Daily Bible Study for Tuesday November 8, 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
Joshua 24:15
And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye
will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other
side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as
for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
Psalm 95
Harden Not Your Heart
Isn’t it interesting how we can look back across the pages of
history and see that people who have been so greatly loved by our Father in
heaven, and delivered from bondage again and again have hardened their hearts
toward Him? It is sad but true. All people have hardened their heart against
the God who created them and loved them. We are a people who have been created
with a completely free will. We have been given choices. The biggest choice we
get to make it whether or not we will love and serve the Most High God through
our Lord Jesus Christ. It’s no coincidence that the Bible Gateway verse of the
day is from Joshua 24:15. Folks in that passage were being questioned about
which “god” they would choose to serve. They could choose the one true God, or
a false god. It was up to them according to what was in their hearts. Let’s
pray…
Heavenly Father:
Thank You for being our loving God and Father. Just like
today’s Psalm begins, we want to come together to sing Your praises and give
You thanks for who You are and all that You have done for us. You are the Rock
of our salvation. You are the great God and King. We kneel before You in our
hearts today to give You the worship that is due You. Father, every one of us
has hardened our hearts toward You at some time in our lives. For that, we ask
You to forgive us. May You continue the good work You began in us by cleansing
our hearts from all unrighteousness so we can truly enter into the rest You
provide for anyone who will receive it. Father, I ask You for the utterance and
the anointing to fall upon my heart and hands as I type Your message to Your
people today. I ask You to open our eyes to see, our ears to hear, and our
hearts to receive what each of us needs to see individually. I ask that this
message will span the globe and find its way into the homes and hearts of
people everywhere who need it. Make this go forth unhindered and unchecked by
any outside force or my flesh. Thank You for watching over Your word to perform
it in our lives when we obey what You tell us. We want to be doers of Your word
and not just forgetful hearers. Thank You in advance for changing our hearts
from that of stone to hearts of flesh that are soft and pliable toward You and
Your will for our lives. Bring the glory that You deserve to Yourself as we
study today. We thank You again in Jesus mighty name. Amen.
If we were to actually do what the first six verses in the
chapter today says, there would have been no need for the rest of the verses, would
there? God is good, He is great, and He is greatly to be praised. No matter who
we are or what we have been through, we can know one thing for certain. The
Lord who has created us has kept us through the storms and desert places of our
lives. He has always had for us a place of rest – in Him. Think for a moment
about the many things He has done for you. Does it make you kneel and bow down
before Him in awesome wonder? Does your heart melt like butter in the sun when
you draw near to Him? Are you counting yourself so blessed because of all that
He has brought you through?
If so, you are in a good place; a place of rest. That is what
God always wanted for His people. He never wanted them to struggle and toil
with all the difficulty our world now offers because of sin and rebellion. He
always wanted us to get out of bondage and into the Promised Land so we could
love Him because He first loved us and spared us from destruction. For God’s
creation, there has come a time in every life when one could hear the voice of
God speaking to them on the inside.
I do not mean an audible voice we can hear
from the outside of our body. I mean an inner, still small voice. Yes, the Lord
is speaking. Have you heard Him? If so, then you know what I mean. He is always
wanting to speak to us. The big question is, are we willing to listen? Is our
heart soft and pliable – like flesh, so that we can receive and understand what
He wants to say to each one of us?
Sadly, our God has been dealing with men’s hardness of heart
since the fall of Adam and Eve. And we cannot point any fingers at them, can we?
We have all done it. We knew God had asked us to do this thing, but we chose to
do the opposite. We have heard His voice and turned a deaf ear as though we had
not heard because we did not want to hear what He had to say. The events that
occurred in the past have been accurately documented by Holy Spirit through men
who were inspired by Him to tell us of the things that took place thousands of
years ago. And why is He showing us all this? To teach us what NOT to do. You
may or may not be a “history buff”, but if you are a child of God, you can’t
help but find His word in the Bible anything less than amazing.
Let’s look at a couple of scriptures as we lay the foundation
for this lesson. First, we will look into the book of Acts. It was a time when
precious Stephen was addressing a group of leaders in a certain synagogue…
Acts 6:9-15, 7:1-2
9 Then there arose certain of the synagogue, which
is called the synagogue of the Libertines, and Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and
of them of Cilicia and of Asia, disputing with Stephen.
10 And they were not able to resist the wisdom and
the spirit by which he spake.
11 Then they suborned men, which said, We have
heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses, and against God.
12 And they stirred up the people, and the elders,
and the scribes, and came upon him, and caught him, and brought him to the
council,
13 And set up false witnesses, which said, This man
ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place, and the law:
14 For we have heard him say, that this Jesus of
Nazareth shall destroy this place, and shall change the customs which Moses
delivered us.
15 And all that sat in the council, looking
stedfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel.
7 Then said the high priest, Are these things so?
2 And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers,
hearken; The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in
Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran,
If you will read all of Acts chapter 7 right now, it will
save us space on this study, but enlighten you on the full scene that took
place.
What Stephen was doing was to give a full account of what happened
as the Lord appeared to Abraham and the entire nation of Israel. Talk about a
history lesson! These passages show how gracious God had been to the people He
had personally selected to belong to Him – a holy nation. Stephen gave very detailed
information as he was led by Holy Spirit to be a witness to these unbelieving
leaders. While the people were willing to listen for a bit, there came a point
where they would hear no more. Why? Because of the hardness of their hearts.
Let’s pick up a little further on in Acts chapter 7…
Acts 7:34-43
34 I have seen, I have seen the affliction of my
people which is in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning, and am come down to
deliver them. And now come, I will send thee into Egypt.
35 This Moses whom they refused, saying, who made
thee a ruler and a judge? the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer
by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush.
36 He brought them out, after that he had shewed
wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red sea, and in the
wilderness forty years.
37 This is that Moses, which said unto the children
of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your
brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear.
38 This is he, that was in the church in the
wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our
fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us:
39 To whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust
him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt,
40 Saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us:
for as for this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we wot not
what is become of him.
41 And they made a calf in those days, and offered
sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.
42 Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the
host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of
Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty
years in the wilderness?
43 Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and
the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them: and I will
carry you away beyond Babylon.
Next, look at what Stephen recounted in verse 51…
Acts 7:51
51 Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and
ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.
Again, reading the entire
chapter will help you greatly. The more Stephen spoke about Israel’s past hard
heartedness, the more hard hearted they became. How many know that a willing
heart makes a listening ear? If we are not really willing to learn about the
things of God, people can talk to us until they turn blue and run out of oxygen
and it will avail nothing. Were these people listening because they were really
interested in God? Obviously not. By the time we get to verse 54, we see the
effect the word of God was having on them…
Acts 7:54
54 When they heard these things, they were cut to the
heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth.
We could study through the
entire Bible on this subject alone and find numerous occasions where the
hardness of man’s heart is being addressed by the Lord. It is nothing new under
the sun. After all his effort to speak to the people that day, what kind of
thanks did he get? Precious Stephen was thrown out of the city and stoned to
death! These people didn’t care one bit about changing anything. All they
wanted to do was to get this man out of the way.
Let’s look at another passage
along this same line in the book of Hebrews…
Hebrews 4:1-11
4 Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being
left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.
2 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as
unto them: but the word
preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.
3 For we
which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have
sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were
finished from the foundation of the world.
4 For he spake in a certain place of the seventh
day on this wise, and God did rest the seventh day from all his works.
5 And in this place again, If they shall enter
into my rest.
6 Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must
enter therein, and they to
whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief:
7 Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in
David, to day, after so long a time; as it is said, to day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your
hearts.
8 For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he
not afterward have spoken of another day.
9 There remaineth therefore a rest to the people
of God.
10 For he that is entered into his rest, he also
hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.
11 Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest,
lest any man fall after
the same example of unbelief.
Unbelief is a lack of faith and it causes a hard heart. Hard
hearts are filled with unbelief. They do not want to believe in God, His power,
or anything else that has to do with Him. This is all a choice. A hard heart is
born out our pride and rebellion, and it is of the devil. Nothing makes the
enemy happier than to see people refuse to trust in the Lord. It is interesting
today that I had to stop this study to run some appointments.
One of my stops
included the health food store where I had written down a list of items that I
needed to pick up. For most of my adult life I have been a list keeper and a “sticky
note” woman. I have depended on these little pieces of paper to remind me of
what I needed to do. So what’s wrong with that, you ask? Allow me to explain...
While I sat at the dinner table this evening quietly
pondering this study further in my heart, I knew that I had certainly hardened
my heart against the Lord way too much in my life. The shopping list thing came
back to me. As I ate, the Lord remined me that one day not too long ago, He told
me to stop writing all these lists. He said that He would remind me what I
needed to get. At first I thought that was great. But in no time at all, I
found myself back to the same routine. What had I done? I had expressed unbelief
in the Lord.
Right there at the table tonight I asked the Lord to forgive
me. He had given me an instruction, and I had not obeyed it. I had to repent
from my hardness of heart, aka, unbelief, or lack of faith. I am not saying that
you should stop making lists if you do that sort of thing. I am simply using
what the Lord specifically asked me to do as an example. Another example I can
give from practical everyday living is my household and grocery budget.
Many months
ago, the Lord set a limit for me on what to spend for each of these categories;
groceries and home supplies. But did I listen and obey? No, I didn’t. And what
happened as a result? It caused problems with our budget and it certainly does
not help a marriage when one spends more than they should on things.
Recently the Lord dealt with me again about these matters. He
wants us to be a faithful steward, and up to that point, I had not been
faithful with what He had charged me to do. Again, more unbelief; what we know is
a lack of faith. Why did I not stick to my budget? It would be fear of lack. I
was really thinking in my heart that I would not have enough. Knowing that I
eat healthy and that healthy food costs more, I was not showing the Lord that I
trust Him to supply all my needs.
Maybe you can relate to some of these things. When we study the
Bible, it is very important to not only look at what was going on at the time
the scriptures were written, though that is our starting gate. Once we
determine what the “theme” of the events is, or what has really happened, we need
to apply that topic to our everyday lives. As we get quiet and listen to Holy
Spirit, He will reveal to us what we need to get out of the lesson. He will
show us things that need to be corrected, adjusted, repented of, etc.
In every
passage of the Bible, there is a life lesson that we can glean from them. The
Lord did not put one thing in there that does not have a practical application
for our lives in one way or another. And since we cannot study the entire Bible
in a day, a week or a month, we must remember that it is a work book for life.
We can write in our Bible. We can highlight things. We can make all kinds of
notes. It is meant to be used - even worn out. We know from experience that a
Bible that is wearing out is a sign of a life that isn’t – hallelujah!
At the bottom of unbelief, there is some type of fear. Most
will not admit this to others, but it is the truth. Look at what Jesus said
here…
Mark 5:36
As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, he saith unto the ruler
of the synagogue, Be not afraid, only believe.
Jesus was going to raise a girl from the
dead, but the synagogue ruler was there and he was full of unbelief. Did you
notice how Jesus addressed him? He didn’t just rebuke him for his unbelief. He
commanded him to be not afraid. Unbelief is rooted in some sort of fear, but faith
believes. Unbelief chooses to fear. Jesus had to get the lack of faith out of
the room because He was placing His full trust in the Father for the power of
Holy Spirit to come upon Him so that the miracle would manifest. Unbelief has
sent a lot of people to an early grave, even while they were outwardly
professing to have faith that Jesus was their Healer. In the end, their fears
came upon them and they perished.
I am sitting here getting so much from
this lesson already that it is really moving my heart to a greater level of
faith. Without faith, we cannot, get this saints, we cannot please God. The
Bible makes this clear…
Hebrews
11:6
But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to
God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently
seek him.
A soft and trusting heart
says, “I’ll believe You God even though the bills are piling up.” A trusting
heart says, “I believe that by Jesus’ stripes I am already healed and I will
not accept the assignment of cancer I just heard from the Dr.” A trusting heart
will say in the midst of the worst of times, “Lord, You are worthy of all my
praise and thanks all day and all night because I know You will never leave me
or forsake me. I know You will never allow me to lack any good thing.
I know
You are bigger than any situation I am facing right now, so I am just going to
sit here and listen to what You have to say about it, and until I get Your
thoughts on it, I am going to be still and know that You are God. In my life,
You will be exalted above sickness, disease, poverty and lack, broken
relationships and marriages, difficult employment issues and troubles from
without and within – no matter what God, my faithful Father, I am going to
trust You. I will not talk about the problem; I will praise the solution – that’s
You!”
Friend,
these are the kinds of things a soft heart toward God will utter from the
heart. Look at this…
1
Corinthians 4:9-13
9 For I think that God hath set forth us the
apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto
the world, and to angels, and to men.
10 We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise
in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are
despised.
11 Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and
thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwellingplace;
12 And labour, working with our own hands: being
reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it:
13 Being defamed, we intreat: we are made as the
filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day.
Would
those guys have gone through all they did to spread the gospel, suffering through
great trials and much physical discomfort, only to come out praising God as if
they were having the time of their lives if their hearts were hardened by fear
and unbelief? Of course not! We know that would not have been the case. A soft
heart really trusts God. A trusting heart always finds a reason to praise the
Lord – regardless of the circumstances they are facing. Our hearts are full of
something. What is yours filled with? Is it the word of God? Is it full of the
promises of God? Or is it full of fear, aka, unbelief? Is it focused on the
problems, or on the solution?
When Peter gave way to fear, his heart was
hardened. He opened a door to the devil with his unbelief, and his fear of man
caused him to deny Jesus not once, or twice, but three times. You can look at
Mark chapter 14 and see the full account of what happened. What we as the
church need to begin to really do is to fully trust and really on God. While I
sat alone at the dinner table tonight, this came to me for the word FAITH…
Fully Allowing Infinite Trust in Him.
Does
that describe you lately in your walk with the Master? Or have you been a
little like me with the shopping list and the budget? Why not take some time to
seek the Lord on the subject of hard heartedness? Will you take some quiet “time
out” to hear His voice and diligently heed (pay attention to) what He wants to
show you? If you do, your life will be all the better for the time you invested
in listening to Him. He is always ready to speak to you. Are you willing to
listen?
There are three main points to
consider from today’s study…
There is always a reason to give God
thanks and praise
A willing heart makes a hearing ear
God is always ready to talk to speak
to us
Questions:
What did you learn in this study about the condition of your
heart?
How well have you been listening to the Lord lately?
What has He shown you today in this lesson that you had not
seen before?
What will you do differently going forward?
Who can you share this study with?
Is
your heart soft and listening for His voice?
Let’s pray…
Heavenly Father:
Thank You for loving me even when I have been
hard hearted. Some of what we think are the littlest things are big things to
You. Father, I ask You to forgive me for any rebellion in my heart. Lord, help
me see what I could not see before. Even if You have told me something a
hundred times and I did not get it or do it, I am asking for Your mercy,
forgiveness and the grace to do what I need to do to make things right with
You. Lord, You are faithful, and because You are, I want to be also. I want to
be soft hearted toward you. I want to hear Your sweet voice every day and every
night. Thank You for changing me and helping me to have a willing heart and a
hearing ear. I give You all the glory, honor and praise for changing me into
one that has a heart of flesh toward You in Jesus wonderful name. Amen.
And God Said… You fill in the blanks.
Ezekiel 36:26
A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I
will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give
you an heart of flesh.
