Choosing the Best Course of Action

Proverbs 11:14 Where no counsel is, the people fall : but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety.

This verse teaches us that it is not wise to go it alone.  We are all falliable and need counsel because our own reasoning by itself will fail us.  Our very nature is revealed by Jeremiah:

Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked : who can know it? Continue reading

Preface to the Ten Commandments

We often refer to the Ten Commandments given to Moses by God on Mount Sinai.  I was recently rereading them and the two verses preceding the Commandments caught my eye.  Here they are:

Exodus 20:1-2 And God spake all these words, saying, 2 I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

I noticed three principles revealed in these verses.  Continue reading

Dependence upon God

Proverbs 16:9 A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.

This verse informs us that a person may decide a direction to take in life and may plan how to get there, but it is the Lord Who guides his steps.  This is dependence.  As Jesus stated in John 15:5, “without me ye can do nothing”, we cannot prosper without divine assistance.  Continue reading

Power in the Day of Death

Ecclesiastes 8:8a There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of death:

Death affects all.  It is an event over which we human beings have no control.  It can occur in a moment and forever change the lives of those still here. Continue reading

Living Under Grace

Christians have an obligation to live a life of holiness in honor of their God Who is holy (Leviticus 11:44; 1 Peter 1:15-16) and provided a holy sacrifice for their sins in the Person of His Son, Jesus Christ.  This is the only reasonable response believers have (Romans 12:1).  Paul wrote of this in the Epistle to the Romans.

Romans 6:11-15 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.  12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.  13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.  14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.  15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Continue reading