Wednesday's Word - Right your Will

Hello All,

Do you know God’s will for your life? A profound question indeed, but if you believe in God, then this is the 'end all' 'be all' of all questions; Are you doing what God intends for you to do? When we think of the will of God in reference to our lives, we tend to get a bit grandiose; i.e. the whole “foreign missionary” thing. We may see it as a great mystery that you have to meditate and concentrate and have an out of body experience to receive.
Now, our heavenly Father is indeed Grandiose among other awesome attributes: But us, we’re petty simple and God knows that. He’s also made finding His will simple for us. I was listening to John MacArthur yesterday on the way home, and I’m facilitating Andy Stanley’s study on the subject Sunday nights.
Here’s the condensed version of all that study. Prepare to be amazed at the revealed WILL OF GOD!

Right your will, then do what you will.
Here’s the word:

Psalm 37:4
Delight thyself also in the LORD: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

Righting your will; aligning your will with the Will of God, delighting yourself in Him is the key. Read 1 Peter 2, 3 & 4, 1 Thessalonians 4:2-4 and 1 Thessalonians 5:17-19. These Scriptures are chocked full of good behaviors we should assume as we align our wills to God’s. Now what comes after is so simple, it’s scary: Do what you will. Should I pick left or right?, This job or that job? This car or that truck? This house or that apartment? This ministry or the missionary field? Of course when it comes to decision making its good advice to seek wise counsel, but if your will is aligned with His, it’s His desire to give you good things and prosper you…pick one and go.

Wednesday's Word - Word Study

You know, there’s nothing like a good word study in the Bible. I don’t believe that I could only name 'one' good thing that comes out of it: Understanding, wisdom, clearing up misconceptions, the deepening depth of what the passage is simply communicating. It really is indeed ‘All Good’. It’s important that we spend time in the Word. A situation arose yesterday at work where the conversation ended up being; “The four horsemen of the Apocalypse”. So I chimed in, and a coworker chimed in with the complete opposite answer. I said that the first horseman is the antichrist, he said it was actually Christ Himself. You literally can’t get any more opposite than that. Question; What would lead one to believe that this first horseman is Christ? And if one believed that to be true, what could persuade them to believe otherwise? A Word study might help.

Here’s the Word:
Revelation 6:2 And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.

Now there’s more to studying out this verse, but as I try and keep these 'weekly words' down to a couple of minutes, we’ll just take a small bite.

Notice the word ‘crown’. A word study would show that there are two Greek words for crown; diadem and stephanos. Diadem being a King’s crown, and stephanos being the victor’s crown like the winner of a race or battle. Stephanos is the ‘crown’ used here not the Diadem of a King such as Jesus is. Mistaking this rider for Christ casuses many more scriptual compromises later regarding the antichrist.

I guess the fact that a person can read the Bible and misconstrue a passage referring to the antichrist just goes to show how much of a deceiver this first ‘rider’ will be. There’s much more good stuff to discover. Study your Word.

Thursday's Thought - Very Superstitious

Hello All,
In our day, where most conveniences are immediately accessible, we must be careful not to fall into the culture's way of always looking for what's new and exciting, especially when it comes to the areas of Faith and Doctrine. It may not be easy, but it's very necessary that we not get bored with the simple Truth of The Word of God. It seems that so many people are being beguiled by false teachings of prosperity, self-esteem, and personal god power by positive thinking that I wonder: Why are we so apt to fall for these things? Well, it's nothing new:

Here's the Word;
Acts 17: 21 (For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.) 22 Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. 23 For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you .

Some of us are/were like these people and because of our desire to not block off any and all avenues for possible "blessing", we give occasion to many false understandings and undue weight to things we ought not to; and though we may steer clear of horoscopes, palm readers, and psychic networks (I sure hope we do), we need to stand against those little foxes that spoil the vine; things we consider lucky or unlucky, intuitions that aren't aligned with Scripture and 'special' revelation that we don't even seek to confirm by the Holy Spirit because it feeds a personal desire or simply makes us "feel" good.

We need to hold to our sure foundation that has been laid: The Way is certain, The Truth is unchanging, and The Life is eternal. There is no superstition in The Way.

In Him,
Cros