Donna is a wife, mother, grandmother, writer, and Biblical counselor. She has been blogging through the Bible each year since 2012. She loves God's Word and sharing how freeing and practical it is. She is certified through the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors.
Paul implored each of us to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice. And while the Old Testament sacrificial system was bloody and messy, being a living sacrifice can be bloody and messy, too. Being one requires allowing God to use the sword of the Spirit on our hearts and minds.
The sacrificial system also required worshipers to give their best as offerings. They weren’t to sacrifice the lame and diseased animals. When it comes to your time, talents, and resources, what do you offer to God? Do you offer Him your best? Or do you feel that you often have nothing left to give? During those times, could your best look different than what you might think?
Have you ever heard someone say, “I love him but I’m just not ‘in love’ with him”? Maybe you have said or, at least, thought the same thing. If so, could your ideas about love be colored more by the world than by God’s Word? So, what is biblical love? Is it what greeting card writers or Hollywood movie producers want us to believe, some irresistible attraction, something we fall into and out of? Or is it something else?
Mirrors, they’re everywhere today. But that would not have been true for most people living in biblical times. Yet, the women we’ll read about today, women with the same desire to be attractive that we experience, gave up their bronze mirrors for the glory of God. What would you and I be willing to give up for God’s glory? And does the focus of our care and attention line up with what we say?
We are all counseling. If you’re like most people, friends and family members talk to you all the time. They share struggles and hurts and they are looking to you for input. “How did you handle a similar situation?” or “What would you do?” are the questions that they’re often asking.
And if you’re a parent, you are constantly advising your children. You may find yourself talking to your daughter about that mean girl at school, the pain of not being invited to the party, or to your son about the first love who broke his heart.
The question is, “What is the source of your answers?”
What does God say about counseling? If we’re all counseling all the time, how can we be better equipped to do it well? We’ll look at those and other questions today.
We’ll, also, talk about the seasons of ministry, our priorities in ministry and how God is not surprised by our failures.
Many people have attended church for years. They’ve gone to Bible studies and heard the Bible preached, but they reject the wisdom of God and live in foolish ways. It’s as if they view God’s Word as merely divine suggestions.
Others reject God’s truth altogether claiming they can decide what is right and wrong and wise for themselves. They have decided they can’t worship the God of the Bible so, if they claim a belief in God at all, create a god of their own making, one who is more tolerant and simply loves everyone.
But what about those who actually want God’s wisdom? Does God only give it to a select few or is it there for everyone to hear and apply? And is there a way to grow in wisdom?
We will all spend eternity somewhere. Some will spend eternity with God. But sadly, others will spend eternity suffering and eternally separated from Him.
Jesus compared that time of judgment to a shepherd separating sheep and goats. Both sheep and goats sit in our churches every Sunday. On the outside, we look much the same, but one day, the “Great Shepherd” will separate the two. The sheep to everlasting glory. The goats to everlasting punishment. Do you know for certain where you will spend eternity? Don’t leave it to chance!
And what about the people who sit around you on Sundays? Are there those who come in and go out without ever really being involved in the life of the church? Or whose lives don’t reflect a relationship with Christ? Could God be calling you to get involved?
Today we’ll talk about how many of us are still trying to pay for all the wrongs we have done … kind of like making minimum payments on sin. We’ll also look at the need to be faithful in whatever we do and the importance of being ready for eternity.
Do you and I really shine the light of Christ to those around us? Do others see the difference He has made in our lives? Are we bringing Him glory by how we live and treat others? Let’s not answer too quickly. We can be a little like the Pharisees, seeing all the “good things” we believe we do while we are harsh with our family, dishonoring to our parents, unforgiving, and unkind to those we believe have mistreated us. Maybe we need to look a little closer to see if we are living in light of Christ’s omnipresence and omniscience.
There is also a beautiful prayer to pray for ourselves and others in today’s readings and a description of how God wants us to regard His Word.
While adultery is not the unforgivable sin, the effects of adultery are devastating. Whether someone is the perpetrator or the victim, lives are turned upside-down. Maybe it’s happened to you. If you’re the one who was sinned against, you know those things to be true. But what if you’re the one who committed adultery? Or what if you’re struggling with the temptation now?
It’s so easy to let hypocritical attitudes creep into our hearts and allow ourselves to become religious pretenders. We may look good on the outside, but have hearts full of envy, greed, anger, worry, and self-righteousness. In the process, we lose the joy of our salvation and find ourselves just going through the motions of the Christian life. But there is an even worse danger in being a religious pretender.
