(Luke 24:45 NKJV)  And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures.

Sometimes it is hard to understand where God is coming from on some things and His scriptures can be complicated if we aren’t allowing Him to teach us what He means when He says the things He says. God’s heart is so pure and Holy; He is so full of compassion and Wisdom that it can be overwhelming to our human minds.

When reading His Word, we don’t want to get discouraged. If we don’t understand something, we need to ask Him for His understanding and He will give it to us. We need to be willing to let Him open our understanding to see it His way.

He will be faithful to help us.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie
Seven Seas Ministries
401-377-5400

www.MyBibleVerseOfTheDay.com

If you know someone who will enjoy this or be encouraged by it, please feel free to forward it to them!

(Prov 18:10 NKJV)  The name of the LORD is a strong tower; The righteous run to it and are safe.

Have you taken a look around lately, at the state of the world we live in?

The world is a different place than it was 10 or 15 years ago. I’m seeing things now that I would never have dreamed of when I was a young child, or even a teenager.

Wickedness abounds. Immorality is pushing to become the norm. Corruption is the way of the world.

But the name of the Lord is a strong tower!! He is a refuge that we can run to and be safe. There is nothing bigger or stronger than our God.

In these troubled times He is the rock that we can cling to. He is our solid foundation that will never crumble.

I challenge you to turn the news off and put the newspaper down today. Instead of letting the woes of the world permeate you, run to God and let His strength lift you up and give you strength and joy.

Be blessed in all you do today!

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie
Seven Seas Ministries
401-377-5400

www.MyBibleVerseOfTheDay.com

If you know someone who will enjoy this or be encouraged by it, please feel free to forward it to them!

(Prov 17:22 NIV)  A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

Have you ever been around someone who just can’t seem to see the good in anything, no matter how good things are? Hmm… are you one of those people?

I used to work with someone like this. Everything we would talk about, he would find something negative to say. After a while he developed a reputation for being someone who whined a lot and nobody really wanted to talk to him much. It was pretty sad, because he was really a nice guy overall. He just had something about him that always looked at the bad side of things.

I used to have a tendency to be negative. But then God grabbed hold of me and changed my heart. Now I see things in a different light. He has taught me to see the good in things, even when things seem to be falling apart all around me.

The guy I used to work with fit the description in the verse above. His side of any conversation would dry up the bones of those around him, causing them to turn away from him.

God has taught me how to be more cheerful… to look at things more positively. I have learned to laugh even when I might not feel like it. It’s good for me!

Laughter is good for us. Some of us need to lighten up and stop being so serious. We need to let God teach us how to have a good laugh once in a while. It’s good for us.

I challenge you today to stop scowling and frowning and smile. Let God’s joy show through on the outside. It will bring Him glory and will cause people to see you in a different light.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie
Seven Seas Ministries
401-377-5400

www.MyBibleVerseOfTheDay.com

If you know someone who will enjoy this or be encouraged by it, please feel free to forward it to them!

(1 Tim 2:5 NKJV)  For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus

There should be no other person that stands between us and God but Jesus Christ.

So many times we think we have to go through others to get help and have them pray for us. Having others praying for us isn’t a bad thing, but all we really need to do is go to God, ourselves, through His Son Jesus Christ.

If Christ lives in us then we are a child of God. We can talk to God and share things with God asking Him for things and He will hear us, in the name of His AWESOME Son Jesus Christ. God’s Salvation made this possible for us.

Don’t be afraid to go to God today. He is waiting for us!

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie
Seven Seas Ministries
401-377-5400

www.MyBibleVerseOfTheDay.com

If you know someone who will enjoy this or be encouraged by it, please feel free to forward it to them!

(Mat 15:32 NKJV)  Now Jesus called His disciples to Himself and said, “I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat. And I do not want to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way.”

Compassion: sympathetic consciousness  of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it.

Jesus was moved by compassion. It is the very thing that caused Him to do what He did for others. He truly wanted to help them in their distress and to alleviate (relieve) it. He cared about these people and saw that they were in danger.

Compassion is what needs to cause us to move. There should be no motive other than what Jesus has set as an example for us. Being pressured by others to do things is not why we do the things we do. Getting something out of it for ourselves is not why we do things we do. And thinking we will get into Heaven because of the good deeds we do is not why we do things we do.

Spend some time today and ponder on why we do the things we do. We need to make sure we are being moved by compassion and the simple thought of helping someone to relieve them from their distress.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie
Seven Seas Ministries
401-377-5400

www.MyBibleVerseOfTheDay.com

If you know someone who will enjoy this or be encouraged by it, please feel free to forward it to them!

(Mark 15:38 NKJV)  Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.

I don’t think enough people understand the significance of this verse. This is critical to our relationship with God in more ways than we know. I’ll try to keep this brief, but let me explain.

In the days prior to Jesus, His death and His resurrection, God’s presence was hidden behind a veil… a type of divider that would keep man out. Only the highest of priests was allowed beyond the veil.

This veil is symbolic of the division between man and God. Before the death and resurrection of Jesus, common man was not allowed to interact directly with God. Only high priests and chosen people (prophets, etc.) heard from God directly. Any petitions from man to God had to be made through one of these chosen people. High priests would talk to God for man. Prophets would speak to man, for God.

When Jesus breathed His last breath and died, this veil was torn in two, making a way for man to access God directly. We are no longer restricted to accessing God through another man. In fact, (Heb 4:14 NKJV) says: Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.

Jesus was the final High Priest. We are no longer restricted to depending on a priest to speak to God on our behalf. The tearing of the veil opens complete access to God for all of us!

(Heb 4:16 NKJV) says:  Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

We are to approach God’s throne boldly, without shame. It is here where we find mercy and grace for our every need.

So I urge you today; enter God’s presence and approach His throne boldly, confessing your sins and seeking His grace. He has opened this door specifically for us, so we might have direct fellowship with Him.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie
Seven Seas Ministries
401-377-5400

www.MyBibleVerseOfTheDay.com

If you know someone who will enjoy this or be encouraged by it, please feel free to forward it to them!

(Mark 11:28 NKJV)  And they said to Him, “By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority to do these things?”

It amazes me how religion is so blind to the ways of God.

Religion is the enemy of man’s soul, the tool of the devil himself; deceiving people into thinking they are secure in their eternal destiny when they are, in fact, far away from God.

I know this is a strong statement and one that can cause some people to become angry, but it needs to be said.

God is not about religion. God is about relationship. God wants every single one of us to know Him, not just know about Him. This is not about a church building. This is not about traditions. And this is definitely not about rituals.

God deplores the traditions and rituals of man. They serve no purpose but to drive a wedge between man and God and man.

In the verse above, the religious leaders were questioning Jesus, asking Him by what authority He was performing miracles. The savior of the world was in front of them, face to face with them, yet they didn’t recognize Him.

They didn’t recognize Him because they were too caught up in their old ways of thinking… their traditions. They had become deaf and blind to what God wanted to do, because it didn’t line up with what they thought it should be.

Are we deaf and blind today? Are we doing things that we think are of God but are maybe just something that we do because we’re used to doing them that way?

Please seek God on this. We all need to check ourselves and make sure we’re pleasing God and not just fulfilling a tradition or a habit. God wants every part of us, not just our going through the motions.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie
Seven Seas Ministries
401-377-5400

www.MyBibleVerseOfTheDay.com

If you know someone who will enjoy this or be encouraged by it, please feel free to forward it to them!

(Luke 15:20 NKJV)  “And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.

As we approach Fathers Day here in the USA, I wanted to send a little something for fathers around the world.

As fathers, we have the awesome privilege and incredible responsibility of raising our children and being an earthly example of our Father in heaven.

Being a parent is never easy. Being a father means that we are responsible for the children that God has blessed us with. We are to raise them up in the way they should go… longing after God’s heart.

Being a godly father is never something we should take lightly. It is a great responsibility and one that we need to give 100% to.

I look back over the years and there are some things that I wish I had done differently… times when maybe I could have spent a little more time with my children or maybe been a little less worried about discipline and more concerned with giving love and praise.

But God was always faithful to make up for my mistakes. He has taught me how to love unconditionally and how to be an extension of His hands and feet, even in the lives of my daughters.

All the years of hard work were more than worth it and I now get to watch my children have children of their own and see the awesome miracle of life itself begin all over again.

Fathers, give your very best to your children, even when you might not feel like it, or when you’re tired out and think you don’t have another bit of energy left to give. God gave His best for us and we need to do the same for those that He has blessed us with.

I pray awesome blessings over the fathers today.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie
Seven Seas Ministries
401-377-5400

www.MyBibleVerseOfTheDay.com

If you know someone who will enjoy this or be encouraged by it, please feel free to forward it to them!

(3 John 1:4 NKJV)  I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.
Having Christ living in us is all the Truth we need. God’s Son is True!! He is real and He lives in us if we ask Him to come in.

The truth will convict us to do what is right in all situations; our part is to pay attention.

One day I was shopping at a retail store and I grabbed lots of things and put them in my shopping cart. By the time I was done and ready to head to the register I had more stuff in my cart than I could pay for. So, I quickly looked at it and thought for a quick moment about leaving some of it right where I was standing. After all, I thought, there were so many other items in that store misplaced.

But, because I have the Truth living in me, it didn’t feel right and I couldn’t do it. It didn’t matter whether others had done it or not…it was not OK for me to do it!

Being a child of God, we are going to get these feelings and promptings. We should pay close attention to them.

Now most likely nobody would have seen me do what I was pondering on doing. And yes, I might have gotten up to the register faster than going back and putting those items where they belong. But I would have had to live with myself afterward, knowing that God was not pleased with my actions. It just wasn’t worth it.

The truth will always lead us in doing the RIGHT thing!

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie
Seven Seas Ministries
401-377-5400

www.MyBibleVerseOfTheDay.com

If you know someone who will enjoy this or be encouraged by it, please feel free to forward it to them!

(Mark 10:51-52 NKJV)  So Jesus answered and said to him, “What do you want Me to do for you?” The blind man said to Him, “Rabboni, that I may receive my sight.” {52} Then Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus on the road.

I want to ask you today; What do you want God to do for you?

We all want God to do something for us. Or maybe we want God to do something for someone we know. But are we asking Him? Are we asking God to do this thing? Or are we just thinking about it, hoping it will just happen?

God’s word says in James 4:2 …you do not have because you do not ask.

Why aren’t we asking? Are we afraid? Do we fail to believe that we will get an answer? There can be lots of reasons that we don’t ask. But we need to put our feelings aside and exercise our faith, however little or big it might be, and approach God boldly and ASK Him for what it is that we want or need.

The devil loves it when we lack. It’s one of his primary weapons against us. If we lack, he wins.

Don’t let the enemy win. Ask God today for what you need… for what you would have Him do for you. And then believe.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie
Seven Seas Ministries
401-377-5400

www.MyBibleVerseOfTheDay.com

If you know someone who will enjoy this or be encouraged by it, please feel free to forward it to them!

(Gen 2:2-3 NKJV)  And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. {3} Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.

What a busy place this world has become!

So many people, and even societies in general, have forgotten the importance of taking time out to rest once in a while. Modern culture places so much emphasis on working and making more money that many of us end up working 7 days a week or very long hours each day. This can result in us being worn out and never having time for God or our families.

God created the earth and everything we see in 6 days. On the 7th day He rested. Yes… even God took a day off!

I want to remind everyone today that taking time to rest is important. We all need to stop and to take time from our busy schedules to put God first and keep our priorities straight.

This doesn’t just mean resting from our jobs. We also need to take a break from other things that cause us to be too busy. Maybe it’s the sports schedules that we try to maintain for our children. Or maybe it’s those extra hours we spend at the gym each week. It could be anything, really. There are always things pulling on our time.

Take a look at your weekly schedule today and see where it needs to be trimmed. If God said that one day per week was for resting then just maybe we need to listen to Him!

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie
Seven Seas Ministries
401-377-5400

www.MyBibleVerseOfTheDay.com

If you know someone who will enjoy this or be encouraged by it, please feel free to forward it to them!