Tag: putting God first

Bible Verse of The Day – 8-13-14

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.

As believers, followers of Christ, God should be at the top of our list of priorities. In everything that we do, God should come first.

It can be hard for some people, even some believers, to grasp this. Sometimes people just float through life and never realize that God is the pinnacle of everything.

But as we grow in our faith, God naturally begins to climb to the top of our lives in just about every aspect. It doesn’t happen instantly, but over time it takes place as we grow closer to Him.

Maybe you’re reading this and you’re wondering if God is really first in your life, before everything else. If that’s the case, He probably isn’t. But it doesn’t mean that you’re without hope!

Press in to God. Draw near to Him and He will draw near to you.

James 4:8 (NKJV) 8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

You see, it requires effort on our part first. If we put forth the effort, He will give the increase, and our hearts and lives will begin to change, putting Him first more and more often, in more areas of our lives.

And when that happens, we will see remarkable changes in ourselves, as we allow Him to shape us and mold us into who He wants us 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!

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Bible Verse of The Day – 8-11-14

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NKJV) 19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

We are not our own.

We do not belong to ourselves.

If you are a believer, a follower of Christ, you do not belong to yourself. Let me say this again: We do not own ourselves.

There are a lot of implications that come from this… a lot of things that we have to take into consideration as we walk through our lives.

As we go through our daily lives, as we’re faced with decisions and choices, we should always put God first and know that whatever direction we take should line up with what God wants us to do.

It doesn’t matter whether it’s finances, job choices, relationships, where we live or anything else. We are not our own.

We were bought at a price and it was a very high price indeed. Jesus laid down His life for us, to buy us, to redeem us from our sins. We are now His.

Romans 14:7-8 (NKJV) 7 For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. 8 For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.

So as you face the day today, do so knowing that you belong to God and that He deserves our all. He deserves our very best. We belong to Him, body and spirit.

Give Him your best.

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 – 7-1-14

(Revelation 2:4 NKJV) “Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.

God comes first. He is our first love, and we can not let anything come before our personal relationship with Him. We have to keep Him first in all that we do.

God comes before the church. God comes before our spouse. He comes before our children. God comes before our job and He comes before our money, etc. He needs to be first, and then everything else will be added.

(Matthew 6:33 NKJV) “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

If we’ve pushed Him aside, maybe we’ve gotten caught up in some things that we felt pressured to do, or we just lost sight of our time and before we knew it He was squeezed out of our day.

One day turns into two, then three and before we know it it’s been a month or more since we left Him behind or put Him after so many other things. But He hasn’t given up on us; He’s waiting patiently.

It’s time we stop today and let Him back into our life.

Come home to your first love today.

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 – 6-17-14

(Luke 16:13 NKJV)  “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”

Even though work may take a lot of our time during the days, we can’t let it rule us. We need to remain balanced. We need to take time for God, family, church, and rest!

Life is more than how much money we have, how big our home is, what kind of car we drive and how much we travel.

God made life to be simple, but yet exciting, fun and enjoyable! We can not serve money and serve Him. We have to pick and choose who and what we want to serve.

We can tell what we serve by watching and seeing how much time we give to it, physically or mentally. We are not talking about a normal day’s work, but all the thinking and working that goes into it after hours.

Are we always thinking about how much more we can make? Does it take up all of our time, thinking and planning? Are all of our thoughts constantly on the one thing, money?

Or do we spend time even when we are at work, acknowledging God and how He would have us handle certain situations, making sure that when we do something, people will see Him and know that we are Christians?

If we choose God, and put Him first, He takes care of the rest!

(Matthew 6:33 NKJV)  “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

If we choose mammon, God’s word tells us how hard it is.

(Matthew 19:24 NKJV)  “And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

Who do we choose today? If we choose God, we need to give Him our time, money, efforts, thoughts and love!! Amen.

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 – 4-7-14

(Luke 18:22 NKJV)  So when Jesus heard these things, He said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”

What if Jesus was talking to us today, asking us to sell all that we have, all our material things and give it to the poor? Would we be willing?

Material things are nice, but if we give them too much importance, it can become a problem in our lives known as materialism.

Some people may think that obtaining certain material things makes a statement that they are successful. It may give them a certain level of self esteem, but in reality it does not hold any weight.

People work so hard each day to get to this place in life, only to find out afterwards it was not worth it, and on the way they lost and missed out on the important things in life that meant so much more.

We are fooling ourselves if this is what we believe to be success. Jesus says it is not success, but lack. He said sell it and give it to the poor. Our treasure will be in heaven, and to come and follow Him. That is success right there!

Materialism will steal our joy, and suck the life right out of us.

There is so much beauty in this earth to enjoy that is free. Let God teach us the important things in life as we say no to materialism and yes to His way of living.

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 – 4-3-14

Psalm 50:15 (NKJV) Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.

God wants to be at the center of everything in our lives. In fact, He wants us to make Him the center of everything in our lives.

God knows that we will all encounter trouble at various times in our lives. During those times He wants us to call upon Him. He wants to deliver us! Why? So we will glorify Him!

You see, if we make God the center of our lives, we will be less likely to land in quite so much trouble as we do, but we are human. We make mistakes. We make poor choices sometimes. And other times, stuff just happens that we had no choice about.

But God says to call upon Him in our day of trouble and He will deliver us! That’s a promise.

We may not know how or when He will deliver us. And many times, the deliverance comes in ways that we would never have imagined, but He does deliver us!

So we need to stop sweating the “how and when”, and let Him do what needs to be done in us and in our situations, and watch in awe as He works it all out for our good.

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 – 2-20-14

Matthew 6:33 (NKJV) But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

This is a pretty familiar verse for most people who have been followers of Christ for any length of time. In fact, it’s probably almost too familiar, to the point of losing some of its meaning for some of us.

God tells us to seek Him first. And if we do that, He promises that all “these things” will be added to us.

So first of all, He gives us a command; seek Him and His kingdom first.

And then, based on our obedience to His command, he makes a promise; all these things shall be added to you (us).

What “things” is He talking about?

Our everyday needs. Food, clothing and shelter. These are the things that so many of us spend countless hours worrying about and chasing after, week after week. And they are important things, to be sure.

But if we put God first, truly first, He promises that He will provide those things for us!

We wish we had the space here to share testimony after testimony from people, including ourselves, who have “gotten this” after a long time, and then when they did get it, everything came together for them and they understood God’s peace and His provision in a brand new way. These testimonies would blow your minds and speak volumes as to the faithfulness of God and the truth of His word and His promises.

So, stop worrying, seek (put) Him first. And let Him add all these things to 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!

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Bible Verse of The Day – 11-22-13

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

Love the Lord your God with all your heart.

This is something that we touch on every now and then. We want to make sure that every single one of us keeps this fresh in our heart and mind.

If we could just get this one right, so many other things would come so much more easily for us all.

If we loved God with all our heart, we would be inclined to want to please Him more. We would want to spend more time communing with Him in prayer and worship.

If we loved God with all our heart, we would make better choices and sin wouldn’t be as big of a problem in our lives. We would make better judgments when it comes to choosing right or wrong.

Some of us have gone astray and left God far behind.

But do you want to know the good news in all of this?

It’s never too late to start!

Let’s ask God to search our hearts and show us where we can improve and where we need to do things differently. If we give Him permission, He will be faithful to show us what we need to know.

Love Him with all your heart.

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 – 10-19-13

Psalm 16:8 (NKJV) I have set the Lord always before me; because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved.

Have we set God before us? Is he at our right hand?

Do you know that if we put God first, we cannot be moved?

If we have God as our first priority, there is nothing that can shake us and nothing that can move us from where we are supposed to be.

God rules and reigns over all things and if we abide in Him, there is no trial, no temptation and no storm that can move us or pull us down.

Put God first in your life, today, right now! He will give you shelter from the storms and solutions to your problems.

He is God and He is good.

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 – 8-31-13

(John 8:29 NKJV)  “And He who sent Me is with Me. The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him.”

Jesus is our example; He did the very things that pleased His Father.

If we take what He tells us to do and we listen to the words He spoke, and we watch the way He was in all situations, and we put those things into action in our own lives, we too will please our Father.

God loves us… there is no doubt about that. He gave His Son for us. He wants a good life for us. He wants us to know how much He loves us. He wants us to know that He is there for us and loves to help us in all of our situations.

If we are struggling today with knowing how to please God, we just need to follow in Jesus’ footsteps.

You know that saying, “what would Jesus do”? It’s something we may want to ask ourselves when making decisions or addressing certain situations, whether at work, at home, in school… even in the church.

It’s like taking a test with the answer sheet right beside us. Jesus is the answer to pleasing our Father. Look unto 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 – 7-24-13

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

It is not hard to love God, for He loves us so much. What’s hard is showing Him how much we love Him.

If we can learn to follow His commandments throughout our daily lives, this will show Him how much we truly love Him.

Following God’s word will cause us to look different in the eyes of others. We will stand out at times. Sometimes people will get upset with us, even though we never did a thing to them. Other times, loving God will cause us to take a stand in certain situations, causing us to walk alone. We can’t let this distract us.

If we want to be popular among people and be well-liked, then this walk will be a struggle. Loving God with all our heart and soul will make it uncomfortable for certain people to be around us at times; close friends, family members, co-workers, etc.

Remember… we are not alone when we take a stand and love God with all our hearts. We are alone if we love people and what they think of us more than we love God.

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

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!

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