Your Daily Bible Verse – 1-12-12

(John 14:24 NKJV) “He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.

Keeping God’s word and the things He commands us fresh in our hearts everyday may take putting time aside to read and study. Learning more about God helps us to walk through this life with the right attitude, knowledge, wisdom and, most importantly, the love needed to share with others. It is all about getting our hearts right with God. If we don’t get our heart right with God and let Him change us from the inside out, we won’t be able to help anyone.

This does not mean that we will always do everything right. There will be times when we make mistakes, but even in those times God will help us fix things, as we go to Him, being careful not get stubborn and push away from Him. Staying open to God and those He may use to help us at times is so important.

God is a good God and He wants the best for us all. Keeping His words shows Him how much we love Him. We can tell Him we love Him all we want, and He loves to hear it!! But we also need to show Him by keeping His Words dear to us and acting on it  every moment of every day.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

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

401-377-5400

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

0 Shares
Tagged with: , ,

Your Daily Bible Verse – 1-11-12

(Acts 16:29-32 NKJV)  Then he called for a light, ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. {30} And he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” {31} So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” {32} Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house.

Today I want to bring your attention to something that is a point of debate for many people. Hopefully this will bring some clarity to an area where some people get very confused.

What must I do to be saved? This was the question asked of Paul & Silas while they were in prison for preaching the gospel of Jesus. A prison worker came to Paul & Silas, trembling, asking them with all sincerity what he must do to be saved.

Paul didn’t go into a long dissertation or a deep theological message. It wasn’t necessary. He told this man to do one simple thing: believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is all that is required.

We are not required to be baptized to be saved. We are not required to join a church or a denomination to be saved. We aren’t required to walk down an aisle or respond to an altar call to be saved. We simply need to reach a point within ourselves where we believe on a personal level and accept the sacrifice that Jesus made for us, on a personal level. That’s it.

Baptism is good, and we should all be baptized. But it is not a requirement for salvation. Responding to an altar call is good, if that’s where God happens to reach us, but it’s not required for salvation. Many things are good, but they are not required for our salvation. Simply believe on a personal level, and you will be saved.

Do you believe?

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

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

401-377-5400

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

0 Shares
Tagged with: ,

Your Daily Bible Verse – 1-10-12

(Rom 5:19 NKJV)  For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.

Today I want to take just a minute and talk about righteousness through Christ.

Many people confuse righteousness with holiness. In fact, many times they are looked at as being the same thing. But they are vastly different. Let me explain.

When we believe in Christ and He forgives our sins, we are made righteous by His blood. This happens instantly, in a split second. Because He paid the price for our sins and His blood washes away our sins, we are seen as pure, spotless and righteous before God.

Holiness, on the other hand, is something that we are told we need to work at daily, in each of our lives. (2 Cor 7:1 NKJV)  Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

We need to make a conscious effort to live a holy life. This requires work on our part. Righteousness, on the other hand, is already bought and paid for, by Jesus and His sacrifice for us.

So, remember that we are the righteousness of God in Christ, but we need to put forth effort to be holy, on a daily basis!

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

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

401-377-5400

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

0 Shares
Tagged with: , ,

Your Daily Bible Verse – 1-9-12

(Mat 9:28-29 NKJV) And when He had come into the house, the blind men came to Him. And Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” They said to Him, “Yes, Lord.” {29} Then He touched their eyes, saying,”According to your faith let it be to you.”

All Jesus wants us to do is believe that He can and will heal us, deliver us, save us,  and give us the protection we need daily as we believe Him.

Is there something we have been struggling with for months, or even years? Maybe it’s something we knew we needed to do but never thought it could be done. Well today the answer is here; Jesus is speaking to us all in our individual lives and asking us the same question that He asked the blind man. Take time today and answer Him.

When Jesus asked the blind man, his answer was, “Yes Lord”. Then He healed the man’s eyes and said, “According to your faith, let it be to you”.

So it’s important to have faith. How do we get our faith to grow? By reading and believing the word of God, and applying it to our daily life situations, by praying for others and seeing their situations change and by simply allowing God to take us through the hard times and the good times. This will grow our faith.

Don’t struggle today… just simply say “Yes, Lord, I believe you can!”

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

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

401-377-5400

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

0 Shares
Tagged with: , ,

Your Daily Bible Verse – 1-7-12

(1 Ki 17:14-16 NKJV)  “For thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘The bin of flour shall not be used up, nor shall the jar of oil run dry, until the day the LORD sends rain on the earth.'” {15} So she went away and did according to the word of Elijah; and she and he and her household ate for many days. {16} The bin of flour was not used up, nor did the jar of oil run dry, according to the word of the LORD which He spoke by Elijah.

Elijah was told by God to find a specific woman; a widow with a son. She was gathering sticks to build a fire, cook a small meal for herself and her son and then die, as the meal she was preparing was all they had.

Elijah asked her for a drink of water and a meal to eat. The woman explained to him that she was about to eat her last meal and then die.

Elijah was a man of great faith and assured the woman that if she would do as he had asked, God would supply her needs and she would not die.

As Elijah had promised, she fed him and the oil in her jar never dried up. Her flour never ran out. They ate without lack until the famine was over.

Let this woman be an example to all of us. She didn’t give out of her abundance. She gave out of her lack and her need.

We get asked a lot of questions about giving and tithing. Let me state emphatically that tithing is a necessity. Giving to God before we give to anyone or anything else is critical to our financial well-being. We have many people tell us that they don’t know if they can afford to tithe. We always respond and tell people that they can’t afford not to tithe.

Giving is necessary if we ever expect to receive. If we don’t sow, we will never reap a harvest. If we’re lacking, we have probably not been giving.

As we shared previously, we have been in situations where we were lacking and our finances were falling apart. We got there because we were not putting God first in our finances. When we changed this, He brought changes to our lives and breathed new life into our financial situation.

Show God that you trust Him. Give Him what he asks for and stand firm on it, committing to do it no matter what comes your way. You will never regret it.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

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

401-377-5400

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

0 Shares
Tagged with: , , ,

Your Daily Bible Verse – 1-6-12

(1 Cor 1:27 NKJV)  But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty;

God is mighty. God is awesome. God is bigger and more powerful than our human minds can ever completely understand.

What we fail to understand, though, is that God is not complicated in the way He chooses to do things in our lives. God works in our lives in very simple ways. It’s us, frail human beings, who choose to complicate things.

So many times we try to figure God out. We try to fit Him into a box. We try to squeeze Him into the mold that our mind creates in an effort to understand Him or make ourselves equal with Him.

In doing this, we push ourselves further away from Him instead of drawing closer to Him. Our intellect can never equal the wisdom of God. Our reasoning can never figure God out. Instead of trying to make ourselves equal to Him with our minds, maybe it’s time we humble ourselves before Him and accept the way He chooses to do things in our lives.

Simplicity and humility before God is not something to be ashamed of. It’s a necessity.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

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

401-377-5400

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

0 Shares
Tagged with: , ,

Your Daily Bible Verse – 1-5-12

(Gen 39:23 NKJV)  The keeper of the prison did not look into anything that was under Joseph’s authority, because the LORD was with him; and whatever he did, the LORD made it prosper.

Joseph was a prisoner in jail, but the keeper did not pay to much attention to what Joseph did because the things he put his hands to, prospered. Why? Because God was with him!

You say, God was with him even in prison? Oh yes! He goes with us, He stays with us, no matter where we go. You see we can be in a place that we dislike or a position that is not what we prefer and He can still bring good out of it. Why? Because God is with us even in an awful place, an awful situation, even in situations that we don’t even deserve.

As we trust in God and lean on Him, He will prosper those things we touch. It doesn’t matter where we are at as long as we remain in Him, close to Him, and obeying Him.
So be encouraged today! You may be in the worst place ever, just like Joseph. But God was with him and the things he touched prospered. You too will prosper.

Don’t give up, and be sure keep your attitude right. Keep working hard and don’t look at your neighbor to see what he or she is doing and getting away with; that’s not our concern. Our concern is to keep being positive and looking to God for the victory! It will come…

Keep our eyes on Christ, no matter what it looks like around us!!

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

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

401-377-5400

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

0 Shares
Tagged with: , , ,

Your Daily Bible Verse – 1-4-12

(Phil 4:6-7 NKJV)  Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; {7} and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Yesterday we talked about having God’s peace when making decisions. We talked about how having that peace can help us better understand when we’re on the right track, and how not having that peace can tell us that we’re on the wrong track.

Today I’d like to share a little more on this topic, so as to avoid any confusion or misunderstandings. This is very important because it can seriously alter the paths we choose in life and the decisions we might make.

I really feel like I need to clarify a couple of things here. First of all, if you’re married and you are facing a major decision in your life, either as a couple or as individuals within the marriage, if one person is feeling at peace and the other isn’t feeling peace, it’s imperative that you DON’T make any changes at that time.

A lack of unity on the part of the couple is a pretty clear indication that more clarity and understanding is needed. Any and all decisions that will affect a married couple need to be made in 100% unity on the part of that couple. If there is no unity and no peace, simply wait. If no peace comes, move on and put it behind you.

The other area where we see people get into trouble all the time is when someone who is not a part of the decision-making process expresses their opinion and sways someone one way or the other in the decision making process, especially if no opinion was asked for.

There are some well-intentioned people out there, in the church body, who are always more than willing to “share a word from God”, and give people direction in their lives. But these self-proclaimed profits are nowhere near qualified to be doing this. These types of people can lead to very serious problems in the lives of those people to whom they speak.

No decision should ever be made based on input from one of these people. Although they may have good intentions, their guidance can do great harm because they typically don’t operate fully under the spirit and the guidance of God.

When you face any of these types of decisions in your life, make sure that you have that peace that passes understanding. This is God’s peace. You can have this peace even when God has instructed you to do something that you have no earthly idea how to do, but your faith carries you in a way that allows you to be at peace in your spirit when your natural mind might be running in the opposite direction. Once we know and understand this, our lives will be forever changed and we will look at things from a new perspective.

Know Him, and know His peace.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

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

401-377-5400

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

0 Shares
Tagged with: , , ,

Your Daily Bible Verse – 1-3-12

(1 Cor 14:33 NKJV)  For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.

Do you ever wonder how to tell when God is speaking to you? Do you sometimes have a hard time discerning between your own thoughts and the promptings of God?

Sometimes we need to make important decisions in our lives and we wrestle with which direction to go. We feel one way one minute and then we feel another way later the same day.

Sometimes we may feel complete peace and other times we might feel like we are in complete turmoil.

God’s word tells us that He is not the author of confusion, but of peace. He also tells us (2 Tim 1:7 NKJV)  For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

So if you are in a place where fear and confusion seem to be reigning, you can be pretty sure that God isn’t in that place. If you have peace in the midst of a major decision, you can be pretty sure you’re headed in the direction that God wants you to go.

Let me put it one more way that might help us get some clarity; If we are in a place where we need to make a major decision that can change our lives, and we can’t seem to find peace about the choice we’re leaning toward or might have already gone toward, God probably isn’t in favor of the direction we chose.

However, if you are contemplating a major decision or have made a major decision that can or will change your life, and you just seem to have peace about it, despite it being very major, you can be pretty sure that God is in favor of the path you’ve chosen.

Trust God and His leading.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

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

401-377-5400

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

0 Shares
Tagged with: , ,

Your Daily Bible Verse – 1-2-12

(Mal 3:10-12 NKJV)  Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be food in My house, And try Me now in this,” Says the LORD of hosts, “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven And pour out for you such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it. {11} “And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, So that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, Nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field,” Says the LORD of hosts; {12} “And all nations will call you blessed, For you will be a delightful land,” Says the LORD of hosts.

One Sunday morning about 13 years ago we were attending a church service. The pastor there was speaking about Abraham and how he had entered into a covenant with God, and how he was blessed because of that covenant.

It was very clear to both of us that day that God was speaking to us loud and clear about what we needed to do to get FREE from the situation we were in!

At that time in our life, my husband was laid off from a job he worked for 13yrs and was going to school. I was working a full week and all day Saturday and it still left bills unpaid. We had two children to feed and clothe. We were up to our eyeballs in debt and the bill collectors were calling our home constantly. Things were a mess! We were tired and stressed and didn’t know what to do. Can you relate?

After lunch that day, my husband and I got out every bill we had and laid them out on our bed. It was a mountain for sure! We prayed over this mountain of bills and repented to God for the wrong we had done, for this was our mess. We had made many bad decisions that had gotten us to where we were.

We made a covenant with God, that from that day forward we would give to Him first what was His. No matter how much we had, He would get His first and then we would use the rest for our needs.

The very next day my husband felt like he needed to make some phone calls to places where we had overdue balances. The first place we called was a doctor’s office, to see what kind of arrangements we could make to take care of what we owed them. To his surprise the receptionist  told him not to worry about it. They just wiped our bill clean; we had a ZERO balance! The next call,  same kind of response, no balance!

This went on to the third call that day… he couldn’t believe it!! But deep down we knew, God went before us and was cleaning house! It was the covenant we made with Him. From that day, forward, no matter what our situation looked like, we would give to Him first.

God took our situation and completely turned it around, over time. Not all of it was that easy. There still were some tough days ahead, and we had to stay disciplined, but we knew we were heading in the right direction. God was with us and fighting for us; we were no longer alone. The covenant that we made with God to faithfully give our tithe gave us protection.

You see, it was God’s knowledge that day that we listened to and acted upon! God honored that and He was right there to reward us for doing the right thing. If you are struggling in any area of your life,  break that curse that is over you today…get out from under it.

You say “how do I do that?” Take a step of obedience; give to God and get under God’s covering by being obedient to Him.

Take time to pray as to where to sow your tithe. Make sure it is in good Ground. I believe this year is going to be a BIG year as we are faithful to obey!!

God bless you.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

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

401-377-5400

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

0 Shares
Tagged with: , , ,

Your Daily Bible Verse – 12-31-11

(Rom 8:31 NKJV)  What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

Being challenged at work to do beyond our capacity and being under-paid is a hard thing to deal with, especially knowing that there is not much out there for work these days.

We need the job; that’s all there is to it. So we keep on plugging away and doing what we can to help and try to stay somewhat above water. We hope that we don’t get more piled onto us until we catch up with what we have. We just keep on keeping on until something else comes up or changes happen.

Being mistreated and overworked on a job is NOT right, but it happens all the time and people get away with doing it. What can we do to get past it and make our jobs a little less aggravating?

We can start by knowing that if God is for us, who can be against us. God is watching and He knows what is going on and He doesn’t like abuse or people mistreating people. As we tell Him about our concerns and trust Him, He will come through for us. He is faithful!!

God is for us. Be encouraged today if you are working hard and not feeling like you’re getting anywhere, with no raise, no promotion, not even a thank you. It’s time to start praying to God for a change and then let Him go to battle for you!

What we need to do in the meantime is to keep doing what we know we are supposed to do, with a good attitude and let Him lead us.

Trust God!!

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

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

401-377-5400

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

0 Shares
Tagged with: ,