Author: kendraske

Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Psalms 33, 1 Corinthians 9-10

1 Corinthians 9 reminds me of the great gift that my pastor has been – and is – to me! He has been so faithful to preach the Word week after week, year after year, as well as sacrificially giving of his time to serve our family in big and little ways. If the Lord has blessed you with a faithful pastor, may 1 Corinthians 9 serve to remind you to give thanks to him and for him.

Then, 1 Corinthians 10 reminds me to give thanks for the gift of the stories of the Old and New Testament.

I remeber when I studied 1 and 2 Samuel in-depth, verse by verse, with my local Community Bible Study class. 1 and 2 Samuel aren’t letters like 1 Corinthians. Rather, they’re stories, true stories. True stories packed full of important life lessons. Hannah and Elkanah, Eli and Samuel, Saul and Jonathan. Each of these real people has a lesson to teach me if I’m willing to study with an open heart.

I’m so thankful that the Lord chose to give us so many stories in His Word, rather than just giving us lists of things to do and not to do.

What is your favorite Old Testament story? What did you learn from it?

Heavenly Father, Thank You so much for the men that You have called to shepherd Your sheep. Bless them with Your wisdom and peace. Guide them on the straight and narrow path. Encourage them when they are weary and faint. May Your Word be a bright and steady light to their path. May Your Spirit speak truth powerfully into their ears and convict them quickly when they begin to stray. Carry their wife and children in Your everlasting arms and shelter them under Your Almighty wings. Please provide for their every need in accordance with the riches of Your abundant glory in Christ Jesus.

And thank You for giving us a book full of true stories of men and women who lived long ago. These stories teach us life lessons about how we ought to live in this world that You’ve made, but they also teach us about You – who You are and how You interact with Your creation. I pray that we would be faithful to study Your Word, not just for more head knowledge, but that we would desire to be transformed by the truth found in its pages. I want to know You more, that I would love You more, that I would be conformed more into the image of Your Son. I love You, Lord. In the name of Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen.

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Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 32, 1 Corinthians 8

But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols? And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died. Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.

1 Corinthians 8:9-12 ESV

Oh, Heavenly Father, help me to love my brother as myself. Help me to die for them, as Christ died for me. Help me to do what is in their best interest, even if that takes sacrifice on my part. Jesus was such an example of humble sacrifice. Conform me into the image of Christ. Help me to serve others as a service to You, my Lord and King and Heavenly Father. Make me more like You, Lord, who left the glories of heaven to live among sinful man. You are my greatest joy and treasure. In the Name of Jesus I pray. Amen.

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Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 30; 1 Corinthians 5-6

Oh, precious reader, I don’t know you, but the Lord does. I don’t know what skeletons you have hidden in your closet, but the Lord does.

Likewise, you don’t really know me, what all has gone on behind closed doors or in the recesses of my mind in the fifty years I’ve drawn breath, but the Lord does.

All I can say is, praise His Name for the “such were some of you” promise of 1 Corinthians 6:11. I have been washed, sanctified, justified, redeemed, forgiven, and made new in the blood of Jesus Christ. Because of my testimony of who I was, it grieves me so very deeply to hear of professing Christians who are still walking in sin. People calling themselves followers of Christ and yet refusing to repent and break free from the chains of sin.

Whatever form your lust has taken, whether fornication or adultery, pornography or homosexuality, gluttony or anger, jealousy or greed, as a child of God, you must put them far away from you. In Christ, you are no longer your own. You have been purchased by the blood of Jesus, and you have become a temple where the Holy Spirit dwells. The Holy Spirit will not share His temple with idols. Today, do some business, cleaning out every little corner of that temple of yours, so His Spirit can dwell fully in you, glorifying Him in how you think, in how you eat, in how you speak, in how you live.

And what about those who you worship with, those who are regularly assembling with your church, yet living far from Christ in their day-to-day lives? How should you handle them? The Bible has plenty to say about that. Here are three thoughts I’d share:

1. Mourn for them heartily. Don’t be haughty or arrogant, thinking too highly of yourself. Take heed, lest you fall. (1 Corinthians 1:12) Remember, such were you. Their sin may look different from yours, but you have struggles, too. Grieve over the pain that their sin is bringing on their own heart, and grieve over the pain that their sin is bringing on the heart of Jesus. Mourn and weep and wail for them and for the Lord.

2. Go to them privately. Study Matthew 18, the whole chapter, verse by verse. God wants His lost sheep to be found, and He wants to use you to help do it. Be a good shepherd, like Jesus who came to seek and save what was lost (Luke 19:10). Go to them one-on-one and plead with them to turn away from their sin and follow Christ. If they refuse to listen to you, bring along a brother or sister to help you. Imagine that person were your son or daughter, your mom or dad, your brother or sister, and do your best to pull them out of the quicksand of sin into which they are sinking.

3. Remove them publicly. Consider the impact their sinful lifestyle is having on the other members of your church. Recognize the shame that someone living in unrepentant sin brings upon the Name of our Spotless Savior. A person can’t live like a pig while they claim to be a sheep, and we can’t stand idly by while the name of God is blasphemed because of a fellow member’s ongoing, habitual lifestyle of sin (Romans 2:24). For some people, as long as they are allowed to have both their sin and their fellowship with the body, they will continue on. We have to love them enough to be hurt, in the hopes that their “spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 5:5).

Heavenly Father,

Thank You for your grace and forgiveness. Thank You for causing me to be born again. Thank You for washing me clean and making me new, giving me new desires and a new name. As Your daughter, I want to be made more like Your Son. I want to have a pure heart and mind. I want to glow. I want to reflect Your glory as only a clean mirror can. I want to be filled with Your Spirit, Your presence, Your peace and love and joy. May others see You in me.

How my heart grieves for those who come to church each Sunday morning while living in unrepentant sin day after day. Please, Father, set the captives free. Loose the chains of those in slavery to sin. Rescue those who are sinking, drowning in a pit of their own making. Open the eyes of the blind. Remove the stoppers from the ears of the deaf. Father, empower Your sheep to be good shepherds. Give us a holy hunger to seek and save the lost, even those who sit next to us in the assembly of believers. May we treasure the Name of Christ and refuse to allow it to be blasphemed because of our own laziness and love of comfort. Wake us up, Lord! Wake us up! We need You, Holy Father. Revive us we pray in the Name of Jesus Christ, our Savior and our Lord. Amen.

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