October 11, 2014 Bible Study — Live To Please God

For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

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Proverbs 25:6-8

    Do not boast that you deserve great honour and try to insinuate yourself among the decision makers. It is better to wait for those in authority to request your input than to be humiliated when they tell you that you don’t matter. Do not rush to report events, make sure you really understand what happened first. Otherwise, you will look like a fool when someone else reports what really happened.

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Psalm 81:1-16

    If we, as a people, follow God’s instructions and do as He desires, we will live lives of plenty and joy. Let us praise His holy Name for all He has done for us. If, on the other hand, we refuse to follow His instructions He will allow us to suffer the consequences we have chosen. The consequences of following our own stubborn thoughts, living according to our ideas of what is right are not ones we will like, but God will allow us to experience them if we insist.

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1 Thessalonians 4-5:3

    Paul urged the Thessalonians to live to please God, even though he knew they were already doing so. He encouraged them, and us, to do so more and more each day. Let us focus on those things we do which please God, and do more of them each day, until there is no time left to do things which displease God. It is God’s will for us to be holy. We cannot be holy if we indulge our sinful desires with sexual immorality. Time and again Paul warns us against sexual sins and the importance of controlling our own bodies. It is important that we live in ways that are holy and honourable, not in the lustful passion which those who do not know God indulge in. Paul points out that we give in to our lustful passions we are wronging and/or taking advantage of someone else.
    As I am reading through the Bible I am coming to realize that while all sin separates us from God, there are two types of sin which cause problems beyond just the sin itself. Those two types of sin are sexual sins and greed in all of its manifestations.

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Jeremiah 16:16-18:23

    I will fully agree with Jeremiah when he says,

O Lord, if you heal me, I will be truly healed;
if you save me, I will be truly saved.
My praises are for you alone!

The corollary to that is that if God does not heal us, we will not be healed and if He does not save us, we will not be saved.
    God gives Jeremiah the metaphor of the potter with clay. There are two pieces to this metaphor, the personal and the corporate. God is shaping us into a form that only He understands. If, as He is shaping us, we take on a form contrary to His desire, He will crush us down into a formless ball and start over. There are limits to this metaphor, but it explains much of the suffering we experience as followers of God. This forming process holds true for both individuals and for nations.
    God gives a further example about how He treats nations, groups of people, if God announces that a certain nation will be destroyed for its sin, but the people of that nation renounce their sins and turn to God, God will withhold His judgement. On the other hand, if God has announced that He will strengthen and build up a nation, but the people of that nation turn to evil ways and refuse to follow God’s will, He will destroy that nation.
    I look at what is going on in the world today, and it seems to me that God is announcing His intention to destroy the nations of “Western Civilization”. But this passage gives me hope that it is not yet too late. If the people of those nations will turn from their sins, God will intervene and save them from the destruction their sins have set in motion.