I am reading the biography of George Mueller. I am taking notes as I read the book. Our elders chose this book for the congregation to read, study and learn from the life of this man of faith.
George Mueller
To ascertain the Lords will we ought to use scriptural means. Prayer, the Word of God, and His Spirit should be united together. We should go to the Lord repeatedly in prayer, and ask Him to teach us by his Spirit through His Word. I say, by His Spirit through His Word. For if we should think that His Spirit led us to do so and so, and yet His Word is opposed to the step which we are going to take, we should be deceiving ourselves.
This is a quote from George Mueller. Whenever we want to find what God wants us to do, we should always look into the Word of God for answers. You should also pray to God for answers. God will speak to you through the Word of God.
Another thing if you say that the Holy Spirit leads you to do something and you look in the Bible and it says not to do that, than it is not the Lord who told you to do that!
This is a sermon report on Mal. 1:6-14 which was preached by Mr. Horn on Sunday, June 17 . In verses 6-8 the Lord tells how the priest disrespect the laws of the Lord and how their attitude shows that they think that the Lord should accept whatever they give Him.The priests were giving the kind of bread that had been given to idols. They also would not prepare the sacrifices the way that the Lord had commanded them to. Then when they were told what they were doing wrong they would say, “What are we doing wrong?” The Lord challenges them by saying that if they had given the governor the same objects would he be happy with them?The Lord gives them a second chance by telling them to ask for forgiveness and plea for mercy. In verse 11 the Lord says that sinners and heathens all over the world will come to love him and worship him. In verse 13 the people say that it is a weariness to serve the Lord. The lord tells them that if a man has the ability to give the best and does not then He will curse him. Another way of putting that is like coming to church and falling asleep in the middle of the sermon or singing just because the other people are singing, or reading and praying to God to save yourself and not because you love and fear God. These are all corrupted offerings and the Lord is NEVER pleased with these kinds of offerings.
On Sunday June 27, 2010, our elder, Mr. Horn's sermon was about Malachi 2:11-17.
Malachi 2:11-17 (New King James Version)
11 Judah has dealt treacherously,
And an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem,
For Judah has profaned
The LORD’s holy institution which He loves:
He has married the daughter of a foreign god.
12 May the LORD cut off from the tents of Jacob
The man who does this, being awake and aware,a]">[a] Yet who brings an offering to the LORD of hosts!
13 And this is the second thing you do:
You cover the altar of the LORD with tears,
With weeping and crying;
So He does not regard the offering anymore,
Nor receive it with goodwill from your hands.
14 Yet you say, “For what reason?”
Because the LORD has been witness
Between you and the wife of your youth,
With whom you have dealt treacherously;
Yet she is your companion
And your wife by covenant.
15 But did He not make them one,
Having a remnant of the Spirit?
And why one?
He seeks godly offspring.
Therefore take heed to your spirit,
And let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth.
16 “ For the LORD God of Israel says
That He hates divorce,
For it covers one’s garment with violence,”
Says the LORD of hosts.
“ Therefore take heed to your spirit,
That you do not deal treacherously.”
17 You have wearied the LORD with your words;
Yet you say,
“ In what way have we wearied Him?”
In that you say,
“ Everyone who does evil
Is good in the sight of the LORD,
And He delights in them,”
Or, “Where is the God of justice?”
Here are some of my notes:
The name Judah is another name for Israel.
The Lord will not accept the offering of the people because of the adultery that the men of the city have committed. One example of this happening is that the people have given sacrifices that are not up to God's standards. The Lord told them to give a lamb or animal without blemish to the priest to sacrifice to God. But the people were giving animals that were blind, sick, lame, or even stolen! There is one mistake that we cannot make while reading this passage of scripture. We have to see that this passage can and does apply to us! A false offering can be many things. Here are some examples of a false offering:
·A false offering can be a prayer in the midst of other people to impress them with the prayer or with your supposed holiness.
·It could also be that you go to church just to show the congregation that you are a pious person.
·It could be that we only obey our parents while they are watching us and not at all times.
·You can also pray for forgiveness of a sin and you still do it over again, and again, and again.
But in this chapter the men of Israel have committed adultery against the wives of their youth. And because of this the Lord will not accept their offerings. And then the men say, "Where have we sinned? What did we do wrong?"
God HATES divorce!
"Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let non deal treacherously against the wife of your youth..."
How do you deal treacherously with the wife of your youth?
-Lusting. Going to places on the computer or other places that you know you will be tempted or see things you shouldn't see.
-Being unkind.
-Not loving or cherishing her as the weaker vessel.
-Not washing her with the Word of God.
The men of Israel would ask God over and over again to accept their sacrifice. The Lord would grow weary of listening to the peoples pleas. God would tell them that they were wearying him with their false sacrifices to him. But they would only say "What did we do wrong?"
We weary God when we call evil "good" and good "evil."
Don't expect your prayers to be answered when you don't do what God tells us to do.
I am reading the book, Spurgeon on the Holy Spirit, by Charles Spurgeon. Our elder gives books to the families in our church to read and learn from. These are my notes and summary from chapter one of the book. I will be posting my notes and chapter summaries for each chapter.
Chapter 1
"O foolish Galatians, are you so foolish? having begun in the spirit, are you now you made perfect by the flesh?" Gal. 3:3
Who are the Galatians? They are the people from Galatia but in this present time they may represent us and we can learn from what Paul said to them. This book starts from our helplessness to God’s forgivenessof our sins. We may think that we are good and maybe even righteous! But this is not true." As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one." Romans 3:10. The only One righteous is God the Father. And He is the only One that can save us from the fires of hell. This chapter talks about our sinful nature, and how only God is perfect. He is the only that can truly save us.
The Galatians in this verse are not satisfied with God's help and they want more than that. These are human’s sinful lusts. When we obey the Lord's commandment, the Lord will bless us. Though His blessing will be upon us in this world our greatest reward will be to see His face in heaven and to never leave His side and to worship Him all day because in heaven there will be no night. But that does not mean that our lives will be easy, no, our lives might be even harder being a Christian than being an unsaved person. However we are still not better than the unsaved people in this world. No, we always have to go to God over and over again for mercy.
Spurgeon then writes about how we cannot be saved if the Holy Spirit does not touch our spirit to be saved. It is impossible to be saved without the work of the Holy Spirit. The best preacher in the world can preach his best sermon to someone and not convince him to be saved if the Holy Spirit is not urging the person’s soul to do so.
Here is a summary from my notes from last Sunday’s sermon. The message was from Galatians 6:1-10. The title of the message was, Do Not Grow Weary In Well Doing. Mr. Horn started by telling us that when you are full of the spirit you walk showing the fruit of the Spirit. Walking in the spirit affects the physical aspects of our life as well as the spiritual aspects of our life. He also mentioned that you cannot have one part of the fruit without the others. Example: You cannot have love and gentleness while you are impatient with your siblings. The fruit of the spirit are actually one fruit!
Here are some questions Mr. Horn asked in his sermon: Do you love your neighbor? How do you love your neighbor? There are two basic ways to know if you love your neighbor: 1. Whenever we see our neighbor doing something wrong, you go to him and explain what he (or she) is doing is wrong. You cannot do this if you have the same problem in your life and God has not helped you to overcome your problem. Also, you should never pride yourself on controlling the problems in your life. It is God’s mercy and grace that allows us to control our problems. 2. You must have a forgiving and loving attitude towards your neighbor. Of course this is an adult’s responsibility. It could be a child’s responsibility to talk to their friends, but a child’s main responsibility is to honor and obey their parents-“Children obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honor your father and mother which is the first commandment with a promise; that it may be well with you, and that you may live long on the earth. Ephesians 6:1-3.
How can I apply this message from the Bible to my life? I can try to honor and obey my parents even more than I do now and not get tired from doing it. I can make an agreement with my sister asking her to come to me kindly when she sees me being impatient with my two little brothers. She can encourage me to be more patient with my younger brothers and some other things in my life too.
