Tag: What the Bible says about maturing as a believer

Bible Verse of The Day – 8-8-22

Galatians 5:16 (NKJV) 16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

This verse is short, simple and to the point. Despite it being so short and succinct, there is much we can learn and glean from it.

And if we heed what it says, it can be life-changing for many.

Let’s look at this scripture in reverse, from the end to the beginning, so we can better understand the depth of what it says.

First, it addresses a problem that so many struggle with; fulfilling the lust of the flesh.

What exactly does that mean?

There are two pieces to this; lust, and the flesh.

Lust is most often associated with sexual desires. But it can also be used to indicate or describe a strong desire to have something that someone else has; this is also referred to as coveting.

You can have lust in your heart toward a person, indicating a sexual desire or attraction toward that person.

But you can also lust after a physical item, as in wanting it very badly.

The flesh refers to our mind and our will, not our fleshly body. It is in our mind and our will where sin is birthed, then it is carried out physically.

The scripture above tells us that if we walk in the Spirit, we won’t fulfill the lusts of the flesh. What does it mean to “walk in the Spirit”?

It means that we do not make our choices and decisions by our own understanding or based on our desires.

In its most basic form, walking in the Spirit means that we allow the Holy Spirit to lead us and guide us in our decision making.

Walking in the Spirit indicates an ongoing growing and developing process, not just a one-time or occasional effort. It means increasing our understanding and maturing, not stagnating and remaining a spiritual infant.

It is in this growing and maturing process that we develop the strength and discernment needed to thwart temptation and the fulfilling of the lusts of the flesh. And as we continue to grow and get better at this, the devil will flee, knowing that he is wasting his time.

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

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 – 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

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 – 8-6-21

Hebrews 6:1-2 (NKJV) 1 Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, 2 of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.

This is one of the best direct references to maturing as a believer in the entirety of God’s word. It is direct and forthright in its intentions; to convey the importance of not “laying again the foundation” of the “elementary principles of Christ”.

This is a point often lost on many believers. It is often thought that once a person places their faith in Christ, they are good to go, so to speak; ready to move on to living their new life as a believer, but without much thought as to what that really means.

We need to understand, though, that this is far from the truth. For if we are truly putting our faith in Christ, we will want to know all we can about Him, since we are (or should be) trusting Him with our eternal destiny.

And if we are simply “putting our faith in Him” to reserve a spot in heaven, and then just want to “get on with our life”, we may want to re-think our “strategy”.

So, if we are truly putting our faith in Him, we should want to learn all we can about Him. We should be willing to spend the time needed to mature and grow. He did, after all, give His life (literally) for us in order to make a way for our sins to be forgiven.

So, as the writer of Hebrews says, we need to move beyond the basics, once we have a sound understanding of them, and begin to leave behind the “milk” in exchange for more solid foods.

Hebrews 5:13-14 (NKJV) 13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. 14 But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

You see, it is the learning of His word that gives us the ability to partake of, and digest, the weightier spiritual things, and to be able to learn to discern good and evil more readily.

And this is crucial for all believers, especially during the season in which we live.

So, we strongly encourage you to spend time in this mighty tool (weapon) that God has supplied us with; His word. Let’s move beyond the basic, elementary principles of Christ.

Your life depends on it, in more ways than most understand.

As we make the effort, God will give the increase.

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 – 5-9-21 – 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!

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 – 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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Bible Verse of The Day – 11-22-19

1 Peter 2:15-16 (NKJV) 15 For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men— 16 as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God.

There are many places throughout the Bible where God tells us that our actions are what will show the world who we really are.

We can say one thing, but we can show, by our actions, that what we say isn’t as important to us as we might try to lead others to believe.

This is important because submitting to authorities who are over us, following the laws and statutes for the land in which we live, will silence the unbelievers around us and remove their ability to make accusations against us.

It’s also important that we never use the freedom God has given us in Christ as a cloak, or mask, to cover wickedness or unrighteousness.

The freedom we have been given was bought at a high price, so we should never use it as a license or excuse for self-indulgence that leads to sin or causes us to give in to temptation.

Instead, we should see ourselves as bondservants of God, devoted and loyal to Him in everything we do.

We all have our faults, weaknesses and downfalls. We will never get this 100% right all of the time. But as we mature in our walk with God, we will begin to develop a better understanding of these things.

As we do so, we will find ourselves trading things that are less than pleasing to God for those things that are pure, true, lovely, noble, of good report and virtuous.

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 – 10-23-18

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 comes a time for each of us when we need to grow up and become responsible adults.

With our natural bodies, it happens involuntarily. We get older and our bodies develop and change with age.

Whether we choose to mature and grow emotionally and intellectually is up to us.

The same can be said for our spiritual growth.

When we become a child of God, we can choose to stay a babe in Christ. Or we can choose to grow and mature. It’s our choice.

God prefers that we grow and mature. He wants us to become stronger in our faith and able to help build the kingdom of God. His word is very explicit about this. He tells us that we need to grow and mature beyond the basics.

Hebrews 6:1 (NLT) 6 So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding.

As we grow in our understanding of God and His word, we will find ourselves changing in many different ways.

We will begin thinking in ways that are new to us. We will begin to see things in ways that we have never seen them before. And we will begin to have understanding about things that we never even used to give a thought to.

God will begin to mature us and give us insights into spiritual things without us even realizing that it’s happening.

So how does this happen? By us making a choice to grow, and then taking action!

The amount of growth we see will be dependent on the amount of effort we give it.

There are no secret formulas and no shortcuts. But the cool part is that as we put forth the effort, God will give the increase.

Are we still craving milk? Let’s allow God to move us on to eating solid food.

Hebrews 5:12 (NKJV) 12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food.

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 – 1-26-16

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.

Growing up doesn’t just happen in one day. It takes years. Years of learning the ins and outs of what to do and what not to do. What to get caught up in and what not to get caught up in.

It’s the same with our Spiritual walk. It takes time. It really does. One day we may be able to do things that take a great deal of obedience and discipline and then other days, forget it! We blew it the first thing in the morning. We didn’t even get a chance to walk out the door, and bam! We opened our mouth and inserted our foot.

Why? Because we are all human and because we are growing and learning more every day.

So don’t get discouraged. Just keep growing, learning and trying to get things right. Some things will be extremely hard to stop, but don’t let that cause us to give up on it all.

Keep working it, because those things that are hard will take the most of us and God’s help to put away for GOOD.

Ask God for help if we feel we cannot get past it on our own. He will give us wisdom and the knowhow to win.

James 1:5 (NKJV) 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

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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