Category: Maturing As a Believer

Bible Verse of The Day – 11-8-24

Ephesians 4:14 (NKJV) 14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting,

As Paul wrote to the believers at Ephesus, he exhorted them, encouraging them to walk the walk of faith in a way that glorified God and demonstrated maturity in Christ.

The entire fourth chapter was dedicated to this.

As part of his efforts to steer the Ephesians in the right direction, he taught them about spiritual gifts given by God for the edification of the body.

He reminded them that God has given leaders in the body to teach believers in the ways of righteousness and coming-of-age as Christians.

He listed 5 specific “offices” for this purpose; apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers (Ephesians 4:11).

Paul’s purpose in sharing this was to lead believers to a stronger relationship with Christ, that they would not stumble and wallow in immaturity, being tossed to and fro as a ship on the sea.

And in the verses above, he warned them to heed the words and the instructions of those whom God had placed among them to teach them and raise them up, that they would not be tossed about with every wind of doctrine.

You see, God has sufficiently equipped us as a body, not leaving us as orphans to wander blindly and fend for ourselves. But as children with sound leadership, and the discernment of the Holy Spirit.

And He has given His word; a handbook for life, supplying us with what we need so that we would know Him and gain spiritual understanding, and be quick to recognize the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting.

And that we run far from it under the leading of His Spirit.

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 – 9-12-24

1 Corinthians 3:1 (NKJV) 1 And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ.

God wants to speak to us as spiritual people. But we may still be walking as a carnal person even after calling ourself a child of God for a very long time.

Are we still babes who can have only milk, when God wants to feed us solid food?

How do we know if we fall into this “milk babes” category?”

If we are still envious of others, fighting and causing division, we are acting as what Paul would call, “mere men”, and we need to recognize it as sinful behavior.

1 Corinthians 3:2 (NKJV) 2 I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; 3 for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?

Here, Paul is saying we must get past this if we want to be able to go deeper with God.

Paul wanted to teach them much more, but because of where they were in their hearts, they couldn’t receive more.

We determine how much we want to learn individually; how close we want to get to God by our willingness to change in our heart.

We decide how disciplined we want to become in our walk. We determine if we are milk babies or solid food eaters.

You see, if we continue to walk in carnal ways, and not allow our heart to be taught, we will remain as babes in Christ, knowing just the basics; just getting by, and never growing.

We will continue to only be able to have “milk”, or light and easy basic teachings, just coasting as a believer.

But if we step it up in our walk and focus on trying to honor God with everything in us, pushing harder to go the extra mile, well then, we are on another level of growth.

For instance, if there is an argument, and you are the one willing to humble your heart, turn your cheek and walk away in love, putting aside all you emotions, you truly want God’s best for that situation.

God will guide us and give us the strength and discipline if we are set on seeking unity, working things out and leaving peace where we have walked.

The most important thing to remember when faced with controversy is that kindness and respect will be your best friend. 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 – 7-3-24

2 Corinthians 5:17 (NKJV) 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

Many of us may have heard Christians state that they are just a sinner saved by grace.

Most times this is referring to the fact that we occasionally slip up and are not perfect in our walk with God.

While there may be some truth to that, this phrase fails to account for the scripture above, which states that if we are in Christ, washed by His blood, we are a NEW creation!

No, we are not expected to be perfect. God knows that we will sin.

But this is never an excuse for us to sin. It does not give us a license to willfully, freely sin and expect God to simply forgive us because of His grace and the blood of Christ.

Romans 6:15 (NKJV) 15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not!

You see, sin does not just happen involuntarily. It comes by the choices we make.

To brush it off, sometimes jokingly, saying that we are just a sinner saved by grace, we are dangerously close to making light of what Christ did on the cross.

This is not to scold anyone. It is meant to give us a gentle nudge, a soft reminder, that we do not forget the seriousness of our commitment to Christ.

The key to this is to change the perspective with which we look at this topic.

Before Christ, we were sinners, dirty and unwashed.

After Christ, we are new creations, made clean by the washing of His blood.

We are no longer that same person.

We are each a new creation. God’s word says so!

When the blood of Jesus is applied, the old things have passed away.

His blood is better than the most powerful soap. It does not simply remove the dirt and stains, dressing us up and making us look better.

It brings us from a past life of sin and darkness into a new life in Him.

He is worthy of the effort that we must make if we wish to honor Him with our lives.

Let us walk each day as the new creations that He died to save.

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 – 4-26-23

Philippians 3:10 (NKJV) 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,

As I have grown and matured as a believer, this verse has become very personal for me.

As the apostle Paul penned these words, he was sharing the deepest possible expressions of His love for and dedication to his Savior, Jesus Christ.

Paul, having previously been a persecutor of “followers of The Way”, was now a Christian himself.

The zeal with which he had pursued and persecuted Christians was now being funneled into his newfound faith in Christ.

Paul was an all-or-nothing kind of person. When he did something, he did it with everything in him.

So, as He worked out his relationship with the Savior, he wanted to know Christ in every aspect. He wanted to know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings.

Paul didn’t just want to know the power that had raised Christ from the dead. He also wanted to know and understand the pain and struggles that Jesus had walked through to get to His ultimate goal; crucifixion and death on the cross.

Paul undoubtedly knew that his faith in Christ might eventually cost him his life. And ultimately it did.

So, this leads me to ask the question, “do we also want to know the fellowship of His sufferings?”.

Are we (you and I) willing to do whatever it takes to walk out our faith, even if it means suffering for it?

This is a question that we need to ask ourselves and give an honest answer to.

Let us seek God and the leading of the Holy Spirit on this most serious topic.

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 – 8-31-22

Ephesians 4:11-12 (NKJV) 11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ…

God has created and given us everything and everyone we need to thrive as the body of Christ.

Above, He listed the people who equip the body, raising her up and teaching her everything that’s needed to live a life that’s worthy of the name of Jesus and that’s strong for the kingdom of God.

These five “offices” are responsible for training up and equipping the saints of God from the moment they put their faith in Christ until they breathe their last breath here on earth.

Thinking about this reminds me of a parent raising a child, trying to strike that delicate balance between love, discipline, nurturing, exhorting, edifying, etc.

Sometimes this requires saying or teaching things that might not necessarily be popular or easy to say but are required for “proper nutrition” of those who hear.

Most of us would much rather hear something that’s joyful and uplifting vs. something that’s serious and somber.

This is akin to trying to get your children to eat their fruits and vegetables when there is a freshly prepared dessert right in from of them!

But God is faithful, and He guides each of us every day as we seek to serve Him and worship Him in Spirit and in truth.

And as we learn to “eat” those things that are harder to swallow, along with the things that are more pleasant, we will be balanced, strong and ready to answer the call when God places something in front of us that He wants us to do.

So, let’s be prepared to eat what God serves to us, whether it’s a platter of spinach, kale and broccoli or a plateful of brownies and chocolate cake (or whatever our favorite dessert might be).

We may or may not like it at that moment, but if God is serving it, we know that it’s beneficial for us.

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 – 11-15-21

John 13:9 (NKJV) 9 Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!”

As Jesus was spending His last hours with the disciples, He shocked them by washing their feet. This is something that only servants did during that time period.

The fact that their Master would lower Himself to wash their feet was beyond their comprehension.

What’s more, though, is that Peter flat out refused to let Jesus do so. He didn’t feel worthy to have Jesus perform such a seemingly menial task on his behalf.

When Peter refused, Jesus rebuked him, telling Peter that if he wouldn’t allow Jesus to wash his feet, then he couldn’t have any part with Him.

At that, Peter proclaimed, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!”.

And so it should be with you and I.

Not that Jesus is standing in front of us offering to wash our feet, but that we would allow Jesus to “wash” our whole selves, cleansing us and making us vessels that are worthy of His name, by the power of His Spirit and through our complete submission to Him.

This is the only way we will ever fully develop our relationship with Him, allowing us to grow into mature believers who serve God wholeheartedly, shining His light brightly to bring glory and honor to Him.

Jesus, wash all of me.

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 – 10-29-21

1 Corinthians 13:11 (NKJV) 11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

There is something very important implied here for all believers to pay close attention to.

That something is our growth and maturity in Christ.

When we first put our faith in Christ, we are mere children in our relationship with Him.

But as time goes by, we need to make sure that we’re doing our part to mature and grow.

Everyone grows at different rates. This is a given. The important thing is that we do grow!

Thankfully, God is patient, and He gives us grace as we learn to crawl, then move on to walking and, ultimately, running.

Some of us might get stuck at crawling. There are usually a couple of reasons for this.

1. A lack of time and effort put into it on our part.

2. A lack of understanding.

There is a solution for both of these. Let’s take a look.

For the first problem, we need to be sure we’re disciplined enough to set aside the time needed to build and grow our relationship with God. It’s critical to growth as a believer.

If we’re not doing this, many times it’s because we haven’t taken the relationship seriously enough. The cure for that is to grasp and understand what Christ did for us on the cross, literally taking our place, dying as a substitute for you and for me.

To fix the lack of understanding, there are usually two different issues we need to look at.

The first would be making sure that we’re spending the time needed in God’s word to get that understanding. And if we’re having trouble understanding what we’re reading, it’s a great idea to get some help from someone who can help us understand it better.

Lastly, if we are already learning from someone else, but we’re still having difficulty, we may need to sit under a different teacher or organization in order to get taught in a way that helps us. This can sometimes make a major difference in how well we learn!

So, remember that we need to be growing as believers. But remember, also, that we are not on our own as we do learn and grow.

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 – 8-30-21

1 Chronicles 22:8 (NKJV) 8 but the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ‘You have shed much blood and have made great wars; you shall not build a house for My name, because you have shed much blood on the earth in My sight.

God called David a man after His own heart.

Not only was David a man after God’s heart, though. He was also a man who took his walk with God very seriously. He put God above all else.

As David grew older in years, he felt a desire to build a temple; a place for God to dwell.

So, he set about gathering materials and other resources for that task.

But God stopped him in his tracks, telling him that he could not be the one to build the temple due to the fact that he had blood on his hands. He was a warrior who had killed many people.

He told David that Solomon, his son, would be the one to do this.

David accepted God’s choice. And instead of being upset and acting angrily about it, he spoke with Solomon and told him of this occurrence, and what God had told him.

In other words, he handled it like a mature man of God; a mature believer.

Despite being told that he would not be the one to build the temple, David continued to help and guide Solomon, making him aware of the enormity of the task, and the importance of it.

He also continued to gather materials and make all of the necessary arrangements for skilled laborers, and people to oversee the project to its completion.

It’s good for us to understand this, and to apply it to our own lives as children of God. We can learn from David and gain understanding as to how to handle situations in our own lives that may be similar in some ways.

God desires us to be mature children; people whose faith in Him is so great that we don’t let things like this throw us off and cause us to behave badly or in immature ways.

He wants us to be mature believers. So, let’s allow Him to mold us and shape us into just that.

If you’d like to learn more about this, we recently recorded a video on the topic. You can watch it by clicking here.

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 – 8-15-21 – The Mature Believer

Please click to watch the video now.Greetings, brothers and sisters in Christ! 

Today, we have a video that teaches us about maturity. 

In this new video, The Mature Believer, we use a Biblical example to show and teach by example. 

Maturity comes over time, as we grow in our walk with God and allow Him to change our heart. 

This video was fun, and the Holy Spirit was moving as we taught and shared examples of the behavior of mature believers. 

We hope you’ll take a few minutes to watch it and let God speak to you through it. 

Please click here to watch the video now. 

We love you! 

Sincerely, 

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 – 5-9-21 – Being Sure

Please click to watch the video now.Greetings in the name of Jesus! 

We hope you are growing and maturing as a follower of Jesus Christ. Doing so makes being sure of our eternal destiny much easier. 

Speaking of being sure, that’s the title of our latest video; Being Sure. 

In this video, we teach about being sure of our salvation and how maturing as a believer is an important part of that. 

There is lots of Biblical meat for us to feed on in this one, so we hope you’ll spend a few minutes watching it and letting God speak to your hearts. 

Please click here to watch the video now. 

We love you all, and we sincerely want God’s best for your lives. 

Love in Christ, 

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 – 9-28-20

2 Corinthians 6:17 (NKJV) 17 Therefore “Come out from among them And be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, And I will receive you.”

This is a verse that I haven’t read, thought about or pondered on for a long time.

But today God brought it back to my remembrance. And I knew it was time for me to take another, deeper look at it.

Most believers already know that this verse does not mean that we are to literally, physically separate ourselves from unbelievers. This would be virtually impossible.

Additionally, doing so would not fit what God’s word tells us when it comes to being a light to a dark world, being a city on a hill (Matthew 5:14) or not hiding our light under a basket (Matthew 5:15).

We need to let our light so shine before men! And we can’t do that if we do not interact with others.

Matthew 5:16 (NKJV) 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

So, now that we have firmly established that fact, let’s look more closely at what it means to be separate while not being separated.

It’s important that we understand that this verse is really speaking symbolically about our behavior, which stems from what’s in our hearts. What’s in our hearts will manifest outwardly in our actions, even if our words might say something different.

As long as our heart is still united with the things of the world, our outward actions will not change enough to significantly matter.

Paul actually took pieces of this verse from Isaiah 52:11, where the Israelites were commanded to remove themselves from their lands of exile and return home to Jerusalem, but not to bring any of the idols from their foreign lands home with them.

Similarly, we need to be sure not to bring pieces of the world with us as we mature from earthly (carnal) thinking to heavenly (Godly, Spirit-led) thinking.

It is irrational (unreasonable, illogical, absurd) to think that we, as believers, can be united with (bound to, joined together with) unbelievers and the ways (the habits and the thinking) of the world in our actions and our behavior.

Jesus was our example in this as He walked this earth, interacting with others from all walks of life without taking on their habits or behavior. He remained pure from start to finish.

This was confirmed for us here in Hebrews;

Hebrews 7:26 (NKJV) 26 For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens;

It’s time for us to take this seriously and put action behind our words.

It’s time for us to let God circumcise our hearts once and for all, helping us to shed those foreskins (the idols of our former lives) that keep us tied to the ways of the world.

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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