Archives for March 2015

Good morning,

The next three days we will do a study on longsuffering. Longsuffering is defined as patience, endurance, constancy, steadfastness, perseverance, forbearance, slowness in avenging wrongs.

Today, let’s look at God’s longsuffering.

• Exodus 34:6 And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,
• Numbers 14:18 The Lord is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.
• Jeremiah 15:15 O Lord, thou knowest: remember me, and visit me, and revenge me of my persecutors; take me not away in thy longsuffering: know that for thy sake I have suffered rebuke.
• Psalm 86:15 But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth.

A characteristic of God is that He is longsuffering. Remember last week we looked at the names of God? Now I want you to meditate on God’s longsuffering.

The word longsuffering is only used 17 times in the Bible, however, the concept is alive in every chapter.

Tomorrow, we will look at God’s longsuffering to His children, us.

Have a great day.

Tom Stearns, WASI Chaplain, 907 715-4001

 

 

 

 

Good morning,

God has given us eyes to see. Unfortunately, from the very beginning, our eyes betrayed us. God also gave us eyes to see His beauty, to be enlightened, and as a light. Consider your eyes.

1) Temptation of the eyes

Genesis 3:5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

Genesis 3:7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

Genesis 13:10-11 And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar. ¹¹ Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan; and Lot journeyed east: and they separated themselves the one from the other.

Matthew 5:28  But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.

Matthew 6:23 But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!

2) Keeping your eyes from evil

Psalm 101:3 I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me.

Job 31:1 I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?

Psalm 17:8 Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings,

Psalm 19:8 The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.

Luke 11:34 The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness.

3) Conquering our eye problem

Ephesians 1:18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,

Galatians 5:16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

Colossians 3:23-24 And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; ²⁴ Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.

The children’s song, “Oh, be careful little eyes, what you see, Oh, be careful little eyes, what you see,
For the Father up above, is looking down in love, Oh be careful little eyes what you see.”, is great advice for us as adults. Our world is filled with filth, wickedness, and depravity, which we should not be watching.

I believe Hebrews 12:2 sums this up nicely.  Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Tom Stearns, WASI Chaplain, 907 715-4001