Because God is seeking worshipers of all peoples, we should be willing and ready to spread His fame among the nations, fully participating in His global purposes and engaging poverty and injustice in the name of Jesus.

Join with us in this prayer: God, kindle in me the desire to go anywhere, at any time, at any cost, to do anything to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Matthew 28:18-20
“Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

James 1:26-27
“If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”

Psalm 67 & 86:9
Isaiah 1:17 & 49:6
Revelation 5:9-14
Acts 1:8
Proverbs 31:8-9

“This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.”

What is love? is a question asked by theologians, philosophers and ethicists; by romantic poets and adolescents; by betrayed spouses and abandoned children; by the hope ful and the hopeless; by the dreamy-eyed and the cynical. Answers to the question are many. And, sadly enough, many of the answers betray a hard-edged cynicism. The familiar folk song “Lemon Tree” has a father giving his son this advice: “Don’t put your faith in love, my boy. . . . I fear you’ll find that love is like the lovely lemon tree . . . very pretty, and the lemon flower is sweet, but the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat.” In short, dream about love, sing about it, write about it–but avoid it, for it does not bring hope and joy, only hopelessness and bitterness.

The author of 1 John has a different view of the matter. Simply and boldly he writes, God is love. Inadvertently this often gets turned around to read “love is God.” If love is God, then it is what we live for, what we serve, the ultimate standard of all. Augustine wrote that, prior to his conversion, “I loved not yet, yet I loved to love. . . . I sought what I might love, in love with loving” (Confessions 3.1). Love itself was what was sought, cherished, hoped for. Love is, as one pop song of the sixties had it, “all you need.”

But John does not write “love is God,” that love is the final and supreme good. He writes, God is love. If we want to know what love is, then we must let God define it. As Frederick Buechner comments, “To say that love is God is romantic idealism. To say that God is love is either the last straw or the ultimate truth” (1973:54). For John, it is indeed the ultimate truth. God is not hate, anger, bitterness or deceit, but love. Love does not de scribe the fullness of God, but God defines the fullness of love. In this section of the epistle (4:13–5:5), we are shown that God is the standard of love (4:13-16); the one who encourages us in love (4:17-18); the source of love (4:19-20); and the one who commands us to love (4:21–5:5).God Is the Standard of Love (4:13-16).

“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.”

God’s life-giving love is the theme of this passage. As John develops this theme, he makes three important points: God is the source of all love (4:7-8); God models what genuine love is (4:9-10); and God commands us to love each other (4:11-12). We move from the assertion that God is love to the command that we are to love each other. Indeed, the whole point of the passage is to trace the relationship between God’s love and human love, and to show how human love flows from God’s own love, which is the source of love

In short, God not only gives us the command to love but has also modeled for us what true love is, just as Jesus modeled love for his disciples when he washed their feet before his death (Jn 13:1-17). Love that does not express itself concretely and in service to others is not love (1 Jn 3:16-18). But even more, God also empowers us to love. By confession of the Son whom God has sent, we are born of God and come to know God, who is love (v. 7); we are given life (v. 9); our sins are forgiven (v. 10). We come into the realm of life and love, in which we are given life and are empowered to extend the same kind of life-giving love to others. In Christ, we have come to know the source of love.

“Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world. This is how we know if they have the Spirit of God: If a person claiming to be a prophet acknowledges that Jesus Christ came in a real body, that person has the Spirit of God. But if someone claims to be a prophet and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is not from God. Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming into the world and indeed is already here.

But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because greater is He that is in you than the one who is in the world. Those people belong to this world, so they speak from the world’s viewpoint, and the world listens to them. But we belong to God, and those who know God listen to us. If they do not belong to God, they do not listen to us. That is how we know if someone has the Spirit of truth or the spirit of deception.”

What this passage gives us is a “field guide” to identifying or discerning “spirits”. (Don’t be overwhelmed by the word ‘spirit’. Basically, a person is either inspired by God through the Holy Spirit, which is someone we want to listen to, or they are not inspired by God, which we definitely want to avoid.) Specifically, it calls attention to two distinct “field marks” of various spirits: first, what they say or teach; second, who hears or accepts their teaching. That seems straightforward enough. With this knowledge in mind, we ought to be able to venture forth to spot and identify a variety of spirits, simply by checking each species against our guide. Why, then, does it seem that so many people cannot see the spirits for what they are and fall prey to all varieties of heresies, misin terpretations of Scripture, cults and fads? And even when we can discern truth from error and determine that a particular teaching, person or group is wrong, what are we to do? Such questions are not easily answered.

Our best defense is to remain in a close relationship with God through Jesus by means of committing to personal worship time, reading our Bible, prayer, corporate worship with other believers, Bible studies and times of praise.

Acts 21:39 – Acts 22:21″Paul answered, ‘I am a Jew, from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no ordinary city. Please let me speak to the people.’ Having received the commander’s permission, Paul stood on the steps and motioned to the crowd. When they were all silent, he said to them in Aramaic: ‘Brothers and fathers, listen now to my defense.” When they heard him speak to them in Aramaic, they became very quiet.
Then Paul said: “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city. Under Gamaliel I was thoroughly trained in the law of our fathers and was just as zealous for God as any of you are today. I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison, as also the high priest and all the Council can testify. I even obtained letters from them to their brothers in Damascus, and went there to bring these people as prisoners to Jerusalem to be punished.
“About noon as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me. I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, ‘Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute me?’
‘Who are you, Lord?’ I asked.
‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting,’ he replied. My companions saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of him who was speaking to me.
‘What shall I do, Lord?’ I asked.’Get up,’ the Lord said, ‘and go into Damascus. There you will be told all that you have been assigned to do.’ My companions led me by the hand into Damascus, because the brilliance of the light had blinded me. A man named Ananias came to see me. He was a devout observer of the law and highly respected by all the Jews living there. He stood beside me and said, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight!’ And at that very moment I was able to see him.
Then he said: ‘The God of our fathers has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth. You will be his witness to all men of what you have seen and heard. And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.’  When I returned to Jerusalem and was praying at the temple, I fell into a trance and saw the Lord speaking. ‘Quick!’ he said to me. ‘Leave Jerusalem immediately, because they will not accept your testimony about me.’  ’Lord,’ I replied, ‘these men know that I went from one synagogue to another to imprison and beat those who believe in you. And when the blood of your martyr Stephen was shed, I stood there giving my approval and guarding the clothes of those who were killing him.’ Then the Lord said to me, ‘Go; I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’ “

Paul’s letter is a mix of Reminding Timothy about the Foundations of Christians Service and Encouraging Timothy to persevere through the difficult times.

In 2 Timothy 3:10-11, Paul is sharing some of his life experiences with Timothy in an effort to encourage him. Think of it as a flashback. To better understand these verses, it would help if you have read about the persecution Paul suffered while on his missionary journeys in the book of Acts. So here’s a very short overview. Paul and Barnabas would enter a town, preach the Gospel, win people to Christ, make non-believers upset, and these non-believers would be so upset, they would plan something bad for the missionaries so they would know that they weren’t wecome, then Paul and Barnabas would escape somehow, and move on to the next town, spreading the gospel.

Here are the quick back stories of Paul’s escape that he mentioned to Timothy. These are found during Paul’s first missionary journey in Acts 13-14:

• In Antioch, we are told that they were persecuted against and “expelled” from the city. No mention of physical harm at this point.
• In Iconium, they found out about the plot to stone them before any rocks were thrown, and they escaped without a scratch.
• In Lystra, they stoned Paul so badly, they all thought he was dead, so they dragged him outside of the city and left his body to rot. But Paul wasn’t dead and some disciples came and got him.

So, that was the short back story for what Paul says in 2 Timothy 3:10-11; and again, in these verses that we’re about to read, Paul is encouraging Timothy to persevere when faced with difficult times. There is wisdom in his words that we can use in Our lives as well.

2 Timothy 3:10-11
“ 10 But you, Timothy, certainly know what I teach, and how I live, and what my purpose in life is. You know my faith, my patience, my love, and my endurance. 11 You know how much persecution and suffering I have endured. You know all about how I was persecuted in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra—but the Lord rescued me from all of it.”

We can focus on two things from these verses:
1. First, Paul described all three of his persecution experiences on his 1st missionary journey as “being rescued from God”. He didn’t nit-pick (like I probably would have done). He did say, “God, you really saved me in Antioch and Iconium, but you fumbled the ball when it came to Lystra. What were you thinking man?” He didn’t have that attitude, instead, he saw God’s divine intervention in all three places. Paul rejoiced that he had another day to share the gospel, whether he was completely healthy, or whether he was beaten and bloodied. He was thankful for his next breath.
2. The second thing we need to focus on his the word Paul uses for “rescue”. The original greek word Paul uses literally means to “draw or snatch from danger”. But listen very carefully to the second half of the definition, “to draw closer to oneself rather than merely rescue from danger.” You see, God wasn’t only interested in saving Paul from difficulty or danger, God wanted to draw Paul closer to Himself. Every time God delivers us, the point is ultimately to draw us closer to Himself, not just simply save us a few scratches or a headaches. No matter if we get to avoid pain and suffering, or if we must persevere through the pain and suffering, our deliverance comes when we are dragged away from the enemy of our souls and toward the heart of God.

James 1:2
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance”

That will do it for today’s Bible study, I hope you have a great day and I hope none of us will waste a moment that God has given us. We’ll talk to you next time.

Everything that goes into a life of pleasing God has been miraculously given to us by the Holy Spirit. We are also given absolutely terrific promises to pass on to others—tickets to participation in the life of God after you turned your back on a world corrupted.

Colossians 1:9-14

“9For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. 10And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully 12giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. 13For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

In this part of scripture, Paul is telling the people at the church in Collose exactly how he is praying for them. It’s great insight into his heart for the people, but it’s also a great example of what we as Christians can be praying for fellow believers, as well as for ourselves.

Paul begins in verse 9 by telling them that he is praying for their knowledge of God’s will through wisdom and understanding. I think it’s safe to say this should be a mainstay in our daily prayer time. Then, in verses 10-12, Paul explains why he is praying for this knowledge. (These verses make up the long sentence that I warned you about before, so you might want to take this time to go re-read them) His reasoning is so that the people will live lives “worthy of the Lord” and so that they may please the Lord in “every way” Paul is encouraging them to bear fruit in what they do and to grow in the knowledge of God.

(Time to stop and think about our own lives . . . are we accomplishing these things? Living lives worthy of our Lord and pleasing Him? Are we bearing fruit in everything we do, and are we really growing in the knowledge of God?)

Verse 11 is one of my favorites. Have you ever thought about being strengthened with power from God’s glorious might? This isn’t your average “red bull” drink. When’s the last time you prayed for strength with the power from God’s glorious might? Today would be good.

Paul reminds them (and us) in verse 12 to be thankful for God’s saving grace. And he finishes through verse 14 reiterating that God saved us from darkness through His Son, and that in Him we have forgiveness from our sins.

This section from Colossians is a powerful message, and to truly understand all that Paul packs into these few verses, it would take more than a single day’s Bible study. Take some extra time over the next few days and dig into these verses, read them in the context of the entire chapter. Ask for God’s wisdom and understanding. He will supply all that you need.

Think about Jesus; He died for us. He gave up His life for us. Now think about the way we are all living . . . are our lives truly a reflection of our thankfulness to our Lord?

So we get to the final chapter in Philippians, chapter 4. These concluding exhortations, very like what one finds elsewhere (e.g., 1 Cor 16:13; 2 Cor 13:11; 1 Thess 5:12-24), are tailored to the situation in Philippi. Among other things, they are to rejoice in the Lord, to let their “gentle forbearance” be evident to all (including those who oppose them) and to not be anxious about anything (given the present opposition and suffering), but let prayer and thanksgiving lead them to experience God’s peace.

What if we all took a 30-day challenge to live exactly like Paul is instructing us? The Bible tells us to read God’s Word, and do what it says. What if we started “Doing what It Says” by following Paul’s exhortations. How would our lives be different? What if we didn’t make excuses?

Over 10,000 people every day are told that there health condition is terminal. The testimony most common among them is that, “Thing I have taken for granted, like my health, my family, and my friends, have suddenly become all-important to me. Trivialities no longer matter.”

It shouldn’t take a death sentence to make us stop and recognize just how amazingly God has blessed us. Read this Psalm again, then fill our the Bible study guide, and praise God for all of His blessings in your life. (the link to the Bible study guide is below)

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