Bible Prophecy and Inspiration

The Holy Scriptures are our letters from home.
Augustine

Philippians 3:20 – ²⁰ But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,

As believers we are not of this world.  Our citizenship is in heaven.

The Word of God is our love letter from our Creator.  It brings life.

1 Peter 1:23 – ²³ For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.

Think yourself as a plant and the Word of God and both the water and nourishment to help you grow.
Look around you and see others.

We need to feed ourselves the living water on a regular basis.  Otherwise we dry up and wither.

Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically
tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshippers meeting together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be were they to become unity conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.  Social religion is perfected when private religion is purified. The body becomes stronger as its members become healthier. The whole church of God gains when the members that compose it begin to seek a better and a higher life.
A W Tozer

Philippians 2:1-5 – ¹ If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, ² then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. ³ Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. ⁴ Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

⁵ Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

The closer we draw near to the Lord as Christians, the closer we as Christians will draw closer to each other.  What are those things that followed verse 5?

Philippians 2:6-7 – ⁶ Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, ⁷ but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

Who does the world look up to?  The one who has servants or the one who is a servant?  He truly is not from this world is He?  Yet when you look at the one who selflessly gives to others and denies themselves, you know in your heart that it is the correct way we all should be.

Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming
and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.
Martin Luther

You would think that this quote was made within the last 40 years.  Yet even Martin Luther was seeing it in his day around 500 years ago.

God didn’t create man to be self sufficient.

John 15:5-6 – ⁵ “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶ If anyone does not remain in me, he is like
a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.

Seek the Lord everyday and remain in Him.

A man ought to live so that everybody knows he is a Christian… and most of all, his family ought to know.
Dwight L. Moody

Let your light shine.

Luke 8:16 –  ¹⁶ “No one lights a lamp and hides it in a jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, he
puts it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light.

Mark 8:38 – ³⁸ If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”

Our relationship with the Lord should be the most important thing in our lives.  The most important
thing in anyone’s life is revealed when you know them.

Your family is your first mission field and is your biggest responsibility when it comes time to standing in front of the Lord.

Pride gets nopleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next
man.
C. S. Lewis

This is a hard one to understand unless you get around it
and see it happening first hand.  Our natural
instinct is to want blessings, however, the fall has caused the appetite of man
not be able to be fulfilled.

Why?

Man is trying to quench his wants rather than his needs.  He’s trying to do it without God.

Since there is never enough to satisfy in this world without
God and Jesus being number one, pride steps in and the want is never quenched.

Matthew 6:28-35- ²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? ³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the pagans run after all these things, and
your heavenly Father knows that you need them.

³³But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things
will be given to you as well.

To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.
Martin Luther

Prayer is our communication with the Lord.

Prayer isn’t always a formal gathering.  The nice thing about those is when 2 or more are gathered it says the Lord is there with them.

Matthew 18:20 – ²⁰ For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.”

However, we should be praying all the time to our LORD.  It’s our communication line that we can praise Him, thank Him, request to Him, ask Him to answer questions, ask Him for understanding, ask Him for strength, etc.

A relationship without communication; is what kind of relationship?

I’ll let you answer that one.

How often should we pray?

1Thessalonians 5:17 –  ¹⁷Pray without ceasing.