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Dear Friends,
Thank you for your encouragement and support. We pray you will be blessed daily through the Word. Please freely share this email with others.
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| Continue to Catch Don!
www.bibleteachingresources.
org 
Philippines radio
(MPR 105.3 FM)
Contact
Bible Teaching Resources
Donald Anderson
PO Box 6611
Tyler, TX 75711-6611
903-939-1201 (office)
1.877.326.7729 (toll free)
903.939.1204 (fax)
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Whatever Pleases Him
Scripture
Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him.
Psalm 115:3 (NIV)
But their idols are silver and gold, made by the hands of men. Psalm 115:4 (NIV)
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| Whatever Pleases Him Verse 3: Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him.
I love the whatever Eugene H. Peterson paraphrases in verse 3: "
Our God is in heaven doing whatever he wants to do."
Psalm 135:6:
"The Lord does whatever pleases him, in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and all their depths." (NIV)
Job 23:13:
"But he stands alone, and who can oppose him? He does whatever he pleases" (NIV)
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"Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him." Isaiah 53:10 tells us it pleased the Father to crush him.
Ephesians 5:10:
"trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord" (NASB)
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Ephesians 5:17:
"So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is" (NASB).
David Jeremiah says:
"We don't need a convenient, compact god. We need the One who causes us to fall upon our knees, who leaves us speechless, who makes our eyes shine with His fire and causes us to depart as changed persons. And we need that God every moment of every day." (My Heart's Desire, 18).
Romans 12:1, 2:
With eyes wide open to the mercies of God, I beg you, my brothers, as an act of intelligent worship, to give him your bodies, as a living sacrifice, consecrated to him and acceptable by him. Don't let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands, and moves towards the goal of true maturity. (Phillips).
Charles Swindoll says:
"When we take this to the ultimate future of humanity, God is sovereignly in charge. One second after they die, the men and women who have rejected and resisted the Lord for years will step into eternity. One second...and they will be totally at a loss to determine their future. God's sovereignty steps over their lives and sets forth His decree, 'That God may be all in all.'" (The Mystery of God's Will, 73).
Verse 4:
"But their idols are silver and gold, made by the hands of men."
We have
"Our God" in verse 3 and
"their idols" in verse 4.
Psalm 135:15 - 18:
"The idols of the nations are silver and gold, made by the hands of men. They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but they cannot see; they have ears but cannot hear, nor is there breath in their mouths. Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them" (NIV).
Psalm 96:5:
"For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the Lord made the heavens" (NIV).
These idols are described in 3 ways in verse 4: (1) "silver"; (2) "gold"; and (3) "made by the hands of men."
Warren Wiersbe says:
"Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands' (v.4). How true that is today also. Many people worship silver and gold as their god in life. But what good are the things that money can buy if you don't have the things that money can't buy?".
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We Will Understand It Better By & By
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I do not understand. At times we just plain cannot understand the happenings in the world, the lives of those we love or in our own personal lives. We all encounter situations that cause us to admit to God I do not understand. We struggle over difficult circumstances like death, accidents, or disasters.
Recently I was struggling with just such a circumstance. During my prayer time I admitted to the Lord that I did not understand what had happened. I was seeking the Lord with "why" on my mind and in my heart.
The Lord gave me a verse a few minutes later while reading the Scriptures during my devotional time. "Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding" (Proverbs 3:5).
God spoke to me so powerfully from His Word. This verse tells us we are not to lean or depend on our own human understanding. I felt the Lord gently reminding me to trust Him. Not only to trust Him, but to whole heartedly trust Him.
At that moment I felt God meeting me in my questioning and calling me to trust. He is so trustworthy and my heart responded to our Heavenly Father. I trust you. I still do not understand, but that is not for me. My responsibility is to trust. This was an opportunity to trust God.
We cannot explain God or understand the happenings around us. That is not for us. We are to trust.
Are you struggling? Are you questioning happenings around you? Are circumstances in your life or the life of a loved one unexplainable?
TRUST.
- Donna Anderson Skorheim
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Christ is All and in All,
Bible Teaching Resources
For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)
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