Author: Pastor Curt

Bible Verse of The Day – 9-10-22

Proverbs 27:17 (NKJV) 17 As iron sharpens iron, So a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.

Watch out for those who tell you not to take advice or listen to someone who may have already walked through some things that you also may be facing.

It’s important to make sure that when someone talks to us or offers advice, we don’t just shrug them off as being negative because what they say causes us to have to think a little deeper or requires us to take a step we are not comfortable taking.

God brings people around us to speak and sharpen our countenance. And that may not always be full of joy and excitement.

Sometimes it just may be correction that we needed to hear.

Oops, I said that word, correction!

This may sting a little for those of us who don’t like to think we may have missed it, or think we have all the answers, and yet we are heading down the wrong path.

We need to be careful not to get so prideful or arrogant that we don’t want to hear what others say. For instance, they may not necessarily line up with how we think and feel.

This is called iron sharpening iron. And without it, what happens?

Whatever refuses to be sharpened will grow dull and not be able to accomplish the very thing that is necessary for us to be who God is calling us to be.

We have got to grow up and mature.

We need to stop trying to go through this life thinking that everything is going to be easy, doing what we want, saying what we want and spending what we want, etc.

This life is not easy. It never will be. The only thing that is easy is the yoke of Jesus. That’s it.

Matthew 11:30 (NKJV) 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Let Him lead, even if that means hearing those that we need to hear when we might not like what they say.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
49 N Lamplighters Walk
Hampstead, NC 28443

401-439-3780

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Bible Verse of The Day – 9-9-22

Romans 8:1 (NKJV) 1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

Happy Friday! Let’s wrap up the work week with one more short study on some verses from Romans.

On Monday and Wednesday we discussed the power of God’s grace, faith in Christ and how applying them to our lives will help us obey God and break free from habitual sin that leads to death.

Today, let’s talk about the results of obeying God, and what that means for us.

Verse 1 above states that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Let’s dig into that.

Condemnation: the finding of fault, guilt or an unfavorable judgment. Denunciation, disapproval.

Now, some translations don’t include the second half of verse 1, “who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit”.

That phrase is basically a qualifier that helps us better understand what the first half of the verse means.

But let’s look and see what is meant by the first half of verse 1 so we can get a deeper understanding of what it really means, even without that second half.

Being “in Christ Jesus” insinuates or infers a relationship; something that is genuine and active, not just a casual, occasional or intermittent on-again-off-again faith that is not visible, active or being genuinely walked out in one’s life.

If we are “in Christ Jesus”, we have a functioning, healthy relationship with Christ. Our life will reflect it by the fact that we walk “according to the Spirit”, not according to the flesh.

We can take heart in the fact that Christ has paid the price for our sins. And because our faith in Him sets us free from our old, sinful ways, we are no longer condemned.

We have been found not guilty!

This is amazing when we consider who and what we used to be and who God has made us.

We were rescued from death and brought into eternal life through His blood and His sacrifice.

This in itself is miraculous and unexplainable by natural standards.

Only the blood of Christ can do this.

Thank you, Father, we give you glory and honor for your incredible grace over our lives. Amen.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
49 N Lamplighters Walk
Hampstead, NC 28443

401-439-3780

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Bible Verse of The Day – 9-8-22

Luke 4:1 (NKJV) 1 Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness…

Jesus was led into the wilderness. There He fasted for 40 days and 40 nights. In Luke 4:2, it says, afterwards He was hungry.

The devil came to Him right after and said, “if You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread”.

What a temptation! After not eating for 40 days, bread would taste mighty good, wouldn’t it?

But Jesus was onto him, through the help of the Holy Spirit. And His reply was that of the Son of God, a Man filled with the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Matthew 4:4 (NKJV) 4 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

The devil came to Him two other times and tempted Him while in the wilderness. And each time Jesus rebuked his offer, and replying with the Word of God.

Praise You, Lord, for Your focus and strength to stay on track.

If Jesus, the Son of the Mighty God, needed the Holy Spirit to fill Him and work through Him, we most definitely need Him moving and helping us daily.

We all need to stop trying to be the hero on this journey of life as a believer. We don’t help God. He helps us.

We aren’t doing anything for Him in and of ourselves. His word says that without His help, we can do nothing.

John 15:5 (NKJV) 5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.

This may be a hard thing for some people to swallow. But so many have it backwards; we need God in order to win battles, to move mountains and to lead people to Christ. He sent us a Helper because He knew we would need Him.

The devil will tempt us daily, hourly, minute by minute. We must be strong enough to resist Him and do just that.

James 4:7 (NKJV) 7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

Be filled with our Helper, the Holy Spirit, just as Jesus was filled.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
49 N Lamplighters Walk
Hampstead, NC 28443

401-439-3780

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Bible Verse of The Day – 9-7-22

Romans 6:16 (NKJV) 16 Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?

In keeping with the topic of Monday’s devotional, let’s take a look at some more verses in chapter 6 of Romans.

On Monday we established that God’s grace, and Christ’s redemption set us free from our old selves and the sin that bound us. We also confirmed that His grace toward us is not a license to willfully, habitually sin.

This is not to say or insinuate that we will no longer sin. But that we are no longer slaves to sin. He has empowered us to break free from those things that held us in bondage.

In the verse above, Paul tells us that we are slaves to whatever we present ourselves to.

More plainly stated, we become slaves to whatever we choose to obey.

We can be slaves to sin, or we can be slaves to righteousness.

Additionally, Paul very boldly tells us that being a slave to sin will lead to death. Whereas obeying God leads to righteous living.

Some may try to complicate this, but in reality, it is very simple; obey and have life, or disobey and choose death.

Repeated willful sin will lead us away from God and toward spiritual death (separation from God).

Submission and obedience to God, on the other hand, will lead us to righteous living a closer walk with God, our Creator.

Only we can choose which path we will walk.

Let us choose wisely. Amen.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
49 N Lamplighters Walk
Hampstead, NC 28443

401-439-3780

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Bible Verse of The Day – 9-6-22

2 Corinthians 7:1 (NKJV) 1 Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

This is what we do as believers. After we have been saved by the precious blood of Jesus, we do away with a lot of the worldly desire in us.

As we eliminate those things that are filthy in God’s eyes, we began to draw near to Him. And as we get closer to Him, our relationship grows deeper.

We begin to get a taste of what it means to perfect holiness each time we give up or let go of the things that put distance between us and God.

We will never be perfect here on earth, but we will definitely be building and strengthening our relationship with God.

Being clean is very important. We need to work on this on a daily basis, not just one day every once in a while.

We should constantly be open to the Holy Spirit reminding or convicting us of the things that could taint our relationship with God.

How do we know when we are being reminded?

Everyone is different, and the Holy Spirit will let us know in whatever way will get our attention. However, we will definitely know. And at that point we need to make a decision whether to listen or to ignore His promptings.

I was talking to someone one day. They asked me, “why didn’t you stop so and so from doing what they were about to do?”.

I said, “you can talk till you’re blue in the face, and if they don’t hear you, they are basically choosing what they want to do. They will do what they enjoy, or maybe what they are addicted to. You can’t force someone to make the right choice”.

Cleaning ourselves is going to come by making the right choices each day as we hear the voice and heed the promptings of the Holy Spirit.

Pray for His guidance, help and strength. He is faithful!

Isaiah 40:29 (NKJV) 29 He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
49 N Lamplighters Walk
Hampstead, NC 28443

401-439-3780

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Bible Verse of The Day – 9-5-22

Romans 6:1-2 (NKJV) 1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?

Sometimes the way various translations word a verse, or a group of verses, can make it harder to understand than is necessary.

These 2 verses are an example of that. But I’d like to break this down to make it clear and easy to know what is being said.

Verse 1 starts off with a question; “What shall we say then?”.

The wording of the question indicates that it is referring to something that was previously stated.

In this case, Paul is referring to the last part of Romans chapter 5, where he reminded the Roman people that, through Adam, sin brought death into the world, but in Christ came new life through the grace of God.

Under God’s grace, through the obedience of Christ (and our faith in Him), our sins can be forgiven.

Some of the Romans mistakenly thought that the abundance of God’s grace gave them a license to also abundantly sin, knowing that forgiveness was available.

Paul corrected them in the first section of Romans 6. This explains his question in the opening lines referred to above.

I remember reading these verses 30 or so years ago. It was life-changing for me because it showed me that God’s grace does not give us a license to sin, but that He actually desires that we live righteous lives.

The end of Romans 5 explains it very thoroughly. But verse 2, above, sums it up nicely in very few words when Paul states, “How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?”.

If we have put our faith in Christ, we have died and been born again.

When we died, our old (sin-laden) self also died.

The new person in Christ is no longer bound to the old, habitually-sinful self. The chains were broken and the new man/woman is no longer bound to their old lifestyle.

The new creation in Christ has an obligation to leave their old sins and their old lifestyle behind. That might be hard for some to accept.

Again, Paul stated it very plainly saying, “How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?”.

God’s grace is indeed abundant and sufficient for our sins.

But He wants us to let Him show us how to live lives that are no longer built around the old self, the old habits and the old way of life.

Very simply put, as people who have died to sin (in Christ), let us no longer live under the bonds of sin.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
49 N Lamplighters Walk
Hampstead, NC 28443

401-439-3780

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Bible Verse of The Day – 9-4-22 – Forward Motion

Please click to watch the video now.Greetings! 

As followers of Christ, God never wants us to be stagnant. He always wants us to be moving forward. 

In our newest video, Forward Motion, we teach on this and discuss what it means for believers. 

We hope you’ll give this short video a watch. 

Please click here to watch the video now. 

We love you all! 

Sincerely in Christ, 

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie 

Seven Seas Ministries
49 N Lamplighters Walk
Hampstead, NC 28443 

401-439-3780 

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Bible Verse of The Day – 9-3-22

John 13:33 (NKJV) 33 Little children, I shall be with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come,’ so now I say to you.

Can you imagine spending time with Jesus for 2-3 years, and then having Him suddenly tell you, “where I am going you cannot come.”?

I can’t even imagine what Peter was feeling, but I can understand him asking, “why can’t I follow you?”.

John 13:37 (NKJV) 37 Peter said to Him, “Lord, why can I not follow You now? I will lay down my life for Your sake.”

I can understand Peter’s heart for Jesus and saying he will lay down his life for Him.

Peter loved Him. And in the moment, he really thought he would do anything for Him. Peter had good intentions.

Sometimes we too have good intentions, but when we start to feel the pressure of it all, we run. We deny. And we hide.

Jesus knew Peter better than Peter knew Himself.

Isn’t that the way it is with us?

We would love to do certain things, but when we are faced with what it takes to do it, we change our minds. We just don’t want to go through what it takes to get there.

Jesus was about to face crucifixion. Peter would soon find out that his words of laying down his life for Him were shallow, and he would ultimately deny knowing Him, not just once, nor twice, but three times.

John 13:38 (NKJV) 38 Jesus answered him, “Will you lay down your life for My sake? Most assuredly, I say to you, the rooster shall not crow till you have denied Me three times.

My heart aches for us, the body of Christ, when we have to learn what we are really made of versus what we think we are.

Wow. 3 times denying Someone we just said we would lay down our life for. That was truly a humbling moment for Peter.

But the reality of it all is that Jesus knows us. If we truly want to follow Him, let Him show us what we can handle.

We need to trust Him and not try to tell Him what we are capable of. He already knows. Listen to His guidance.

Amen.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
49 N Lamplighters Walk
Hampstead, NC 28443

401-439-3780

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Bible Verse of The Day – 9-2-22

Psalm 71:5 (NKJV) 5 For You are my hope, O Lord God; You are my trust from my youth.

During times of joy and happiness, and in seasons when everything seems to be “just right”, we don’t usually think much about hope.

We don’t really need to since everything is going well.

It’s only during less pleasant seasons that hope comes to mind.

So, when those tougher seasons happen, where does our hope lie?

Many will put their hope in different things. Most times that hope will be in the thing that is viewed as being the solution to bring the tough season we’re enduring to an end.

In reality, though, regardless of the season we are navigating, God is our only true source of hope.

Why does it seem so hard sometimes for us to understand this and hold tightly to God as our source of hope?

Most of the time this is due to our flesh not wanting to hold onto something or someone we can’t see and Who may not satisfy our intellect.

You see, our minds like to have something to hold onto that we can easily understand and explain.

But God blows that all apart because He doesn’t use human logic when He does something.

Dividing a body of water to allow a huge mass of people to pass through, providing water from a rock, speaking through a donkey, using a prostitute to save some of His people during a time of battle, raising a dead man from a grave, healing a blind man by spitting into dirt and rubbing mud on that man’s eyes; these are all things that God did.

Not even one of them makes sense to our human understanding.

And yet, this is the God we serve and Who loves us enough to send His son (God incarnate) to die for us.

That is true hope, found in the Creator of all that we see.

Hold onto Him and rejoice as He continues to confound the wise and baffle human understanding, drawing hope from Him no matter what season we’re in.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
49 N Lamplighters Walk
Hampstead, NC 28443

401-439-3780

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Bible Verse of The Day – 9-1-22

John 13:35 (NKJV) 35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

If you have love for one another.

This word, “love”, is not what many people think it is. It’s not just words that express an emotion like, “I love you.” It’s also having the back bone to take action and put things in place when needed.

Jesus said He loves us. What was His action? He gave His life for us.

Love is hard. Love can hurt. In fact, it can be quite painful at times.

Love causes us to do things beyond our normal capacity or ability. It will cause some people to do things they never would have dreamed of doing for someone before they found love.

True love is not for wimps. It moves and acts by truth, and sometimes truth can be tough.

Don’t say you love someone if you cannot fight, because it takes a fight to walk love out.

What? Fight against who?

We fight against our flesh. We fight against our own emotions.

What love sometimes asks for may not be easy. And we might want to run far from it.

Loving so much will cause us to feel like we are dying at times.

It can feel like we will never be able to get up and move forward again.

This kind of love will cause us to say things we never thought we would say in order to help someone.

Love will cause us to go places for someone we never ever thought we would go, and do things we never thought we would do.

Sometimes loving in such a way will cause us to lose people we are very close to, that we care deeply about, because we acted out of love to help them. And in return, they got angry instead of listening.

This love will move mountains to help.

Now, Jesus calls us to love one another.

Let me ask this very important question; have we ever moved a mountain for someone, or gone the extra mile to see them through something?

Matthew 5:41 (NKJV) 41 And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two.

Get ready for some hard work. It’s not easy. As a matter of fact, it’s probably the hardest thing we may have to do.

But if we can love each other like Jesus loves us, no matter how hard, painful, heartbreaking and scary it may seem, it is worth everything we go through to walk it out.

Love.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
49 N Lamplighters Walk
Hampstead, NC 28443

401-439-3780

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Bible Verse of The Day – 8-31-22

Ephesians 4:11-12 (NKJV) 11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ…

God has created and given us everything and everyone we need to thrive as the body of Christ.

Above, He listed the people who equip the body, raising her up and teaching her everything that’s needed to live a life that’s worthy of the name of Jesus and that’s strong for the kingdom of God.

These five “offices” are responsible for training up and equipping the saints of God from the moment they put their faith in Christ until they breathe their last breath here on earth.

Thinking about this reminds me of a parent raising a child, trying to strike that delicate balance between love, discipline, nurturing, exhorting, edifying, etc.

Sometimes this requires saying or teaching things that might not necessarily be popular or easy to say but are required for “proper nutrition” of those who hear.

Most of us would much rather hear something that’s joyful and uplifting vs. something that’s serious and somber.

This is akin to trying to get your children to eat their fruits and vegetables when there is a freshly prepared dessert right in from of them!

But God is faithful, and He guides each of us every day as we seek to serve Him and worship Him in Spirit and in truth.

And as we learn to “eat” those things that are harder to swallow, along with the things that are more pleasant, we will be balanced, strong and ready to answer the call when God places something in front of us that He wants us to do.

So, let’s be prepared to eat what God serves to us, whether it’s a platter of spinach, kale and broccoli or a plateful of brownies and chocolate cake (or whatever our favorite dessert might be).

We may or may not like it at that moment, but if God is serving it, we know that it’s beneficial for us.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
49 N Lamplighters Walk
Hampstead, NC 28443

401-439-3780

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