Month: September 2014

Bible Verse of The Day – 9-30-14

John 14:26 (NKJV) 26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.

Some people question whether God still speaks to anyone today. They can’t hear His voice, so they just figure that God stopped speaking to us at some point in the distant past and that we’re on our own here on earth now.

We’re here today to tell you that God does still speak to us! We just need to learn how to listen for Him.

As mentioned in the above verse, the Holy Spirit is our helper. God sent Him to us after Jesus ascended to heaven. Jesus had promised that we would not be left alone and that He would send a helper for us.

When God speaks to us today, He does so through His spirit. He speaks to many of us on a regular basis, but if we don’t sharpen our discernment and learn how to hear His voice, we will miss Him most of the time.

I’d like to give you an example of how God speaks to us, from a real-life event that took place during the last several days. And I am sharing this not to lift myself up or to impress anyone or be looked up to by anyone, but to prove that God does still speak to us.

Last week I went to a local department store where a good friend works. As I backed into the parking space, I heard God tell me to give this friend a hug when I see him. So as I walked into the store, I kept my eye out for him. For whatever reason, I didn’t see him, so I went about my business.

Late last night I received a message from this person, letting me know that his wife was in intensive care in the local hospital and had been there for the past 9 days.

And as he told me of the horrendous ordeal they had been through, including respiratory failure, kidney failure and heart failure, I realized why God had told me that he needed a hug!

You see, God knew what was needed and He conveyed it to me. It was up to me to sort it out. Because I didn’t see my friend in the store, I assumed that maybe I had misunderstood and I didn’t follow up on it.

Had I followed up and given my friend a call, I would have known a week sooner about what was going on. Nevertheless, because I heard God speak to me last week, I knew exactly what needed to be done when we got the news last night.

And needless to say, we visited the ICU today and our friend got a great big hug.

See? God does still speak to us! Amen!

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
P.O. Box 272
Bradford, RI 02808

401-315-0902

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Bible Verse of The Day – 9-29-14

John 15:13 (NKJV) 13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.

Have you ever questioned God’s love for you?

Have you ever doubted that God could love any of us?

I have. You see, I’m a thinker. I have a personality type that makes me a logical person. I like to reason things out and try to understand everything.

And to be honest, sometimes I have thought long and hard about whether God really loves us as much as so many people tell us that He does. You know, unconditionally.

I mean, the vast majority of us are really quite unlovable once we get past our church faces and our public facades. And I don’t say that to be rude or accusing. It’s just the way it is with so many of us.

We can have bad habits. We can think bad thoughts. We can do bad things to each other. We can just be downright mean sometimes. And we do this while trying to convince everyone how nice we are or how godly we are.

So I’ve asked God about it, on many different occasions. One of those occasions was this past weekend while I was out fishing.

And it isn’t some deep question. I just asked Him if He really does love us unconditionally. And He answered me rather quickly. YES.

He does love us unconditionally. And the proof is in the fact that He sent His son to die for us, even while we were (and are still) vial sinners.

Romans 5:8 (NKJV) 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

So if you’re a logical thinker like me, rest your weary, inquisitive, logical mind and know that you are, in fact, loved by the Creator, very, very much!

And here’s one more little tidbit for you to start the week off with. Being a logical thinker doesn’t mean that I have to have answers for all of my questions. It just means that I have to have bigger faith in an awesome God 🙂

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
P.O. Box 272
Bradford, RI 02808

401-315-0902

If you know someone who will enjoy this or be encouraged by it, please feel free to share it with them!

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Bible Verse of The Day – 9-27-14

Jeremiah 29:12 (NKJV) 12 Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.

One of the questions we get asked a lot is “how do we grow our relationship with God. How do we get closer to Him?”.

The way we get close to God is by spending time with Him, through prayer.

How do we get closer to our children, our spouse, our friends or any relationship we want to have?

We spend time with them. We talk and we share things with each other. That’s the same way we grow our relationship with God.

I was talking the other day to a couple of kids ages 6 & 7. We got on the subject of prayer. I asked them if they’ve been talking to God lately? To my surprise they said, yes and one of the little boys began to elaborate.

He said “I talk to God when my Mommy, Daddy, and sister aren’t in the room”. I said “that’s great!”. I asked him, does God talk back to you? He said, “sometimes”.

I asked him “what do you talk about?”. He said “you know, boy stuff, like building things and stuff like that (he loves Legos).

It encouraged me to hear him talk like this, because he was very matter of fact about it. He says, “I don’t pray. I just talk like I’m talking to you”.

And that is what prayer is all about; two-way communication. We can all talk to God about anything that we want. And it doesn’t necessarily have to be done in any particular way.

Just talk to Him. He will listen. It’s when we don’t talk to Him or we stop talking to Him that we begin to have trouble with our relationship.

We have to keep the communication going. What happens in any relationship when there is no communication or very little? It grows apart.

If you want to grow your relationship with God, spend some time and talk with Him.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
P.O. Box 272
Bradford, RI 02808

401-315-0902

If you know someone who will enjoy this or be encouraged by it, please feel free to share it with them!

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Bible Verse of The Day – 9-26-14

James 4:13-14 (NKJV) Do Not Boast About Tomorrow 13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; 14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.

This has been a different kind of week for us. There have been a lot of unexpected things happening. Not just with us, but also with people we know.

We attended a funeral for the brother of one of my high school friends. This man died very unexpectedly, at the young age of just 49. He suffered two strokes and a blood clot at the base of his brain in just a matter of a few days. What started out as any other normal week for him and his family ended with him dying.

Another person that I know through Facebook, a Christian musician, recently lost her dad, also unexpectedly, as he died in his sleep at a fairly young age.

Both of these events have brought sudden and drastic change to the lives of the people who lost their loved ones.

So we want to remind everyone today about how fragile life is. Not a single one of us is promised a tomorrow. None of us is even promised a next breath or a next heartbeat.

We don’t decide the number of our days.

So at the risk of sounding cliché, we want to remind everyone reading this not to take life lightly and to cherish those around you. We don’t know how long they or we are here for and our lives can be changed in an instant when someone we love leaves us.

Love life and love those in your life. Love them like there is no tomorrow. Don’t take them for granted for even one second. It’s far too often that we lose someone we love and only then do we realize what we’ve lost and how much we regret not spending more time with them or not showing them how much we really love them.

So today’s message is just a simple reminder to love, and love bigly. We have been given love, so let’s love those around us while we can.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
P.O. Box 272
Bradford, RI 02808

401-315-0902

If you know someone who will enjoy this or be encouraged by it, please feel free to share it with them!

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Bible Verse of The Day – 9-25-14

Psalm 34:17 (NKJV) 17 The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears, And delivers them out of all their troubles.

My Grandson, 7 years old, said to me the other day, “I get so angry sometimes and I can’t control it”. He was very upset and concerned about the fact that he could not control the anger. I could tell a part of him felt helpless in that area.

I said to him, “whenever we cannot control or handle something on our own, it’s alright to ask for help”. God expects us to ask Him for help, no matter what it is; our temper, our behavior, our words, or our habits, etc. It can be the smallest thing or it can be a big thing.

It amazed me that this little 7 year old boy knew enough to talk about it and ask for help. Even at a young age, we know when we are having trouble with something. We cannot be ashamed or too proud, regardless of our age, to ask God, or anyone He leads us to, for help and guidance.

Are you in trouble today? Cry out for help.

He will hear you. He will deliver you out of your troubles.  Amen.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
P.O. Box 272
Bradford, RI 02808

401-315-0902

If you know someone who will enjoy this or be encouraged by it, please feel free to share it with them!

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Bible Verse of The Day – 9-24-14

Acts 16:16-18 (NKJV) 16 Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling. 17 This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying, “These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.” 18 And this she did for many days. But Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And he came out that very hour.

Many people today will read through this group of verses and brush right over it, not making any connection with so many things we see being practiced in the world today.

There are two things here that we need to look at and understand.

The first is the spirit of divination and the second is what that spirit of divination did.

Take note that in verse 16 we’re shown that the girl made a lot money for her keepers by telling fortunes. So we know from this that telling fortunes is not of God, but of our enemy, the devil.

Second, that same spirit spoke words that had truth to them, but where they got that knowledge from is the problem.

The girl knew nothing of Paul & Silas on a personal level. She was operating purely under the knowledge imparted into her by way of a demonic spirit.

You see, there is a lot of this same stuff going on in the world today. People look to horoscopes each day. People go to fortune tellers, sometimes even as a means of entertainment. And many people, including Christians, dabble in so many things that are similar to this and rooted in occult practices.

Some of what’s being taught today, even in churches, has roots in paganism. But because it’s dressed up a little, it goes unrecognized and people fall for it as a new way of being spiritual.

Well, yes, it’s definitely spiritual. But it’s of the wrong spirit!

So we urge you today, that if you’re dabbling with any of this, horoscopes, fortune tellers, psychics or any other forms of spiritual communication that’s not of the Holy Spirit, run far from it!

Renounce it from your life in the name of Jesus and ask God to deliver you from it. Repent, turn from it and never go back to it again.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
P.O. Box 272
Bradford, RI 02808

401-315-0902

If you know someone who will enjoy this or be encouraged by it, please feel free to share it with them!

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Bible Verse of The Day – 9-23-14

Galatians 6:7 (NKJV) 7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.

We teach on this verse frequently. This is a critically-important Biblical truth that we need to understand if we are to be mature believers. And if we’re not yet mature, we really need to get this ingrained into our spirit so we understand that every choice we make has consequences.

If we are careless with our finances, we will always struggle financially. If we don’t handle relationships well, we will either always be in conflict with others or we will simply have no friends.

If we are sexually immoral, we will struggle with broken relationships, guilt, the fear of contracting diseases and constant emotional trauma.

If we are dishonest, we will always be distrustful of others, thinking that everyone else is also dishonest.

This principle applies to any and every aspect of our lives.

This is not meant to throw stones at anyone or single out specific sins. It’s just a gentle reminder that we need to be very careful about the choices we make in everything that we do.

Even the seemingly little things can have lasting consequences if we make the wrong choices.

So if we seem like we’re constantly struggling with a specific area, or multiple areas of our life, let’s ask God to show us where we’re going wrong and what it is we need to change.

God won’t slap us down or condemn us for admitting our faults. Quite the opposite. Read what His word says about this:

1 John 1:9 (NKJV) 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

So let’s confess these things before God and let Him help us to make the changes and adjustments that will keep us from making the same mistakes over and over again.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
P.O. Box 272
Bradford, RI 02808

401-315-0902

If you know someone who will enjoy this or be encouraged by it, please feel free to share it with them!

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Bible Verse of The Day – 9-22-14

Psalm 91:1 (NKJV) 91 He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

The Almighty has us. He will care for us and not let anything or anyone that tries to take us out, succeed!

You may say today, “but I’m tired, I feel beaten down and my hope is wearing thin. I’ve lost my job, I’ve lost my loved one, I’ve lost my home”. And some may even say,  “I’ve lost everything”.

I say to you today,  if you dwell in the secret place of the Most High, His hand is with you, on you and you are not forgotten.

The change in your life will come according to what He knows will work for you. The steps He takes will be carefully thought out and planned that it may work together for you good and be lasting!  

I have never seen or met anyone in my life that is more caring, loving, kindhearted or compassionate as what I have seen demonstrated from my Heavenly Father, His Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. This amazing three-strand cord and the things they will do for us is beyond our comprehension. They go to work on our behalf. 

There is absolutely no wondering or worrying when our lives dwell in the secret place of the most High.  

Have a wonderful day today and know that you are in GOOD hands, that you are loved dearly and that you will get through this!

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
P.O. Box 272
Bradford, RI 02808

401-315-0902

If you know someone who will enjoy this or be encouraged by it, please feel free to share it with them!

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Bible Verse of The Day – 9-20-14

2 Corinthians 5:7 (NKJV) 7 For we walk by faith, not by sight.

This week has been a week of just letting go of things that I really wanted to have control over. It’s so hard sometimes to let go. But I’m learning that when I do, I finally find the peace I need to get through. 

If we walk by sight, then we will never have to have faith. But if we walk by faith then we will get to see wonderful miracles and God moving on a regular basis! 

God is never late, so keep walking and don’t give up…your answer will come!! 

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie 

Seven Seas Ministries
 
P.O. Box 272 

Bradford, RI 02808 

401-315-0902

If you know someone who will enjoy this or be encouraged by it, please feel free to share it with them!

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Bible Verse of The Day – 9-19-14

Revelation 1:8 (NKJV) 8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

God is all-encompassing. He is the beginning, the middle and the end. He is everything from start to finish and everything that happens in between. 

We don’t have to think of God as being someone that we can only go to when things are going badly or something terrible has happened. In fact, that’s not how He wants our relationship with Him to be at all. 

God wants us to lean on Him and go to Him in everything  we do, whether we are in the valley or on the mountaintop! 

You see, He doesn’t want our relationship with Him to be casual. He wants it to be full and vibrant and alive. 

Nothing can be alive if we don’t nurture it. So we need to be sure that we’re nurturing our relationship with our Creator, just as we expect to have to do with anything else that we want to thrive! 

Revelation 22:13 (NKJV) 13 “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.” 

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie  

Seven Seas Ministries  
P.O. Box 272  
Bradford, RI 02808  

401-315-0902 

If you know someone who will enjoy this or be encouraged by it, please feel free to share it with them!

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Bible Verse of The Day – 9-18-14

Proverbs 3:5-6 (NKJV) 5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.

Life is a funny thing. No matter how hard we try, we will never figure it out completely.

We can be cruising through it, thinking everything is perfect and then, suddenly out of nowhere, we get blindsided and everything is turned upside down. And we have no idea why.

Or maybe nothing tragic or catastrophic has happened, but we’re just trying to find our way through and figure some things out. You know, just the normal everyday stuff.

Well, either way, whether we’re in the midst of a crisis or just working our way through everyday life, we need to know that we don’t always have to understand everything or have it all figured out.

God moves on our behalf in ways that we would never think of. He isn’t stuck in a box, even though we try to stuff Him in there most of the time.

When God moves, He does what He sees fit to do, not what we think He should do. And even if we might have a situation that’s similar to something we went through in the past, God won’t necessarily do the same thing to help us this time that He did last time.

So if things aren’t making sense to you, or if you need a solution to a problem you’re currently having, trust God to work it out for you. Untie His hands and let Him move on your behalf.

It can be hard to take our hands off of things when we’re in the middle of a situation or crisis. Our minds just naturally want to try to figure everything out. But let’s learn to trust God and not lean on our own understanding.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
P.O. Box 272
Bradford, RI 02808

401-315-0902

If you know someone who will enjoy this or be encouraged by it, please feel free to share it with them!

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