Tag Archives: imitate God

Who Or What Constrains You?

Posted on October 9, 2022 by bibleteacherorg

Throughout the Old Testament, God showed His love for His creation. God put Adam and Eve in a perfect “Paradise”, and even when Adam sinned, God covered his sin. Though Adam died spiritually, God did not take Adam’s life but took the life of an innocent creature. Adam was saved by the sacrifice of an innocent.

Man continued to fail God. The world drifted so far from God, that the Lord would have destroyed it all. Yet God loved us anyway. He had Noah build an Ark, and though God stayed the judgment of mankind for 120 years, God used Noah to save a remnant that would repopulate the earth.

Word Study: God loves us so much! Each time God loved us, we pushed Him away. And yet, He did not destroy us. His wrath tarried, for God promised that a Messiah would come to save us. The word “Messiah” is only rendered four times in the King James Bible, in Daniel 9:25-26; John 1:41 and in John 4:25. In the OLD Testament “Messiah” is the Hebrew mâshîyach, {pronounced maw-shee’-akh}, which means “One Anointed or Chosen by God to govern or care for others”. The Kings and Prophets of the Old Testament were mâshîyach or anointed for service. Yet in Daniel God foretold of a special Person Who would be mâshîyach or “The Anointed One”. When we come to the New Testament and move into the Common Greek (Koine Greek), the word mâshîyach is not used to describe the Messiah, but “Christos” or “Christ” – some 559 times. In the New Testament Jesus is called “The Christ”, or “Jesus, the One Anointed of God”.

Kings were anointed to protect, rescue, and lead nations.
Priests were anointed to temporarily cover our sins before God.
Prophets were anointed to speak to us God’s Word.
Jesus was anointed to be both King and Priest to “whosoever will”. Continue reading →

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Repent, Receive, And Do

Posted on July 26, 2022 by bibleteacherorg

Please turn with me in your Bibles to James Chapter One. This morning we talked about the difference between Salvation and Sanctification. Salvation is a place we enter when we repent and turn to Jesus, believing Him to be our Lord and Savior. Giving our broken lives to Him, Jesus sends the Holy Spirit of God to us to begin a lifetime work in our lives.

We repent of being our own god, and turn to God the Son, Jesus Christ.
We receive the Scripture as God’s Word – especially what Jesus decreed.
We reflect in our lives the life of Christ, for we are God’s children.

The “religion” that gets a person into God’s Heaven cannot be divorced from the way of Christ. Jesus taught us the twin pillars of our faith is to love God supremely, and to love others the way that Jesus has loved us (Matthew 22:36-40; John 13:34).

Opening: On July 11, 1656, two Quaker Missionaries Ann Austin and Mary Fisher arrived in Boston Harbor, New England. A Christian denomination called the Puritans ruled Massachusetts, much like the Pharisees ruled Israel in Jesus’ day. The Puritans believed the Quakers to be a cult. Deputy Governor Richard Bellingham boarded the ladies ship, ordered the women to stay on board, and confiscated 100 books the ladies brought with them. The books were burned, the women imprisoned without counsel or the ability… Continue reading →

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The Church We Strive To Be

Posted on May 27, 2022 by bibleteacherorg

The three names “Paul, and Silvanus, and Timotheus” are the Roman forms of the names for Saul of Tarsus (see Acts 13:9), Silas (see Acts 15:22,27,32; 1 Pet. 5:12), and Timothy (see Acts 16:1-3). The Church at Thessaloniki is located in an area that is predominantly Gentile in its culture. When Saul took on the name of “Paul”, he abandoned his Jewish privileges in order to reach out to the Gentiles in the name of Jesus. The name “Paul” in the Greek actually means “a little one”. The Apostle Paul did great things for Jesus because he minimized himself, but maximized serving the Lord. Paul was “little”, not “big” headed. Paul wrote of himself in humility, saying …

1 Corinthians 15:9 … I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

Paul the Apostle not only minimized his office as Apostle, but also wrote:

Ephesians 3:8 Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;

Though Paul considered himself a “saint” (the Greek ἅγιος hagios, which means “a person set apart for God’s use”), he considered himself to be “less than the least” of all the Saints. On the other hand, when Paul considered his brokenness as a sinner, he wrote:

1 Timothy 1:15 This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.

Paul did not see himself as someone “special”, but as a terribly broken person. His acceptance of his brokenness made it possible for God to use him in a mighty way. When we humble ourselves, Jesus can do great things for us. As the Apostle addresses the Church at Thessaloniki he says:… Continue reading →

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Justification Leads To Sanctification

Posted on May 23, 2022 by bibleteacherorg

Salvation can only be achieved – not through our works – but through the finished work of Christ. But once saved by justification, the Christian is to actively participate in his or her SANCTIFICATION. Once saved, we are not what we were. Before we were saved, we belonged to ourselves (or so we thought). Once saved, we belong to God. God is our Father. Jesus Christ purchased us by His Blood. Jesus Christ sits at the right hand of God the Father, making intercession for us.

We are not what we were, but are now – by the Blood and Intercession of Christ – SONS OF GOD.

As Jesus prays for His Church, He prays:

I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.

Christian, you were GIVEN to Jesus. Christian, you BELONG to God. You are “not your own … you are bought with a price” (1 Corinthians 6:20; 7:23)

Christians are both JUSTIFIED as well as SANCTIFIED. Pastor and Bible Teacher Chuck Swindoll wrote:

“{The Bible’s} message emphasizes the gospel to the lost and grace to the saved. … Just as the lost don’t understand the gospel, the saved rarely understand grace.”… Continue reading →

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What’s Your Power Source

Posted on January 2, 2022 by bibleteacherorg

So now we come to chapter four. Peter is preaching the Gospel in Solomon’s Porch (Acts 3:11). This is the exact same porch where Jesus told the Pharisees and Priests that He was the Christ (John 10:23), and the “Jews took up stones again to stone {Jesus}” (John 10:31). They could not kill Jesus, as it was not yet His time to be crucified. “Jesus escaped out of their hand” (John 10:39). But they tried to kill Him.

It is on this same porch – Solomon’s Porch – that Peter and John are confronted by (guess who?) the same curmudgeons that Jesus had to meet. The lost world despises the true Jesus, but desperately needs to Gospel!

Acts 4:1-2 And as they {Peter and John} spake unto the people, the priests, and the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees, came upon them, 2 Being grieved that they taught the people, and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead.

As Peter is preaching… Continue reading →

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Live Graciously, Not Grudgingly

Posted on September 3, 2021 by bibleteacherorg

God does not want His children to carry grudges. He wants us to love Him, and love others.

When you carry a grudge, it doesn’t take long before the grudge is carry YOU. Believers in God are NEVER to harbor grudges. In the Lord’s Prayer – a prayer I say often, and I’m sure you all know, God tells us to pray:

Matthew 6:11-12 Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

We who are blessed of God are to forgive. Recently in our country people have pulled down statues and monuments, attempting to get rid of our checkered past. God does not want us to do that. God wants us to forgive. … Continue reading →

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Living With Surety (A Wednesday Devotional)

Posted on June 3, 2021 by bibleteacherorg

Death comes to all, and none of us truly know when we will have to “put off this my tabernacle”. Sooner or later it must come. To avoid being frightened of that time – for it should not be frightening to the Child of God – Peter says:

2 Peter 1:10 … brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall

“Give diligence” or make sure you DO this. Make sure, first of all, that you are CALLED of GOD. Every person Jesus has ever saved, He has called. Jesus said:… Continue reading →

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Aspire To Inspire

Posted on April 28, 2021 by bibleteacherorg

Colossians 2:6 As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk ye in Him

I hate most commercials I see on television. There’s an Aldi’s© commercial that is nauseatingly stupid, and a Smuckers© commercial that should be called schmuck. I like a few of the Progressive© commercials, and the GEICO© commercials, because they are usually humorous. Several years ago a commercial for a SAMSUNG© phone came on that was just beautiful! Listen to these words:

“Nobody ever set their sights on second place. Who aspires to be almost remembered? There’s a reason there are no giant foam fingers that say “We’re number 3″. No one wants to tell an average joke, make an underwhelming entrance, go out with a whimper. No one ever stood in front of a mirror with a hairbrush pretending to be the tambourine player. And there are definitely more kids dressed as Batman, than Robin. We all aspire.”

I’m not sure we all aspire. It’s a good thought… Continue reading →

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Nobody’s Perfekt But God

Posted on January 17, 2019 by bibleteacherorg

We as believers work together with the indwelling Spirit to become more like Christ. We do this by imitating Christ is prayer, in Biblical study, and in doing good in a relatively bad world. Continue reading →

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