Bible Studies

See, when Satan dangled his bait before my hungry eyes, and desperate heart, I opened wide my mouth and prepared to take a big greedy delicious bite. Imagine, after all the time I’d been following Jesus, after all the time I’d spent studying the Bible, after all the time I’d received godly counsel, after all the experience I’d had through the years doing wrong and learning how to do right, there I had found myself about to fall hook, line, and sinker for the devil’s tantalizing, scrumptious-seeming bait.

We are to say no to selfishness and self-centeredness. We are to say yes to Jesus. If we love Jesus, we obey Jesus. When we disobey Jesus, if we love Jesus, we seek God’s forgiveness and turn back to Him and strive to do what’s right. We live to honor God. Not to honor self. We live to glorify God. Not us. We live to please God. Not self.

Does God talk to you? Do you listen? What does He say? What do you do? God speaks to His children through the Bible, by His Spirit to our hearts in line with the Bible, and through His followers in line with the Bible. He only and always speaks in line with the Bible, so we need to make sure whatever we believe we hear from Him is in line with the Bible to make sure it’s from Him.

She pointed me to the Bible. To God’s Word. To God’s Truth. To stories in the Bible. And to scriptures. My burden lifted. By the end of the little conversation, we were laughing about something together. And I felt better. Because I was back on track. Following Jesus. My eyes were back on the Lord and His Word.

Sorry’s nice. Sorry’s pretty. Sorry’s proper. Sorry’s humble. Sorry’s good. Sorry’s necessary. But when it comes right down to it, sorry ain’t enough.

I can recognize a finger-pointer in a heartbeat. I spent so many years being one that I can spot one in a flash. Do you know what I’m talking about? It’s the person who is so focused on pointing the finger at the other person’s sins that he or she can’t see his or her own and won’t do anything about his or her own. It’s the person who even if she acknowledges his or her sin excuses away his or her own wrongdoing by judging and condemning the other person for his or her sin and decides that the other person’s sin is worse and thereby is the perfect justification to continue in one’s own sin.