Posts Tagged ‘Faith’

13
Jun

Bible Devotions From Romans 14

Posted by: admin    in Romans

The degree to which you love Me will determine the degree to which you will care for your brother and your sister, the stranger, or even your enemy.

And the degree to which you care for one another will determine the degree to which you will be willing to sacrifice even what you may consider legitimate for yourselves in order not to stumble anyone else. And the degree to which you will be able to walk in love and to sacrifice when necessary in order not to stumble or offend anyone, is the degree to which you will not only be able to help others, but also to open the way to grow close to them. And you see from this portion that My servant Paul closes with the question of faith. And you see that faith, genuine faith, is really that by which you are able to be both sustained and directed by Me.

So then as you grow stronger in faith, you will also grow stronger in love.

And as you grow stronger in love, you will also grow stronger in faith, for I have given you words before which assert how important it is that these two go together. And I have emphasized to you how important they are, not just to the bigger and seemingly more challenging and important matters, but how very important they are to what may seem to be the smaller, insignificant matters such as is mentioned here, matters of eating and drinking and the observance of certain days. And you must see again that everything that would be dealt with that is out of order, and everything that is in order and must be kept so, all of them depend upon the status of your relationship with Me. That is why My servant declares here that he who observes days, or does not observe days, must do so unto Me. Also, he who eats or does not eat, must do so unto Me. And since faith and love are indeed what keeps you clinging to Me, depending upon Me, looking to Me for counsel, for guidance, for correction, for confirmation, for reward, if your walk with Me and your relationship to Me is in good order, all of what is commended here and more, all that pertains to dealing with issues both great and small, both obvious and subtle will surely be accomplished to My glory, to your benefit, to the benefit of others. Do you count yourself weak or strong? Remember the words of My servant Paul, for he declared that when he was weak, that is when he recognized himself as weak, that he was also provoked not to try to become strong by his own effort, but to yield himself in his weakness unto Me. And by doing this he was convinced that then his weakness would become a channel by which My strength could be expressed. Let it be so with you.

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22
May

Bible Devotions From Matthew 14:22-36

Posted by: admin    in Matthew

There is one simple but very important lesson that I want to emphasize from this portion. I want you to see that when My Son chose to dismiss the crowd and to send the disciples away in the boat, and to spend time with Me in prayer that He had an intention to accomplish something that was not apparent from the circumstances.

As I have pointed out to you before, it was manifest in a way that the disciples encouraged My Son to send the crowds away to get food.

And His challenge to them to take care of this need and then in the face of what seemed to be inadequate to take the few loaves and fishes and to make them more than adequate, that the disciples did not fully comprehend how what He did revealed more of who He was and of His power. And so there was a great purpose in His heart to bring them to a fuller recognition of who He was and of His power. And that is why He sent them into the boat to struggle in the waves while He came to them walking upon the water. And you see that the results were that they worshiped Him and confessed that He was truly My Son.

Now what would I have you gain and understand from this? First of all I want you to recognize that as My Son fully understood what His disciples needed to strengthen their faith in Him and to bring them to a fuller realization of who He was and what His power was, I also know what you need and it is not always apparent in the way that I lead you as to what My fuller and more important intentions may be.

Like the disciples, you may be directed to embark upon situations that become very difficult, even seemingly threatening, but if like them you have been truly directed by Me and are doing what arose out of My initiative and not your own, then I want you to be confident that I will meet you in the midst of whatever circumstances you have come into by My direction because I have an intention to accomplish something very valuable for the growth of your faith and of your understanding.

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8
Jun

Bible Devotions From Matthew 12:1-21

Posted by: admin    in Matthew

A few days ago I spoke to you about the necessity of love being the goal and the foundation of the law. I pointed out to you at that time that if obedience to commands did not arise from a heart that was transformed by My love, then such obedience did not really represent that true obedience from the heart that was motivated by My love. Here you see in this portion the consequences of an obedience that is not rooted in love. Here you see not only the blindness, the spiritual darkness that results from cleaving to commandments and regulations without a heart of love. For not only were the Pharisees eager to condemn the disciples for plucking and eating the grain on the Sabbath, but they were determined to withhold mercy from the needy.

And they even were ready to kill because they perceived that My Son would not adhere to their rigid and unmerciful standards. Not only does My Son confront them with evidence from My Word to demonstrate the error of their interpretation and application of the law, but He also confronts them with how their own conduct in rescuing a sheep on the Sabbath indicates the contradiction and inconsistency of their standard. In truth, you must see that they did not even understand My purpose in giving the law. And they had so far separated the literal words and tied them to their own interpretations and elaborations, so that what they represented as My law truly no longer represented My heart. And you see by the quote from the words of My servant Isaiah that they paid little or no attention concerning what it declared about the character and the ministry of My servant the Messiah. So here I give you a very clear picture of what is the inevitable result of adhering to the law as merely a set of commandments and regulations that must be strictly obeyed. But this obedience is detached from My heart. And those who pursue it, do not really know Me, even though they may be deeply sincere about keeping the commandments as an act of obedience to Me. You see this sincerity and the extreme and fanatical zeal that it produced epitomized in My servant Paul before I apprehended him.

And it was only as he met Me through My Son and yielded to Me that his heart was changed, so that he no longer obeyed out of blind and fanatical zeal, but out of faith working through love. This is so vital an issue that must be settled in your heart, for without it thus being settled, be sure that your heart can wander into the way of outward obedience without love, even to the extreme point of fanatical zeal that is blindly hostile to My heart of love.

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