Category: Growing in God

John 8:43-44 (LSB) 43 Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word. 44 You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

As Jesus addressed the religious leaders, He spoke truth that infuriated them.

The men in front of Him held themselves up as leaders; men who should be honored and looked up to by everyone.

But their self-righteous opinions of themselves, and their visions of grandeur were shattered by the words of Jesus.

He told them bluntly who they really were; children of the devil, the father of lies, and a murderer.

Jesus saw past their religious garb and their pious words. He knew their hearts, and He knew their intentions.

It was because of their nature that they could not hear what Jesus was saying.

You see, the family we were born into does not matter. Our heritage does not make us righteous. It does not buy redemption or favor with God.

So, these men who thought themselves to be heirs to the kingdom because of their self-proclaimed lineage to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were sadly mistaken.

God desires that we be meek, humble, and willing to receive instruction.

There is a great lesson for us to learn from this, making sure that we do not base our relationship with our Father and Redeemer on our heritage.

Nor should we base it on something from our formative years that we were too young to actively participate in, such as being baptized or “Christened” as a baby or toddler.

Our faith is built on actions and decisions that we make ourselves, choices that we make to follow the One who gave His life for us.

Anything less is simply religion based on rituals, traditions, or choices made for us by others when we were too young to know the difference.

Let us make a conscious, deliberate choice to place our faith in Christ, embracing His death and the cleansing blood that He shed for us.

And let us build and grow that faith in a way that we will know who we are in Christ without relying on something that was done for us in the distant past that we didn’t actively participate in.

Amen

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
49 N Lamplighters Walk
Hampstead, NC 28443

401-439-3780

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Matthew 6:33 (NKJV) 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

Jesus spoke these words for a good reason. He wanted it to be known that making God our top priority is critical in growing and maturing as a believer.

Making Him our priority can take on many different facets. And it affects many different areas of our lives.

One of the areas where we should be concerned with this is in making sure we don’t overcomplicate everything.

Our walk with God, and the way we learn of Him, should not be complicated.

Yes, God is incredibly massive in scope. He is beyond our human understanding.

But our pursuit of Him should not let that fact cause us to lose our focus.

There is one infinite resource that we have been given to teach us everything we need to know about God, and about our life as a believer; the Bible.

His word may sometimes be a bit hard to understand in certain areas, but most of it is very straight forward. And if we ask, He is faithful to give us understanding.

The place where most of us get mixed up is when we begin to jump from one resource to another to try to learn more about specific topics; how to grow our faith, how to pray more effectively, how to discern more accurately, etc.

And when we do this, it can seriously fragment what we learn, resulting in our efforts being so spread out that we may inadvertently go backwards, instead of moving forward.

God’s word always points us in one direction; to Him.

It never steers us wrong. And it is always accurate, with no chance of it giving us poor counsel.

The thing we need to remember is that we cannot learn of God accurately and thoroughly if we do not spend time in His word.

No, His word may not have a shiny cover with modern graphics and a catchy title, but it is the one true and accurate resource we have that will help us build our faith and our walk with Him on a firm foundation that has stood the test of time.

So, let us be sure to keep it simple.

We can’t let “shiny objects” distract us and keep us from receiving everything we need to grow and mature as a believer.

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!

To have the Bible Verse of The Day delivered to your inbox each day, please Click Here and then enter your email address in the box near the upper left corner of the page.