KEY QUESTIONS: Are you following God fully, or partially conveniently? Will there ever be a perfect time in your life to follow God fully?
In this lesson, God calls us to consider all the stages of our lives. He calls us to follow Him fully while we pursue all our needs, desires and dreams, while using His blessings.
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“So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 And God said, “See, I have given you every herbthat yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. 30 Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food”; and it was so. 31 Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.” (NKJV)
30 MINUTES with GOD: Suggested Guidelines for your Daily Meditation
Pray to begin your meditation.
Read and ask general questions about the passage for your own life: (a) What is God telling me? (b) How does God want me to respond to this reading?
Reflect on your life through this passage: (a) Think about your blessings. (b) Think about your journey with God: past, present and future.
Memorize and repeat a word, a phrase, a sentence or verse.
Pray through the passage, or about your thoughts from the passage: (a) Praise God (b) Give thanks (c) Confess your sins (d) Repent of your sins.
Ezekiel 34:24-28: “I will make them and the places all around My hill a blessing; and I will cause showers to come down in their season; there shall be showers of blessing. 27 Then the trees of the field shall yield their fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase. They shall be safe in their land; and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I have broken the bands of their yoke and delivered them from the hand of those who enslaved them. 28 And they shall no longer be a prey for the nations, nor shall beasts of the land devour them; but they shall dwell safely, and no one shall make them afraid.” (NKJV).
When Ezekiel penned these words from God, He was in Babylonian captivity along with other Jews. Long after David had ruled and died, God used David as a metaphor for Jesus who would eventually lead all nations to peace and harmony in His church ( Matt. 28:19-20).
It is hard to see the blessings of God when you are in spiritual captivity to sin, much less when you are in physical captivity because of sin. But it is even harder, I suppose, to see the blessings of God when you are in captivity.
But facing the consequences of our sins, does not mean we should stay in sin. NO. God has blessings for those who rise up out of sin and repent and return to Him.
God wants to bless your life with His peace. But please remember that His peace is not like the peace of this world. In other words, God’s peace will not always lead to the absence of physical wars (John 14:27).
God wants to bless you with all the things you will need in this life: food, clothing and shelter (Matt. 6:33), but please do not think that God’s blessing of things will lead you to make the list of the richest people in this world (Matt. 6:33).
God wants to bless you with deliverance from spiritual bondage. So that your heart, mind and spirit will not be broken and chained by drugs, sin and all that is in this world (Luke 4:18, Acts 2:38).
God wants to bless you with eternal life, so that one day, all nations will dwell peacefully in heaven, where there will be no war, no pain, suffering, hunger or strive (John 3:5-16, Rev. 21:4).
As you meditate on these verses this week, try not to get lost in the details and symbolisms. Know that God wants to take you out of sin and bless you as a member of His washed body of believers (Eph. 5:25-27).
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It is good to remember what you did to become a Christian. And Jesus wants you to learn and remember, so that you can lead others out of sin and into a saving relationship with Jesus (Matthew 28:19-20).
In lesson 1: New in CHRIST, we talked about the great change that you made when you became a Christian. In this lesson, presented by the World Video Bible School free of cost, Brother Don Blackwell explains how a sinner receives the gift of salvation.
Watch this free video with an open Bible. Take notes and send your questions or comments in the comments section.
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Would you like to experience a relationship with God, like the Psalmist?
Jesus accepted the Psalms as God’s inspired words, equal with the laws and the prophets (Luke 24:44). And the Psalms remind us of what is important to God, and what should be most important to us. The Psalms overflow with messianic prophecies about Christ, His church and our salvation through Christ and His church, because God has been focused on your salvation, long before He even created you. Consider these two examples: (1). Acts 2:22-35, Psalm 16:8-11; 110:1: David was a prophet, David prophesied about the death and resurrection of Jesus, Jesus is Christ, the Messiah. (2) Acts 4:10-11, Psalm 118:22-24: Jesus is the chief cornerstone of the house of God, the church (Eph. 2:19-20; 5:27-29), His resurrection is proof of it and the fulfillment of many prophecies, the day of His resurrection is the day that Jesus was declared the chief cornerstone of our salvation (see also Romans 1:4). Which is why God has called us to rejoice in the day of his resurrection– “this is the day that the Lord has made.”
Peter also reminds us, that anyone, any religion, and any church, that rejects Jesus as Messiah, and the Son of God will be lost eternally. And true Christianity is the only religion that declares Jesus as Savior and the Son of God. I say true Christianity, because there are many false teachings and practices about Jesus and His church, even within Christianity (1 Timothy 4, 2 Timothy 4).
The book of Psalms is a powerful prophetic collection of beautifully inspired poetry set to music or songs. So beautiful, that it is easy to forget that Jesus, and our salvation is the reason we are blessed with the Psalms. But the Psalms may also be seen as…
A gateway to God, or a beautiful painting of who God is to us. They lead the casual reading into seeing God in everything above, around and beneath and inside of themselves. They lead the reading into praising God. Almost every Psalm has an element of praise to God.
Psalm 19:1: “The heavens declare the glory of God…”
Psalm 148: “Praise the Lord from the heavens…For He commanded and they were created…praise the Lord from the earth…”
Psalm 103: “Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name!”
So, if someone were to be introduced to God by reading Psalms they would have a big picture of God, and why they should praise him, but they would fully understand how to worship and praise Him. For, that you need to read the Apostles’ doctrine found in the New Testament.
But both believers and unbelievers reach for a psalm in different times in their lives, but mostly in times of sorrow, when their spirits cry out for comfort and reassurance. Why? Because the Psalms cover the full range of human emotions and experiences, and they draw people in, because whatever mood you are in, whatever experience you are having, there is a Psalm that will either heighten it, lower it, rebuke it, or temper it. From jubilation (joy), war, peace, worship, judgment, praise, lament or sorrow, and of course love.
THE PSALMS ARE THERE FOR US ALL, LIKE A GOOD FRIEND WITH JUST THE RIGHT WORDS. The Psalms can bring you comfort, stir you into action, bring you to your knees in worship, and they can lead you into confession, repentance and renewal. But there is another great blessing for us in these Psalms.
God has given the world the Psalms to show us what a mature relationship with HIM built from obey faith to love faith looks like. And they are written through the life experiences of people, to show us that it is possible for us to have those same experiences with God, when we develop the psalmist’s heart of faith-love. The Psalms are not researched material, they are expressions from experiences.
What is faith-love?
Hebrews 11:1 is not trying to define faith in a single statement, it is conveying to us the scope of faith. For faith covers hope, and everything we hope for, why we hope and how we behave when we hope in anything, anything, but especially God.
1 Corinthians 13 is not a definition of love, but a vivid description of how love behaves and doesn’t behave. Afterall, does the Bible also tell us that God is love (1 John 4:16)
Both faith and love cannot be fully defined by a few words. They are only understood through their actions, and we only get a glimpse into what they are, when those actions are then described in the most sensory words.
That is why we love the Psalms, because they give us glimpses into the relationship with God that we all desire.
A relationship of both faith and love that makes us see the beauty of God’s love, smell and taste the flavors of God’s love, touch, be held, and be comforted by God’s love, listen and be filled with joy by the melodies of God’s love. Even while we walk through the valley of the shadows of death (Psalm 23:4). Even while we are venting to God, like Moses complaining to God about his leadership woes, or Job cursing the day of his birth (Job 3). And like David on so many occasions. Even while we cry tears to God for the plight of bodies, our families and world, we still maintain an unshakable faith and a love beyond words. Because God’s love understands the struggles of our humanity, and our faith and love for God cannot be measured by the things or even by our relationships in this world.
Do you want to experience this faith-love relationship with God?
Here are four ways that you can cultivate the Psalmist’s faith-love in God:
Seek knowledge about faith and love with God from God’s word. Every relationship begins with knowledge, and knowledge comes to us about God from nature and our spirits, but only the words from God can guide and shape your knowledge into saving faith and active love (Romans 10:17). The whole bible reveals God and his plan of salvation for us through Jesus and the church. Read the bible in a balanced way. Read the old and the new, read the gospels and the letters of Paul, and yes, read the Psalms. But reading about the joy of someone’s experience with God, will only tell you what you could experience. It is like reading about and salivating over a slice of mango chocolate cheesecake. Even if you lick the picture, you will not “taste that the LORD is good” (Psalm 34:8).
Seek God through obedience, until you delight in the law of the LORD (Psalm 1).
Seek God in private devotion and together worship (Psalm 122:1).
Seek God in service. Become the hands, feet, and voice of God (James 1:27, Matt. 25:35-40).
2 Timothy 4:2-8: “Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. 5 As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. 6 For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearance.” ESV
1. Job 42:2: “I KNOW THAT YOU CAN DO EVERYTHING, and that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You.”
AND EVERYTHING GOD DOES HAS A RIGHTEOUS PURPOSE. In other words, God is worthy of my praise, my fear (my worship and love), and my faithfulness to his commandments, because God is Almighty God, He can do everything. And better yet, God has a good purpose for doing everything.
“He stretches out the north over empty space; He hangs the earth on nothing” (Job 26:7 NKJV).
“The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life” (33:4 ESV).
2. Job 42:2: I know that you can do everything, and that NO PURPOSE OF YOURS can be withheld from You.”
Eccl. 12:13: “Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.”
Job 1:8: “And the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?”
God created everything. God can do everything. God has a purpose for everything, and I am part of his everything; I am a part of his purpose. Whatever is happening to me, must be a part of his purpose for everything. Because I am fearing God and keeping His commandments.
3. Job 1:21: “…Naked I CAME from my mother’s womb and naked I SHALL RETURN there…”
Job 27:3: “As long as my breath is in me, and THE BREATH OF GOD IN MY NOSTRILS, my lips will not speak wickedness…”
Eccll. 12:7: “And the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.”
2 Cor. 5:10: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.”
I came from God, and I will return to God. I want to return to God holy as I came from God. THIS IS WHAT IT MEANS TO FEAR GOD. TO TRUST GOD.
Fearing God is God’s purpose for us and things are merely tools of God’s purpose through us. Job understood that the physical things that he had were merely tools for God’s spiritual purpose for him. So while he had the things, he used them to glorify God, as a husband, a father, a friend and as a community leader. But when the tools were taken away; he accepted that his spiritual purpose remained, and God had not changed, and neither should his faith. So he continued to glorify God as a faithful husband to a wife with a weakened faith, as a grieving father, as a faithful friend to his religiously confused friends, and as a spiritual leader to his community.
CALL TO FAITH: Job understood something in his time, that we must come to accept and understand about God becoming flesh in our age. God did the one thing for our souls, that nothing in this world could pay for or do for our souls. In fact, every man and woman in the Old Testament understood enough about this (see Hebrews 11).
That even if God did nothing extra to provide what we see as important to happiness in this life; things like family, food, shelter, and even money and power, God would have given us the one thing that our “created wonderfulness” (Ps. 119:14) or “the general blessings” that God gives to all, good or bad (Matthew 5:45–he sends the rain on the just and the unjust) cannot pay for your eternal salvation. Because only God could save us, and only the God who gave us physical and spiritual life, could bring us eternal spiritual life through his pure blood.
1 Peter 1:18-19: “knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.”
Titus 3:5: “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit,”
What are you enduring for Christ? Suffering comes to us all. But if your suffering is for a good cause, especially if it is for the sake of God and His righteousness, glory with Jesus will be your reward.
The caterpillar remains one of the greatest examples of transformation of form and behavior. For the butterfly, which was once a lowly creature, slowly crawling around on the ground, on leaves, grass and all the lowly things; one day underwent the process of metamorphosis. At the end of this process, it changed from being in the form of a caterpillar to being in the form of a butterfly. And with its colorful delicate wings, it gracefully flies above the tallest trees, buildings and humans.
All of a sudden it can see things through the perspective of a bird. It can see many things at once. It can see danger from further away. It can see all the flowers in the garden almost at once. And the shadow that it once thought was something else, it can now see it for what it really is. Most importantly, it is no longer fish bait for humans, and if the little humans want to catch it, they are going to have to be faster and smarter than when it was a lowly caterpillar. Ah, yes. Life as a caterpillar was good, but life as a butterfly is so much better.
But even the most majestic butterfly still lives on earth. It still visits the flowers, trees, and streams. And if it is not careful, it may still get caught up in the things it used to do, when it was a lowly caterpillar, scurrying around among the other lowly creatures.
I may have gotten carried away with my thoughts there for a while, but you get the picture, right? Your new life in Christ is all about change. Change from sin to salvation, change from false worship to true worship, change from an old way of thinking and feeling to Jesus’ way of thinking and feeling about everything. Because Jesus says:
Matthew 28:19-20: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (ESV).
Acts 2:38-42: “And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” 40 And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” 41 So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. 42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” (ESV).
John 4:23-24: “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (ESV).
As you read those passages, you will notice that I have highlighted a few words and phrases to highlight some of the areas of change from old to new.
As 2 Corinthians 5:17 says: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (ESV).
This series will lead you into the word of God, and help you see and understand your past outside of Christ, your present life in Christ, and your future life with Christ. These lessons will cover five main areas of change: (1) Salvation in Christ (2). The word of God for you (3). Church and worship life (4) Your daily faith (5) Your ministry in Christ
For this first lesson, your reflection is as follows:
Take a page of writing paper and draw a line down the middle.
On the left side, write the title: OLD ME. On the right side write NEW ME.
Now pray for wisdom and courage.
Then write all that comes to your mind about things you once did, thoughts you used to encourage, words you used to speak, places you used to go when you were outside of Christ.
You may also write changes in how and where you worshiped.
Write a note to yourself about why you became a Christian.
Learning takes time, so please be patient with yourself and those trying to help you with your new life in Christ. Thank you for joining this study.
RICHARD NEPAUL 