The People Will See

The People Will See

We always hear people going on about how our decision to follow Christ is such a personal decision and how the blessings that come with our salvation are spiritual blessings that no one will know about but us. Yes, it's a personal decision to ask Jesus into our hearts and yes the spiritual blessings: the promise of heaven, the infilling of the Holy Spirit, the deliverance from secret sins, etc are all monumental in our lives, but the bible indicates that we will experience public blessings and that people will see these very tangible blessings that our Heavenly Father will provide for us.

Exodus 34:10
The LORD replied, “Listen, I am making a covenant with you in the presence of all your people. I will perform miracles that have never been performed anywhere in all the earth or in any nation. And all the people around you will see the power of the LORD—the awesome power I will display for you.

Deuteronomy 28:10
Then all the nations of the world will see that you are a people claimed by the LORD, and they will stand in awe of you.

Psalm 23

5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;

You anoint my head with oil;
My cup runs over.

Psalms 40

1 I waited patiently for the Lord;
And He inclined to me,
And heard my cry.
² He also brought me up out of a horrible pit,
Out of the miry clay,
And set my feet upon a rock,
And established my steps.
³ He has put a new song in my mouth—
Praise to our God;
Many will see it and fear,
And will trust in the Lord.

Psalm 86

¹⁷ Show me a sign for good,

That those who hate me may see it and be ashamed,
Because You, Lord, have helped me and comforted me.

Psalm 126

1 When the Lord brought back the captivity of Zion,
We were like those who dream.
² Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
And our tongue with singing.
Then they said among the nations,
“The Lord has done great things for them.”³ The Lord has done great things for us,
And we are glad.

Isaiah 61

⁶ But you shall be named the priests of the Lord,

They shall call you the servants of our God.
You shall eat the riches of the Gentiles,
And in their glory you shall boast.
⁷ Instead of your shame you shall have double honor,
And instead of confusion they shall rejoice in their portion.
Therefore in their land they shall possess double;
Everlasting joy shall be theirs.

Jeremiah 33:9
Then this city will bring me joy, glory, and honor before all the nations of the earth! The people of the world will see all the good I do for my people, and they will tremble with awe at the peace and prosperity I provide for them.

1 Timothy 4

¹⁵ Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all.

Praise God that our progress, our healing, our prosperity our wholeness, our protection and our favor is not performed in secret, but will be evident to all. When Jesus taught the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5. He specifically said: (verse 14) "You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden," and (verse 16) "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven."

Let the people see so that our God will be glorified!

Seek the Lord

How does one go about seeking the Lord? Is it by praying, is it through worship or through reading the bible? Is it simply by acknowledging Him? Can we honestly say that we are "seeking" the Lord when we are praying for healing or for a financial blessing? Is this "seeking?" or is this simply "asking" for  favor? There are many passages of scripture that deal with seeking the Lord. After warning the children of Israel that they would be scattered to other nations and end up as slaves to those nations if they disobeyed God's Laws, Deuteronomy 4:29 says:

But from there, ("there," meaning a foreign nation) you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.

The above instance implies that by "seeking" God, freedom and deliverance would follow.

Psalms 105:3-4 says, "Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the Lord! Seek the Lord and his strength, seek his face evermore."

The above passage in Psalms hints that the rejoicing comes through the seeking. It's not so much the answered prayer or the manifestation of favor or healing, but the seeking of the Lord is the goal that brings rejoicing in and of itself.

Isaiah 55:6 "Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near." This verse gives a sense of urgency. Don't waste too much time wondering if you should seek Him. Start seeking Him now. The phrase "while he is near" seems to indicate that there will be a time when it's too late.

Jeremiah 29:13 "And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart."
We know that God Himself can't lie. so the above passage is basically a guarantee that if we search for Him with all our hearts, we will find Him!

Lamentations 3:25 "The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him."
People who seek God and are willing to patiently wait for Him will receive good things from Him.

Matthew 6:33 and Luke 12:31 "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." In the passage leading up to this verse recorded in both Matthew and Luke, Jesus is talking to them about tangible things: food, clothing, shelter. So we know that "all these things" are material provisions from God the Father. We are instructed to seek the things of the kingdom and God's righteousness (not our righteousness) and our material needs will be met. Jesus said "shall," this is not a "maybe."

Matthew 7:7-8 and Luke 11:9-10 "Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.

My pastor preached from the above scriptures on Fathers' Day, June 17, 2012. His message was titled,
"Having the Right Combination." The combination is Ask, Seek, Knock, or ASK. In his message, the pastor pointed out that we are to seek God for who he is, not just for giving us things. To sum up his Fathers' Day message, the pastor pointed out that we buy gifts for our fathers that have a price tag. While we say "price tags," our savior says, "I paid it all!"

Hebrews 11:6 "But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

The above scripture in Hebrews tells us that before we can begin to seek, we must first believe. The phrase, "He is a rewarder" tells us that our spiritual, physical, emotional, mental, financial needs "shall" be met by our Heavenly Father. Not only will receive these "rewards" for seeking Him, but we get to rejoice in seeking Him.

Marriage and the Bible

I can't believe it's been almost a year since I've visited these Bible Notes. I've been reading and reading, and trying my best to not only understand and remember what I've read but to apply God's word to my life and let the word enter not just my mind, but my spirit. I didn't feel qualified to write about marriage, since I don't believe I have a perfect marriage myself, but a good friend of mine asked me to write down what I've read in the word about marriage. So even though I may not be qualified, God himself is qualified and we know that his word is true. Marriage is discussed in the bible throughout both the old testament and the new testament. We have to take the bible as a whole.

Genesis 224Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.


Malachi 2
14 You cry out, “Why doesn’t the Lord accept my worship?” I’ll tell you why! Because the Lord witnessed the vows you and your wife made when you were young. But you have been unfaithful to her, though she remained your faithful partner, the wife of your marriage vows.
15 Didn’t the Lord make you one with your wife? In body and spirit you are his.[g] And what does he want? Godly children from your union. So guard your heart; remain loyal to the wife of your youth. 16 “For I hate divorce!” says the Lord, the God of Israel. “To divorce your wife is to overwhelm her with cruelty,[h]” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. “So guard your heart; do not be unfaithful to your wife.”


These are Jesus' words in Matthew 5
31It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement:
32But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.


1 Corinthians 7 (these are the words of Paul, from the New Living Translation)
1 ...each man should have his own wife, and each woman should have her own husband.
3 The husband should fulfill his wife’s sexual needs, and the wife should fulfill her husband’s needs. 4 The wife gives authority over her body to her husband, and the husband gives authority over his body to his wife.

Ephesians 5 (also in a letter from Paul, taken from the New Living Translation)
22 For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23 For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church. 24 As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything.
25 For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her 26 to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word.[b] 27 He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. 28 In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself. 29 No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church. 30 And we are members of his body.
31 As the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.”[c] 32 This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one. 33 So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. (The footnote [c] refers to Genesis 2:24.)


1 Peter 3
1 In the same way, you wives must accept the authority of your husbands. Then, even if some refuse to obey the Good News, your godly lives will speak to them without any words. They will be won over 2 by observing your pure and reverent lives.
7 In the same way, you husbands must give honor to your wives. Treat your wife with understanding as you live together. She may be weaker than you are, but she is your equal partner in God’s gift of new life. Treat her as you should so your prayers will not be hindered.

Serve the Lord with Godly Fear

On Nov. 7, 2010, Pastor Emeritus Napolean Cummings preached a message entitled, "Serve the Lord with Godly Fear."





Phillipians 2:12-15 (from the New King James Version)


12. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;


13. for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.


14. Do all things without complaining and disputing,


15. that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world.





Hebrews 12:28-29


28. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.


29. For our God is a consuming fire.





I John 4:18


There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.





Genesis 1:27


So God created man in his own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.





Genesis 2:15-18



15. Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.

16. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat;

17. "but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."

18. And the Lord God said, "It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him."



Genesis 3: 2-6

2. And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden;

3. "but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, "You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die."



It was the lack of Godly fear that led to disobedience.



Proverbs 14:12

There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.



Proverbs 16:2

All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirits.



Proverbs 3:5-7

5. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding;

6. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.

7. Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the Lord and depart from evil.

Give and It Will Be Given to You

Luke 6:38
"Give and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you."