Category: Understanding God

Bible Verse of The Day – 2-20-25

Isaiah 10:15 (NLT) 15 But can the ax boast greater power than the person who uses it? Is the saw greater than the person who saws? Can a rod strike unless a hand moves it? Can a wooden cane walk by itself?

Welcome. Let us dive right back in!

In yesterday’s devotional we established the fact that God will use evil people to accomplish His purposes.

He used the Assyrian kings and their military to chasten Israel for their disobedience and unfaithfulness.

But we must note that God also punished those same evil people when He was done using them.

His punishing them was not necessarily because they were evil and did not call Him their God. In the example of the Assyrians, He punished them for their pride and arrogance.

The verse at the opening of this devotional shows God’s words to Assyria, letting them know (through the prophet Isaiah) that justice was coming, and it would not be in their favor.

Despite using them to chasten Israel, God warned them that they would also suffer His wrath.

In Isaiah 10:15, above, God used various hand tools as examples, showing the Assyrians that what they had accomplished was not by their own might, but because God had chosen them as His tools.

He emphasized that an ax cannot swing itself, therefore rendering it useless unless it is in the hands of a strong man.

Likewise, the Assyrian kings and military would not have been able to overcome Israel had God not ordained it to be so. And in the end, Assyria was overthrown.

Isaiah 10:12 (NKJV) 12 Therefore it shall come to pass, when the Lord has performed all His work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, that He will say, “I will punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his haughty looks.”

So, what can we glean from all this?

In summary, God is loving, kind, merciful, compassionate.

But He is also just. He asks for our faithfulness.

He does not expect perfection. He offers mercy, gives grace, and He is faithful to forgive when we genuinely repent and seek Him.

But He is also a consuming fire. And He chastens (disciplines) those whom He loves (Hebrews 12:6).

And He is willing to use even those whose hearts are evil to carry out that chastening, if necessary.

Does this always make sense to our finite, human minds? No, it does not.

But He is God, and His ways are higher than our ways.

And He is sovereign in all things. Let us recognize this and give Him the honor He is due.

We hope this series has been informative, enjoyable, and eye-opening, helping you see God more fully and understand Him better than ever before.

We love you all.

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 – 2-19-25

Isaiah 10:5 (NKJV) 5 “Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger And the staff in whose hand is My indignation.

Welcome back!

We hope this series is increasing your knowledge and understanding about the ways of God, and who He is, based on what His word teaches us.

Over the last two days, we have built a firm foundation showing that God is loving, merciful, compassionate, and kind, but He also chastens those whom He loves.

Job’s situation was just one example of His chastening. That one example showed us that God gave Satan permission to act as His agent of discipline.

In other cases, God may use people whose hearts are evil.

To be clear, God does not make people to be evil. They choose to be evil and to carry out evil plans.

God allows them the free will to choose whom they will serve.

But their rejection of God does not mean that He will not use them for His purposes.

On the contrary, He will use them like a tool; a weapon in His arsenal.

Isaiah 10: 5, above, clearly demonstrates this. He refers to Assyria as ” the rod of My anger And the staff in whose hand is My indignation.”

So, he used the Assyrians to punish those with whom He was angry and disgusted. This was namely Israel, as they had repeatedly disobeyed God and worshiped false gods.

You see, there is no darkness or evil in God. He is pure and holy.

But His word says He is a jealous God; a consuming fire (Deuteronomy 4:24).

So, it is critically important to recognize this and acknowledge it, and not just push it off because it fails to fit our own interpretation or image of God.

His word speaks truth. And we cannot simply ignore things that may make us uncomfortable or that we fail to fully understand.

God is complete and lacking nothing. He is perfect in all His ways.

He sees all and knows all.

Please join us tomorrow as we complete this series.

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 – 2-18-25

Job 1:12 (NKJV) 12 And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand on his person.”

Greetings!

Yesterday we established the fact that we may sometimes be uncomfortable with certain aspects of God, or the way God does things, because it is uncomfortable for us see or acknowledge.

We also touched on the fact that our discomfort is because our minds are finite, and God is not. Our understanding is limited. But His is immeasurable.

In the verse above, God gave Satan permission to touch Job’s life in a harmful way. That is, after all, what the enemy does; damage & destroy lives.

As a result of this, Job lost all but a few of his servants, all his livestock, and all his children.

These events happened consecutively, within a matter of a few hours. Job became destitute and childless in one day.

It is important to note that this was done because God allowed it to happen.

But the situation gets more difficult for Job.

When Job failed to abandon his faith in God after losing everything he had, Satan requested permission (from God) to attack Job’s health. And permission was granted.

Job 2:6 (NKJV) 6 And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand, but spare his life.”

And Job developed a horrendous case of boils over his entire body.

Did Satan sneak behind God’s back and do this? No. He was given permission to do this within parameters that God stated explicitly; you must “spare his life.”

As we can see here, these events are markedly different from the verses that teach us about God’s love, mercy, compassion, and patience.

Yet, it is still the same God, moving differently, to accomplish His purpose in the earth.

Now that we have established a larger foundation than we had built yesterday, we will look more closely at this tomorrow.

We hope you will join 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 – 2-17-25

John 3:16 (NKJV) 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

God is bigger than we will ever understand or fully comprehend.

Nonetheless, it is still important for us to learn all that we can about who He is. In fact, it is critical for us to learn all that we can about Him.

Because our human minds are finite, it can be difficult for us to grasp an infinite God. His ways and His thoughts are much higher than ours.

Isaiah 55:9 (NKJV) 9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.

Because His ways are higher than ours, we may find ourselves struggling at times to understand how or why He does certain things the way He does.

This is why it is so vastly important for us to study His word and learn the things that are sometimes difficult to learn; the uncomfortable things.

We must expand our thinking and our understanding of God.

To help us grow in this area, we are going to discuss a topic that is quite inconspicuous if we fail to study His word thoroughly.

We all know that God is merciful, compassionate, kind, and patient. This is something we can all agree on with little debate or controversy. It is a truth that is frequently taught.

Because His love, mercy and compassion are comfortable to discuss and easy to grasp, we fail to look beyond those attributes.

But what about the other attributes of God? You know. Those things that may be difficult to understand or that make us uncomfortable.

Many times, the “uncomfortable” attributes or actions of God are ignored because they are difficult to present. They may not feel good. They may even make some quite uneasy when they are discussed or presented.

This happens because we are human, with finite understanding. We fail to see the “big picture” that God sees and understands.

With this foundation now laid, we will continue this tomorrow.

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. 

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Bible Verse of The Day – 11-29-24

Psalm 18:30 (NKJV) 30 As for God, His way is perfect; The word of the Lord is proven; He is a shield to all who trust in Him.

His way is perfect.

What better way to sum up God and His ways?

Our human intellect can sometimes steer us wrong when it comes to God’s ways.

We become comfortable in our understanding. We depend solely on our intellect to get us through things we face.

And in doing so, we push God away without realizing it. We keep Him at arm’s length.

Then we wonder why He is silent.

That silence is often due to us expecting God to move or speak in a way that we understand or in the timing we demand.

Hindsight will always show us the error of our ways if we discern properly and allow God to teach us His ways.

This is where spending time in God’s word benefits us immensely. It shows us who He is. It teaches us His ways. It helps us better understand spiritual matters, leading to us having sharper discernment.

And as we develop spiritual understanding, we lean less on our own understanding.

Then our mind is blown as we are able to recognize God moving because we are no longer looking for Him with our natural eyes but giving preference instead to eyes led by the Holy Spirit.

And that is when we realize that He indeed is a shield to all who trust Him.

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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Bible Verse of The Day – 3-29-24

Isaiah 55:9 (NKJV) 9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.

Have you been spinning your wheels trying to figure God out?

Do you frequently question why He does what He does, or the way He does things?

Do you sometimes wonder if maybe you’re not quite “getting it” when it comes to understanding God?

We watch the things happening around us and around the globe, and then we wonder.

We wonder why we have so much trouble understanding things that seem like they should be so simple and straight forward.

You are not alone!

Many people wrestle with this; even longtime believers.

Much of this lies in the fact that we try to fit God into our own mold; a mold that our minds can comprehend.

We see things through natural eyes and human understanding. We decipher everything through our intellect.

But we never seem to find peace or resolution. No answers come for the questions we struggle with.

This perpetual struggle will begin to fade when we stop trying to figure God out and start to learn of Him.

His word tells us plainly not to lean on our own understanding, but to trust in Him!

Proverbs 3:5 (NKJV) 5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding;

He also tells us that if we seek Him with all our heart, we will find Him.

Jeremiah 29:13 (NKJV) 13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.

And it is in finding Him that we finally begin to lay down our fears and our worries and begin to trust Him outside of what we can understand or make sense of with our human minds.

We urge you today to press into Him. Seek Him diligently. Do so with everything in you.

And when you do this, you will begin to know Him like you have never known Him before, leading you to trust Him like you have never trusted Him before.

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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Bible Verse of The Day – 9-26-21 – Who Do You Say That I Am?

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

Speaking of Jesus, there’s a particular scripture where He asked Peter, “Who do you say that I am?”. 

That’s also the title of our latest video, “Who Do You Say That I Am?”. 

In this video, we teach about Peter’s understanding and revelation of who Jesus really was, and how that plays into our own lives, as believers. 

This video gives some great insights about this, so we hope you’ll watch it! 

Please click here to watch the video now. 

We love you all! 

Sincerely, 

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 – 3-1-21

Psalm 145:17 (NKJV) 17 The Lord is righteous in all His ways, Gracious in all His works.

Sometimes God’s ways can be a bit hard for us to understand.

Sometimes they can be downright confounding to our finite human minds.

You see, over time we tend to form a mental picture of God. Not so much what He looks like, but how we expect Him to act; the things we expect to see Him do.

Sometimes the ideas we have are accurate. Other times they are far off track.

Why does this happen?

It’s all about perception.

As we learn, we develop certain perceptions of who God is. Some of those perceptions can be very accurate. But some can be very inaccurate.

This can happen for a few reasons. Many times, it’s due to things we have been taught that were incorrect.

Sometimes it’s due to incorrect interpretation of what we have read or heard.

Sometimes we may not even know why we think what we do. It just kind of happened over time.

The best way to remedy this is to get into God’s word and seek His truth. And when we do this, we have to be willing to see what God says in an objective way, with no preconceived ideas or notions.

It’s the only way to truly know what He means when He says something.

Be prepared to see and hear things that may not make sense to our human minds and our human way of thinking. Remember that God’s ways are not our ways, and His thoughts are not our thoughts.

Isaiah 55:9 (NKJV) 9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.

But in all of this, His ways are righteous and true, as stated in the scripture at the beginning of this devotional.

So, no matter what we might see that doesn’t quite fit with what we thought was true, we can always go back to His word and get the real deal from the one true source.

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!

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. 

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Bible Verse of The Day – 7-26-20

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

Have you ever pondered on the phrase I AM That I AM? 

Many people have found that phrase to be a bit confusing and hard to grasp. 

In today’s video, “I AM That I AM”, we teach on what this really means, and what it means to us, as children of God. 

This video helps to bring a much deeper understanding of some critical things in the Old Testament that we may have overlooked in the past, so we hope you’ll take a few minutes and watch it. 

Please click here to watch the video now. 

We hope you enjoy the rest of your day. 

Sincerely 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 – 5-5-20

Job 1:1 (NKJV) 1 There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil.

I’d say that Job got hit! Here he was, a good and blameless man. Despite that, though, God allowed satan to take away his family and his material wealth.

Someone said to me, “why would God let satan do that to Job? He was a good man”.

Job 1:12 (NKJV) 12 And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand on his person.”

We are not going to understand everything that God does and the reasons that He has for doing them. We need to accept that.

God has His reasons and His ways that are far more than what we will ever comprehend.

There are things in this life we will not have answers for, and all we can do is trust Him.

Trust Him in what ways? Trust He will bring good from it all. Trust He will turn it around and we will come out of it safe, sound and whole. Trust that we will grow, even in such a time of sadness, sorrow, loss and pain. Trust He knows what He is doing.

There is no doubt that Job was going through a lot. I mean, to lose so much all at once. His family was gone,  and his financial situation changed overnight, etc.  And then, sickness hit his body.

But not once would he curse God or let anything bad slip from his lips. Instead, he fell to his knees and worshiped Him. That’s something to be in awe of right there. Because, after so great of a loss, it’s so easy to lose faith and give up. So easy to say foolish things and have wrong thoughts. So very easy to let our hearts get hard and turn away from God.

Job 1:20-22 (NKJV) 20 Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and he fell to the ground and worshiped. 21 And he said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord.” 22 In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.

Someone may say, “it’s just not fair. He was a good man. I thought when you live good and do things right, you will be blessed and protected from satan”.

We are blessed. We are protected. But we are also tested at times.

If we notice in this next verse, God gave him into satan’s hand. But with stipulations. He says, “spare his life.”

Job 2:6 (NKJV) 6 And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand, but spare his life.”

The most important thing to take with us from this is that God knew His man, Job! Before any of this took place, God knew that Job loved Him. God knew that Job would not fail the test or trial he was about to face. He knew Job!

And that is the trust we need to have. God knows us better than we would ever know ourselves. He is our rock and salvation, no matter what we go through or are facing.

God ultimately brought healing, and He blessed Job’s land.

Job 42:12-13 (NKJV) 12 Now the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; for he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and one thousand female donkeys. 13 He also had seven sons and three daughters.

Are we in a trial or test right now? What will we do, curse God and die? Or will we trust Him and let Him deliver us?

He knows us better than we know ourselves!

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!

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. 

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Bible Verse of The Day – 11-27-19

John 1:1 (NKJV) 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

If there is one thing we can count on, it’s this; God is so incredibly intricate in His workings that He cannot be comprehended fully by the human mind.

Now, that might seem like a bad thing because we want to be able to understand Him. In reality, though, it’s not bad at all.

It simply means that He is more powerful and mighty than we can ever imagine.

God is bigger than we could ever make up with our own minds. He is bigger than what we can see. He operates in ways that we can’t fully understand.

And do you know what this means? It means that if we have chosen to put our faith and trust in Him, and to follow Him, He is on our side!

I’m an analytical type of person. I ponder on things sometimes that can actually make my head hurt because of the depth of them. Not physically hurt, but in an intangible kind of way, because sometimes for just a split second, I will see and begin to comprehend the depth of God.

And that right there blows my mind. The depth of God. It blows my mind when I even start to comprehend it.

So, why should this get us excited?

Because we have the wonder of this incredible God backing us up, supporting us, directing us, leading us and guiding us. He has made it possible for us to be adopted by Him, making this mighty, incredible God our very own Father!

And, if that’s the case, what do we have to fear? What do we have to worry about?

Nothing.

That might seem oversimplified. Because if we look at things through our human eyes, there certainly seems to be an unlimited number of things that worry us.

But that’s the problem right there; looking at everything through human eyes.

We need a change in direction. We need to let God teach us His ways, allowing Him to transform us by the renewing of our minds. This helps us to put our old ways behind and begin to walk in His ways.

Romans 12:2 (NKJV) 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Go ahead. Trust Him. We dare you.

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!

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. 

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