Your Daily Bible Verse – 1-6-12

(1 Cor 1:27 NKJV)  But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty;

God is mighty. God is awesome. God is bigger and more powerful than our human minds can ever completely understand.

What we fail to understand, though, is that God is not complicated in the way He chooses to do things in our lives. God works in our lives in very simple ways. It’s us, frail human beings, who choose to complicate things.

So many times we try to figure God out. We try to fit Him into a box. We try to squeeze Him into the mold that our mind creates in an effort to understand Him or make ourselves equal with Him.

In doing this, we push ourselves further away from Him instead of drawing closer to Him. Our intellect can never equal the wisdom of God. Our reasoning can never figure God out. Instead of trying to make ourselves equal to Him with our minds, maybe it’s time we humble ourselves before Him and accept the way He chooses to do things in our lives.

Simplicity and humility before God is not something to be ashamed of. It’s a necessity.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

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

401-377-5400

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Your Daily Bible Verse – 1-5-12

(Gen 39:23 NKJV)  The keeper of the prison did not look into anything that was under Joseph’s authority, because the LORD was with him; and whatever he did, the LORD made it prosper.

Joseph was a prisoner in jail, but the keeper did not pay to much attention to what Joseph did because the things he put his hands to, prospered. Why? Because God was with him!

You say, God was with him even in prison? Oh yes! He goes with us, He stays with us, no matter where we go. You see we can be in a place that we dislike or a position that is not what we prefer and He can still bring good out of it. Why? Because God is with us even in an awful place, an awful situation, even in situations that we don’t even deserve.

As we trust in God and lean on Him, He will prosper those things we touch. It doesn’t matter where we are at as long as we remain in Him, close to Him, and obeying Him.
So be encouraged today! You may be in the worst place ever, just like Joseph. But God was with him and the things he touched prospered. You too will prosper.

Don’t give up, and be sure keep your attitude right. Keep working hard and don’t look at your neighbor to see what he or she is doing and getting away with; that’s not our concern. Our concern is to keep being positive and looking to God for the victory! It will come…

Keep our eyes on Christ, no matter what it looks like around us!!

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

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

401-377-5400

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Your Daily Bible Verse – 1-4-12

(Phil 4:6-7 NKJV)  Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; {7} and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Yesterday we talked about having God’s peace when making decisions. We talked about how having that peace can help us better understand when we’re on the right track, and how not having that peace can tell us that we’re on the wrong track.

Today I’d like to share a little more on this topic, so as to avoid any confusion or misunderstandings. This is very important because it can seriously alter the paths we choose in life and the decisions we might make.

I really feel like I need to clarify a couple of things here. First of all, if you’re married and you are facing a major decision in your life, either as a couple or as individuals within the marriage, if one person is feeling at peace and the other isn’t feeling peace, it’s imperative that you DON’T make any changes at that time.

A lack of unity on the part of the couple is a pretty clear indication that more clarity and understanding is needed. Any and all decisions that will affect a married couple need to be made in 100% unity on the part of that couple. If there is no unity and no peace, simply wait. If no peace comes, move on and put it behind you.

The other area where we see people get into trouble all the time is when someone who is not a part of the decision-making process expresses their opinion and sways someone one way or the other in the decision making process, especially if no opinion was asked for.

There are some well-intentioned people out there, in the church body, who are always more than willing to “share a word from God”, and give people direction in their lives. But these self-proclaimed profits are nowhere near qualified to be doing this. These types of people can lead to very serious problems in the lives of those people to whom they speak.

No decision should ever be made based on input from one of these people. Although they may have good intentions, their guidance can do great harm because they typically don’t operate fully under the spirit and the guidance of God.

When you face any of these types of decisions in your life, make sure that you have that peace that passes understanding. This is God’s peace. You can have this peace even when God has instructed you to do something that you have no earthly idea how to do, but your faith carries you in a way that allows you to be at peace in your spirit when your natural mind might be running in the opposite direction. Once we know and understand this, our lives will be forever changed and we will look at things from a new perspective.

Know Him, and know His peace.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

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

401-377-5400

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Your Daily Bible Verse – 1-3-12

(1 Cor 14:33 NKJV)  For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.

Do you ever wonder how to tell when God is speaking to you? Do you sometimes have a hard time discerning between your own thoughts and the promptings of God?

Sometimes we need to make important decisions in our lives and we wrestle with which direction to go. We feel one way one minute and then we feel another way later the same day.

Sometimes we may feel complete peace and other times we might feel like we are in complete turmoil.

God’s word tells us that He is not the author of confusion, but of peace. He also tells us (2 Tim 1:7 NKJV)  For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

So if you are in a place where fear and confusion seem to be reigning, you can be pretty sure that God isn’t in that place. If you have peace in the midst of a major decision, you can be pretty sure you’re headed in the direction that God wants you to go.

Let me put it one more way that might help us get some clarity; If we are in a place where we need to make a major decision that can change our lives, and we can’t seem to find peace about the choice we’re leaning toward or might have already gone toward, God probably isn’t in favor of the direction we chose.

However, if you are contemplating a major decision or have made a major decision that can or will change your life, and you just seem to have peace about it, despite it being very major, you can be pretty sure that God is in favor of the path you’ve chosen.

Trust God and His leading.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

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

401-377-5400

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Your Daily Bible Verse – 1-2-12

(Mal 3:10-12 NKJV)  Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be food in My house, And try Me now in this,” Says the LORD of hosts, “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven And pour out for you such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it. {11} “And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, So that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, Nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field,” Says the LORD of hosts; {12} “And all nations will call you blessed, For you will be a delightful land,” Says the LORD of hosts.

One Sunday morning about 13 years ago we were attending a church service. The pastor there was speaking about Abraham and how he had entered into a covenant with God, and how he was blessed because of that covenant.

It was very clear to both of us that day that God was speaking to us loud and clear about what we needed to do to get FREE from the situation we were in!

At that time in our life, my husband was laid off from a job he worked for 13yrs and was going to school. I was working a full week and all day Saturday and it still left bills unpaid. We had two children to feed and clothe. We were up to our eyeballs in debt and the bill collectors were calling our home constantly. Things were a mess! We were tired and stressed and didn’t know what to do. Can you relate?

After lunch that day, my husband and I got out every bill we had and laid them out on our bed. It was a mountain for sure! We prayed over this mountain of bills and repented to God for the wrong we had done, for this was our mess. We had made many bad decisions that had gotten us to where we were.

We made a covenant with God, that from that day forward we would give to Him first what was His. No matter how much we had, He would get His first and then we would use the rest for our needs.

The very next day my husband felt like he needed to make some phone calls to places where we had overdue balances. The first place we called was a doctor’s office, to see what kind of arrangements we could make to take care of what we owed them. To his surprise the receptionist  told him not to worry about it. They just wiped our bill clean; we had a ZERO balance! The next call,  same kind of response, no balance!

This went on to the third call that day… he couldn’t believe it!! But deep down we knew, God went before us and was cleaning house! It was the covenant we made with Him. From that day, forward, no matter what our situation looked like, we would give to Him first.

God took our situation and completely turned it around, over time. Not all of it was that easy. There still were some tough days ahead, and we had to stay disciplined, but we knew we were heading in the right direction. God was with us and fighting for us; we were no longer alone. The covenant that we made with God to faithfully give our tithe gave us protection.

You see, it was God’s knowledge that day that we listened to and acted upon! God honored that and He was right there to reward us for doing the right thing. If you are struggling in any area of your life,  break that curse that is over you today…get out from under it.

You say “how do I do that?” Take a step of obedience; give to God and get under God’s covering by being obedient to Him.

Take time to pray as to where to sow your tithe. Make sure it is in good Ground. I believe this year is going to be a BIG year as we are faithful to obey!!

God bless you.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

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

401-377-5400

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Your Daily Bible Verse – 12-31-11

(Rom 8:31 NKJV)  What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

Being challenged at work to do beyond our capacity and being under-paid is a hard thing to deal with, especially knowing that there is not much out there for work these days.

We need the job; that’s all there is to it. So we keep on plugging away and doing what we can to help and try to stay somewhat above water. We hope that we don’t get more piled onto us until we catch up with what we have. We just keep on keeping on until something else comes up or changes happen.

Being mistreated and overworked on a job is NOT right, but it happens all the time and people get away with doing it. What can we do to get past it and make our jobs a little less aggravating?

We can start by knowing that if God is for us, who can be against us. God is watching and He knows what is going on and He doesn’t like abuse or people mistreating people. As we tell Him about our concerns and trust Him, He will come through for us. He is faithful!!

God is for us. Be encouraged today if you are working hard and not feeling like you’re getting anywhere, with no raise, no promotion, not even a thank you. It’s time to start praying to God for a change and then let Him go to battle for you!

What we need to do in the meantime is to keep doing what we know we are supposed to do, with a good attitude and let Him lead us.

Trust God!!

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

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

401-377-5400

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Your Daily Bible Verse – 12-30-11

(James 5:16 NKJV)  …The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

For many years I thought that this verse meant that in order to be effective, a prayer had to be fervent… repetitive, prayed many times. It’s how we are all taught.

We’ve all heard that we need to prey fervently. But we are led to believe that praying something fervently means praying something over and over again.

A few months back God showed me that this isn’t the case. I had it all wrong. Fervent prayer doesn’t mean repetitive prayer. Fervent, in the way God uses it here, is referring to the person being fervent (consistent), but not that the prayer itself needs to be repeated over and over again for God to hear it and give you results.

We need to be fervent. We need to be consistent. It’s our consistent effort that God sees as being fervent. Take a look at this scripture below for confirmation:

(Mat 6:7 NKJV)  “And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.

Repetition of our prayers is not the key. Consistency in our walk with God is the key. When we’re consistent in our walk with Him we will know Him and discern Him better. This puts us in line with His spirit and His will, allowing us to hear His voice better.

Our prayers are our conversations with God… us talking to Him and Him speaking to us! They are not an opportunity for us to show our eloquence of speech and how well we articulate our words!

Let’s be fervent in our walk, which will lead us to a better relationship with God and prayers that will get results!

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

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

401-377-5400

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Your Daily Bible Verse – 11-29-11

(1 Cor 13:13 NKJV) And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

How do we show God’s love on this earth? There are so many ways and so many opportunities that it can be very overwhelming at times. But, the most important thing is that we never stop, and that at every opportunity we get, we should love on people.

We have to be careful not to scare some people away, because we have so much excitement in us about Jesus and what He has done for us, we don’t want to become overbearing or overwhelming. Some people aren’t ready for all that love and joy that we have bottled up inside. Some people like it when we go out of our way for them, but others may not understand it and it can freak them out. So, we have to use wisdom on this and stay balanced. Let God lead.

Love is a beautiful thing and very powerful in reaching others for Christ. People love when they have your attention. Simply just giving someone a shoulder to cry on sometimes is such a nice way to show you care about them and love them enough to listen.

Some people may need a helping hand; taking time to help them with their projects is another way of showing them God’s love. Others may need finances, groceries, or help with their kids. Some may need a visit, they may be lonely… just waiting for someone to come visit them.

Ask God to help you today to show His love, to open doors for you to be able to reach out to those you come in contact with, whether in your home, at work, school, playground, or the grocery store etc.

Enjoy sharing God’s love!!

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

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

401-377-5400

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Your Daily Bible Verse – 12-28-11

(1 Cor 10:13 NKJV)  No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.

I want to bring a word today that might seem harsh at first glance, but is really not harsh at all. It is truth, spoken from the word of God… Nothing more and nothing less.

I want to share this in love, to bring awareness and an awakening to our spirits, in our pursuit of God and His righteousness.

There is not a single one of us who faces temptation that is unique to us or our situation. None of us has been or is going to go through a test, a trial or a temptation that someone before us hasn’t already gone through.

Every single day we are each tempted with something, whether it’s a temptation to steal, a temptation to lie, a temptation to cheat on our spouse or anything else that is contrary to the Word of God.

And every single day we can choose to fall into this temptation, or we can turn and walk away. It’s really very simple when we get right down to the root of the situation. We can make it seem complicated and we can come up with a lot of excuses as to why we might do something that’s wrong, but in reality we have two choices; 1 – do the right thing 2- do the wrong thing.

Over the past several months we have become more and more aware of the number of people who are committing adultery and putting their marriages and their relationship with God at risk. This is a very sad situation.

It’s happening almost as much among believers as it is among non-believers. And it’s time for it to stop!

I implore you, if you have fallen into any kind of temptation such as those mentioned above or any that was not mentioned, stop right now and get right with God. Turn from your sin and repent. Ask for God’s forgiveness and then ask for forgiveness from the person or people you have hurt.

Take the time to make things right while you have the breath of life in you.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

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

401-377-5400

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Your Daily Bible Verse – 12-27-11

(John 4:48-51 NKJV) Then Jesus said to him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe.” {49} The nobleman said to Him, “Sir, come down before my child dies!” {50} Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your son lives.” So the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way. {51} And as he was now going down, his servants met him and told him, saying, “Your son lives!”

The question today is; do we believe in Jesus’ Word that He speaks to us about our situation or our need, or do we have to see Him work it out first in order to believe it?

Faith is not about seeing the results first. The Bible clearly tells us what Faith is (Heb 11:1 KJV) Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

When we believe God to do something for us, we can’t wait until He does it. The faith comes first. We have to get Him ahead of time, get His word on the situation, knowing what the Bible says He will do and hold onto it, trusting that He will work it all out even if we don’t see the evidence at first.

Very recently, my nephew, John, laid in the intensive care unit after being in a terrible car accident. He looked hopeless. He had tubes everywhere. He couldn’t eat, couldn’t breathe on his own, and they COULD NOT let him regain consciousness, because just being awake could harm him badly.

His brain was so swollen it could have killed him if there was any kind of activity at all. But, God gave me a vision in the midst of the storm and in this vision, my nephew was awake, laying in the hospital bed with a football under his arm, smiling. It was God’s word to me. It was His way of showing me that John would be fine.

After this, I got updates on John each day. They were all very disturbing; nothing like I would have thought. But God gave me His word and in my heart His word stayed strong despite what I was hearing, despite the pressure of the family and what they were saying. Of course they were lining up with death and negativity on all ends. But, God’s Word is much more powerful!!

Today John is doing a lot of the normal things that teens do at his age. He’s home, walking, talking, texting, eating! Praise be to God! If John had died he would have gone to hell, he has not accepted Jesus Christ as of yet. My prayer is that he will soon.

Thank you all so much for your prayers. Your faith in God did not only saved his life on this earth, but your prayers and your faith helped save him from going to hell if he had died. He is not burning today because of your faith, your prayers and you standing strong on God’s word!!

Thank you for your faith in God, and remember trust in the WORD and let God bring it to pass! Your situations will change from hopelessness to a MIRACLE!!

God bless you all!

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

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

401-377-5400

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Your Daily Bible Verse – 12-26-11

(Job 2:9-10 NKJV)  Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die!” {10} But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

Job holds a special place in my heart. He was a man who faced incredible adversity and yet he never gave up on God.

Job’s own wife told him to just curse God and die. Hmm… not very loyal, was she?

But seriously, what did it take for Job to hold fast to God while losing everything he had, including his family, and while everyone in his life who remained was telling him how foolish he was to hold onto his faith?

It took an absolute trust in God. It took a faith that could not be shaken by situations or circumstances. It took a faith in God that went beyond human logic and understanding.

We all need faith like that. We all need to learn to put our circumstances and situations lower on our list of priorities and put God first and let Him work our situations out for us.

Don’t get me wrong… it’s not always easy to do, but it’s something that we need to do. We need to learn to give our situations to God and keep our faith strong, even when the world around us is telling us to curse God and die.

So as I wrap this up, I want to share a little something with you that God showed me many years ago. Many of us have probably heard people talk about the patience of Job, but God showed me that Job had more than patience. He had incredible faith. So in the future, when you think of Job, remember his faith.

We all need faith like Job’s faith.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

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

401-377-5400

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