SOME BIBLICAL RULES FOR A BELIEVER

ROMANS 12:9-21(CEV)

"Be sincere in your love for others."

"Hate everything that is evil and hold tight to everything that is good."

"Love each other as brothers and sisters and honor others more than you do yourself."

"Never give up."

"Eagerly follow the Holy Spirit and serve the Lord."

"Let your hope make you glad."

"Be patient in time of trouble and never stop praying."

"Take care of God's needy people and welcome strangers into your home."

"Ask God to bless everyone who mistreats you. Ask him to bless them and not to curse them."

"When others are happy, be happy with them, and when they are sad, be sad."

"Be friendly with everyone."

"Don't be proud and feel that you are smarter than others."

"Make friends with ordinary people."

"Don't mistreat someone who has mistreated you. But try to earn the respect of others, and do your best to live at peace with everyone."

"Dear friends, don't try to get even. Let God take revenge. In the Scriptures the Lord says, 'I am the one to take revenge and pay them back.'"

"The Scriptures also say, 'If your enemies are hungry, give them something to eat. And if they are thirsty, give them something to drink. This will be the same as piling burning coals on their heads.'"

"Don't let evil defeat you, but defeat evil with good."

THE POWER OF CONVICTIONS

DANIEL 3:8-30(CEV)

"Some Babylonians used this as a chance to accuse the Jews to King Nebuchadnezzar. They said,'Your Majesty, we hope you live forever! You commanded everyone to bow down and worship the gold statue when the music played. And you said that anyone who did not bow down and worship it would be thrown into a flaming furnace. Sir, you appointed three men to high positions in Babylon Province, but they have disobeyed you. Those Jews, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, refuse to worship your gods and the statue you have set up.'

King Nebuchadnezzar was furious. So he sent for the three young men and said, 'I hear that you refuse to worship my gods and the gold statue I have set up. Now I am going to give you one more chance. If you bow down and worship the statue when you hear the music, everything will be all right. But if you don't, you will at once be thrown into a flaming furnace. No god can save you from me.'

The three men replied, 'Your Majesty, we don't need to defend ourselves. The God we worship can save us from you and your flaming furnace. But even if he doesn't, we still won't worship your gods and the gold statue you have set up.'

Nebuchadnezzar's face twisted with anger at the three men. And he ordered the furnace to be heated seven times hotter than usual. Next, he commanded some of his strongest soldiers to tie up the men and throw them into the flaming furnace. The king wanted it done at that very moment. So the soldiers tied up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and threw them into the flaming furnace with all of their clothes still on, including their turbans. The fire was so hot that flames leaped out and killed the soldiers.

Suddenly the king jumped up and shouted, 'Weren't only three men tied up and thrown into the fire?'

'Yes,Your Majesty,' the people answered.

'But I see four men walking around in the fire,' the king replied. 'None of them is tied up or harmed, and the fourth one looks like a god.' Nebuchadnezzar went closer to the flaming furnace and said to the three young men, 'You servants of the Most High God, come out at once!'

They came out, and the king's high officials, governors, and advisors all crowded around them. The men were not burned, their hair wasn't scorched, and their clothes didn't even smell like smoke. King Nebuchadnezzar said: Praise their God for sending an angel to rescue his servants! They trusted their God and refused to obey my commands. Yes, they chose to die rather than to worship or serve any god except their own. And I won't allow people of any nation or race to say anything against their God. Anyone who does will be chopped up and their houses will be torn down, because no other god has such great power to save.

After this happened, the king appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to even higher positions in Babylon Province."

NO PAIN, NO GAIN

HEBREWS 12:1-13(NIV)

DENIAL

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

DIRECTION

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

DETERMINATION

In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: 'My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and He punishes everyone He accepts as a son.'

DISCIPLINE

Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in His holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

DEDICATION

Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. 'Make level paths for your feet,' so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed."

GENERATION W[ICKED]

PROVERBS 30:12-14(KJV)

"There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness.

There is a generation, O how lofty are their eyes! and their eyelids are lifted up.

There is a generation, whose teeth are as swords, and their jaw teeth as knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from among men."

A COUPLE OF BIG "IF'S"

PSALM 37:21-40(CEV)

"An evil person borrows and never pays back; a good person is generous and never stops giving.

Everyone the LORD blesses will receive the land; everyone the LORD curses will be destroyed.

If you do what the LORD wants, He will make certain each step you take is sure. The LORD will hold your hand, and if you stumble, you still won't fall.

As long as I can remember, good people have never been left helpless, and their children have never gone begging for food. They gladly give and lend, and their children turn out good.

If you stop sinning and start doing right, you will keep living and be secure forever.

The LORD loves justice, and he won't ever desert his faithful people. He always protects them, but destroys the children of the wicked. God's people will own the land and live here forever.

Words of wisdom come when good people speak for justice. They remember God's teachings, and they never take a wrong step.
The wicked try to trap and kill good people, but the LORD is on their side, and he will defend them when they are on trial.

Trust the LORD and follow him. He will give you the land, and you will see the wicked destroyed. I have seen brutal people abuse others and grow strong like trees in rich soil. Suddenly they disappeared! I looked, but they were gone and no longer there.

Think of the bright future waiting for all the families of honest and innocent and peace-loving people. But not a trace will be left of the wicked or their families. The LORD protects his people, and they can come to him in times of trouble. The LORD helps them and saves them from the wicked because they run to Him."

WHAT A DIFFERENCE!

PSALM 37:1-20(CEV)

"Don't be annoyed by anyone who does wrong, and don't envy them. They will soon disappear like grass without rain.

Trust the LORD and live right! The land will be yours, and you will be safe. Do what the LORD wants, and he will give you your heart's desire.
Let the LORD lead you and trust him to help. Then it will be as clear as the noonday sun that you were right.

Be patient and trust the LORD. Don't let it bother you when all goes well for those who do sinful things. Don't be angry or furious. Anger can lead to sin.

All sinners will disappear, but if you trust the LORD, the land will be yours. Sinners will soon disappear, never to be found, but the poor will take the land and enjoy a big harvest.

Merciless people make plots against good people and snarl like animals, but the Lord laughs and knows their time is coming soon.
The wicked kill with swords and shoot arrows to murder the poor and the needy and all who do right. But they will be killed by their own swords, and their arrows will be broken.

It is better to live right and be poor than to be sinful and rich. The wicked will lose all of their power, but the LORD gives strength to everyone who is good.

Those who obey the LORD are daily in his care, and what he has given them will be theirs forever. They won't be in trouble when times are bad, and they will have plenty when food is scarce.

Wicked people are enemies of the LORD and will vanish like smoke from a field on fire."

CHRISTIAN LIBERTY--THE RIGHT TO DO RIGHT

ROMANS 14:13-23(NIV)

LOVE LIMITS LIBERTY

"Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother's way. As one who is in the Lord Jesus, I am fully convinced that no food is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean.

If your brother is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy your brother for whom Christ died. Do not allow what you consider good to be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men.

Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother to fall.

So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the man who does not condemn himself by what he approves. But the man who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin."

WHOM ARE YOU WATCHING?

PSALM 123(NAS)

"To You I lift up my eyes, O You who are enthroned in the heavens!

Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, [and]as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the LORD our God,until He is gracious to us.

Be gracious to us, O LORD, be gracious to us, for we are greatly filled with contempt. Our soul is greatly filledwith the scoffing of those who are at ease,and with the contempt of the proud."

YOU'VE BEEN WARNED

II PETER 3:1-18(CEV)

"My dear friends, this is the second letter I have written to encourage you to do some honest thinking. I don't want you to forget what God's prophets said would happen. You must never forget what the holy prophets taught in the past. And you must remember what the apostles told you our Lord and Savior has commanded us to do.

But first you must realize that in the last days some people won't think about anything except their own selfish desires. They will make fun of you and say, 'Didn't your Lord promise to come back? Yet the first leaders have already died, and the world hasn't changed a bit.'

They will say this because they want to forget that long ago the heavens and the earth were made at God's command. The earth came out of water and was made from water. Later it was destroyed by the waters of a mighty flood. But God has commanded the present heavens and earth to remain until the day of judgment. Then they will be set on fire, and ungodly people will be destroyed.

Dear friends, don't forget that for the Lord one day is the same as a thousand years, and a thousand years is the same as one day. The Lord isn't slow about keeping his promises, as some people think he is. In fact, God is patient, because he wants everyone to turn from sin and no one to be lost.

The day of the Lord's return will surprise us like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a loud noise, and the heat will melt the whole universe. Then the earth and everything on it will be seen for what they are. Everything will be destroyed. So you should serve and honor God by the way you live. You should look forward to the day when God judges everyone, and you should try to make it come soon. On that day the heavens will be destroyed by fire, and everything else will melt in the heat. But God has promised us a new heaven and a new earth, where justice will rule. We are really looking forward to that! My friends, while you are waiting, you should make certain that the Lord finds you pure, spotless, and living at peace. Don't forget that the Lord is patient because he wants people to be saved. This is also what our dear friend Paul said when he wrote you with the wisdom that God had given him. Paul talks about these same things in all his letters, but part of what he says is hard to understand. Some ignorant and unsteady people even destroy themselves by twisting what he said. They do the same thing with other Scriptures too.

My dear friends, you have been warned ahead of time! So don't let the errors of evil people lead you down the wrong path and make you lose your balance. Let the wonderful kindness and the understanding that come from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ help you to keep on growing.

Praise Jesus now and forever! Amen."

THE "ILLOGICAL" GOSPEL

I CORINTHIANS 1:18-31(CEV)

"The message about the cross doesn't make any sense to lost people. But for those of us who are being saved, it is God's power at work. As God says in the Scriptures: 'I will destroy the wisdom of all who claim to be wise. I will confuse those who think they know so much.'

What happened to those wise people? What happened to those experts in the Scriptures? What happened to the ones who think they have all the answers?

Didn't God show that the wisdom of this world is foolish? God was wise and decided not to let the people of this world use their wisdom to learn about Him. Instead, God chose to save only those who believe the foolish message we preach. Jews ask for miracles, and Greeks want something that sounds wise.

But we preach that Christ was nailed to a cross. Most Jews have problems with this, and most Gentiles think it is foolish. Our message is God's power and wisdom for the Jews and the Greeks that He has chosen. Even when God is foolish, He is wiser than everyone else, and even when God is weak, He is stronger than everyone else.

My dear friends, remember what you were when God chose you. The people of this world didn't think that many of you were wise. Only a few of you were in places of power, and not many of you came from important families. But God chose the foolish things of this world to put the wise to shame. He chose the weak things of this world to put the powerful to shame.

What the world thinks is worthless, useless, and nothing at all is what God has used to destroy what the world considers important. God did all this to keep anyone from bragging to Him. You are God's children. He sent Christ Jesus to save us and to make us wise, acceptable, and holy. So if you want to brag, do what the Scriptures say and brag about the Lord."