The PASSION Blog

The Bible gives us a number of clues on how to be great in God’s eyes and in His Kingdom.

In Matthew 5:19 it gives us two of them. It says, “…But anyone who obeys God’s laws and teaches them will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven”.

The two key thoughts of this verse are obedience to God’s laws and then teaching others to do the same. It says if we do these things we “will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven”.

Let’s all purpose in our hearts to obey God’s Word today and teach others how to do it too. It sounds like a great way to spend a day!

God Bless,
Dave

I recently got asked the question “Why do we need the Holy Spirit, when I already have Jesus?” It was by someone who was a new Christian.

It was a good question and one that I asked myself a number of years ago. I decided to pull out some Scriptures and see what the Bible said in my answer.

The verses paint a broad picture and give us a number of reasons why we need the Holy Spirit in our lives.

1. Jesus promised to send another Comforter to help us (John 14:26)

2. He dwells in us as Christians (Romans 8:11)

3. He shows us when we are not living right (John 16:8-11)

4. He give us a new life in Christ (Titus 3:5)

5. He empowers us to tell others about Jesus’ love and salvation (Acts 1:8)

6. He helps us to pray and connect with God (Romans 8:26)

7. He makes us more Christ-like in the way we live (Romans 8:5-9)

8. He gives us gifts to serve God and serve others (1 Corinthians 12:4-11)

9. He encourages us in our faith (Acts 9:31)

10. He reveals the secret things of God to us (1 Corinthians 2:10-16)

These are only 10 of the reasons why we need the Holy Spirit in our lives. There are a lot more when you search through the Bible.

God Bless,
Dave

The Bible says in Proverbs 12:9, “Better to be a nobody and yet have a servant than pretend to be somebody and have no food”.

This verse touches on the idea of keeping up appearances or pretending to be something that we are not. Often as humans we will try to impress others with what we own or how we live, and to keep up our “image” we will live beyond our means.

Proverbs 12:9 tells us that it is better to be humble and live within our means, rather than put on a fake show to big note how successful we are. It is about being content with yourself and your circumstances versus being flashy for the sake of others.

So how do we avoid the urge to keep up appearances? There are a few things we can do…

1. Pray and ask God to help you to be content with your circumstances and to help you to live within your means.
2. Give thanks to Him for all of the good things in your life. Tell Him how much you appreciate His blessings.
3. Ask Him to see yourself through His eyes. Once you do that then the need to impress others with what you have will slowly fall away.

God Bless,

Dave