A lot of depression is caused by a chemical or hormonal imbalance. Check with your doctor first if you are depressed for longer than 2 weeks. There are Bible passages that will help you spiritually. The 23rd Psalm is a very familiar passage. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me besides quiet waters, he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Psalm 23:1-4 In the 1st verse the writer of this psalm, David, opens this passage with a strong affirmation that forms the theme of the first half of this psalm. The psalmist tells us that because God is our shepherd, we have everything we need to give us the joy and peace that we all long for. Even in difficult situations or when people turn against us, we can never have the joy that God promises until we can say,” The Lord is my shepherd, He is all I want.” He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul. Verses 2-3a David goes on to explain how the Good Shepherd satisfies our needs. God satisfies our needs for rest and the restoration of our souls. Why do sheep need green pastures? Because that is what they feed on. And once they have fed, sheep lie down and rest. Why do sheep need quiet waters? Because they are easily frightened by splashing running water. They can drink only from still waters. What are we to feed upon, drink and rest ourselves upon? The Lord Himself and His Word. God is the resource in whom we are to eat, drink and rest. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Verse 3b As we all know, sheep tend to go astray. They need a shepherd to guide them along the right paths; a shepherd who knows where the dangerous cliffs are; where the good, pastures are found and where the pools of still, quiet waters await. The sheep know they can trust the wise guidance of the Good Shepherd. The psalmist says, ”for his name’s sake.” That’s His seal, His guarantee. God’s has promised to lead and guide us, and He has put His reputation on the line. God faithfully keeps His promises, we have His name on it. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, Verse 4a In the original Hebrew language, “ the valley of the shadow of death”, conveys a sense of deep, impenetrable darkness.. Sorrow, betrayal, fear or hurt could be your impenetrable darkness. I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Verse 4b David goes on to write about two tools that shepherds use in the care of their sheep: the rod and the staff. The rod was a pole used as a weapon to fight off predatory animals. It was a comfort to the sheep because the shepherd used it to protect them. The staff was also a pole, but it was fashioned with a hook at the end. The shepherd used the staff to guide the sheep by touching the sheep and it was also used to pull the sheep if the animal was caught in thickets. Are the rod and staff symbols? And if they are symbols would the rod symbolize the Word of God and the staff the Holy Spirit? These are God’s tools of guidance, protection and comfort in our lives.
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There are a lot of people who believe that Jesus never really claimed he was the Son of God; instead, this belief was started by overzealous followers of Jesus years after his death. The real Jesus saw himself as nothing more than a rabbi, a teacher of God, but not God himself. But it is not what the evidence clearly shows. “I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds. John 8:58-59 When Jesus applied the “I am” saying to himself, it was such an obvious allusion to God’s words to Moses out of the burning bush his audience pick up stones to hurl at him for blasphemy. This was an unmistakable declaration of equality with God. “But what about you?” he asked, “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, ”You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”. Jesus replied, “ Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.” Matthew 16:15-17 When Simon Peter answered Jesus’ question, “who do you say I am?” by saying, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus’ reaction was not to correct him but rather to affirm that this was revealed to him by the Father himself. You know that you should spend more time in prayer and Bible study. You know that God wants you to make a greater effort in developing a personal relationship with Him. But you are so busy and have so much to think about, so much to do; how do I spend more time with God? You need to decide in your mind that a devotional time with God is important. Stop and remember that the basis for your devotional life is time for God – for your relationship with Him. It’s a time to know and to love Him as a person – as a friend. First thing: Set a time. It can be first thing in the morning or last thing at night. Make it a habit, a pattern. After about 30 days you won’t even think about doing devotions; you will just do it. Second: Don’t give up. If you forget for a few days, start again. Third: Start with 10 minutes; then increase the time to 15 then 20 minutes. Fourth: Stay focused; do not let your mind wander. Fifth: First part of your prayer needs to be praise. Study the prayers of the Bible. Most start with praise. Praise puts God first in your heart; the place that is rightfully His. Sixth: Choose your Bible reading wisely. We can learn much about the character of God in a book such as Ezekiel but because that book was directly to the nation of Israel, it does not help us much in our Christian walk. The writings of the apostle Paul, the books of Psalm or Proverbs, would be a better place to start. Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus goy up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. Mark 1:35 Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long. Your commands are always with me and make me wiser than my enemies. Psalm 119:97-98 Some of us go to church not because we want to but because we have to. Sleeping in sounds like a better way to spend a Sunday morning. Why? We do not know how to truly worship, nor do we understand how important it is. How do we enter into the presence of an almighty and majestic God? The Israelites sang Psalm 95 as they went up to the temple in Jerusalem to worship. This Psalm instructs us in the reverent attitude we should have toward God our King. Psalm 95 opens with a call for all believers to join together in worshiping the Lord. Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. Verse 1 This is the first of two appeals to worship in this psalm. The second is found a few verses later. Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. Verse 6 The first is an invitation to sing; the second is an invitation to pray. So, in the opening passage of this psalm we are told that congregational worship consists partly of singing and prayer. There is a reason worship involves singing together. Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. Verse 2 The psalmist tells us that congregational singing should be an expression of thanksgiving and praise (extol means praise). Thanksgiving and praise are essential elements of worshipful singing. For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods. In his hands are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. The sea is his, for he made it and his hands formed the dry land. Verses 3-5 Do you see what the psalmist is doing in this passage? He is giving us the essential reasons everyone should give thanksgiving and praise to God. God is creator God and a God who deserves our praise and worship. Today, if only you would hear his voice, “Do not harden your hearts as you Did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the wilderness, where Where your ancestors tested me; they tried me, though they had seen what I did.” Verses 7b – 9 What event does the psalmist speak of here? He is writing of an incident in Exodus 17. It occurred shortly after God had delivered the Israelites from Egypt by parting the Red Sea. The people had only journeyed a week or two in the wilderness and had come to a place where there was no water. Becoming thirsty, they complained to Moses. Just days after the parting of the sea, the people demanded that God prove Himself again. The peoples’ hearts were hardened because of the difficulties they faced. A harden heart cannot hear God’s voice. A hardened heart will not and cannot connect with God’s Spirit. A hardened heart is self-centered not God centered and refuses to put God in first place in their lives. A softened heart will carefully listen to the sermon that a pastor will give. A softened heart will understand what God is teaching through scripture. How can I get better at worship?. By joining with other Christians and recognizing that God is King and making Him a top priority in your life. Decide in your mind and heart that God deserves our praise and prayers. By having a deep desire to hear God through His Word and allow God to change you to be more and more Christ like. You go to work on Monday and can’t wait for Friday. You live for the weekends. All the boss cares about is using you to make money for the corporate office. You are convinced that the CEO is leaning back in his chair watching the money come in. Why is he getting the major portion of the “pie” while you are living paycheck to paycheck? What does God say about your work and your attitude? Non-Christians watch the lives of Christians. Do you complain and grip or do you have a desire to help where needed. They want to know if your relationship with Christ is real or phony. Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody. 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 God wants us to provide for our family. If anyone does not provide for his relatives and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. 1 Timothy 5:8 God also wants us to work so that we can share with others. He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need. Ephesians 4:28 Change how you think about work, your job and look how God wants to use work to benefit you and your family. Work is what built our western culture. Work is what provides houses, food and the services that we take for granted. From God’s perspective work provides opportunity to show Christ’s love, take care of the monetary needs of our families and a way to help the poor and other ministries. There are many places in this world where people do not know about God’s plan of salvation through his Son Jesus Christ. Can they be saved? Because of the sin that was brought to this world through Adam, is it fair to end up in hell just because you were born in a place where the gospel was never preached? The Bible teaches that mankind knows in his heart that there is indeed a Creator God. …since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. Romans 1:19-20 It is a fact that all of mankind can tell that a creator does exist, because his creation testifies to it. The question is, what do you do with that information. God has put in all people the knowledge of himself and a sense of morality. Do you rebel against what you know in your heart to be true? If you honestly seek God, even with limited knowledge of who God is and his plan of salvation, God will accept you as his child. All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them. Romans 2:12-15 God loves sinful mankind and wants all to come to him. But he also is a holy God that demands judgement. Because of his righteousness he will judge fairly. God is capable of accurately relaying His Word to us in a way that we can understand. It is crucial that we interpret properly to determine the intended meaning rather than forcing ideas into the text. Bible believing Christians generally follow a method of interpretation known as the historical – grammatical approach. That is, we try to find the plain (literal) meaning of the words based on an understanding of the historical and cultural settings in which the book was written. We then follow standard rules of grammar, according to the book’s particular genre, to arrive at an interpretation. We seek to perform careful interpretation or exegesis – that is, to “read out of” the text what the author intended it to mean. This is in contrast to eisegesis, which occurs when someone “reads into” the text his own ideas – what the reader wants the text to mean. In other words, exegesis is finding the author’s intended meaning of the passage because its true meaning is determined by the sender of the message, not the recipient. We must carefully observe what the text actually states. Many mistakes have been made by people who jump into interpretation based on what they think the text states rather than what it really does state. Who is this passage written to, and why? Is the verse a command, statement of fact, or a question? What is the tone of the passage; are emotional words used? Failure to carefully observe the text has resulted in numerous misconceptions about the Bible. Take the time to study the text. We also need to take the word, phrase or passage in its proper context. Critics of Scripture often take verses out of context when they attack the Bible. The reason is that they can make the Bible “say” just about anything if they do not provide the context. For example, the critic might ask, “Did you know that the Bible says, ‘There is no God?” Then he may go on to claim that this contradicts other passages, which certainly teach that God does exist. How do we handle such a charge? We look at the context of the quoted words, which in this case comes from Psalm 14:1. It states, The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.” So, it’s true that the Bible states, “There is no God,” but it attributes these words to a foolish person. So the Bible is not teaching both the existence and non-existence of God, as the skeptic asserts. The context clarifies the meaning of the word, phrase, and verse. With the Bible, it is important to know the context of the particular passage you are studying. It is also important to understand the context of the entire book in which the passage is found and how that book fits into the context of Scripture. We need to allow Scripture to interpret Scripture. The core beliefs of the Christian faith are built on more than one passage. When we read numerous verses stating the same thing, we can be sure that God is giving us sound doctrine. What is the literary style of the passage? Is the book written as history, poetry, prophecy written to the people of Israel? Or is the book written by the apostle Paul for the church today? Some of the promises in the Old Testament were given to the Jews and not to the church today. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does Not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the Word of Truth. 2 Timothy 2:15 Many people wonder why we make such a big deal about Jesus Christ and Christianity, since they believe all religions are basically the same. They assume that all faiths are talking about the same thing but are putting it in a different way. Those people are thinking that all the different religious groups – Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Mormons, etc. – experiencing the same God, yet explaining it in different ways. So can’t they all be true, but with each giving a different emphasis? You are assuming that all these people are experiencing the same God, when in fact this is not true. Christianity and Islam cannot both be true at the same time. Neither can Buddhism and Mormonism both be correct simultaneously, nor can Christian Science and Roman Catholicism. All religions cannot be true at the same time because they teach many things completely opposite from one another. They all may be wrong, but certainly they all cannot be right, for the claims of one will exclude the other. As to the matters of salvation and the person of Jesus Christ, only Christianity recognizes Him as the eternal God becoming a man who died for the sins of the world and rose again the third day. Salvation is obtained only by putting one’s trust in this Jesus. This Jesus of Islam was just like many prophets but not the Son of God who died for the sins of the world; neither is the Jesus of Mormonism or Christian Science the same Jesus as revealed in the Bible. Salvation is not by grace and through faith in these religions, but it is a matter of works. Even though many religions seem to be the same on the surface, the closer one gets to the central teachings the more apparent the differences become. It is totally incorrect to say that all religions are the same. The God of the Christians is not the same God as that of the Mormons, Muslims or Christian Scientist. If the God of the Bible is the only true God, then the other gods are nonexistent and should not be worshiped. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through him. John 3:16-17 My mouth will speak in praise of the Lord. Let every creature praise His holy name forever and ever. Psalm 145:21 Amazing facts about bees. 1. Honey bees have 6 legs, 2 compound eyes made up of thousands of tiny lenses, 3 simple eyes on the top of the head, 2 pairs of wings, a nectar pouch and a stomach. 2. Honey bees have 170 odorant receptors, compared with only 62 in fruit flies and 79 in mosquitoes. This exceptional “smell” allows them to recognize others from the same hive, communication within the hive and locating flowers that are producing nectar. Their sense of smell is so precise that it could tell the difference between hundreds of floral varieties and tell whether a flower carried pollen or nectar from yards away. 3. The honey bee’s wings stroke incredibly fast, about 200 beats per second, thus making their famous, distinctive buzz. A honey bee can fly for up to six miles and as fast as 15 miles per hour. 4. The average worker bee produces about 1/12th teaspoon of honey in her lifetime. 5. It takes one ounce of honey to fuel a bee’s flight around the world. 6. The queen bee can live up to 5 years and its role is to fill the hive with eggs. She is the busiest in the summer when the hive needs to be at its maximum strength, laying up to 2,000 eggs per day. The queen has control over whether she lays male or female eggs. If she uses sperm to fertilize the egg, the larva that hatches is female. If the egg is left unfertilized, the larva will be male. 7. A colony of bees consists of 20,000 – 60,000 bees and one queen. Worker bees are female, live for about 6 weeks and do all the work. 8. The bee’s brain is oval in shape and only about the size of a sesame seed, yet it has remarkable capacity to learn and remember things and is able to make complex calculations on distance travelled and foraging efficiency. 9. A honey bee visits 50 to 90 flowers during a collection trip. 10. The males (also called drones), have no stinger and do not work. All they do is mate with the queen. In fact, before winter the females will force the males out of the hive to make sure there is enough honey. |
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