Are you happy with how everything is going for you or would you like a new start?
Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and you can have a heart filled with joy and peace of mine within all situations.
God, I wish I had the smarts to speak the right words that would inspire others to seek that which is your desire for their lives.
I accepted Christ as my LORD and Savior at the age of 14 as I felt the Holy Spirit presence that night in a revival in Southern Indiana but the warm tingly experience only stayed with me for maybe two months or so. I was back to seeking only the things that the heart desires and for the next 28 years with an arrogant self-righteous and know it all attitude I would still acknowledge that I was a born again Christian when asked. But God knows the true heart and He says, The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? Jeremiah 17:9
In January of 1991 that warm tingly experience returned when I was on my knees pouring out my heart to God saying that I could not go on without Him. The desire to really know God was what got me started to reading the Bible, so I began reading the Bible for nearly an hour everyday with the aid of the Bible Pathway Ministry's guide through the Bible in one year which I completed in four months. I found out during this four months that within the Bible is the greatest love story, the greatest mystery, the greatest history and the greatest guide book on how we should live our lives in seeking to know the One True God. Sixty-six books all rolled into one amazing book and yet it is said that less the 2% of the Christians have ever read from Genesis 1:1 to Relation 22:21.
Not to change the subject, but the other night I heard a pastor on the radio saying, "There is no other religion that I know of that has a hymnal other than Christianity." He asked, “Do you know why that is? He answered himself saying, "It is because they have no true joy in their lives to sing about.”
I screamed out, “That’s right! Hallelujah, praise the LORD, thank You Jesus."
We just started a new year and like the beginning of every year there are millions who will say this year I am going to loose this extra weight, quit smoking or I am going to be a better husband, wife, father or maybe a better friend, but at last, most will fail by the end of the month in their attempt to be a better person.
Will, my challenge to you is for you to be that better person for the next thirty days by using the Bible Pathway Ministry guide (Which only uses the King James Version) along with the Bible. I use the New International Version NIV Bible, plus I listen to the NIV version on disc as I am reading or else it would take me three year to read through the Bible. I added the first reading below to get you started and you can fine each day’s devotional from the Bible Pathway Teachings link under Good News on the right side of my blog or go to the following website… biblepathway.org
You will have no one to blame but yourself if you hear Jesus speak these words on Judgment Day to those on His left, “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” Matthew 25:41
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January 1
Introduction to Genesis
Read Genesis 1 – 3
Highlights:
You will be thrilled as you read the three inspiring chapters today, discovering: God said. . . . God saw. . . . God made, describing creation. Read what God did in six days (chap. 1). Seventh day blessed and sanctified (Gen. 2:1-3). A help meet. Adam and Eve chose to believe Satan and forfeit the Garden of Eden. SIN, punishment.
Creation, as recorded in Genesis, is the testimony of our Creator God who made man in His own image. Man was made distinctly different from any animal in that God breathed into him the breath of life (Gen. 2:7).
The Lord God took the man (Adam), and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it (2:15). Man's responsibility was to obey the Word of God. Yet, God allowed man's love, loyalty, and obedience to be tested. In Eden, we are introduced to Satan, the one who came in the guise of the serpent (3;1). He is also called the dragon, that old serpent . . . the Devil (Rev. 20:2; Is. 14:12; Matt. 13:39; I Pet. 5:8; Rev. 12:10). Satan did not reveal himself as the enemy of God or as a wicked deceiver intent on destroying every enjoyment of mankind (John 8:44). His intent was, and still is, to prevent man from obeying his Creator.
Adam and Eve were created to enjoy fellowship with God. However, He also gave them the right to choose either to be their own "god" and do what they wanted to do, or by faith to believe, without exception, that everything the Bible tells us to be or do is in our best interest. By choosing the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:9), Adam and Eve had foolishly listed to Satan, rather than relying on the Word of God.
Just as Adam and Eve's fellowship with God was dependent upon their obedience to what He had said, our fellowship with Him is also dependent upon our obedience to His Word. If we are to receive His blessing, enjoy the life of God, and have it more abundantly, we must choose obedience to the Word of God — which is to obey the Lord himself (John 1:14).
Those who receive Christ as their personal Savior, receive a new spiritual life — God's nature. Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God (John 1:13). As the new Christian reads the Bible, indwelling Holy Spirit will guide you into all Truth (16:13; comp. 1:12-13).
Thought for Today:
For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous. . . . That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom. 5:19,21).
Christ Revealed: As Creator (Gen. 1:1; compare John 1:1-4,14; Col. 1:13-17; Heb. 11:3). As the Seed (Descendant) of the woman (Gen. 3:15; Is. 7:14; 9:6-7). God sent forth His Son, made of a woman (Gal. 4:4).
Optional Reading:
Matthew 1
Memory Verse for the Week: Luke 12:15
