Friday 011025
Don’t let me or my writings influence or scare you in any way, instead, allow me to be used as a vessel to open the Word, just a little bit, and hopefully, together we are going to read and study His Word, and let God teach us what He wants us to hear.
Since the beginning of this study, our vision has been that we are ONLY going to follow what is found in the Holy Bible, that pertains to us, and we realize that it’s ONLY from our own effort that we put into this study, that we’re going to take anything away for our own use.
The verses we are going to study tonight:
Genesis 1:1-2, 3:1; Isaiah 27:1; 2 Corinthians 4:4; 2 Timothy 3:16-17; Jonah 1:1-3; 1 John 5:18; 1 Peter 5:8; 2 Corinthians 11:3, 13.
In my attempt to spread the Word, to the people in the 21st century, I am posting a new lesson every morning.
I am posting my lessons on eleven (11) different sites.
On Facebook, I am:
Whosoever inhim Bible Study
Or, in a search engine, simply type:
lrabbe.wordpress.com
whosoeverinhim.weebly.com
lrabbe2024.wixsite.com/my-site-2
lrabbe2024.wixsite.com/whosoeverinhim
whosoeverinhim.blogspot.com
www.tumblr.com/whosoeversblog
whosoeverinhim.cw.center
inhim.webador.com
free-4140862.webador.com
When we read and study the Bible, we can only visualize what we’ve been taught or what we’ve heard earlier in our lives. It’s impossible for us to visualize something, if we’ve never heard about it before.
Where we need to be extra careful is when we’re reading the Word, we cannot associate what we’re reading with words that we use today in our lives.
An example of this is divorce and tattoo’s. These words used in the Bible are not even similar to how and about what the words mean today in our lives.
Most times. the two (2) things can be totally opposite from one another, and the majority of the time, they are.
When we study the Word, we need to listen and let God teach us what He wants for us to see.
Genesis 1
vs1 ‘…In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…’
vs2 ‘…Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters…’ NIV (New International Version)
We are limited in the English language by what we know. We either know or we must use our imagination.
Genesis is a difficult book to comprehend, because a lot of what has been written is left to our imagination, since we’ve never experienced anything like it before.
We need to keep a blank slate and let God paint a picture for us instead of thinking for ourselves what is being said.
Genesis 3:1 ‘…The Lord God made many wild animals. But the snake was the most clever of them all. The snake asked the woman, Did God say, you must not eat the fruit from any tree in the garden? Is that really true…’ EASY (Easy English Bible)
This entire idea of a ‘snake’ speaking to a woman about eating fruit, leaves my internal screen, just all fuzzy.
What do you mean a talking snake?
This whole concept of the ‘devil’ isn’t really recognized as I’m reading along.
So, as I’m studying online, I’m trying to find out any information that I can on the devil. I’m quickly blown away when I come across a site that references the original Hebrew Bible and the words that were originally used.
From the Strong’s Concordance – 5175 – nachash – a serpent.
Definition of a serpent – a large snake.
Nachash is a sign we need to examine more carefully. We need to learn by attentive observation and experience, to hiss, to whisper, to divine, incantation, enchantment, augury and omen; it signifies also a serpent, so called from its hissing; it also signifies brass, copper, and iron, as inferior metals, chains and fetters.
When I read ‘hissing,’ a snake was my first thought. Doing some more searching through the Bible, I found the same word ‘nachash’ is used in another verse.
Isaiah 27:1 ‘…At that time, the Lord will punish Leviathan. The Lord will use his great and powerful sword to destroy that monster. Leviathan is a snake that moves very fast in the sea, and it turns in every direction. But the Lord will kill it…’ EASY (Easy English Bible)
So, not trying to get too far away from the original plot tonight, I need to pull myself back towards the beginning of this lesson.
Throughout the New Testament, Satan is referred to as a tempter (Matthew 4:3), the ruler of the demons (Matthew 12:24), the God of this Age (2 Corinthians 4:4), the evil one (1 John 5:18), and a roaring lion (1 Peter 5:8).
2 Corinthians 4:4 ‘…Those people do not accept God’s good news. The god of this world has confused their minds. They cannot see the light that the good news brings. That message teaches about the great power of Christ, who shows us exactly what God is like…’ EASY (Easy English Bible)
Right now, I want to look at this verse found in 2 Corinthians. ‘The god of this world,’ is speaking of the devil. The ‘devil’ has confused the minds of the people of this world since the beginning of time.
This is the new direction I have tried to focus on, since I’ve been teaching, now, for the second time. Too often today, our churches are interested in everything but teaching us the Word and even then, when the Word is taught, it is the incorrect Word that’s being taught to the wrong people.
What do I mean by that, I know several people are asking.
2 Timothy 3
vs16 ‘…All Scripture is inspired by God and beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness…’
vs17 ‘…so that the man or woman of God may be fully capable, equipped for every good work …’ NASB (New American Standard Bible)
ALL Scripture IS inspired by God, but NOT all Scripture is meant for us to follow.
The easiest example I can offer is found in Jonah.
Jonah 1
vs1 ‘…The word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying…’
vs2 ‘…Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and cry out against it, because their wickedness has come up before Me…’
vs3 ‘…But Jonah got up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. So he went down to Joppa, found a ship that was going to Tarshish, paid the fare, and boarded it to go with them to Tarshish away from the presence of the Lord…’ NASB (New American Standard Bible)
These verses in Jonah are NOT meant for us to follow! We aren’t being taught to run away from God, get on a boat and go to Spain and hide!
But we are being shown how the UNBELIEF in the Old Testament was so bad. We are taught how we should not do as they did, hence, we should NOT follow them and their ways.
Our churches need to focus on teaching the Bible that pertains to each one of us personally, not just reading every word because it’s inside the covers of the book.
Our churches should be teaching us how important it is for each one of us, to personally build a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Sometimes, out of convenience, there are churches that will display Scripture on overhead screens as they read the verses. When I preached on Sunday’s, I too used a screen to portray the Word. I wish now, in hindsight, I would have instead had everyone open a physical Bible for themselves to follow along with the readings.
Churches could offer instructions on how-to-download Bibles onto our smartphones or even onto our computers today, to get their members in the Word.
Churches need to get over the idea that they gather only on Sunday mornings. With what is available online today, a church and their members could be in constant communication with one another. We could work together for six days online and then finally, celebrate together on the seventh.
1 John 5:18 ‘…Nobody who has become a child of God continues to do wrong things. Instead, the Son of God keeps him safe. Satan cannot do anything against a child of God…’ EASY (Easy English Bible)
1 Peter 5:8 ‘…Think seriously about how you live. Watch carefully for danger. Remember that the Devil is your enemy. He wants to hurt you. He walks about like a hungry lion. He is looking for someone to kill and then eat them…’ EASY (Easy English Bible)
Even though these past two verses have been written to those Jews wandering aimlessly out in the wilderness after Jesus’ Death, Burial and Resurrection, to you and me today, it is very important that we look for Jesus and His strength to protect us from the devil.
2 Corinthians 11:3 ‘…Remember how the snake deceived Eve. Because he was clever, she believed his lies. I am afraid that the same thing might happen to you. False teachers may make you believe wrong things. Then you will no longer love Christ in a pure and honest way…’ EASY (Easy English Bible)
Churches today may have different priorities than what they really need to be focusing on. It must be acknowledged that it is expensive today just to survive, as families but as churches also.
Churches all have electric bills. Most of them need water and sewer for their facilities. The Internet today is almost a have-to-have thing, everything works on the world-wide-web. The Pastor may have a family that also needs these same things in their home along with groceries, clothes, and insurance, our lists today could go on for quite a while.
Churches are mostly not free today.
The apostle Paul wrote an entire chapter warning us of False Prophets from back in his day of teaching.
Chapter 11 of 2 Corinthians may be a good idea for all those people out there in this world that visit our churches of the 21st century.
2 Corinthians 11:13 ‘…Those men are not true apostles—they are false apostles, who lie about their work and disguise themselves to look like real apostles of Christ…’ GNT (Good News Translation)
When we visit churches today, we need to look further than just looking for good music, a good sermon, soft seats, nice carpeting and fresh coffee.
Ask yourself … Is Jesus being taught … this should be the ONLY thing that matters.
Are we being warned of UNBELIEF?
Are we being taught to follow God’s choices … I’m not talking about the 10 Commandments either, are we following the teachings of Paul that Jesus selected to teach the Gentiles of this world.
Always keep your Bibles open and ready to be read.
Stop hiding them in back bedrooms and in dark hallways. Keep them sitting next to the chair that you sit in so it can easily be grabbed and read.
I love y’all. Jesus is one day going to teach ALL of us just exactly what that word really means.
Be proud of who you are. Be proud that Jesus knows you by your first name. Keep Him with you throughout every day.
Jesus, I pray that those ears and eyes, either listening or seeing this message today would be opened to the very fullest and allow Your love to come inside their lives and comfort them. Teach us Jesus. Protect us. We love You. Amen
InHIM. ><)))o>