Month: September 2022

Bible Verse of The Day – 9-8-22

Luke 4:1 (NKJV) 1 Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness…

Jesus was led into the wilderness. There He fasted for 40 days and 40 nights. In Luke 4:2, it says, afterwards He was hungry.

The devil came to Him right after and said, “if You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread”.

What a temptation! After not eating for 40 days, bread would taste mighty good, wouldn’t it?

But Jesus was onto him, through the help of the Holy Spirit. And His reply was that of the Son of God, a Man filled with the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Matthew 4:4 (NKJV) 4 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

The devil came to Him two other times and tempted Him while in the wilderness. And each time Jesus rebuked his offer, and replying with the Word of God.

Praise You, Lord, for Your focus and strength to stay on track.

If Jesus, the Son of the Mighty God, needed the Holy Spirit to fill Him and work through Him, we most definitely need Him moving and helping us daily.

We all need to stop trying to be the hero on this journey of life as a believer. We don’t help God. He helps us.

We aren’t doing anything for Him in and of ourselves. His word says that without His help, we can do nothing.

John 15:5 (NKJV) 5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.

This may be a hard thing for some people to swallow. But so many have it backwards; we need God in order to win battles, to move mountains and to lead people to Christ. He sent us a Helper because He knew we would need Him.

The devil will tempt us daily, hourly, minute by minute. We must be strong enough to resist Him and do just that.

James 4:7 (NKJV) 7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

Be filled with our Helper, the Holy Spirit, just as Jesus was filled.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
49 N Lamplighters Walk
Hampstead, NC 28443

401-439-3780

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Bible Verse of The Day – 9-7-22

Romans 6:16 (NKJV) 16 Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?

In keeping with the topic of Monday’s devotional, let’s take a look at some more verses in chapter 6 of Romans.

On Monday we established that God’s grace, and Christ’s redemption set us free from our old selves and the sin that bound us. We also confirmed that His grace toward us is not a license to willfully, habitually sin.

This is not to say or insinuate that we will no longer sin. But that we are no longer slaves to sin. He has empowered us to break free from those things that held us in bondage.

In the verse above, Paul tells us that we are slaves to whatever we present ourselves to.

More plainly stated, we become slaves to whatever we choose to obey.

We can be slaves to sin, or we can be slaves to righteousness.

Additionally, Paul very boldly tells us that being a slave to sin will lead to death. Whereas obeying God leads to righteous living.

Some may try to complicate this, but in reality, it is very simple; obey and have life, or disobey and choose death.

Repeated willful sin will lead us away from God and toward spiritual death (separation from God).

Submission and obedience to God, on the other hand, will lead us to righteous living a closer walk with God, our Creator.

Only we can choose which path we will walk.

Let us choose wisely. Amen.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
49 N Lamplighters Walk
Hampstead, NC 28443

401-439-3780

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Bible Verse of The Day – 9-6-22

2 Corinthians 7:1 (NKJV) 1 Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

This is what we do as believers. After we have been saved by the precious blood of Jesus, we do away with a lot of the worldly desire in us.

As we eliminate those things that are filthy in God’s eyes, we began to draw near to Him. And as we get closer to Him, our relationship grows deeper.

We begin to get a taste of what it means to perfect holiness each time we give up or let go of the things that put distance between us and God.

We will never be perfect here on earth, but we will definitely be building and strengthening our relationship with God.

Being clean is very important. We need to work on this on a daily basis, not just one day every once in a while.

We should constantly be open to the Holy Spirit reminding or convicting us of the things that could taint our relationship with God.

How do we know when we are being reminded?

Everyone is different, and the Holy Spirit will let us know in whatever way will get our attention. However, we will definitely know. And at that point we need to make a decision whether to listen or to ignore His promptings.

I was talking to someone one day. They asked me, “why didn’t you stop so and so from doing what they were about to do?”.

I said, “you can talk till you’re blue in the face, and if they don’t hear you, they are basically choosing what they want to do. They will do what they enjoy, or maybe what they are addicted to. You can’t force someone to make the right choice”.

Cleaning ourselves is going to come by making the right choices each day as we hear the voice and heed the promptings of the Holy Spirit.

Pray for His guidance, help and strength. He is faithful!

Isaiah 40:29 (NKJV) 29 He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
49 N Lamplighters Walk
Hampstead, NC 28443

401-439-3780

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Bible Verse of The Day – 9-5-22

Romans 6:1-2 (NKJV) 1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?

Sometimes the way various translations word a verse, or a group of verses, can make it harder to understand than is necessary.

These 2 verses are an example of that. But I’d like to break this down to make it clear and easy to know what is being said.

Verse 1 starts off with a question; “What shall we say then?”.

The wording of the question indicates that it is referring to something that was previously stated.

In this case, Paul is referring to the last part of Romans chapter 5, where he reminded the Roman people that, through Adam, sin brought death into the world, but in Christ came new life through the grace of God.

Under God’s grace, through the obedience of Christ (and our faith in Him), our sins can be forgiven.

Some of the Romans mistakenly thought that the abundance of God’s grace gave them a license to also abundantly sin, knowing that forgiveness was available.

Paul corrected them in the first section of Romans 6. This explains his question in the opening lines referred to above.

I remember reading these verses 30 or so years ago. It was life-changing for me because it showed me that God’s grace does not give us a license to sin, but that He actually desires that we live righteous lives.

The end of Romans 5 explains it very thoroughly. But verse 2, above, sums it up nicely in very few words when Paul states, “How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?”.

If we have put our faith in Christ, we have died and been born again.

When we died, our old (sin-laden) self also died.

The new person in Christ is no longer bound to the old, habitually-sinful self. The chains were broken and the new man/woman is no longer bound to their old lifestyle.

The new creation in Christ has an obligation to leave their old sins and their old lifestyle behind. That might be hard for some to accept.

Again, Paul stated it very plainly saying, “How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?”.

God’s grace is indeed abundant and sufficient for our sins.

But He wants us to let Him show us how to live lives that are no longer built around the old self, the old habits and the old way of life.

Very simply put, as people who have died to sin (in Christ), let us no longer live under the bonds of sin.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
49 N Lamplighters Walk
Hampstead, NC 28443

401-439-3780

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Bible Verse of The Day – 9-4-22 – Forward Motion

Please click to watch the video now.Greetings! 

As followers of Christ, God never wants us to be stagnant. He always wants us to be moving forward. 

In our newest video, Forward Motion, we teach on this and discuss what it means for believers. 

We hope you’ll give this short video a watch. 

Please click here to watch the video now. 

We love you all! 

Sincerely in Christ, 

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie 

Seven Seas Ministries
49 N Lamplighters Walk
Hampstead, NC 28443 

401-439-3780 

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Bible Verse of The Day – 9-3-22

John 13:33 (NKJV) 33 Little children, I shall be with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come,’ so now I say to you.

Can you imagine spending time with Jesus for 2-3 years, and then having Him suddenly tell you, “where I am going you cannot come.”?

I can’t even imagine what Peter was feeling, but I can understand him asking, “why can’t I follow you?”.

John 13:37 (NKJV) 37 Peter said to Him, “Lord, why can I not follow You now? I will lay down my life for Your sake.”

I can understand Peter’s heart for Jesus and saying he will lay down his life for Him.

Peter loved Him. And in the moment, he really thought he would do anything for Him. Peter had good intentions.

Sometimes we too have good intentions, but when we start to feel the pressure of it all, we run. We deny. And we hide.

Jesus knew Peter better than Peter knew Himself.

Isn’t that the way it is with us?

We would love to do certain things, but when we are faced with what it takes to do it, we change our minds. We just don’t want to go through what it takes to get there.

Jesus was about to face crucifixion. Peter would soon find out that his words of laying down his life for Him were shallow, and he would ultimately deny knowing Him, not just once, nor twice, but three times.

John 13:38 (NKJV) 38 Jesus answered him, “Will you lay down your life for My sake? Most assuredly, I say to you, the rooster shall not crow till you have denied Me three times.

My heart aches for us, the body of Christ, when we have to learn what we are really made of versus what we think we are.

Wow. 3 times denying Someone we just said we would lay down our life for. That was truly a humbling moment for Peter.

But the reality of it all is that Jesus knows us. If we truly want to follow Him, let Him show us what we can handle.

We need to trust Him and not try to tell Him what we are capable of. He already knows. Listen to His guidance.

Amen.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
49 N Lamplighters Walk
Hampstead, NC 28443

401-439-3780

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Bible Verse of The Day – 9-2-22

Psalm 71:5 (NKJV) 5 For You are my hope, O Lord God; You are my trust from my youth.

During times of joy and happiness, and in seasons when everything seems to be “just right”, we don’t usually think much about hope.

We don’t really need to since everything is going well.

It’s only during less pleasant seasons that hope comes to mind.

So, when those tougher seasons happen, where does our hope lie?

Many will put their hope in different things. Most times that hope will be in the thing that is viewed as being the solution to bring the tough season we’re enduring to an end.

In reality, though, regardless of the season we are navigating, God is our only true source of hope.

Why does it seem so hard sometimes for us to understand this and hold tightly to God as our source of hope?

Most of the time this is due to our flesh not wanting to hold onto something or someone we can’t see and Who may not satisfy our intellect.

You see, our minds like to have something to hold onto that we can easily understand and explain.

But God blows that all apart because He doesn’t use human logic when He does something.

Dividing a body of water to allow a huge mass of people to pass through, providing water from a rock, speaking through a donkey, using a prostitute to save some of His people during a time of battle, raising a dead man from a grave, healing a blind man by spitting into dirt and rubbing mud on that man’s eyes; these are all things that God did.

Not even one of them makes sense to our human understanding.

And yet, this is the God we serve and Who loves us enough to send His son (God incarnate) to die for us.

That is true hope, found in the Creator of all that we see.

Hold onto Him and rejoice as He continues to confound the wise and baffle human understanding, drawing hope from Him no matter what season we’re in.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
49 N Lamplighters Walk
Hampstead, NC 28443

401-439-3780

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Bible Verse of The Day – 9-1-22

John 13:35 (NKJV) 35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

If you have love for one another.

This word, “love”, is not what many people think it is. It’s not just words that express an emotion like, “I love you.” It’s also having the back bone to take action and put things in place when needed.

Jesus said He loves us. What was His action? He gave His life for us.

Love is hard. Love can hurt. In fact, it can be quite painful at times.

Love causes us to do things beyond our normal capacity or ability. It will cause some people to do things they never would have dreamed of doing for someone before they found love.

True love is not for wimps. It moves and acts by truth, and sometimes truth can be tough.

Don’t say you love someone if you cannot fight, because it takes a fight to walk love out.

What? Fight against who?

We fight against our flesh. We fight against our own emotions.

What love sometimes asks for may not be easy. And we might want to run far from it.

Loving so much will cause us to feel like we are dying at times.

It can feel like we will never be able to get up and move forward again.

This kind of love will cause us to say things we never thought we would say in order to help someone.

Love will cause us to go places for someone we never ever thought we would go, and do things we never thought we would do.

Sometimes loving in such a way will cause us to lose people we are very close to, that we care deeply about, because we acted out of love to help them. And in return, they got angry instead of listening.

This love will move mountains to help.

Now, Jesus calls us to love one another.

Let me ask this very important question; have we ever moved a mountain for someone, or gone the extra mile to see them through something?

Matthew 5:41 (NKJV) 41 And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two.

Get ready for some hard work. It’s not easy. As a matter of fact, it’s probably the hardest thing we may have to do.

But if we can love each other like Jesus loves us, no matter how hard, painful, heartbreaking and scary it may seem, it is worth everything we go through to walk it out.

Love.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
49 N Lamplighters Walk
Hampstead, NC 28443

401-439-3780

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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