Pastor Curt

Bible Verse of The Day – 7-8-13

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(1 John 5:21 NKJV)  Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.

Idol – representation or symbol of an object of worship or a likeness of something.

There are a lot of things in this world we can worship or really like without even realizing that we are doing it. This verse says to keep yourselves from them.

Why? Because it is easy to fall prey to them and end up worshiping them. God wants us for Himself (Deuteronomy 4:24 NKJV)  “For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

We can not worship Him and also worship other things/people as well…it doesn’t work that way.

We have to make sure there is nothing in our hearts that we put before God; nothing that we worship.

Worship – extravagant respect or admiration for or devotion to an object of esteem.

How can we tell we are worshipping something or someone? By how much time we devote to it or them.  A lot of times we will give it our everything, all of our time, thought, energy and our money.

Every so often it is good that we check ourselves to make sure we are not putting anything before God.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
P.O. Box 272
Bradford, RI 02808

401-315-0902

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Bible Verse of The Day – 7-6-13

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John 15:5 (NKJV) “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.”

Without Him, we can do nothing.

As a follow-up to yesterday’s Bible Verse of The Day, we’d like to use this scripture to complete what was said about us needing to be broken before God before He can use us.

Sometimes this is misunderstood by people or it doesn’t come across in the right way, so here’s a little more for you to take in.

Jesus said that we are to abide in Him and that if we do, we will bear much fruit. He went on to say that if we don’t abide in Him, we can do nothing (for the kingdom of God).

This isn’t any kind of deep spiritual metaphor or symbolism. It’s pretty straight forward with what it says and what it means. If we abide (remain) in Him, we can be used mightily by God. If we don’t, then we can’t be used to a great degree.

In yet another scripture, God’s word tells us that we can do all things through Christ. Philippians 4:13 (NKJV) I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

So as we abide in Him, he empowers us and strengthens us to do the works of the kingdom and bring glory to the Father.

So it’s important that we learn to humble ourselves before Him, confess our sins to Him and then ask Him to work in us to make us who He wants us to be, not who we want to be.

Enjoy your weekend and stay strong in Him!

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
P.O. Box 272
Bradford, RI 02808

401-315-0902

If you know someone who will enjoy this or be encouraged by it, please feel free to share it with them!

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Bible Verse of The Day – 7-5-13

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Psalm 51:17 (NKJV) The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart- These, O God, You will not despise.

Did you know that God can’t use us until we are broken before Him? Sounds kind of backwards, doesn’t it?

In the world, we’re taught that we have to be positive, powerful and sure of ourselves. Self esteem takes the lead when it comes to how we’re told we are supposed to be built up, self-sufficient and prepared for any kind of leadership or victory.

In reality, though, God teaches us quite the opposite. God wants us to be broken and contrite before Him. He want us to lay ourselves down at His feet in all of our frailty and failure and let Him pick us up and put the broken pieces of our fragile selves back together.

You see, until we are broken, we can never be made whole by God’s spirit. If we are broken before God, we are humble and admitting that we need His strength. If we are unbroken, we are full of pride and ego, thinking that we don’t need anybody.

How do we become broken before Him? The verse above says that we need to have a contrite heart.

Contrite: feeling or showing sorrow and remorse for a sin or shortcoming

Once we learn to admit our sins and shortcomings, we will become broken. Then God can begin to put us back together the way He wants us to be and then He can begin to use us for His glory, shining His light through us.

It is good to be strong, but our strength needs to come from our Creator and not from within ourselves.

Let Him pick you up and put the broken pieces back together His way.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
P.O. Box 272
Bradford, RI 02808

401-315-0902

If you know someone who will enjoy this or be encouraged by it, please feel free to share it with them!

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Bible Verse of The Day – 7-3-13

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John 1:11-13 (NKJV) 11 He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. 12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

Jesus came to present Himself to the world, as a living sacrifice, to redeem a sinful humanity from our sins.

The vast majority of His own people (the Jews and those from His hometown) rejected him. But He didn’t come just for those people.

He came for “as many as received Him”! He didn’t limit His sacrifice only to the Jews or the people who knew Him as a boy. He gave of Himself freely for anyone who would receive Him unto themselves.

To these people, He gave the right to become children of God… sons and daughters of the King… the Most High God!! That applies to you and to me!

Have you received Him? Going to church doesn’t make us children of God. Believing that God exists doesn’t make us Children of God, for even the demons believe and they tremble! Singing modern spiritual songs or old hymns doesn’t make us children of God. Although all of these things are good, not a single one of them makes us His child.

We must receive Him by believing that He died for our sins and putting our faith in Him.

So I ask you again, Have you received Him?

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
P.O. Box 272
Bradford, RI 02808

401-315-0902

If you know someone who will enjoy this or be encouraged by it, please feel free to share it with them!

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Bible Verse of The Day – 7-2-13

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(1 Thessalonians 5:17-18 NKJV)  pray without ceasing, {18} in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Not too long ago my Nephew was in a really bad car accident. At the scene of the accident, as they were removing him from the car and putting him into the life support helicopter, he died… stopped breathing. They resuscitated him and then continued to take him to the hospital. He was 15 yrs. old and in really bad shape.

As we arrived at the hospital, we walked into the room and took one look at his body lying lifeless in the bed. He had tubes everywhere… in his mouth, arms, head and other areas.

As I stood there about ready to pass out, I said God, “why am I here? Why did I have to come to see this? Couldn’t I have just prayed at home, and believed that you would heal him, and not have to see this?”

He told me, “you need to see this. Many young teenagers are dying like this all around. It’s not always their fault but the fault of the parents, and you need to know this. Parents are not doing their job; kids have become the victim, because the parents are allowing their children to make adult decisions, when they are still children.”

It wasn’t just about my nephew anymore. It was more than that. It was about what the enemy was trying to do to young people all over the world. We need to know as believers what to pray for, how to pray and when to pray. And we always need to remember to pray.

As each day goes by, if we get caught up in our everyday routine, we can miss out on the things that will make a difference in someone’s life and sometimes it is just a prayer that separates someone between life and death.

Today, my nephew is doing Awesome! Thank you to the many of you who prayed for him at that very crucial time a year and a half ago. Today he lives, he’s in school,  he plays football (which they said he would never do again) and is doing wonderfully!

Praise be to God!! Our prayers were heard!

Let us come together and pray for the teens today all around the world and for the parents to be the parents God has called them to be.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
P.O. Box 272
Bradford, RI 02808

401-315-0902

If you know someone who will enjoy this or be encouraged by it, please feel free to share it with them!

To have the Bible Verse of The Day delivered to your inbox each day, please enter your email address in the box near the upper right corner of this page!

Bible Verse of The Day – 7-1-13

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Hebrews 10:23 (NKJV) Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.

Hold fast. What does this mean… to hold fast?

Yesterday we took a walk on one of the local beaches. As we walked, we could hear the waves breaking to the left side of us and see them rolling in onto the beach.

On our right side, there were sand dunes and houses. Some of these houses had very huge embankments in front of them and covering these embankments were some very, very large boulders that had been used to cover the steep bank that led from the home, down onto the beach.

The people who built the houses put these large rocks there purposely, to prevent the waves from destroying the homes if there is a storm and the waves become huge. The rocks prevent the storm from washing away the sand dunes and demolishing the home.

As the waves beat against these rocks, so do the storms of life beat upon us at times. Things come our way that we might never imagine… sickness, disease, financial disasters and so much more. It’s just a fact of life.

Just as those rocks protect the home from the raging ocean waves, our profession of faith in Jesus, our Rock, keeps us from being destroyed by the raging storms of life.

Just as those rocks take the pounding and never move, so must we hold fast to our faith. This is what faith is about… trusting and believing even when things are not cheery and sunny. It’s easy to believe when things are going smoothly and we don’t have a care in the world.

But when the storms come and the waves beat upon us, will our faith be like those rocks on the shore, never moving even in the worst of storms? Or will our faith falter at the first sign of trouble, washing away with the surge of the storm?

Hold fast to your confession of hope, for He is faithful!

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
P.O. Box 272
Bradford, RI 02808

401-315-0902

If you know someone who will enjoy this or be encouraged by it, please feel free to share it with them!

To have the Bible Verse of The Day delivered to your inbox each day, please enter your email address in the box near the upper right corner of this page!

Bible Verse of The Day – 6-29-13

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Job 1:1 (NKJV) There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil.

Job loved God. His ways were blameless.

In spite of this, Job went through some terrible trials. He literally lost everything he had including his family and all of his possessions, in less than 24 hours.

What’s truly remarkable about this is that when Job received word that he had lost absolutely everything he held dear, he didn’t pot, throw a tantrum or have a pity party. Job 1:21 (NKJV) And he said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

Obviously, Job was sad and probably even distraught, but he refused to wallow in pity or ask God “why me?”.

So our question for everyone today is this: How would we handle something like this? Would we “lose it” and shake our fist at God, or would we trust God despite what we saw in front of us?

This is something that we will probably never know for sure until we’re in a seemingly-desperate situation. Only then will we truly be tested and see “what we’re made of”.

If we read the rest of the book of Job, we’ll see that Job went through even further trials as he was afflicted with great physical pain and suffering. Even so, Job stood fast in his faith and refused to curse God.

So how did this all turn out for Job? Ultimately, his body was healed and everything he had lost was restored to him and more. In fact, he was blessed with more than double what he originally lost, including sons and daughters.

So we ask again; “how would we handle ourselves in this kind of a situation?”. Food for thought…

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
P.O. Box 272
Bradford, RI 02808

401-315-0902

If you know someone who will enjoy this or be encouraged by it, please feel free to share it with them!

To have the Bible Verse of The Day delivered to your inbox each day, please enter your email address in the box near the upper right corner of this page!

Bible Verse of The Day – 6-28-13

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(Jeremiah 1:5 NKJV)  “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.”

Our Identity is important to God. This verse confirms to me that He knew Jeremiah before he was even born. He made Jeremiah the person that he was to be while he was still in the womb. Praise be to God! He loved Jeremiah the way He formed him in the womb.

Each person is their own individual. There are NO two people alike on this earth.

This doesn’t mean, though, that we shouldn’t change some things about ourselves, because when God’s word is working in us, we will change!

Each one of us has unique talents, gifts, and traits about ourselves that no one else has. This is a good thing and it makes life exciting!

When we are being taught by someone, for example, a Minister, Pastor, Priest, Teacher, etc. we take what we learn and apply the teachings to ourselves, individually. It adds to our person. But that doesn’t mean we have to be like that person who is teaching us, or do things the way that person does them.

We allow God to fix us, clean us out, and tweak us through His word, while still holding on to the person that we are, our identity, that thing that makes us unique.

We cannot throw out our identity to become someone else. We have to be the person God made us to be today and be thankful!!

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie
Seven Seas Ministries
P.O. Box 272
Bradford, RI 02808

401-315-0902

If you know someone who will enjoy this or be encouraged by it, please feel free to share it with them!

To have the Bible Verse of The Day delivered to your inbox each day, please enter your email address in the box near the upper right corner of this page!

Bible Verse of The Day – 6-27-13

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Proverbs 16:18 (NKJV) Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall.

Pride. We all wrestle with it at one time or another in our lives, in many different ways.

For some of us it might be worrying about our appearance. This might mean our physical appearance with regard to how our hair looks or how our clothes look, or even how our body looks.

For others it might be regarding how they appear to others in society… do they appear to be well off financially, or do they have certain things to give them social status, such a s a nice car, nice house, etc.

These are usually the most obvious things that are more outwardly visible. But the very worst kind of pride is the kind that hides itself deep inside of a person, where nobody can really see it. It sneaks up on a person and takes hold of them from the inside, out.

After a while, that pride swells into haughtiness and arrogance. When this happens, a fall of some kind is sure to happen. As a child of God, pride cannot be left to live in us or rule over us. God won’t leave it unchecked in us for too long before He starts to tear it down,

God wants us to be humble. Humility is a godly trait. His word is full of examples of humble people being used and haughty people being taken out of their positions or caused to become humble through their circumstances.

James 4:6 (NKJV) But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.”

We want to encourage you to check your heart today. Let God shine his light into the very deepest recesses of your heart and show you what’s there. Is pride of any kind lurking there, waiting to eat you up and cause you to fall?

Let God root it out and set your feet on solid ground so that you will stand and not fall.

We love you all.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
P.O. Box 272
Bradford, RI 02808

401-315-0902

If you know someone who will enjoy this or be encouraged by it, please feel free to share it with them!

To have the Bible Verse of The Day delivered to your inbox each day, please enter your email address in the box near the upper right corner of this page!

Bible Verse of The Day – 6-26-13

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(Psalm 133:1 NKJV)  Behold, how good and how pleasant it is For brethren to dwell together in unity!

If we believe in God’s Son and He lives in us, we are God’s children. We are a family; our bothers and sisters are all those who are His.

I remember at times growing up, when my family was together on things, how nicely things flowed in our home. But, if one of us got off track or did things that were against the rules of our home, it could stir up some uncomfortable situations and make things unpleasant.

Just as it is with God’s family. We have many denominations and at times it gets messy and uncomfortable. If we could all learn how to come together like family should do, we could be so much more effective on this earth.

I remember I was on vacation recently sitting in a hot tub outdoors. There were two Christian ladies in there with me. We started talking about church, and one thing led to the next. They were their for a convention and I was there for another convention.

I mentioned to them about how it would be nice if we could all come together and have one big convention.  One of them chuckled, and said to me, “When we all get on the other side”. I said, “yes it will be that way, no doubt, when we get to Heaven because there will be no choice.  But wouldn’t it be nice if we could make the choice to do it here first, wouldn’t Papa love that?” One of them looked at me like I had 3 heads and the other agreed.

We may have a different name or denomination and different views on things, but we are family, God’s children. We have been saved by His Son. Who are we to give ourselves names and think we can pick and choose who to help and who not to help or be involved with?

We should all be able to work together, we are the children of the most HIGH, and with Him all things are Possible. Let us put our agendas and our ideas aside for once and let God help us to come together and be effective in this earth.

We get one chance at this. Let us work hard and do it God’s way, TOGETHER!!

Love you.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
P.O. Box 272
Bradford, RI 02808

401-315-0902

If you know someone who will enjoy this or be encouraged by it, please feel free to share it with them!

To have the Bible Verse of The Day delivered to your inbox each day, please enter your email address in the box near the upper right corner of this page!

Bible Verse of The Day – 6-25-13

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1 Kings 19:11 And he said, Go forth, and stand on the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and broke in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake: 12 And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.

So often we want to hear God’s voice. We wait and we listen. Or at least we think we listen.

But as many times as we want to hear God, how many times are we actually listening for the true voice of God and not what we think is God’s voice?

Probably every single one of us has wished at one time or another that God would speak to us in a booming voice, loud and clear, with instructions for our situation, or an answer to a question that we have. If only it was that easy!

But God wants us to learn to hear Him. He wants us to sharpen our discernment and train our ears to hear His voice.

It takes discipline and work to develop “ears to hear”, but the return is worth the effort.

And don’t make the mistake of thinking that anyone anywhere “has it all figured out”. Nobody does. Even mature believers with great spiritual ears still “miss it” once in a while.

But remember that God is a “rewarder of those who diligently seek Him”, so don’t give up.

Keep pressing in and learning to hear Him. He’s speaking gently.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
P.O. Box 272
Bradford, RI 02808

401-315-0902

If you know someone who will enjoy this or be encouraged by it, please feel free to share it with them!

To have the Bible Verse of The Day delivered to your inbox each day, please enter your email address in the box near the upper right corner of this page!