WEEKLY BIBLE STUDY

[Fansince88]

10 hours ago, TakeYouToTasker 2.0 said:

@Cinga

 

I want to thank you for creating and curating this thread. I can’t tell you how many times it’s come to my aid.

Truly is a blessing!

[Fansince88]

I will put this here. All because a man was obedient to the call of God when the Church was closed. People are being set free!!! 

 

Edited October 2, 2021 by Fansince88

[Cinga]

2 hours ago, Fansince88 said:

I will put this here. All because a man was obedient to the call of God when the Church was closed. People are being set free!!! 

 

 

There is truly a Great Awakening going on in the world today Brother!

 

[Fansince88]

20 minutes ago, Cinga said:

 

There is truly a Great Awakening going on in the world today Brother!

 

Earlier on this page I saw the black Congressman speak about the lack of fathers. This great awakening is what is going to heal our society. We are that far gone and otherwise it cant be repaired. But it still needs to get a little more worse. 

[Cinga]

Oct 3

 

As we go into this next section of John 1, I would encourage you to go back and see what we have covered already and pay particular attention the John 1:17 and the comments of it. Remember we discussed how the Law was given through Moses, but Grace and Truth through Jesus who comes to be the fulfillment of that Law as the Lamb of God whose unblemished sacrifice would redeem a fallen world.

I want to take a moment first to discuss Truth in the Bible. God explains to us in Deuteronomy 18, that to know if someone speaks in the name of the Lord, does it come to pass. He tells us if it doesn’t. that person didn’t speak for Him. So in this we know God will only Speak Truth, even as He speaks through the flaws of man, they cannot speak falsely when speaking for the Lord.

Today and soon in Genesis 2 we’re going see Words repeated, but it’s not because of forgetfulness, it’s more because of emphasis, as if to say “pay attention, this is important”. But as you dive deeper into your own Bible Study too, you will find yourself going back to reference something you’ve read before, knowing God’s Truth is proving God’s Truth to you.

My comments are in italics

 

²⁹ The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!  - And this week, right off the bat we what john referred to in John 1:17

 

³⁰ This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’  - Not a twist on words, John is confirming to us here that though Jesus will follow his own ministry, Jesus was before him because He was there in the Beginning, see John 1:2.

 

³¹ I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.” – The Baptist is telling us here that he was not aware of who the Christ was yet,

 

³² Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. ³³ And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ ³⁴ I have seen, and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.”– A lot to unfold here, but we’ve discussed before the Holy Spirit, the third part of the Triune Nature of God. Before Jesus Resurrection, the Holy Spirit resided with individuals, it was afterward as you will see in Acts 2 that the Lord poured out His Spirit on “all flesh”. Here we see the common perception of the Spirit descending on the Lord as a Dove and confirming what God had told John as toward how he would know who the Lamb of God would be. Then John goes further to “testify” that he has seen that Jesus is God’s Chosen.

 

³⁵ The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. ³⁶ When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!” ³⁷ When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. – Apparently these 2 disciples were not with John the day before, but as disciples, were well versed in the Hebrew Torah, and the words of the prophets of Israel, many that would come to make up the Christian Old Testament so immediately knew what John was telling them

 

³⁸ Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?” They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?” ³⁹ “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.” – Had that been me, I would have surely stammered and not been able to answer what I wanted, or maybe come up with my own fairly lame “where are you staying?”. But Jesus answer is profound as you will soon learn, because often He would just set out not knowing Himself where He would stay but trusting that God in Heaven would provide.

 

So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon.

⁴⁰ Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. ⁴¹ The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). ⁴² And he brought him to Jesus. – 2 things going on here but we’ll get to Peter in the next verse but here is also where we first hear the term Messiah. If you want to cheat again, and by now you know I will encourage you to, search for Messiah of the Old Testament. And just as we will see as we work our way through the Bible, there are multiple predictions of the coming Messiah, or Moshiach in the original Hebrew meaning “Anointed One”. Again, as we’re discussed before, Jesus, the Messiah, is the fulfillment of those Prophecies.

 

Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter). – Up until now, we only have Andrew following Jesus as we saw above in Verse 40, but now we have Andrew’s brother, Simon whom Jesus renames Cephas (rock) which translates to Peter. Yet the author John, who knew Peter well calls him Simon Peter. See below and I will try to expand on that in the closing.

 

⁴³ The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, “Follow me.” ⁴⁴ Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. 

⁴⁵ Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”⁴⁶ “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked. “Come and see,” said Philip. – Here is confirming what we have already discussed that these disciples are already well versed in the Law of Moses, or the Torah, as well as the other writings of the prophets. But here we also see a reference to Nazareth, even with Nathaniel asking what good could come from there. During that time, people from there were held to low regard so this was not a joke by him, he was actually being serious. Many of the prophecies of the coming Messiah you will find, portray Him as someone of low esteem, ridiculed by many in His time.

 

⁴⁷ When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.” ⁴⁸ “How do you know me?” Nathanael asked. Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.” ⁴⁹ Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.” –  Jesus is acknowledging He knew of Nathaniel’s previous remark of Nazareth and confirming Nathaniel was right! But then the Lord even goes so far to tell Nathaniel he has a miraculous vision (or premonition) of Nathaniel before Philip called him telling him where he was. How else could Jesus have known where Nathaniel was before then? Nathaniel appears to understand this by his proclamation as to who he now understood Jesus to be.

 

⁵⁰ Jesus said, “You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that.” ⁵¹ He then added, “Very truly I tell you, you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” – Okay, first use of the term Son of Man. It’s a term of humility as opposed to the term Son of God that is used throughout the Old Testament where today we might use “human being”. We will also see it used especially with regards to Jesus, as the Supreme example of what God intended mankind to be before sin and death were introduced. I am going to make the argument as we move forward, that since Jesus was born of Mary, through the Holy Spirit, he was exactly that. A man born into the world, without the original sin of Adam and Eve handed down literally through the blood of the man.

 

As we finish for the week, more on Peter….

One of my favorite lessons I ever learned and have taught is the very beginning of 2Peter which says: Simon Peter, a Servant and Apostle of Jesus Christ. As we study the Word, sentence structure can mean so much to the reader.

This is the beginning of a letter Peter himself is writing, and he begins with Simon, who he once was before meeting Jesus. Then he gives his new name Peter, the one Jesus gave him as if to remind himself who he was and where he came from before the huge change that happened in his life. Next is even more profound as Peter pronounces himself a SERVANT first before the power behind the title of an Apostle of Jesus Christ. What an amazing lesson of how to stay humble in your own ministry for the Lord.

[Cinga]

Oct 10

 

As we wrap up Genesis Chapter 1, the Beginning of literally everything including time itself; I hope you understand why we started John and Genesis together.  But I also hope you see the significance in the chronology so far in Genesis as well. Even if we put aside the 6 literal days of Creation a second, or even look at it in an evolution context, the earth, then plants, then living creatures HAD to come in that order. And the question we should ask ourselves is, since Moses wrote this some 34 – 3600 years ago, how could he have known that unless told by God? It’s all obvious to us today, but this was a period well before the “science” of today.

But just as important in this study, is note how often “according to it’s kind” is repeated often and remember us seeing that when something is repeated in Scripture, its like trying to make sure we are paying attention, this is important.

My comments are in italics.

 

²⁴ And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. ²⁵ God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. – Even this early in Creation we see a distinction that will become more clear in time, between wild animals and “livestock” or domesticated animals. But all animals during this time had no fear of man and we will see in Genesis Chapter 9 when and why this changes if you want to jump ahead.

²⁶ Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” – To rule over pretty much everything in Creation, and the original Hebrew used for this was “kabash” which does literally mean to force into subjugation or to conquer.

²⁷ So God created mankind in his own image,
    in the image of God he created them;
    male and female he created them.

I’m going to focus on the word "image" here, because so often I think it is misinterpreted (purposefully or not) to mean He made us look like Him, and that He must look like a man. But going back to my (Strong’s) Concordance again, the original Hebrew was “tsalem” which could be translated to phantom, or shade resemblance. I think we can make the argument that while we are created male and female, we are also created us in a “triune” nature of God, meaning we have 3 parts, body, spirit, soul. Scripture will support this train of thought in 1Thessalonians 5 If you want to verify it. This is how we were created in His image, and similar to the way Jesus is the “body” part that was subjected to Creation, out body is that part of us that is subjected to Creation.

²⁸ God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

²⁹ Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. ³⁰ And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so. – This part is really cool and gives birth to the diet known as the Genesis diet if you are familiar with it, which refers specifically to this verse. But the really, really cool part (can you tell my excitement?) notice He tells us, every beast of the earth (including lions, and tigers, and bears), every bird in the sky (including raptors and vultures), and every other creature that move along the ground (maggots and cockroaches) were given green plants to eat! ALL OF CREATION WAS ORIGINALLY VEGETARIAN!  Once again, you will see when and why this changes in Chapter 9.

³¹ God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.

We discussed before how at the end of every day, God looked on what He had made, and said it was “good”. However, on the 6^th day now, He is finished with Creation, and He sees that it is “Very Good”. We’re going to talk about this more as we work our way through the Bible, but understand that in the Beginning, God Created a perfect world, free of sin and death, one that all living creatures were Vegan.

When we come back to Genesis 2 on the 24^th, we’ll break it down a bit more, going in to parts of the first days of Creation in even more detail.

May God Bless you and yours through the coming week!

[TtownBillsFan]

Read through, literally all of that.  So now we're getting to my BBQ? 🙂 😛

[TtownBillsFan]

Appreciate what you're doing here.  I don't get to church anymore (haven't for a good couple decades, but am a believer).  Just want to say, THANK YOU for the above.  Scripture is pretty amazing.  Thank you for sharing it.

[TtownBillsFan]

I need to get back to church.  I was raised Southern Baptist, but I haven't been to chuch in a couple decades now.  I need it now, more than ever.  I'm a believer, but really need the scripture, and ritual in my life.  My new GF is leading me right.  But I appreciate what you laid down there.  Thanks again, Cinga.

[Cinga]

17 minutes ago, TtownBillsFan said:

I need to get back to church.  I was raised Southern Baptist, but I haven't been to chuch in a couple decades now.  I need it now, more than ever.  I'm a believer, but really need the scripture, and ritual in my life.  My new GF is leading me right.  But I appreciate what you laid down there.  Thanks again, Cinga.

 

You're so very welcome and all Glory goes to God! As you get back into His Word, I hope you still stop by and join us from time to time. I think all of us at one time or another get drowned in the things of this world but feel that tugging of the Spirit to bring us back and I promise, God is always there with open arms to welcome us back!

 

 

[TtownBillsFan]

Brother, I ALWAYS feel the tug! LOL  I pray every night, just to keep me somewhat sane.  "Renters" will drive you insane!

 

You guys don't know who I'm talking about, so I'll give you my most current:

 

The house, literally across the street from me, is one of my rent houses.  The people that were living there were my "hany-people".  They owed me $10K in unpaid rent that I covered for them, and another $7.2K that the Cherokee Nation paid on their behalf.....

 

[TtownBillsFan]

The house across the street from me, it had an in-ground pool.  Now, to be fair, it wasn't take care of (non-owners don't EVER take good care of a pool.  NOTE TO ANY LANDLORDS, DON"T EVERY BUY, OR RENT, A HOUSE WITH AN IN-GROUND POOL!!!

 

[TtownBillsFan]

I'm NOT going to keep describing this in this thread (thought I was in a different thread).

 

Praise God, thank Him for my many wonderful blessings, help me work through my problems, and forgive me of my sins.  Thank you, Lord, as you know I need it! 🙂

 

AMEN!!!

 

JC

[Fansince88]

Not a Bible Study but a great story of hope! last line in the story is great! Enjoy.

https://hisglorynews.com/message-from-god-neighbor-reveals-where-god-told-him-to-find-missing-child/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=his-glory&utm_campaign=daily&utm_content=firefly

[Fansince88]

On 10/13/2021 at 5:59 AM, TtownBillsFan said:

I need to get back to church.  I was raised Southern Baptist, but I haven't been to chuch in a couple decades now.  I need it now, more than ever.  I'm a believer, but really need the scripture, and ritual in my life.  My new GF is leading me right.  But I appreciate what you laid down there.  Thanks again, Cinga.

This is beautiful fruit @Cinga! Keep going! Read the story I posted above. We need to listen to Gods call on our lives. 

[Fansince88]

On 10/13/2021 at 7:10 AM, TtownBillsFan said:

I'm NOT going to keep describing this in this thread (thought I was in a different thread).

 

Praise God, thank Him for my many wonderful blessings, help me work through my problems, and forgive me of my sins.  Thank you, Lord, as you know I need it! 🙂

 

AMEN!!!

 

JC

Scripture simply says in Romans 10:9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. It is as simple as that. I call you brother! 

[Cinga]

Oct 17

 

We’re going to take one of our side trips to another section for a separate lesson before we get into John 2 next week.

If you haven’t gathered yet, I use the New International Version just because it’s what I prefer. I know there are some who might feel only the KJV or some other version should be used, but as we already learned in John 1, Jesus is the Word, and as long as you take it in context and with Him in your Heart, it shouldn’t matter.

I feel the Spirit encourage us this week to jump ahead to a  part of Luke 16 where we see the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus. As you study, you will realize Jesus uses 2 kinds of parables in His lessons. Most He uses a made-up analogy, or almost mythical form of storytelling, but in ones that He uses names, you can bet it is a true story.

This week we’re going to look at one of those true stories. This is a different Lazarus than the one Jesus will later raise from the dead in John 11 if you want to jump ahead.

 

Luke 16:19-31

My comments are italics

 

¹⁹ “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. ²⁰ At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores ²¹ and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. – Jesus doesn’t give us the name of the rich man, but He does of the poor man telling us we are hearing a true story. Purple you will learn through Scripture is the color of royalty, and though we only know him as rich, he may also have been a party of a royal bloodline. But Lazarus hanging at the rich man’s gate tells us that he must have, perhaps from time to time, gotten scraps from the rich man’s table. Indeed, you will soon see that the rich man certainly knows who Lazarus is.

 

²² “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. – There is a little debate over whether Abraham’s side, or bosom in other translations is Heaven or paradise/purgatory. We’ll discuss the others at a later time, but for now I believe we are seeing Lazarus in Heaven with Abraham.

 

The rich man also died and was buried. ²³ In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. – This is what I was referring to when I said I thought the rich man knew Lazarus when he hung out by his gate. We can assume he allowed it, being rich he could have had him chased away, but now we can see, perhaps he should have taken him in from outside and maybe shown some compassion. Hades is the Greek hah’dace for Hell.

 

²⁴ So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’ ²⁵ “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. – This confirms what we said prior, how things may have been different if the rich man had shown some compassion while in life towards Lazarus and others like him in need here on earth. But obvious here too is the importance of what we do here, that determines our eternity.

 

²⁶ And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’ – No one can cross. We are promised in the Word, that He will wipe away every tear and all sadness will be gone after judgement. So this event is taking place before that time, telling us there is an awareness of both sides before then.

 

²⁷ “He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, ²⁸ for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’ – Remember, verse 22 we know Lazarus died, but now the rich man is asking him for him to go back, whether raised up or as a ghost.

 

²⁹ “Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’ – Please take this verse to HEART! We have the words in the Bible of Moses and the Prophets! Know that ALL God’s Word is God Breathed, and literally dictated to each one of them for us to listen too!

 

³⁰ “‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ – Do you get where this is going yet?

 

³¹ “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’” - (emphasis mine)

 

Throughout these lessons, I pray I am helping you to learn to study and creating that excitement in you to do a deep dive for yourself! All of us, you, me, every person on the planet has the Words of the Prophets and Moses along with Christ risen yet still, too many don’t believe. That’s where we come in my Brothers and Sisters in Christ. In Galatians 3 we learn that being saved through Christ, we are also now adopted into the family of Abraham.

 

May God Bless you and yours through the coming week!

Edited October 17, 2021 by Cinga

[Fansince88]

Jumping in a day early here. just an encouraging word I got walking into the woods this morning at daybreak. BTW, No deer. 

As I was walking the nearly 1 mile walk in I heard, " My mercies are new every morning. Tell the people!" As I sit here in the quiet of the woods I pondered this and looked it up. In Lamentations 3 the writer is, well, he is lamenting. For 20 verses he went on and on about his struggles in life. His pains and even described them as his flesh is rotting. What is never preached is this is due to the seeds he has planted in life and now he is reaping a harvest. Who else besides me has felt that way. Perhaps you are seeing weeds grow in the garden of your life. Perhaps you do or don't remember the seeds you planted to produce them.

 

We all have been there right? We have all been through the mill and through the struggles of life but in vs 21after all the lamenting he says,

21But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: 22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; 23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”

 

Where is your hope today? Mine is in the steadfast Love and Mercy of an almighty God! You see, that is the beauty of it all. Although you and I don't deserve the mercy and steadfast love of the Savior it is right there for us. It is one call to Him away. The Bible says, if you confess your sins (bad seeds) He is faithful and just to forgive your sins (bad seeds) and cleanse you (pull those weeds we have planted in the garden of life) from all unrighteousness. Simple as that. God bless you all!

[Cinga]

21 hours ago, Fansince88 said:

Jumping in a day early here. just an encouraging word I got walking into the woods this morning at daybreak. BTW, No deer. 

As I was walking the nearly 1 mile walk in I heard, " My mercies are new every morning. Tell the people!" As I sit here in the quiet of the woods I pondered this and looked it up. In Lamentations 3 the writer is, well, he is lamenting. For 20 verses he went on and on about his struggles in life. His pains and even described them as his flesh is rotting. What is never preached is this is due to the seeds he has planted in life and now he is reaping a harvest. Who else besides me has felt that way. Perhaps you are seeing weeds grow in the garden of your life. Perhaps you do or don't remember the seeds you planted to produce them.

 

We all have been there right? We have all been through the mill and through the struggles of life but in vs 21after all the lamenting he says,

21But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: 22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; 23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”

 

Where is your hope today? Mine is in the steadfast Love and Mercy of an almighty God! You see, that is the beauty of it all. Although you and I don't deserve the mercy and steadfast love of the Savior it is right there for us. It is one call to Him away. The Bible says, if you confess your sins (bad seeds) He is faithful and just to forgive your sins (bad seeds) and cleanse you (pull those weeds we have planted in the garden of life) from all unrighteousness. Simple as that. God bless you all!

 

Great work @Fansince88!! If it's alright with you and everyone else, I'm going to leave this for the week as the lesson to ponder for all of us. 💖

While my lessons are word for word, verse by verse; this writing takes Scripture and makes it more personal, talking more about that one on one relationship each of us can have with the Lord. I struggle writing about that, where you have a real Blessing for this so I encourage you, and anyone else to add your writings so we can all see and share in the joy of that relationship.

In fact I would love for this thread to get to the point we have multiple lessons for the week!

 

And here is my take from @Fansince88 lesson if I may... 

 

Folks, Lamentations is one of the Old Testament Books nestled between Jeremiah and Ezekiel which Hebrew and Christian tradition credits to Jeremiah. It follows the destruction of the Temple, and exile of most of Judah (Israel) to Babylon. The Laments of the Book are over this exile and destruction which Judah had been warned about in Jeremiah, those bad seeds that had been planted. 

I think in this Book we see how many of us really are in our own relationships with God. You see, before the invasion from Babylon, Judah was celebrating in itself, and not heeding the warnings of what was to come. But once disaster hit, they turn back to God Lamenting their actions and begging for His Mercy and help. 

Anyone else do that sometimes? Tend to pray less, or not think of The Lord (not weeding your garden?) as often when things are going great? Only to run back into His arms when things go wrong? I'm ashamed to admit, I certainly have.... But Praise God His Mercies are new every day!

[Fansince88]

6 hours ago, Cinga said:

 

Great work @Fansince88!! If it's alright with you and everyone else, I'm going to leave this for the week as the lesson to ponder for all of us. 💖

While my lessons are word for word, verse by verse; this writing takes Scripture and makes it more personal, talking more about that one on one relationship each of us can have with the Lord. I struggle writing about that, where you have a real Blessing for this so I encourage you, and anyone else to add your writings so we can all see and share in the joy of that relationship.

In fact I would love for this thread to get to the point we have multiple lessons for the week!

 

And here is my take from @Fansince88 lesson if I may... 

 

Folks, Lamentations is one of the Old Testament Books nestled between Jeremiah and Ezekiel which Hebrew and Christian tradition credits to Jeremiah. It follows the destruction of the Temple, and exile of most of Judah (Israel) to Babylon. The Laments of the Book are over this exile and destruction which Judah had been warned about in Jeremiah, those bad seeds that had been planted. 

I think in this Book we see how many of us really are in our own relationships with God. You see, before the invasion from Babylon, Judah was celebrating in itself, and not heeding the warnings of what was to come. But once disaster hit, they turn back to God Lamenting their actions and begging for His Mercy and help. 

Anyone else do that sometimes? Tend to pray less, or not think of The Lord (not weeding your garden?) as often when things are going great? Only to run back into His arms when things go wrong? I'm ashamed to admit, I certainly have.... But Praise God His Mercies are new every day!

1 Corinthians 12 vs 13-27 says

13

For we were all baptized by [3] one Spirit into one body--whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free--and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

14

Now the body is not made up of one part but of many.

15

If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body.

16

And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body.

17

If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?

18

But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.

19

If they were all one part, where would the body be?

20

As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

21

The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!"

22

On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable,

23

and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty,

24

while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it,

25

so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.

26

If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

27

Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

 

Brother, I am not the body without you. Im simply just a finger or an eye. That said we are all a part if we are in Christ. We need to learn we need each other. In His service to all! That said, I guess I will take Saturdays? LOL. Blessings.