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Ephesians 5:21 submitting to one another in the fear of God.
Have you ever thought about why you obey some people and not other people? God gives us clear instruction about how we should be living with other people, loving them and treating them well.
Submitting to one another also means submitting to parents and guardians; God wants us to live in peace whilst here on earth.
This does not mean we have to believe everything our church leaders say to us, nor that we have to obey everything they say.
What is does mean is taking into consideration what they are saying and following God’s will and instructions in your life; don’t forget they probably know the bible more than you do!
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James 4:7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
We need to remember the things we have whilst here on earth can always be attributed to God. So we should be content with all God allows into our lives.
It is not ours to question why we should have more or less that other people. It is not ours to question why things can go wrong – they just do.
One thing we can do though is to make sure we do not have anything to do with the evil one; by excluding him from our lives we can learn to grow with God and with His people around us.
Once we make a stand against evil with God on our side we can be sure evil will flee from our lives!
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Matthew 4:10 Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’”
At first during the temptations Jesus is fairly pleasant in dealing with Satan’s temptations, but each time Jesus rebukes him with something stronger until Satan gives in.
We need to be persistent in the way we deal with getting rid of sin in our lives just as Jesus was here; getting stronger each time.
Jesus reminds the evil one we should only ever be praising and worshiping our Creator God.
It is no small thing this was the first commandment – that we should worship God alone.
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Matthew 6:24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.
If you had two bosses and they always agreed, following them would not be a problem. But when they disagree it can be difficult how to remember which boss to follow and which to ignore!
Following two leaders in your country can be very hard work. Continuing to try and follow both of them as they try and go their separate ways is impossible.
It’s bad enough trying to recognise which songs are good and bad rather than trying to remember all the rules about following good and bad.
So God does not ask you to remember them all but gives you a bible which allows you to grow a little bit more at a time.
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2 Kings 17:34 To this day they continue practicing the former rituals; they do not fear the Lord, nor do they follow their statutes or their ordinances, or the law and commandment which the Lord had commanded the children of Jacob, whom He named Israel
How many people reject God just because there is a few more fun things to do around them instead of commending their lives to Christ?
No longer do people fear God with a humble and healthy respect. No longer do people lift up the name of Christ instead of lifting up the signs and wonders of the world.
No longer do people read their bibles and obey the words written down. Too many are living a life which does not reflect the life Christ offers to us.
The people of Israel were just as guilty as us nowadays in that they went their own ways instead of following Christ!
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Micah 4:5 For all people walk each in the name of his god, But we will walk in the name of the Lord our God Forever and ever.
Until people are shown something is wrong they will continue to do what they have always been doing. If that is worshipping something other than God, then that is exactly what they will continue doing.
We need to stick with our Lord and Saviour, making sure we follow His will in our lives. This is not always easy, but always profitable.
No matter how many other gods you wish to look up, sign up for, worship or whatever; none will compare to knowing and loving the one true God!
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Colossians 1:10 that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;
Walking by faith, following Christ and His teaching will allow us to grow into people who will please God because we are more likely to want to give Him all the glory.
But Christianity is not just about giving God the glory; Christianity is about living out lives with an earnestness which enables us to go forward and share God’s Word with others.
As we grow we will also learn more and be able to apply more into our lives and our walk with Christ.
This is a constant growing as we learn more from our Bibles.
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Luke 8:15 But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience.
What makes a noble and good heart as described in this verse? The symbolism of the good and fertile soil as opposed to the thin soil with rocks goes a long way to describe how we should be ready to receive God’s Word.
If we open our hearts, keep them humble and willing to accept the Word of God as the truth, we will be able to grow with confidence.
This does not mean we just accept anything that comes our way; it means we accept the good seed, God’s Word, and nurture it so it will grow strong in our lives.
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Luke 8:14 Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity.
How many times have you had the good idea and moved forward with it only to stop after some time because events in your life overtook things or you just got bored with it?
The trimmings and temptations in this world are hard to get past when you are flooding into your life.
Satan is going to use whatever means he can to make sure you do not grow as a Christian. If he can stop you before you accept Christ into your life then he has won. Any other time is just him trying to break you!
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Luke 8:13 But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away.
How many good ideas have you had in your life where you had every intention of starting something only to find the idea was put aside and forgotten?
Just because we come up with the ideas does not make us the people God would have us to be; He wants us to carry out those ideas and not just to think about them.
When God says He wants us to do something it is not just a happy thought to get us through the next day or week. He wants us to set time aside and move forward with the task He has given us.
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Luke 8:12 Those by the wayside are the ones who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.
There are going to be many who will hear God’s Word but will not have time to digest what they hear or think too much about it before someone comes along and distracts them.
How many times have you set your mind to something only to be distracted and find you either totally forget what you should have done or you end up upsetting many because it is not done?
The evil one has many ways of getting us to forget or to be distracted away from God’s Word; but the closer we walk with God the harder it is for the evil one to distract us.
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Psalm 106:12 Then they believed His words; They sang His praise.
How often do we need to see something before we believe it? Don’t worry, you are not alone in this!
Man has always found it difficult to believe in things we do not see with our own eyes; this is why Jesus said that those who believe without seeing will be blessed.
God has performed many miracles over the years to give us more than enough proof He is God, and yet we still continue to say we will not believe until we see it first-hand!
When we do see the light and believe we are then willing to stand up and be counted; or sing and be noticed!
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Mark 6:20 for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just and holy man, and he protected him. And when he heard him, he did many things, and heard him gladly.
Standing out from the crowd can be a good or a bad thing; if you are trying to hide after doing something wrong the last thing you would want is to stand out.
Herod feared John because he knew what John stood for. John stood out from the rest because He upheld God’s Law. He had a personal relationship with God.
Herod was more than willing to hear out John and to listen to the Gospel John was teaching even through many of the people objected.
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Acts 26:28 Then Agrippa said to Paul, “You almost persuade me to become a Christian.”
When Paul was talking to Agrippa they got into a deep conversation about the experiences Paul went through in learning about Christ.
Many people find it hard to believe the stories about Christ if they are told by themselves because they are so incredible.
When sharing Christ and the resurrection, always try to make it personal because people will believe a personal account more than a third party story.
Share Christ in a personal way to show people you have a personal relationship with Him.
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Acts 18:4 And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded both Jews and Greeks.
There was a temple in Corinth where the Jews would meet every week on their Sabbath day as was their custom.
Paul took this opportunity to go to the temple every week and speak to them showing them how Jesus fulfilled the scriptures in every way.
He continued to work during the week but made sure he took time out every week from work to be with other people to share the Gospel.
Paul tried to get all people to accept the Gospel whether they were Jews or Gentiles; he wanted them all to embrace God’s Word.
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Isaiah 1:18 “Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord, “Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool.
One of the most amazing things about our God is that He is willing to forgive us no matter what we have done; the issue is not how much we have done wrong but whether we are willing to ask Him to forgive us!
We cannot shock God about anything we have done wrong or what we have not done right, we only get ourselves caught up in useless worry.
Giving up before you get going is not a good way to win a race of any kind. Giving up before asking God to forgive you is about as useless as not starting the race you want to win.
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1 Corinthians 10:22 Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He?
I don’t think many people understand how jealous God can get when we run off and worship other things instead of Him.
We could try to compare it with how we would feel if the person we loved the most in our lives ran off with someone else, but I don’t think it would measure up somehow.
God’s love for us goes far beyond our understanding and when we go against Him it is going to mean more than us going against our partners.
Our trust and faith in God needs to go beyond our normal understanding just as His loves for us does!
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Isaiah 45:9 “Woe to him who strives with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth! Shall the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’ Or shall your handiwork say, ‘He has no hands’?
Unless you have been watching too much veggietales your vegetables are not going to jump out at you and tell you how they should be cooked or eaten!
So why then do we think we can inform God how we should be doing His work or living our lives?
Listening to God may be difficult for many of us, but unless we do listen to Him we will be going off and doing things how we see fit rather than how we ought to!
Living for God means living with Him and listening to Him.
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Job 33:13 Why do you contend with Him? For He does not give an accounting of any of His words.
Who are we to question God about what He is doing or what He is up to? Well, we are His children to start with!
For those who do have children you know they ask a lot of questions and most of them contain “why”!
Ours is not to question the validity of God’s actions but we are allowed to ask why. God wants us to understand Him more and part of that means ask questions now and again.
Trust God with all your heart and soul, but ask why if you really don’t understand!
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Matthew 11:26 Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight.
Do you only ever do things that other people approve of, of do you do things your own way as well? I hope you do things your own way!
If we only ever followed what other people said was OK we would be rules by other people and we would probably not learn new ways of doing things.
In order to expand our horizons and our knowledge we have to go further and try new things and new ways.
God gives us rules to live by but wants us to continue growing within ourselves. He leads by example.