With each year passing it seems as though we are living in a world where truth is becoming more and more irrelevant to the vast majority throughout the world where evil is now believed to be good and good is now believed to be evil.
To distinguish between the truth of good and evil there must be a guide to follow by which we are instructed to understand the differences of this good and evil. God, our creator has given us the Bible as a guide by which all peoples and nations should follow to lead a godly and productive life that a person can live in accordance to His instructions.
God’s WORD tells, The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it (Jeremiah 17:9). We are also warned in the Bible, And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God (Romans 12:2).
In the last nineteen years I have used the monthly Bible Pathway Ministries Daily Devotional Guides for guiding me through the Bible with fifteen minutes of reading and to assist me in better understanding of His WORD. I feel as though these devotional guides have aided me in keeping my mind, heart and flesh in line with God’s Will.
The following is The Bible Pathway Ministry Devotional guide for January 1, 2017.
To distinguish between the truth of good and evil there must be a guide to follow by which we are instructed to understand the differences of this good and evil. God, our creator has given us the Bible as a guide by which all peoples and nations should follow to lead a godly and productive life that a person can live in accordance to His instructions.
God’s WORD tells, The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it (Jeremiah 17:9). We are also warned in the Bible, And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God (Romans 12:2).
In the last nineteen years I have used the monthly Bible Pathway Ministries Daily Devotional Guides for guiding me through the Bible with fifteen minutes of reading and to assist me in better understanding of His WORD. I feel as though these devotional guides have aided me in keeping my mind, heart and flesh in line with God’s Will.
The following is The Bible Pathway Ministry Devotional guide for January 1, 2017.
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Genesis 1-3
And God said, let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness: and left them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth (Genesis 1:26)
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made (John 1: 1-3).
Today we begin our journey through the Old Testament, in which is recorded the history of mankind’s relationship with God. Yet if we choose to read it solely as a book of history, claiming that, with the coming of Christ, nothing that is written here has any direct bearing on our lives, then we are cheating ourselves out of a fully realized relationship with our Lord and Savior. Jesus did not come into being as a newborn baby in a small, dark stable in Bethlehem; He has been in existence since BEFORE the beginning, and he was one with God when He stated Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness.
For there are Three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these Three are One (1 John 5:7). The plan of the Father that was set into motion in the Garden of Eden is the plan of the Son. To fully understand that plan, we have to avail ourselves of every word of Scripture given to us by God. But He answered and said, it is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by ever word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. (Matt. 4:4). Only through starting at the beginning will our understanding of our need for a Savior be complete.
In the Garden of Eden we are introduced to the serpent (3:1), who we will later discover later is known by many names, among them Lucifer, Satan, the adversary, the accuser, the enemy, the devil, and the dragon (Is. 14:12; Matt. 13:39, 1 Pet. 5:8, rev. 12:10; 20:2). With his entry into the Garden, mankind first experienced temptation. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil (Gen. 3:4-5). It is important to note, however, that sin was introduced into this world not by the serpent, but by the conscious choices of Eve and Adam. At the moment of temptation, they shifted their confidence from the wisdom of God to the wisdom of self, and in so doing they forfeited the authority and protection of the Word of God over their hearts, their consciences, and their understanding. Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned (Rom. 5:12).
Satan is still roaming this world, seeking to deceive and lead astray. The very temptations that he placed before Eve, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (1 John 2:16), he regularly places before each of us. Yet we do not have to face him alone. Through the complete revelation of God’s Word, we have been given every tool necessary to resist the devil in all his forms.
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you (James 4:7).
Thought for Today: God's plan is not evolving; it does not change with the occurrences of the world. It is perfectly and continually on going.
