Bible | His Glory My Joy, a blog of Author Luana Ehrlich

This Might Work!

February 26, 2019 Leave a comment

puzzle As I continually seek to be a student and teacher of God’s Word, I encounter many different methods, programs, and suggestions about how I should memorize, use, remember, and put into practice what I’ve studied and taught, and it usually doesn’t take me very long to recognize if something will work for me or not.

More often than not, I find myself thinking, “I will never do this” or “I can’t even begin to understand how this would work.” However, here are three helpful suggestions I’ve come across that made me say, “This might work!”

How To Talk To God: In this blog, Lisa gives some pointers about using God’s Word to talk to Him. What happens when you speak God’s own words back to Him? Find out here.

How To Walk By The Spirit: In this sermon from John Piper on 1 Thessalonians 3, you’ll find a wonderful acronym called APTAT, which you can use to remember what to do when asked to do something you don’t believe you can do. Piper ‘s message is entitled “The Word Of God Is At Work In You,” and the application of this (which is about 30 minutes into the video if you want to watch it) is outlined in the written sermon called Applying The Text To Your Life. Watch the video or read the sermon here.

How To View The Bible: Along with many of you, I am reading the Bible through again this year. In my plan I’m about to finish up Genesis, and I’ve seen the grace of God at every turn, from the moment of creation to God’s dealings with Joseph. But this will not be the end of God’s grace. In fact, the grace of God can be found in every book of the Bible. Dane Ortlund outlines how every book of the Bible shows God’s grace. You can read it here.

Maybe these suggestions will make you say, “This might work!”

2 Timothy 2:15: “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.”

Categories: Bible, Christian Living, Devotionals, God's Word, Guidance, Worship Tags: Bible, How To Study, Methods for Bible Study, What works for you, Working for His Glory

A Day of Hope

January 1, 2019 Leave a comment

Goodbye, 2018. Hello, 2019.

January 1st is a day of promise. To many, it holds the enticing thought of a brand new start, a day to wipe the slate clean, to begin anew.

January 1st could rightly be renamed The Day of Hope.

We hope to lose weight, get more sleep, eat healthy.
We hope to be more productive, not procrastinate, get organized.
We hope to get a better job, earn more money, buy a new house.

But, so much of what we hope for tomorrow will just be wishful thinking.

There’s a different kind of hope that’s not just wishful thinking. It’s a hope centered on Christ, a confidence that what God has promised He’ll bring to pass.

I like to think of hope as the future tense of faith.

How can we have this hope that’s not just wishful thinking?

Romans 10:17 says, “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.” It’s the Word of God that makes faith and hope possible.

All of your days in 2019 can be A Day of Hope by reading God’s Word.

Check out these Daily Bible Reading Plans for hope-filled days in 2019.

Categories: Bible, Christian Living, Devotionals, Faith, Happiness, Hope Tags: Bible, Bible Reading Plans, Day of Hope, Faith, Message of Hope, New Year, New Year New You

Is it possible to know God?

May 21, 2018 Leave a comment

I was talking with a young lady who’d been a believer for several years, but who’d recently signed up for a weekly Bible study. She said, “I want to know God. I know that won’t happen if I don’t study my Bible.”

Without realizing it, this young lady had made a profound statement. There’s no way anyone can know God except through the study of Scriptures, the revelation He’s given us about Himself. The best way to learn about God is to read, study, and meditate on the love letter He’s written to us.

Although I met my husband-to-be when I was sixteen years old, we lived a thousand miles away from each other and never had the opportunity to spend any time together. I understood why my friends and family were surprised when I announced that James and I were getting married only a couple of months after my eighteenth birthday. What they failed to grasp was that James and I had been corresponding with each other regularly for almost two years, and because of those letters, we’d come to know each other as well as many couples who’d been dating for several years.

While this illustrates the concept of getting to know God through reading His Word, it fails to portray the real picture of how intimacy with God is possible through the study of His Word.

This truth can only be experienced when a believer spends time in the Word every day. This is the way God has chosen to build a relationship with His children. This is the way God speaks to His children, and this is the way His children learn to recognize the voice of the Father.

Jesus said His followers are able to discern His voice. John 10:27, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”

If you truly “want to know God,” become familiar with the sound of His voice through His Word.

Categories: Bible, Devotionals, Faith, God's Presence, God's Word, Listening, Revelation Tags: Bible, Daily Quiet Time, God's Word Daily, Knowing God

Life Out of Focus?

October 17, 2016 Leave a comment

One of the great things about most cameras today is the automatic focusing feature. I’m old enough to remember using a camera that required fiddling with a bunch of dials before snapping the picture. Most of the time, those waiting to be photographed weren’t very patient about this process, and, oftentimes, after all that effort, the photo turned out to be out of focus after all.

As children of God, it would be nice to have this automatic focusing mechanism built into our daily lives, so that the moment our lives became blurry around the edges—from taking part in all the world has to offer, from neglecting Bible study, from participating in non-glorifying activities—then our focus would automatically be returned to our Father and to living out Christ in us, “the hope of Glory” (Colossians 1:27).

However, none of us have an automatic focusing mechanism. What we have is something even better—the Word of God. While having a device to automatically redirect one’s focus towards God sounds good, in reality, such a device would ultimately lead to taking God for granted, and it would not adhere to the command to “work out your salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12).

God’s Word directs us to focus on Him in numerous passages of Scripture throughout the Old and New Testament. One of my favorites is 2 Thessalonians 3:5: “May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.”

Have you lost your focus? Direct your heart today to the love of God. “The love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him” (1 John 4:9).

Direct your heart to the steadfastness of Christ. “He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it” (1 Thessalonians 5:24).

Spending time with the Lord in daily Bible study brings clarity to our lives and sharpens an otherwise blurry picture.

Categories: Bible, Call To God, Christian Living, Devotionals, Glorifying God, God's Love, God's Word, Truth Tags: Bible, Cameras, Focus, Love, Praise, Truth

Treating The Bible Like Pinterest

August 12, 2015 Leave a comment

After resisting for several years, I finally gave in and joined the social media website, Pinterest. I’d resisted because I’d heard it was a great source of information. To others, that might seem like a good reason to join, but for me, it was a great reason to stay away.

I love finding out about “stuff.” I love getting lost in articles about writing and cooking and the Bible and politics and . . . just abut anything. I knew if I gave in and became a member, I might never get anything done. I knew I could spend hours on there.

Then, after doing some research for my Titus Ray Thrillers, I decided it might be a useful tool for organizing my research, and I decided to join the website. Before doing so, I set some parameters for myself—amount of time spent, types of research, etc.

So, far, I’ve kept to those guidelines, and I’ve found it to be a useful tool. I’ve also discovered two aspects of using Pinterest that surprised me.

First, just by pinning something to a board doesn’t mean I’m ever going to read the blog or the article associated with the pin. In fact, it may be just the opposite. Instead of reading the post, I may pin it to one of my boards and forget about it.

Second, the more boards I accumulate, the more time I spend arranging the boards and the pins on the boards. What this means is that the information or inspiration contained on those boards is being neglected in favor of organization.

As I considered these weaknesses associated with Pinterest, I saw a parallel in the way many believers treat the Bible.

After discovering a truth from God’s Word—from a sermon or a Bible study or personal devotions—we mentally file it away and never give it another thought. There is no practical application of the truth; there’s no follow-up, there’s no examination of the truth before the Lord in prayer.

As with Pinterest, having the encounter doesn’t mean having the experience.

A second parallel the Bible shares with Pinterest is that it’s easy to neglect the overall purpose. The overall purpose of the Bible—to reveal God to man—can be pushed aside in favor of accumulating notes, highlighting passages, and memorizing historical facts.

As with Pinterest, it’s sometimes easy to get caught up in the process and fail to discover the power.

Luke 11:28 “Blessed are those who hear the Word of God and keep it.”

I’m always open to following others on Pinterest. Find me on Pinterest.