Category: Loving God

Bible Verse of The Day – 2-9-24

Psalm 18:1 (NLT) 1 I love you, Lord; you are my strength.

Our love for God is something that we may not often think about. It is one of those things that just is, so we might not pay much attention to it.

But meditating on, nurturing, and expressing our love for God is important!

God is Spirit. He is not human. So, He does not have an emotional requirement to hear our love expressed.

Despite that, we should express our love for Him. He is the One who breathed the breath of life into our lungs.

And expressing that love for Him also helps us!

It causes us to acknowledge who He is, what He has done for us, how lost we would be without Him.

And here is something else to ponder on.

Is our love for God growing?

In a healthy relationship, our love should never be stagnant or static. It should be constantly developing and growing.

Our relationship with God is no different.

How do we learn to grow our love for God?

We immerse ourselves in Him.

We make the time required to read and study His word.

We purposely give Him praise. And this doesn’t require music, as many might think. We can praise God by simply opening our mouth and speaking the words in our heart, with or without music.

You see, none of this happens by accident. A strong relationship doesn’t just fall into our laps.

It requires work and intentional effort on our part.

But the results (a strong relationship) are worth every bit of the effort. And as we mature, we will see our love growing more each day.

Put Him first in everything. Express your gratitude to Him. Make a conscious choice to do whatever it takes to learn of Him and draw closer to Him. And as we do that, our love for Him cannot help but grow stronger each day.

Let us love Him more tomorrow than we do today.

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 – 12-23-23

Philippians 4:13 (NKJV) 13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

What “all” things can we do? The things that God asks us to do.

This is how we show God that we are sincere in our commitment to Him. Our hearts obey His word.

John 14:15 (NKJV) 15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments.

We get rid of those nasty habits, and we begin to live, walk and breathe in making righteous decisions. It is when we walk by faith in obedience to His word that we will become strong.

Yes, there will be sacrifices to be made. Yes, there will be new things to learn. Yes, there will be a feeling of discomfort at times.

But, in and through it all, there will be His peace, His presence and His rewards. It will be worth every bit of effort we put forth.

Can we do this on our own?

Honestly, fighting our own desires can be the hardest thing to accomplish. But, we are not alone in this fight.

God has sent us a Helper. This Helper knows all about the fleshly battle that we war against as a believer. He knows how to defeat it. He knows what we need to do. And yes, He will willingly abide with us forever!

John 14:16 (NKJV) 16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—

Have a blessed day. And remember, it’s through Christ we are made strong. WE need Him!

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 – 10-23-23

Matthew 22:37 (NKJV) 37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’

As I was pondering on the things of God yesterday evening, this question came to me:

How much do you love God?

It came to me not only as a direct question for me to respond to, but a question that I should also ask others.

The intensity with which we love God will impact every single aspect of our lives.

Furthermore, the depth of our love for God shows our level of understanding when it comes to who He is, what He has done for us, and where He falls in our life’s priorities.

I know that may cause some to flinch, and it may even cause others to feel like that is a little on the legalistic side.

But let’s look a bit closer so we can better understand this.

These words were originally spoken in Deuteronomy 6:5, as God spoke to Israel and laid out His commandments and rules for their lives.

Jesus quoted it when a Sadducee tried to trick Him, asking Him, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”.

Jesus called this the “first and great commandment”, giving it the ultimate priority in the life of a believer.

As we begin to understand the importance of this more completely on a personal level, we will begin to see ourselves change.

We will no longer think of ourselves first. Instead, we will put God first, taking Him into consideration in everything that we do; every choice we make, every word that we speak, every action that we take.

Our love for God will overrule our love for other things; our habits, our tendencies, our hobbies, our lusts, our desires, etc.

For some, this change happens slowly over time. For others, it happens very quickly. Either way, it is a transformation that is undeniable.

The speed at which this happens in our lives is, without a doubt, dependent upon the depth of understanding we have when it comes to the seriousness of loving “the Lord Your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind”.

And regardless of the speed, the most important thing is that it does happen.

With all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.

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 – 6-12-23

Deuteronomy 6:5 (NKJV) 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

I love my wife. I love her with all my heart.

I also love bass fishing, and I enjoy bike riding.

My love for Bass fishing and bike riding obviously isn’t nearly as strong as my love for Pastor Ellie. Not even close!

But none of these can begin to compare to my love for God.

And this is what God has commanded us to do; to put Him, and our love for Him, before everyone and everything else.

This isn’t something that just happens.

Just as we learn to love our spouse, we must learn to love God.

We don’t learn this overnight. We don’t learn accidentally. And we don’t always learn easily.

It takes time, and it takes effort on our part. It takes persistent, diligent, relentless effort.

No effort equals a bare-minimum relationship with God. A minimal relationship equals frail, feeble love.

Our love for God needs to be strong!

Loving God is something that we must decide in our hearts is our top priority. It’s when we do this that we see things change in our heart.

And when our heart changes, the rest of our life follows suit.

Before we know it, we are beginning to build our lives around God and our love for Him, instead of constantly battling just to find a few spare minutes to try to read His word.

The change comes a little at a time as we continue to relentlessly pursue Him and put Him first.

We encourage everyone reading this to give God your all. Pour yourself into your walk with Him.

Put Him first in everything. Give Him your whole heart.

Watch your love for Him grow and flourish.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
49 N Lamplighters Walk
Hampstead, NC 28443

401-439-3780

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 – 5-10-23

1 Chronicles 18:6 (NLT) 6 Then he placed several army garrisons in Damascus, the Aramean capital, and the Arameans became David’s subjects and paid him tribute money. So the Lord made David victorious wherever he went.

“So the Lord made David victorious wherever he went”.

There is a lot we can learn from this short statement.

But in order to learn from it, we need to ask this one question; why was David victorious wherever he went?”.

The answer to that question is very simple and straight forward.

David loved God with all his heart and endeavored to honor God in all that he did.

David was not perfect. But he considered God in every decision he made. He despised false gods. He also abhorred people who stood against his God.

David was not afraid to stand against those who stood against his God. And he gave honor and credit to God for his victories.

His wife, Michal, even looked at him with contempt and she despised him in her heart because he danced and leapt with joy before the Lord in public.

2 Samuel 6:16 (NKJV) 16 Now as the ark of the Lord came into the City of David, Michal, Saul’s daughter, looked through a window and saw King David leaping and whirling before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart.

And when Michal confronted him about making a spectacle of himself in public, here’s what David told her.

2 Samuel 6:21-22 (NKJV) 21 …“It was before the Lord, who chose me instead of your father and all his house, to appoint me ruler over the people of the Lord, over Israel. Therefore I will play music before the Lord. 22 And I will be even more undignified than this, and will be humble in my own sight….

Let us all honor God the way David did. Let us all put Him first in our hearts and in the choices we make every day, that He might give us victory wherever we go.

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 – 2-3-23

Deuteronomy 10:12 (NKJV) 12 “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul…

One of the biggest constants in the entirety of God’s word is in the scripture above; serve the Lord your God with all your heart.

Don’t take this wrong. There are other constants that are also very important, like His grace, His love for humanity, etc.

But this one in particular shows us exactly what God wants or requires of us. He wants our whole heart.

This is repeated throughout God’s word.

Take a look.

Deuteronomy 6:5 (NKJV) 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

Jeremiah 29:13 (NKJV) 13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.

1 Samuel 12:24 (NKJV) 24 Only fear the Lord, and serve Him in truth with all your heart; for consider what great things He has done for you.

And these are just a few examples. There are many more!

But here’s the thing we need to understand; nobody can make us serve the Lord our God with all our heart. Nobody can make us love Him more than we already do.

We must endeavor to do this and then take the steps and put in the work to make it happen.

The responsibility for this lies squarely on our own shoulders.

But the good news is that we can all do this. We just have to want it badly enough to push everything else aside; all the distractions, the obstacles and whatever is in us that might prevent us from doing it.

Nobody is special. Nobody has any secret tricks or shortcuts to make it easier or less labor-intensive.

If we set our heart and mind to this, though, you can be sure that God will walk right beside us through it all and show us where to make whatever changes need to be made to achieve this goal of loving Him with our whole heart.

Don’t be afraid. Don’t be intimidated. And don’t think that it is impossible. With God all things are possible.

Matthew 19:26 (NKJV) 26 But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

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 – 9-27-22

John 14:15 (NKJV) 15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments.

Our love for Him will show through our obedience and our devotion to Him.

This is something that takes time to learn. But as we walk it out, we will get stronger and better at it.

The first thing to do is get in His word and read it.

Get to know who our God is and what He expects. Don’t just wait for the ministers to teach us. Get in it and read it.

The Holy Spirit will touch our hearts and guide us as we put forth the effort.

Who is God?

Go after Him. Learn His heart and what makes Him tick. Then we can show Him our love by following His way.

His commandments are written throughout His word. And in every situation we face, He has the answer.

He has it, and we will know for sure what that answer is if we stay close to Him.

How do we show our love to Him?

We know Him intimately enough to respond to any given situation in the proper way; the way that He guides us.

Love Him and keep His words close, dear to us, and written in our hearts. Let the Holy Spirit help us stay focused and on track.

Our obedience toward His word shows Him how much we love Him.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
49 N Lamplighters Walk
Hampstead, NC 28443

401-439-3780

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 – 8-29-22

Psalm 18:1 (NLT) 1 I love you, Lord; you are my strength.

This short, simple verse sums up so much while using so few words.

Sometimes we use so many words to try to express our thoughts and feelings. And there are times when that is necessary.

But sometimes we just need to be direct and say what we mean as succinctly as possible. And this verse is a perfect example of that.

I love you, Lord.

Those words say it all.

There will be times where we might feel the need to expound on that sentiment and pour our heart out to Him. And that’s good to do from time to time.

But simplicity can also be a good thing.

So, never be afraid to simply say, whether in your heart or out loud, I love you, Lord.

He is worthy of hearing this from us. He does, after all, love us beyond what words can express. This is evident in the mercy and the grace that He shows toward us.

Tell Him today that you love Him. It’s good for us to share our hearts with Him.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
49 N Lamplighters Walk
Hampstead, NC 28443

401-439-3780

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 – 12-24-21

Isaiah 26:8 (NLT) 8 Lord, we show our trust in you by obeying your laws; our heart’s desire is to glorify your name.

This verse sums up what our relationship with God should be based on; obeying Him because we trust Him, not simply because we have been told to do so, or because it’s a routine or habit.

And in doing that, we will glorify His name in everything that we do.

This is the goal we should work toward as we learn of Him and grow closer to Him.

Sometimes we tend to over-complicate our walk with God. We overthink it. We add things to it that don’t benefit that relationship or make it stronger.

And most of those things are based on human intellect or human concepts. Others are based on tradition or something we saw someone else do.

The best thing we can do is to keep it simple and build that walk based solely on Biblical principles.

If we do that, our walk with Him will be the strongest it could ever be. And because of that, we will also be the strongest we could ever be.

Keep it simple and real.

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 – 12-15-21

Psalm 18:1-2 (NLT) 1 I love you, Lord; you are my strength. 2 The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my savior; my God is my rock, in whom I find protection. He is my shield, the power that saves me, and my place of safety.

It’s not a secret that God called David a man after His own heart. And there is a very good reason for that; because it was true.

David never abandoned God or traded Him in for “other gods”.

Despite his shortcomings as a human being, David loved God deeply throughout his lifetime. That love for God never faltered.

One of the things I find interesting about verse 1 in the scriptures above is that the Hebrew word used for love isn’t the word that’s typically used in most other areas of the Bible.

Most times, the word used for love in the original Hebrew transcripts indicates the concept or idea of covenant.

The word that David used here, however, is a rare form of a word that expresses intimacy. In fact, it actually expresses tender intimacy.

David’s love for God was so intense that he used an uncommon word that more accurately expressed his true passion for his love for God.

This should be the goal of every believer; to love God so intensely that our love can’t be described using normal, everyday words.

If you’re not there right now, don’t feel bad. Don’t get down on yourself. But take the steps to do whatever it takes to make It happen.

Remember, we get out what we put in when it comes to our relationship with God.

So, if loving God intensely is our goal and our desire, let’s take the steps to make it happen.

We will never, ever be sorry.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

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

401-439-3780

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Bible Verse of The Day – 9-29-21

1 Kings 14:7-8 (NKJV) 7 Go, tell Jeroboam, ‘Thus says the Lord God of Israel: “Because I exalted you from among the people, and made you ruler over My people Israel, 8 and tore the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it to you; and yet you have not been as My servant David, who kept My commandments and who followed Me with all his heart, to do only what was right in My eyes;

There are many, many instances of us being told in God’s word how important it is to follow God’s laws, decrees and commands.

Let’s talk about that.

In its barest form, it would appear that God is simply asking us to strictly follow a set of rules and laws.

But if we look at the heart of this, it goes much deeper.

In reality, God is urging us (appealing to us) to give Him our hearts.

You see, God isn’t really concerned with a set of laws. Laws don’t change hearts or make us righteous. They just give us guidelines.

Simply following a set of guidelines will only create rituals and traditions. That is not what God wants.

If we look at the latter part of the verse above, God tells Jeroboam that David followed Him with all his heart.

That is what God wants; our whole heart.

Because David followed God with his whole heart, God honored him down through the generations.

There are powerful lessons for us to learn from this.

So, despite our faults & failures, let’s be sure to keep this at the forefront of everything we do; to follow God with all our heart.

And as we do this, God will also honor us, and our lives will be blessed because of it.

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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