and a soul that never loses faith in God. Until next time remember, "Keep looking up!" God loves you and yours, He really does! Nancy <\\\>< Remember: A man may go to heaven….. Without health, without wealth; Without fame, without a great name; Without learning, without earnings; Without culture, without beauty; Without friends and without ten thousand other things---- But he can NEVER go to Heaven without Christ. ~ This is a FREE e-mailing ~ This Bible Study is sent to subscribers only according to our strict NO SP*M policy. If you appreciate the information contained in this letter, please forward it to your friends. If you have acquired this letter from a friend and want to subscribe: Send an e-mail with Subscribe on the subject line to: hisfootprints4us@comcast.net If you do not want to receive these Bible Studies, please send an email with 'unsubscribe' on the subject line to hisfootprints4us@comcast.net No hard feelings This week's Quiz: The Ten Commandments Psalm 19:7 says, “The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul.” Many people talk about the Ten Commandments, but what do you really know about them and the circumstances surrounding the way they were given? Can you name each of the Ten Commandments? 1. God wrote the first set of tablets with His finger. After Moses broke the original tablets, who wrote the second set? Exo 34:27-29 a. God c. Aaron b. Moses d. Joshua 2. What two Old Testament books list the Ten Commandments? ( 20:1-17; 5:6-21) a. Exodus and Deuteronomy c. Leviticus and Deuteronomy b. Exodus and Leviticus d. Deuteronomy and Numbers 3. When Moses came down from the mountain, he broke the first set of tablets because the Israelites were: Exo 32:17-19 a. worshiping a golden calf c. dancing b. shouting d. all of the above 4. What is promised to those who honor their fathers and mothers? Exo 20:12 a. their won children will honor them c. their days will long in the land b. others will honor them d. they will be prosperous 5. “Remember the Sabbath” is what number commandment? Exo 20:8 a. 3 c. 5 b. 4 d. 6 6. The last commandment in the list is, “Thou shalt not _____.” Exo 20:17 a. kill c. commit adultery b. steal d. covet 7. The first commandment is: Exo 20:3 a. “Love the Lord with all your heart” b. “Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one” c. “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” d. “Love your neighbor as yourself” 8. How many days and nights was Moses up on the mountain to receive the Ten Commandments? Deut 9:9 a. 7 c. 30 b. 14 d. 40 9. Although Moses could go up on the mountain, God warned the rest of the people to stay away. If anyone came near the mountain, he would be: Exo 19:12-13 a. struck by lightning c. stoned b. hanged d. swallowed up by the earth 10. But one man was allowed to go up on the mountain with Moses. That man was: Exo 24:13-14 a. Aaron c. Joshua b. Caleb d. Eleazar