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Date Posted: 13:56:57 10/21/22 Fri
Author: c
Subject: More teachings 10/2022

Beside the Still waters

11/5/22

Seeking the Lord

(edited)


In matters great and small, we always need to seek God for His direction and blessing. "Seek ye the LORD, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the LORD's anger" (Zephaniah 2:3). As we move forward with an undertaking, we must continue to seek the Lord and always be ready to repent if we find ourselves going wrong. This correlates with 1 Peter 4:17: "For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the Gospel of God?"

Fred Beachy

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Beside the Still waters

11/11/22

Temperance

(edited)

Temperance, defined as moderation or self-restraint, is unknown to livestock when it involves food. Unfortunately, neither is it common to people of the United States, where 36% of adults and 17% of children are classified as obese. The Bible admonishes us to "add to (our) faith...temperance" (2 Peter 1:5 - 6), a virtue that applies not just to food but to all our other natural appetites as well.

"Yet a little sleep, a little slumber...So shall thy poverty come" (Proverbs 24:33 - 34). Excessive sleep in healthy individuals often indicates slothfulness, a self-centered indulgence that seeks to escape personal responsibilities or difficulties. In contrast the workaholic sacrifices his spiritual welfare and often his health while serving the false god of material success.

Hobbies and other recreational pursuits such as hunting, fishing, camping, and traveling are scriptural only when we practice moderation in the expense and time devoted to them. Our natural tendency to self-indulgence continually wars against temperance and moderation in our legitimate practices. May we all be sensitive to God's Spirit as well as to the counsel of Christian brothers and sisters as to exactly where we should draw the line.

Pete Lewis

Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. - Philippians 4:5

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Beside the Still waters

11/15/22

Be ye strong

(edited)


To be spiritually strong, we must first have faith. This will enable us not only to resist evil but also to recognize what God calls evil. The strength to persevere comes from a rugged trust in God and His many promises to those who determine to do His will. They are committed to take up the cross as Jesus said in Matthew 16:24: "If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me."

Spiritual strength is also found in meekness. "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth" (Matthew 5:5). Meekness enables us to rejoice in unfavorable experiences because we know that God is in control of all circumstances. Faith recognizes that even an accident which we consider unpleasant can be a blessing not yet seen by us.

Consider the meekness of Christ in His sufferings....We see perfect meekness in the only Man Who had a right to resist, but He did not. Herein lies the key to His complete victory.

We may face many hardships in life, but through faith and meekness we can have strength to prevail as Christ did. He was not one to revile or threaten, but He simply "committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously" (1 Peter 2:23)....Because of the triumph of Christ, we have power to overcome also.

Fred Beachy

But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. - 1 Timothy 6:11

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Beside the still waters

11/22/22

Deliverance from death

(edited)

Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in Whom we trust that He will yet deliver us. - 2 Corinthians 1:10


Today's key verse speaks of three deliverances from death: past, present, and future. We are born in sin, having inherited a carnal human nature. Though children are innocent before God, they will eventually be separated from God and become spiritually dead. God planned for parents to use order, training, and loving discipline to help children see their lost condition, so that they come to Christ. Receiving salvation through Christ is the first deliverance from death that we can experience.

A new Christian soon finds that he needs deliverance from death every day, because it is still true that the wages of sin is death. Crucifying the flesh and walking in newness of life is what it means to take up the cross and follow Jesus at times and in all things. The sinful nature that is to be crucified still wants to rise and exert itself, "for the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh" (Galatians 5:17). But we cannot fulfill our carnal desires, because falling back into sin means death. The second deliverance from death is found in a daily walk with Christ.

The third deliverance will come in the future, when Jesus returns to reward the godly with eternal life and punish the ungodly with final and eternal death. We will participate in that deliverance if we glorify Christ with a holy life and make preparations for His coming.

Jesus provided all these deliverances. Born of a virgin by the power of the Holy Ghost, He is the only begotten Son of God. He was tempted in all points but never sinned, and He gives us that victory as well. He voluntarily submitted to crucifixtion and then triumphed over death. By His resurrection we can have the same deliverance.

Daniel Stauffer

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Beside the still waters

11/24/22

Receiving God' Abundance

(edited)


A Sunday school teacher once held up a shiny watch and told his class that whoever came forward and claimed it could have it. All the boys just sat there looking on, suspecting a trick, until a small boy came forward and claimed the watch. Then the others said it wasn't fair, because they thought the teacher wasn't serious. God also gives us many blessings freely and abundantly, which are ours simply for taking them.

Christ wants to give us the blessing of abundant life, but we must reach out in faith and accept it. If we believe, we will receive God's blessings until our cup runs over. It is His pleasure to give us this abundance. Philippians 2:13 says, "For it is God Who worketh in you both to will and to do His good pleasure."

We must have a spiritual mind to recognize many of God's abundant blessings....Thankfulness is a choice we make through recognizing God's lavish generosity and our own unworthiness of the many blessings we receive. The depth of our gratitude shows how conscious we are of God's abundant blessings.

...The Kingdom of God is not about earning and deserving but about believing and receiving.

Fred Beachy

And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. - 1 Timothy 1:14

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Beside the still waters

12/12/22

What is Godliness?

(edited)

What really is godliness? It is not defined by whether we never fail in our Christian life, but rather by our attitude toward right and wrong. We cannot just carelessly use our human nature as an excuse and claim helplessness because of it. We need to bring our problems before the Lord and ask Him to help us crucify our carnal desires instead of letting them cripple us. To be godly is to humble ourselves before God and allow Him to work in our lives.

Along with striving to keep our lives pure, we need to have a hunger for God's Word. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, "Blessed are they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled" (Matthew 5:6). It is crucial for us to desire God's Word....

God must be first in our lives at all times.

Titus Yoder

A godly life results in eternal life.

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Beside the still waters

12/28/22

Where is your treasure?

(edited)


Where is our treasure? If we get so wrapped up in our personal hobbies that we don't have time for the Lord, we are far too busy. Our activities become our idol, and we get caught in a trap of our own making. We fall away from God without even realizing it. Am I allowing my personal interests to draw me away from God?...If we get distracted by earthly things, our treasure is in the wrong place.

...It is a serious mistake to ignore the matter of where our treasure is.

Titus Yoder

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intouch.org Daily devotion 10/19/22

Seeking the Lord

Our hunger for God is both satisfied and deepened as we spend time in His Word.


Colossians 3:1-4

Faith in Christ is about more than merely doing “Christian things” like attending church, giving, praying, and reading the Bible occasionally. Genuine conversion is evidenced by a yearning to know God more deeply and intimately. One of Christianity’s basic principles is that the more we know of the Lord, the more we want to learn of Him.

A mind set on the things of this world will miss the spiritually fulfilling path. However, pursuing the Lord doesn’t imply abandoning all our plans and dreams. It simply means we prayerfully subject our hopes to His will. As we strive to know God, our desires change to reflect His.

How does a believer go about seeking God? It begins with studying His Word and trusting the Spirit to open our mind to understand. Then, as the Lord reveals more of Himself to us through Scripture, we will increasingly crave His presence.

If your focus is set on the things of earth, your desires will bend in that direction. But if you turn your attention to the Word of God, your desire for Him will become stronger than all other longings.

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