Daily Bible Study for Friday December
23, 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 trust this is helpful to you. If you are studying in another
version, that is fine. I am studying from the KJV.
***Please
note a change! We will look at everything for our basic study from the King
James Version going forward. It is helpful to stay with one solid version as we
study so as not to cause confusion. I may add other translations for specific
scriptures as the Lord directs.
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
Luke 2:11-14
For unto you is born this day in the city of
David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you;
Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And
suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising
God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will
toward men.
Psalm 127
Spiritual Children – The Blessing of the Lord
What an amazing God we have! Don’t you find every chapter so
interesting in the way it winds through the issues of life, touching on all
points at exactly the right moment every time we read it? This Psalm tells us
how our children are an inheritance from the Lord. Having kids is a great
reward from Him. When I see godly people having lots of kids, my heart
rejoices. And why? Because I know they are being raised up in the training and
the admonition of the lord. That’s a wonderful thing. After that, those kids
will also be used of the Lord to produce more “spiritual” offspring into the
family of God. Hallelujah!
There was a godly family that had a baby over two thousand
years ago. This was a very special baby. Yes, Joseph and Mary received an
inheritance from the Lord that would be raised up in the house of God and taught
the things of the Lord. Once He was grown, Jesus, the baby born to be a Savior,
would go out and do the labor of building God’s house until the day would come
when He would die and go into the ground. After that, He would be raised up to
eternal life and because of that death, Jesus no longer remained just one man.
Rather, the Father used Him to be the firstborn of many sons. Even now, Jesus
is producing many sons for the family of God. Let’s pray…
Heavenly Father:
We come together to praise You for bringing us into Your
family! Thank You for making us sons and using us to witness to others so You
can bring even more kids into Your family. Lord, except You do the work, Your
house cannot be built. Father, I ask You for the anointing and utterance to
bring out Your message today clearly and with excellence and accuracy. Cause this
rich word to go out across the globe unhindered and unchecked by any outside
force or my flesh. Help us to see what we have not seen before. Change our
minds and hearts to be more like our brother Jesus – our Savior. He calls those
of us who do His will His brothers and sisters. We want to be called a child of
God. Thank You for always watching over Your word to perform it when we live it
by faith. Bring glory to Yourself and even more people into Your family through
this teaching. As always, we ask You to help us by Your Spirit to be doers of
Your holy word and just hearers only. Thank You in advance for the answers to
this prayer. We believe we receive them and thank You for it in Jesus name.
Amen.
How does a house get built unless it has a builder? And how
does a family get built unless there are children born into it? The answer is,
it doesn’t. Nobody can build anything without the proper help. In the house of
God, He is the Master Builder…
Hebrews 11:8-12
8 By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out
into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he
went out, not knowing whither he went. 9 By faith he
sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in
tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: 10 For
he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. 11 Through
faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered
of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had
promised. 12 Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so
many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea
shore innumerable.
Oh, look at this! I am so excited I can hardly contain my
excitement. By faith Abraham and Sarah who could not possibly have kids
according to the natural things in the flesh, were called by God to have a
special baby. Through that child, they would have so many children that they
would not be able to count them all. Glory to God! They were not able to build their
house on their own, were they? Oh, but when the Lord stepped into the house,
miraculous things happened and the family of God began to be built. Hallelujah!
Through that one couple, the Lord God was able to eventually
bring forth His one and only Son, who, through His death and resurrection would
be used by the Father to bring many sons to the glorious family of God. How
awesome our God is. Many couples know the pain of not being able to bear
children. There are reasons we don’t necessarily understand in those cases, but
we do know that those who want to build a family and have not conceived can be
terribly hurt and disappointed when no fruit comes from their womb.
Though I had three children by live birth and two abortions
for which I have repented of, I was living a very selfish life. I enjoyed my
daughters so much and having them to raise was such a blessing. But there was
something missing in my life. I was so focused on building my house that I
missed out on the many opportunities I could have had to be building God’s
house, even while I was raising my own children.
I had them in church and in a private
Christian day school that was attached to the church. But over time, my house
began to crumble. What happened? Our focus was wrong. It was me, myself and I.
Can anyone relate here? We can see it going on all around us. People are busying
themselves looking to build their own house and family, but ignoring what God
wants to use them for to build His. Let’s look a minute at the book of Haggai…
Haggai 1 (The Entire Chapter)
1 In the second year of Darius the king, in the
sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet unto
Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of
Josedech, the high priest, saying, 2 Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, This people
say, The time is not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built.
3 Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying,
4 Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled
houses, and this house lie waste? 5 Now therefore thus
saith the Lord of hosts;
Consider your ways.
6 Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye
have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but
there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a
bag with holes.
7 Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways. 8 Go up
to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure
in it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord.
9 Ye looked for much, and, lo it came to little; and
when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the Lord of hosts. Because of mine
house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house. 10 Therefore
the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit.
11 And I called for a drought upon the land, and
upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil,
and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon cattle,
and upon all the labour of the hands.
12 Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua
the son of Josedech, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people,
obeyed the voice of the Lord their
God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him, and the people did fear
before the Lord.
13 Then spake Haggai the Lord's messenger in the Lord's message unto the people, saying,
I am with you, saith the Lord.
14 And the Lord stirred
up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the
spirit of Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, and the spirit of all
the remnant of the people; and they came and did work in the house of the Lord of hosts, their God, 15 In
the four and twentieth day of the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the
king.
God’s temple had been destroyed, yet His people were more concerned
about what was going on in their own homes than what was happening in the Lord’s
house. It seemed as if they were oblivious to what was going on right before
their eyes. The Lord needed laborers to rebuild His house. How many know that
God’s things need to come first – otherwise, we can end up losing it all. Ask
me how I know this? I spent years focused selfishly on my own house and the
kids and the contents therein. We spent our days seeking the pleasures of this
life and gave very little money to the church where they spent their time and
effort to educate our children.
Talk about selfish! But the day finally came when my house
came tumbling down. The big bad wolf (the devil)had been running our house and
affairs more than the Lord ever was, even though I claimed to be some “on fire”
Christian. In the end, I lost it all – kids included. It was a nightmare that I
would never want anyone to ever experience – hence I write. In our chapter today in verse 2 we can see the
Lord telling us in essence…
Psalm 127:2 ERV
It is a waste of time to get up early and stay up
late, trying to make a living. The Lord provides for those
he loves, even while they are sleeping.
This was a good “paraphrase” to get this point across. How
many nights do we sit up fretting about how we are going to make it and pay all
the bills and do everything we think we need to do? We have wasted our time and
lost many precious hours of sleep that our spirit, soul and bodies needed to be
prepared for the next day. Jesus said it Himself in this chapter…
Matthew 6:25-34
25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your
life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye
shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither
do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are
ye not much better than they? 27 Which of you by taking
thought can add one cubit unto his stature? 28 And why
take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow;
they toil not, neither do they spin: 29 And yet I say
unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the
field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much
more clothe you, O ye of little faith? 31 Therefore take
no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal
shall we be clothed? 32 (For after all these things do
the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all
these things.
33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God,
and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the
morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is
the evil thereof.
There
we have it. It is very plain to understand. Jesus made it clear that the only
way to live our lives is to trust God by putting Him and His things first. If
we toil and spin and worry night after night about the debts and the kids who
need a new pair of shoes, it becomes quite obvious that we are not trusting in the
Lord our ONLY Source and our ONLY Provider. Here is what God says about meeting
our needs…
Philippians
4:19
But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory
by Christ Jesus.
There is only one way that we
can successfully build a house or family, and that is to place the Chief Cornerstone
at the beginning of it all…
Isaiah 28:16
Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried
stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not
make haste.
Can you see how it has to be the Lord who lays the first
stone in order to build a family and a home? And what or who is this stone? Look
at this…
Matthew 21:42
42 Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the
scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head
of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?
It is Jesus. The Master Himself stood before those Pharisees
and told them that the most necessary piece they needed in order to build God’s
house was staring them right in the face. They were amazed when Jesus told them
that if they destroyed this temple, He would raise it up again in three days.
Here we can see that the religious leaders of that day were more concerned
about a place to seek God made from natural things… We can look again at
yesterday’s study about worshipping God in spirit and in truth. They were more concerned
about the law and the building than they were about the heart of God.
John 2:18-20
18 Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What
sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? 19 Jesus
answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will
raise it up. 20 Then
said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou
rear it up in three days?
Here is the key. We have to die to ourselves, our desires,
our plans and dreams. Unless we do this, we will never be able to build
anything that will last. Just like it takes a man and a woman to come together
and be married in order to produce a child, (that it how God says it should be)
then those two people will remain only as one individual. But when they marry
and the man plants a seed into the womb of his wife, she can bring forth the fruit
– a child. Jesus shows us about dying to oneself in order to be productive for
the household of God…
John 12:25
24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of
wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it
bringeth forth much fruit. 25 He that loveth his life
shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto
life eternal.
We can’t get anything more out of a seed as long as we hold
it in our hands. A man’s seed will remain only that until it gets planted
somewhere. It will remain a single seed. Jesus could not produce sons and
daughters for the kingdom unless He died to Himself. He was never thinking of
Himself. All the days of His life He had you and me on His mind and in His
heart. He desired to be used of the Father to build a house that could never be
torn down or blown away.
Because He was faithful in dying to Himself, many have
been brought into the family of God. And, because of this, great is His reward
in heaven! He is crowned with honor and glory for all eternity because of the
great sacrifices He made – praise His name forever. That’s how any of us became
children of God – through Jesus.
We can be sure that Jesus’ quiver is full of “spiritual”
kids. The Master was all about His Father’s business. He was the word of God made
flesh that was sent to teach men and train them so that they could be thoroughly
equipped for every good work…
2 Timothy 3:16-17
16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God,
and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in
righteousness: 17 That the man of God may be perfect,
thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
Jesus went into full time ministry to make disciples. His job
was to prepare them to be thoroughly equipped to build God’s house. They had
left everything, family and businesses included, to go do the work that the
Lord had for them to do. The disciples were called of God to bring many other
sons into the kingdom through their willingness to be used to give their
testimonies and preach the good news of salvation to anyone the Father was
drawing. Remember, The Father is the only One who can draw the fish, and He is
the only One that can catch them. We are simply His “nets.” After that, it is
up to Him to clean them by the washing of the water of His word.
The Lord needs people who are willing to set aside their own
houses and desires. Does this mean that we all have to sell everything we have
and leave our homes and our kids to build His house? Absolutely not! Religion
tries to tell us this but it is not the truth. Everyone has a specific calling
and it is usually right there in their own back yard. Look at what Paul was
used to do? His calling was to travel and build churches – God’s house. Not
everyone has the same calling. In fact, the calling the Lord for each human
being will be as different as each person in unique. No two are the same.
Neither is their assignment from the Lord. Here is what Paul said…
Colossians 1:25-29
25 Whereof I am made a minister, according to the
dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God; 26 Even
the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made
manifest to his saints: 27 To whom God would make known
what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is
Christ in you, the hope of glory: 28 Whom we preach, warning every
man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man
perfect in Christ Jesus: 29 Whereunto I also labour,
striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.
So how can we apply this to our own lives? It is quite simple
really. All we have to do as individual people is make up our minds that we are
going to die to ourselves and surrender our lives to the will of the Father. After
that, we need to seek Him to find out what our ministry calling is. Then we
need to walk it out; one step, one day at a time. As we do this in faith, more
will be revealed. When He knows that we are all about building His house, we
can be sure that He will build ours. It is all about giving.
If you don’t have children, how can you bring the kingdom of
God into the lives of other children who may not yet know the love of Jesus? Our
pastors have no natural children of their own. Both are now around the age of
50 or so. They have a wonderful traveling ministry along with two strong
churches in two different states. Their preaching and teaching is going out all
over the world and we can be sure that have led many sons and daughters to the
house of God.
We cannot even imagine how many “spiritual” babies they must have
after nearly 40 years of ministry. My husband and I consider them to be our
spiritual mother and father. If it had not been for their willingness to lay
their lives down for the work of the Lord to build His house, we might not be
standing where we are today as we prepare to step into our own ministry calling
– glory to God!
The question for this Christmas season is this. Whether you
have children or not, or if your kids have grown and left home, how many kids
do you want to help bring into the house of God? As we stop to consider that
blessed birth of one tiny babe who was born in a little manger over two thousand
years ago, we need to think about how we can be used by our Father in heaven to
so that we can have a lot of spiritual babies. One baby can grow up to produce
many. Anyone who has just accepted Jesus is a baby in Christ. They can be ten
years old or a hundred. Physical age does not matter. But what does matter is
that brand new babies need parents, just like natural babies do.
When a parent has a baby, the last thing they would want to
happen to their child is to see them starve to death. They make sure that baby
has his mother or a bottle the first moment it begins to cry. Let me tell you
that when people get born again, they do a lot of crying too. Again, it isn’t
the age we look at in the natural. It is the fact that they are newborns in the
family of God. There’s a lot of them out there saints. They need the spiritual
milk of the word so they can grow up to be fed the richer meat of the word. If
someone in the body is not helping them, eventually they die a premature death
because they never learned about the things of God through the Bible and good preaching
and teaching…
Hosea 4:6
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge:
They don’t understand how the kingdom of God really operates
according to the government established by Jesus. They don’t know that Jesus
has already healed them and they allow sickness and disease to have its way
with them. They don’t know that God wants them to prosper in every area of
their lives, including financially so they can be a shining light and a blessing
to others. They live a defeated Christian life, even though they are going to
heaven because they called on the name of Jesus to be saved. It is terribly
sad. Once they get trained if someone will take the time, then they are ready
to go out and make “babies” of their own.
I heard a statement somewhere and I never forgot it. When we
encounter people we first make an acquaintance. Then we can make a friend.
After that we make a convert and finally, we make a disciple; thereby fulfilling
what the scriptures say in Matthew 28 where Jesus commanded us to go out and
make disciples. What do we really want for Christmas this year? Is it a gift
wrapped under a tree that will die in just a few more days? Or, is it a soul
that is crying out for the help they can only find in Jesus – the perfect gift?
Jesus is the perfect gift because He is the gift that keeps on giving for all
eternity – hallelujah! You and I get to choose. Which house will you build my
friend?
There are three main points to
consider from today’s study…
Only God can build a house that will
last
Jesus is the Chief Cornerstone of
God’s house
Spiritual babies are a gift from the
Lord
Questions:
What spoke to you the most in today’s chapter?
In this season of Christmas celebration, who or what have you
been focusing on the most?
What is God leading you to do in order to produce offspring
for His house?
What will you do differently as a result of this study?
Who can you share this study with?
How
many spiritual babies do you want to have this coming year. We don’t have to
wait 9 months you know.
Let’s pray…
Heavenly Father:
Thank You for helping us to see what it really
means to be focused on building your house. Forgive me for the many times I
have been too focused on building my own and not thinking about Yours. Lord, I
am asking You to show me who I can speak to this Christmas and every day that
follows. Bring people across my path whom You are drawing into the family of
God. Open their hearts as You open my mouth so that many newborns can come to
the place where their homes and lives will never be torn down. Thank You for
using me. Here I am Lord – send me. Thank You in advance for the answers that
will surely come. I believe I received them already and thank You for them in
Jesus name. Amen.
And God Said… You fill in the blanks.
1 Corinthians 15:57-58
57 But
thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 Therefore,
my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work
of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.
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