Seventeen82

Do you seek God’s direction in every aspect of your life? Or, do you have the same struggle as I do in which you make your decisions and then ask God to bless those decisions or to rescue from their consequences?   If you had the chance to ask the Apostle Paul any one question, what would it be? Would it be theological? Would it practical? Would it be historical?   Because of my pragmatic nature, I think I’d ask him to give me 3-4 things that a Christian should do to grow in his or her faith.  Since I can’t ask him that question, I’ve thought about what actions he might identify as essential for a Christian to live a faithful life as I’ve worked my way through 1 Thessalonians with our congregation. I’ve concluded that he would say there are four things that we must do, in addition to placing our faith in Christ, in order to be faithful throughout our lives. They are:  Read and believe the Bible (1 Thessalonians 2:13) Live your life in accordance with the Bible...

If you were going to ask random people to quote something from the Bible there is a high likelihood that they would pick John 3:16 or Psalm 23. Another one that would also hit the top 5 is Romans 8:31.  “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” .  Those words of the apostle Paul in the book of Romans have long been the calling card of faithful Christians facing any number of trials. Yet it wasn’t just New Testament Christians who benefited from the teaching the Apostle lays out here. It has long been the heartbeat of peace for the people of God; knowing that the Lord is sovereign and truly the One in whom we can trust. One of the best examples of putting into practice Romans 8:31 in the Old Testament was the scene between Hezekiah and Sennacherib. In 2 Chronicles you have the chief spokesman for the king of Assyria promising death and destruction to any who would stand in the way of the will of his king. There resulted from this a gre...