Bible League: Living His Word All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.The Bible is not a book like any other book. The Bible is the Word of God. True, the Bible is written in the words of human beings. It has to be, or we would not understand it. But the Bible makes it clear that its words are the medium for the Word of God. Scripture is "breathed out by God," our verses for today proclaim. The very Word of God is revealed to us indirectly through the words of human beings. Behind the approximately forty authors of the Bible was the one God who inspired them all. Since the Bible is the Word of God, it should have a status in our lives that supersedes any other book. We may learn a lot from other books, but the Bible should stand above them as the ultimate standard by which they are assessed. If other books fail to measure up to the standard or if they contradict it in some way, then they should be critically evaluated as such. The Bible gives us perspective and knowledge that cannot be acquired in any other way and, as a result, it should inform, guide, and direct any further search for perspective and knowledge on the world we live in. Given what the Bible has for us, if you want to be a "man of God," if you want to be a person who is complete, then you must be a person who has been taught, reproofed, corrected, and trained by the Bible. People who have been trained by the Bible are ready for good works. This does not mean that further training is not necessary, but it does mean that those trained by the Bible are ready to live life as we are meant to live it. Without the perspective and knowledge of life that only the Bible can give we are incomplete human beings in a very fundamental sense. The Bible should not be just one other book in your collection of books. The Bible should be the book that you give pride of place in your collection of books. The Bible is the most important book ever written. Bible in a Year Old Testament ReadingJoshua 21, 22 Joshua 21 -- Forty-eight Cities Designated for the Levites NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Joshua 22 -- Tribes beyond Jordan Return, Build an Offensive Altar NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading Luke 6:1-26 Luke 6 -- Lord of the Sabbath; The Twelve Apostles; Beatitudes; Love for Enemies; Do not Judge; Tree and Fruits; House on the Rock NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. Tyndale Life Application Daily Devotion LORD, if you kept a record of our sins,who, O Lord, could ever survive? But you offer forgiveness, that we might learn to fear you. Insight Keeping a record of sins (or holding a grudge) is like building a wall between you and another person, and it is nearly impossible to talk openly while the wall is there. God doesn't keep a record of our sins; when he forgives, he forgives completely, tearing down any wall between us and him. Therefore, we fear (revere) God, yet we can talk to him about anything. Challenge When you pray, realize that God is holding nothing against you. His lines of communication are completely open. Morning and Evening by Spurgeon Ezekiel 20:41 I will accept you with your sweet savour.The merits of our great Redeemer are as sweet savour to the Most High. Whether we speak of the active or passive righteousness of Christ, there is an equal fragrance. There was a sweet savour in his active life by which he honored the law of God, and made every precept to glitter like a precious jewel in the pure setting of his own person. Such, too, was his passive obedience, when he endured with unmurmuring submission, hunger and thirst, cold and nakedness, and at length sweat great drops of blood in Gethsemane, gave his back to the smiters, and his cheeks to them that plucked out the hair, and was fastened to the cruel wood, that he might suffer the wrath of God in our behalf. These two things are sweet before the Most High; and for the sake of his doing and his dying, his substitutionary sufferings and his vicarious obedience, the Lord our God accepts us. What a preciousness must there be in him to overcome our want of preciousness! What a sweet savour to put away our ill savour! What a cleansing power in his blood to take away sin such as ours! and what glory in his righteousness to make such unacceptable creatures to be accepted in the Beloved! Mark, believer, how sure and unchanging must be our acceptance, since it is in him! Take care that you never doubt your acceptance in Jesus. You cannot be accepted without Christ; but, when you have received his merit, you cannot be unaccepted. Notwithstanding all your doubts, and fears, and sins, Jehovah's gracious eye never looks upon you in anger; though he sees sin in you, in yourself, yet when he looks at you through Christ, he sees no sin. You are always accepted in Christ, are always blessed and dear to the Father's heart. Therefore lift up a song, and as you see the smoking incense of the merit of the Saviour coming up, this evening, before the sapphire throne, let the incense of your praise go up also. Daily Light on the Daily Path John 11:11 This He said, and after that He said to them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I go, so that I may awaken him out of sleep."1 Thessalonians 4:13,14 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. • For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. 1 Corinthians 15:16-18,20 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised; • and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. • Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. • But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. Joshua 4:1,3,7 Now when all the nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the LORD spoke to Joshua, saying, • and command them, saying, 'Take up for yourselves twelve stones from here out of the middle of the Jordan, from the place where the priests' feet are standing firm, and carry them over with you and lay them down in the lodging place where you will lodge tonight.'" • then you shall say to them, 'Because the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off.' So these stones shall become a memorial to the sons of Israel forever." Acts 2:32 "This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses. Acts 10:41 not to all the people, but to witnesses who were chosen beforehand by God, that is, to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead. New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. For Permission to Quote Information visit http://www.lockman.org. |
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