Tuesday: God’s Will and His Word

Sermon: How to Know the Will of God

In this week’s lessons, we look at this important matter of how the Christian can know the will of God and live in a way that is pleasing to Him.

Theme: God’s Will and His Word

Yesterday, we concluded by talking about the cloud that led the Israelites through the wilderness, noting that it would stop and then start at unknown intervals, and that the people were to follow its movements.

The second great principle for knowing the will of God is that nothing can be the will of God that is contrary to the Word of God. The God who is leading you now is the God who inspired the Bible, and He is not contradictory in His commandments. Consequently, nothing can be the will of God for you that is not in accordance with His Word. 

Think and Act Biblically from James Boice is a devotional of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Think and Act Biblically and the mission of the Alliance.

Monday: God’s Revelation

Sermon: How to Know the Will of God

In this week’s lessons, we look at this important matter of how the Christian can know the will of God and live in a way that is pleasing to Him.

Theme: God’s Revelation

How can you know God's will? How's it possible for you to know the mind of God? If God has a plan for your life, how does He reveal it to you? How can you find that plan? Or to put it in other words, how does a sinful, finite human being come to know what a holy and infinite God desires? In this study we're going to look at verses which assure us that God will give us the guidance we need for every aspect of our lives, and which show us how to find that guidance. 

Think and Act Biblically from James Boice is a devotional of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Think and Act Biblically and the mission of the Alliance.

Friday: Through Christ Alone

Sermon: How to Worship

In this week’s lessons, we learn what worship is and what it means to worship in spirit and in truth.

Theme: Through Christ Alone

We see this idea of how to approach God in the Old Testament in the instructions given to Moses for the design of the tabernacle. What was the original tabernacle? It was not a thing of great beauty or permanence. It had no stained-glass windows, no gothic arches. It was just made of pieces of wood and animal skins. But every part of it was significant. The tabernacle, in other words, taught the way to God. It was a great object lesson. Take that tabernacle with its altar for sacrifice, its laver for cleansing, its Holy Place, and its Holy of Holies, and you have a perfect illustration of how a person must approach God.

Think and Act Biblically from James Boice is a devotional of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Think and Act Biblically and the mission of the Alliance.

Thursday: Worshiping in Truth

Sermon: How to Worship

In this week’s lessons, we learn what worship is and what it means to worship in spirit and in truth.

Theme: Worshiping in Truth

We should pray that God will use any form of church service in which we happen to be participating to that end of directing our attention to Him. And as for evaluating services is concerned, we need to ask this: When we leave our services on Sunday morning and Sunday evening, do we come out saying “Oh, wasn't that unusual what the pastor did?” or “I've never heard a dialogue sermon before,” or “Weren't the visual aids interesting?” Rather, do we come out saying “I never knew that about God," and fix our mind upon Him?

Think and Act Biblically from James Boice is a devotional of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Think and Act Biblically and the mission of the Alliance.

Wednesday: When True Worship Occurs

Sermon: How to Worship

In this week’s lessons, we learn what worship is and what it means to worship in spirit and in truth.

Theme: When True Worship Occurs

In addition, however, we must not confuse worship with feeling, for worship does not originate with the soul either, any more than it originates with the body. The soul is the seat of our emotions. It may be the case, and often is, that the emotions are stirred in real worship. At times tears fill the eyes or joy floods the heart. But unfortunately, it is possible for these things to happen without worship being present. It is possible to be moved by a song or by oratory, and yet not come to a genuine awareness of God and a fuller praise of His ways and nature. True worship occurs only when man's spirit, that part of him which is akin to the divine nature (for God is spirit), actually meets with God, praising Him for His love, wisdom, beauty, truth, holiness, compassion, mercy, grace, power, and all His other attributes.

Think and Act Biblically from James Boice is a devotional of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Think and Act Biblically and the mission of the Alliance.

Tuesday: God’s “Worth-ship”

Sermon: How to Worship

In this week’s lessons, we learn what worship is and what it means to worship in spirit and in truth.

Theme: God’s “Worth-ship”

Another way of making this point about worship being essential is to note that there are three great "musts" in John's gospel. The first occurs in chapter 3, verse 7, where Jesus said, "Ye must be born again." The second is in verse 14 of the same chapter. “Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up." The verses we are studying give us the third “must,” for they say that all who worship God "must worship him in spirit and in truth.” In other words these three doctrines–the necessity for the new birth, the necessity of Christ's death, and the necessity of true worship–belong together. 

Think and Act Biblically from James Boice is a devotional of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Think and Act Biblically and the mission of the Alliance.

Monday: A Very Important Subject

Sermon: How to Worship

In this week’s lessons, we learn what worship is and what it means to worship in spirit and in truth.

Theme: A Very Important Subject

But in spite of the obvious truth that the worship of God is important and even imperative for Christians, it is a sad fact that in our day much that passes for worship is not worship at all. And many who sincerely desire to worship God do not always know how to go about it or where to begin. And so they ask questions such as, "What is worship anyway?" “Who can worship?” “Where can one worship?” “How does one worship?” 

Think and Act Biblically from James Boice is a devotional of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Think and Act Biblically and the mission of the Alliance.

Friday: Praying with Confidence

Sermon: How to Pray

In this week’s lessons, we look at what prayer is and how to pray properly.

Theme: Praying with Confidence

If God feels far away when you begin to pray, what are you to do in this case? Should you stop and pray some other time, saying, "Well I'm not getting through today, I'll come back tomorrow"? Oh no! In fact you probably need prayer most at that moment. You see, instead of not praying at that moment, you should simply be still and, looking to God, ask Him to work through His Holy Spirit to make Himself real to you and to lead you into His presence. Many Christians find that their most wonderful times of prayer are those in which they start without clear sense of God's presence, but come to it fully by praying. 

Think and Act Biblically from James Boice is a devotional of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Think and Act Biblically and the mission of the Alliance.

Thursday: The Holy Spirit’s Role

Sermon: How to Pray

In this week’s lessons, we look at what prayer is and how to pray properly.

Theme: The Holy Spirit’s Role

Second, the fact that you come to God through Christ means that you can come without guilt. One of my friends says that he believes guilt is the major culprit in keeping people from praying, and I believe he is right. People do feel guilty before God. They feel ashamed and unqualified to ask anything from Him. There are good reasons for this guilt, too, but the fact that you come through Jesus Christ means that you come as one whose guilt is removed. Yes, you are a sinner; but the sin has been dealt with and so now you stand as a righteous person before God. 

Think and Act Biblically from James Boice is a devotional of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Think and Act Biblically and the mission of the Alliance.

Wednesday: Communing with the Father through His Son

Sermon: How to Pray

In this week’s lessons, we look at what prayer is and how to pray properly.

Theme: Communing with the Father through His Son

In one of his books Reuben A. Torrey, the great Bible teacher and evangelist, told of the difficulty he used to have in prayer and how this changed when he suddenly realized that prayer was essentially conversation with God. He wrote: 

Now perhaps you have another question at this point. For if it is true that prayer is communing with God, the question naturally comes up about the means of access to Him. How can a sinful human being approach a God who is holy? Is it even possible? And if it is, what does it mean in terms of the way that we can approach him? 

Think and Act Biblically from James Boice is a devotional of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Think and Act Biblically and the mission of the Alliance.

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