Daily Bible Study for Wednesday
October 12, 2016
By: Hanny Lynn Stearns
Fish N
Loaves Ministries, Inc.
“Multiplying
God’s Word Around The Globe”
Chapter Reading
for Today: Please read in
your Bible before proceeding. Note that most translations are considered
paraphrases. The Young’s Literal Translation provides a more accurate
translation since he is the one who authored a concordance. Others are helpful
for seeing a different perspective, but we cannot always depend on their
wording. I hope this is helpful to you. If you are studying in another version,
that is fine. I am studying from the KJV, but for the purpose of this study, I
will keep it with the New King James Version.
One final note: I will put the scripture in italics to differentiate from my
own writing. I am adding red to the letters when
it is Jesus talking – just like the Bible. Thank you.
Bible
Gateway Verse of the Day
Proverbs 1:8-9
My son, hear the instruction
of your father, and do not forsake the law of your mother; For they will
be a graceful ornament on
your head, and chains about your neck.
Psalm 76
Give God Your Best
Besides the obvious power of God to judge and destroy the
enemy in this chapter, we get to meditate on the glory of God! The Psalm starts
out with God’s honor among His people – Israel. We know that the Lord’s name is
great, and He dwells among us. In this lesson, we will look at how we can honor
the Lord by giving Him our best. Let’s pray;
Heavenly Father:
Thank You for Your glorious presence in our lives! You are
great and greatly to be praised. Father, show us, Your people, how we can give
You our very best as we go through this study. Open our spiritual eyes, ears
and hearts (spirits) to receive all that You want to deposit in us today.
Father, I ask that You give me the anointing and utterance to speak Your word
boldly and with accuracy – just the right words that You want spoken. Help me
to honor You above all else as You bring fresh revelation to us. Cause this
word to go out unhindered and unchecked by any outside force or my flesh. Bring
more people from across the globe to hear Your word. Multiply it within us so
that we see a great harvest from it – for Your word never returns void when we
do it. Thank You for helping us to be doers of Your word and not forgetful
hearers. Thank You for the changes You will help us to make as we receive all
that You have for us today in the mighty, powerful name of Jesus. Amen.
Oh glory to God! This is a wonderful new day that the Lord
has made. We are blessed and privileged to look at what is written about God’s
honor, His glory and His majesty. Verses 1 & 3 talk about these things and
the verse for our focus in this passage today is in verse 11…
Psalm 76:11
Make vows to the Lord your God, and pay them; let all who are
around Him bring presents to Him who ought to be feared.
Things like this are not just written for our reading
pleasure! The Lord wants His people to honor Him by making promises to Him
(vows) and then fulfilling them. This is what is expected if we are His
children. He asks us to do this, but after that, it is up to us to carry it out
– willingly; with love and great passion in our hearts. This lesson is about
giving God our best. That very sentence came right out of my mouth as I was
praying this morning in my personal prayer time.
Little did I even know what I
was going to wake up and read today. Here it is – honoring God by giving Him
our best. The Bible is full of examples on either side of the fence. There were
several who did honor Him greatly, while a majority chose not to. Each received
his just reward. Let’s look again at what the Lord said about honor in the book
of 2 Samuel…
1 Samuel 2:30
Therefore the Lord God of Israel says: ‘I said indeed that your house and the house of your
father would walk before Me forever.’ But now the Lord says: ‘Far be it from Me; for those who honor Me I will honor,
and those who despise Me shall be lightly esteemed.
I do not want to be “lightly esteemed” by the Lord, do you? He
honors the ones who honor Him – and that honor begins in our hearts. Then it
manifests itself outwardly in the things we do and say. Everything we do unto
the Lord should be done with excellence. Let’s look at some examples of people
in the Bible who honored Him in contrast to those who didn’t…
Genesis 4:1-8
4 Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived
and bore Cain, and said, “I have acquired a man from the Lord.” 2 Then
she bore again, this time his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but
Cain was a tiller of the ground. 3 And in the
process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of
the ground to the Lord. 4 Abel
also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his
offering, 5 but He did not respect Cain and his
offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell.
6 So the Lord said
to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? 7 If
you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at
the door. And its desire is for
you, but you should rule over it.”
8 Now Cain talked with Abel his brother; and
it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel
his brother and killed him.
Why didn’t the Lord accept Cain’s offering? What really
happened here? I used to wonder about this myself before I received some very
good teaching and revelation from the Lord. What Cain brought to the Lord was
nothing special. It was the normal thing that he had available from his crops.
On the other hand, what Abel offered to the Lord was the very best of his flock
– the firstborn. This, by the way is indicative of what God offered to us – His
firstborn and only Son Jesus! He gave us His best. Why would we not want do the
same for Him?
After offering God less than his best, Cain murdered Abel.
Why did he feel the need to do that? What did Cain’s offering to the Lord have
to do with Cain anyway? What business was it of his? The reason is this: Cain
was angry because the offering Abel made to God showed his lack of love and
honor. And the Lord spoke to him, giving Cain a chance to make things right. He
also warned him that if he didn’t get things right, sin was right there waiting
to happen if he gave place to his wrath. But Cain chose not to listen to the
Lord and acted out his rage, giving place to the devil. This was the same way
the scribes and Pharisees murdered Jesus.
Next, we can look at another man who despised something
precious that had been given him by God – his birthright…
Genesis 25:29-34
29 Now Jacob cooked a stew; and Esau came in from
the field, and he was weary. 30 And
Esau said to Jacob, “Please feed me with that same red stew, for I am weary.” Therefore his name
was called Edom.
31 But Jacob said, “Sell me your birthright as of
this day.”
32 And Esau said, “Look, I am about to die; so what is this birthright to me?”
33 Then Jacob said, “Swear to me as of this day.”
So he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob. 34 And
Jacob gave Esau bread and stew of lentils; then he ate and drank, arose, and
went his way. Thus Esau
despised his birthright.
The Lord had given the birthright to Esau and he showed a
great dishonor to his natural father and ultimately the Lord by not honoring
the great blessing that had been given to him. He missed out on the great blessing
that would be handed down to him for a lousy bowl of stew. Friends, this is how
strong the flesh can scream when it wants its way. But we must recognize it and
consider what we are about to forfeit before we dig in. There is a lot at stake
when we partake of the desires of the flesh and deny honoring the Most High who
gave us His best. Look at what the scriptures say about this…
Mark 8:34-37
34 When He had called
the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny
himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 35 For whoever desires
to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the
gospel’s will save it. 36 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole
world, and loses his own soul? 37 Or what will a man
give in exchange for his soul?
We cannot even compare the difference between a God given
birthright and a bowl of stew! If Esau had left well enough alone and waited
until dinner was ready, he would have kept the blessing that the Lord had
intended for him. In honoring God, we are honored by Him. He takes these things
quite seriously.
Let’s look at someone who loved the Lord and it was very
obvious. You know him – his name is David, the man after God’s own heart. Look
at his passion for the Lord…
2 Samuel 6:14
Then David danced before the Lord with all his might; and David was wearing a linen ephod.
This is an example that I have always admired. David didn’t
keep his hands at his side and look around at the crowd wondering what people
might think of him. No, he wanted to show the Lord his love for Him by the way
he danced with all his heart before the Lord. He did not care one bit about who
was watching! How many stand in churches today with their arms at their sides
and sing the songs in the services like they are one step away from the grave?
I have been in a church where I was the only one raising my hands as we sang to
the Lord during worship. I am not bragging on what I did – please don’t
misunderstand me here. I making a point here. Passion for the Lord – giving Him
our best will play out in everything we do. It will be displayed in our times
of worship, praise, our study of the word, our work. Whatever we do…
Colossians 3:23
And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men,
Trying to “squeeze God in” when we think we have time shows
Him no honor at all. Imagine what your spouse would feel like if you did that?
What about our bosses and other friends and family members? What if we told
them we will see if we can get around to talking with them at least once a week
– and they better be happy with that, because there are things to do, football
games to watch and places to see? God sees our hearts. He knows if we are truly
giving Him the best of what we have to offer or if we are giving Him the scraps
that are leftover.
Did you know that just because someone brings a tithe or an
offering to the church service and drops it in the plate, it does not
necessarily mean that the Lord accepted it? That’s right friends. If we are
tossing something in to show others that we are doing something, or we are not
giving Him the required amount plus more out of a cheerful heart, He will not
accept it. And what happens to that offering? It will produce no fruit. In
other words, we do not get the harvest from it. It has to be accepted before it
can be multiplied.
David wanted to give the Lord only that which would cost him
something – a gift that was precious and valuable to him…
2 Samuel 24:24
Then the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer
burnt offerings to the Lord my God with that which costs me
nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of
silver.
God is so big, so glorious and
so wonderful that we should always want to present to Him the best that we have
to offer. After all, everything we have came from Him. It is God who gave us
income and time in the first place. We wouldn’t have a thing if it weren’t for
the Lord. And the greatest, most priceless gift was His Son Jesus. The
sacrifices He made were the costliest one’s ever made to the Lord…
Mark 8:31
And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things,
and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and
after three days rise again.
Jesus gave His all from the very beginning. He denied His
flesh that was just like our flesh to pursue the plans of the Father. The rest
of us have all given in to the desires of the flesh more than pleasing God and we
know that doing this has caused tremendous grief for us along with breaking the
Lord’s heart. That does not leave one feeling very good. What if we went to
visit the President of the United States? Or the president of any country for
that matter? Would we throw on a pair of our work jeans and take him something
that has been sitting around in our closet that we really don’t need as a gift
for him? I highly doubt that.
Most of us would dress up in our very best clothes, press them
and make ourselves look as good as we could. We would want to smell pretty too.
We would go out of our way to take the president something very special because
he has a very special place of honor. Why would we not do this for the King of
kings and the Lord of lords?
Our
next example in line today is king Solomon. He loved the Lord very much – for a
while anyway. And as we study his life, we can see how he presented great
offerings to the Lord. Solomon was the wisest and richest man in recorded
history. The Lord had blessed him abundantly. By today’s standards, he would be
a billionaire many times over. Let’s look closer…
1
Kings 3:1-15
3 Now Solomon made a treaty with Pharaoh king of
Egypt, and married Pharaoh’s daughter; then he brought her to the City of David
until he had finished building his own house, and the house of the Lord, and the wall all around
Jerusalem. 2 Meanwhile the people sacrificed at the
high places, because there was no house built for the name of the Lord until those days. 3 And
Solomon loved the Lord,
walking in the statutes of his father David, except that he sacrificed and
burned incense at the high places.
4 Now the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there,
for that was the
great high place: Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that
altar. 5 At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God
said, “Ask! What shall I give you?”
6 And Solomon said: “You have shown great mercy to
Your servant David my father, because he walked before You in truth, in
righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with You; You have continued this
great kindness for him, and You have given him a son to sit on his throne,
as it is this
day. 7 Now, O Lord my
God, You have made Your servant king instead of my father David, but I am a little child; I do not
know how to go out or
come in. 8 And Your servant is in the midst of Your people
whom You have chosen, a great people, too numerous to be numbered or
counted. 9 Therefore give to Your servant an
understanding heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and
evil. For who is able to judge this great people of Yours?”
10 The speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had
asked this thing. 11 Then God said to him: “Because
you have asked this thing, and have not asked long life for yourself, nor have
asked riches for yourself, nor have asked the life of your enemies, but have
asked for yourself understanding to discern justice, 12 behold,
I have done according to your words; see, I have given you a wise and
understanding heart, so that there has not been anyone like you before you, nor
shall any like you arise after you. 13 And I have
also given you what you have not asked: both riches and honor, so that there
shall not be anyone like you among the kings all your days. 14 So
if you walk in My ways, to keep My statutes and My commandments, as your father
David walked, then I will lengthen your days.”
15 Then Solomon awoke; and indeed it had been a
dream. And he came to Jerusalem and stood before the ark of the covenant of
the Lord, offered up burnt
offerings, offered peace offerings, and made a feast for all his servants.
Great
honor shown to the Lord results in Him showing great honor back to us. We reap
what we sow in everything we do in life. There were three different women who
knew what it meant to give the Lord their best. Let’s take a look at three
different occasions when the Lord Jesus was given a costly gift that meant more
than meets the eye…
Matthew
26:6-13
6 And when Jesus was in Bethany at the house of
Simon the leper, 7 a woman came to Him
having an alabaster flask of very costly fragrant oil, and she poured it on His head as He sat at the table. 8 But when His disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying,
“Why this waste? 9 For this fragrant oil
might have been sold for much and given to the poor.”
10 But when Jesus was aware of it, He said to them, “Why
do you trouble the woman? For she has done a good work for Me. 11 For you have the poor with you always, but Me you
do not have always. 12 For in pouring this
fragrant oil on My body, she did it for
My burial. 13 Assuredly, I say to you,
wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done
will also be told as a memorial to her.”
What
this precious woman was doing was giving her best to the Lord. The cost may
have been an entire year’s wages. Even more important was the spiritual meaning
of this. In pouring that oil on Jesus, she was anointing the seed (Jesus) for
planting. Jesus was the seed that would go into the ground (descend into hell)
and when He came up the seed would produce new life, like a flower that just
blossomed after a seed had been planted. Jesus’ resurrection was the full
resurrection of all our lives when we accept Him as our Lord and Savior –
again, the very best gift the Father could have offered to us. This woman
honored the Father by honoring the gift of Jesus. Her response was to give the
Lord her very best. Now let’s look at another woman, different person,
different occasion…
Luke
7:36-48
36 Then one of the Pharisees asked Him to eat with
him. And He went to the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to eat. 37 And
behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the
Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, 38 and
stood at His feet behind Him weeping;
and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and
she kissed His feet and anointed them with
the fragrant oil. 39 Now when the Pharisee who had
invited Him saw this, he
spoke to himself, saying, “This Man, if He were a prophet, would know who and
what manner of woman this is who
is touching Him, for she is a sinner.”
40 And Jesus answered and said to him, “Simon,
I have something to say to you.”
So he said, “Teacher, say it.”
41 “There was a certain creditor who had two debtors.
One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 And
when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell
Me, therefore, which of them will love him more?”
43 Simon answered and said, “I suppose the one whom he forgave more.”
And He said to him, “You have rightly
judged.” 44 Then
He turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I
entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has washed My
feet with her tears and wiped them with
the hair of her head. 45 You gave Me no kiss, but
this woman has not ceased to kiss My feet since the time I came in. 46 You
did not anoint My head with oil, but this woman has anointed My feet with fragrant
oil. 47 Therefore I say to you, her sins,
which are many, are
forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.”
48 Then He said to her, “Your
sins are forgiven.”
Did
this woman give Jesus her best? She sure did! That’s why this account is in the
word of God. She honored Him so greatly that God honors her throughout the
generations for all to see how much this meant to Him! That’s the best! Why did
she love Jesus so much? Because He had forgiven her of many sins. Friends,
every person other than Jesus on this planet has sinned many times – more than
we know or could count. Shouldn’t our response then be to love Him like this
woman did? Should not our hearts burn with His passions and desires to reach
this hurting world on His behalf? Think about this please – it is so important!
The
next example is not the woman at Simon the leper’s house. It is not the woman
at the Pharisee’s house. This time it is Mary – along with Martha who was
distracted by the cares of this life. But Mary wanted to pour out her best to
the Master, and she did…
John
12:1-8
12 Then, six days before the Passover, Jesus came
to Bethany, where Lazarus was who had been dead, whom He had raised from
the dead. 2 There they made Him a supper; and Martha
served, but Lazarus was one of those who sat at the table with Him.3 Then
Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus,
and wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance
of the oil.
4 But one of His disciples, Judas Iscariot,
Simon’s son, who
would betray Him, said, 5 “Why was this fragrant
oil not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?” 6 This
he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and had
the money box; and he used to take what was put in it.
7 But Jesus said, “Let
her alone; she has kept this for the day of My burial. 8 For
the poor you have with you always, but Me you do not have always.”
While Mary was busy offering her best to the Lord, Judas was
saying that he thought the poor was worth far more than Jesus. He didn’t even
think that much of the poor – he wanted the money for Himself. What did Judas
think Jesus was worth? Thirty pieces of silver – that’s all. Friends, what is
Jesus worth to you? Where would you be if it had not been for the Lord? What
does it mean for you to give the Lord your best? What promises have you made to
the Lord? Have you kept them? If not, why not? What has been taking the place
of importance in your life more than Jesus?
These questions are of the utmost importance that every
Christian must consider. Just a few minutes ago, I received a phone call from a
woman I have known for almost 40 years. We used to work together and the
relationship has continued ever since. She is precious to me. The Lord opened
the door to talk about Him. As we did, Holy Spirit led me to ask her some
important questions. She says she loves God but says His name in vain regularly
as a habit – “Oh my G__!)
She does not read her Bible and she does not go to
church. I reminded her that Jesus told us that if we love Him we obey His
commandments. She only knows as much about anything in the Bible as what she
hears on the street coming from the mouths of people who do not read their
Bibles and are going by hear say.
This made me sad. Saying “I love You Lord” but putting
everything else in our lives in front of Him is telling Him something entirely
different. This woman meets with the “red hat” ladies on a weekly basis. Her
close friend who goes with her - another friend of mine as well, usually joins
her. To them, the red hat meetings are far more important than reading the
Bible or going to church. You tell me friends; how does this kind of life show
any love to the Lord?
How we spend our time, what we think about and what we talk
about shows what matters the most to us. For many it is the news or shopping or
vacations and all those things are just fine, if…. they are putting the Lord
first in their lives. This friend gave me the excuse that she didn’t go to
church because she married a Catholic. What does that have to do with anything?
Either we love the Lord ourselves, or we don’t.
Our chapter today is asking us to make promises to God and
then to fulfill them. How many know that God expects to receive priceless gifts
from His children. He gives us good gifts…
Matthew 7:11
If you then, being
evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will
your Father who is in heaven give good things
to those who ask Him!
The Lord is the best giver there ever was. He expects us to
model His behavior. We need to tell Him what we will do for Him and then do it.
We must say what we mean to Him and mean what we say…
Matthew 5:37
But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For
whatever is more than these is from the evil one.
Now let’s look at verse 11 again in our chapter today…
Psalm 76:11
Make vows to the Lord your God, and pay them; let all who are around Him bring presents to Him
who ought to be feared.
There is a popular Christian song out with the
words, “what can a poor girl offer a king?” Well, friends, here it is. No
matter how much money we have we cannot offer Him anything from our bank
accounts or our closet that will really touch Him like this one thing – our lives.
We know that the greatest expression
of love is giving. So what can we really give God as a gift that will bless His
heart! In a word – our very lives!
We can give Him our best time, our first
portions of our money; He requires the tithe so that He can be invited into the
middle of our finances. Hallelujah! We give Him additional gifts by allowing Him
to use us to be a witness to the world around us. When we give up our own
dreams, plans and yes, sometimes we have to leave our families and friends, but
the gifts we can give to our King lie in the bottom of our own hearts.
Surrendering everything to His leading, His plans and
purposes, and anything that our flesh would desire enables Him to use us in
ways we never could have imagined. He wants us to bring Him the expensive stuff
– like the women with the alabaster boxes, and David and Abel. Blessing God –
in the end, blesses us because there is no greater joy than to give! Freely we
have received, so freely we give. What gifts will you offer to your God and
King after reading this lesson? Who will you share this lesson with to
encourage someone else to do the same? Everything we do that costs us something
matters to the Lord. He takes us very seriously as we should Him. He has given
us His best. Will you give Him yours?
Heavenly Father:
Thank You for giving me the greatest gift of all –
Your precious Son Jesus Christ, my Savior and my God! There is no greater gift
and there has never been a greater sacrifice than what Jesus did for me all
those years here on the earth as He laid down all His mighty weight and glory
to walk and talk in the same power as any human man! I rejoice in all of this
Lord! I want to give You my life in exchange for pulling me from the clutches of
hell’s fires. Father, I ask You to show me where I need to improve in showing
You my love. Help me to see clearly what changes I need to make in order to
serve You fully. Allow my life to bear great fruit and lead many to
righteousness. Lord, thank You in advance for the changes You will make in my
life as a result of this prayer. I believe I receive in Jesus name. Amen!
There are three main points to
consider from today’s study…
God wants us to make promises to Him
and fulfill them
God is looking for those who will
give Him the expensive gifts – our lives
God is more glorious and excellent
than any earthly thing
Questions:
What stood out to you the most in this study?
List some ways that you believe the Lord is speaking to you
right now.
What will you differently from now on because of this message?
What promises have you made to the Lord that you may need to
fulfill?
Who can you share this study with?
Do you
know that the best gifts are the ones that cost the most?
And God Said… You fill in the blanks.
Matthew 22:17-22
17 Tell
us, therefore, what do You think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?”
18 But
Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, “Why do
you test Me, you hypocrites? 19 Show
Me the tax money.”
So they brought Him a denarius.
20 And
He said to them, “Whose image and inscription is this?”
21 They
said to Him, “Caesar’s.”
And He said to them, “Render
therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that
are God’s.” 22 When
they had heard these words, they
marveled, and left Him and went their way.
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