1 Peter 2:1-2
“Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:”
Every Christian should desire to grow as a Christian. The purpose of the Word of God is to help the Christian to become “thoroughly furnished” so that they can continue growing. God addressed five things in the verses above that every Christian needs to lay aside so they can continue to grow. That means if they must lay them aside to grow, having these things in ones life will keep them from growing or will stunt their growth. You will never become the Christian you are supposed to be until you lay these things aside.
James 1:8
“A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.”
Do you remember when you were a child going to the ice cream shop and having to decide which flavor of ice cream to get? It seemed to be such a difficult decision. In front of you were over fifty flavors of ice cream, and they all looked good. Finally, your parents would say to you, “Hurry up and make up your mind.” Making the final choice was hard because you wanted more than one flavor, but you seemed to have difficulty surrendering to the fact that the flavor you chose was the best flavor.
Hebrews 8:12
“For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.”
There is no better example of how to build a relationship with sinners than Jesus Christ. Jesus, the sinless Son of God, continually builds relationships with sinners. He is the One Who died for the sins of mankind, yet He still finds it within Himself to build a relationship with us. How does He do it? The verse above shows us that He is merciful and willing to move on and not remember what we have done. This is a great example of building relationships with sinful people!
Hebrews 1:9
“Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.”
Happiness is not a destination, but the result of an action. We oftentimes think that we would be happy at a place, but once we get there we discover that the place didn’t bring us happiness. You can think that if you attended another church or moved to another place that you will be happy, but if you are not happy now you won't be happy when you move.
Song of Solomon 5:6
“I opened to my beloved; but my beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone: my soul failed when he spake: I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer.”
Keeping someone’s attention is the key to making sure that they get all of the required information that you wanted them to hear. One of the commands I use to train my dogs is “look”. I train them to look because I want their attention. If I have their attention, I know that we are engaged with each other. Likewise, if you have your spouse’s attention, you then can engage in a good conversation.
Esther 1:19
“If it please the king, let there go a royal commandment from him, and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes, that it be not altered, That Vashti come no more before king Ahasuerus; and let the king give her royal estate unto another that is better than she.”
If all you had to look at to view the result of Vashti’s life was the verse above, you would think that she lost in her battle for purity. I’m sure that Vashti didn't think that her throne would be taken from her when she told her husband that she would not flaunt herself in front of a bunch of drunken men. I wouldn't be surprised that she thought that doing right would cause God to defend her, but that didn't happen. If you look at the result of her action without looking at history, then you would say that she was the biggest loser, but she wasn’t.
Nehemiah 7:2
“That I gave my brother Hanani, and Hananiah the ruler of the palace, charge over Jerusalem: for he was a faithful man, and feared God above many.”
When it came time for Nehemiah to go back to the palace, he had to find some people to put in leadership positions who would continue the work that they had started. It says in the verse above that he placed Hanani and Hananiah in charge of the palace and over the city of Jerusalem. Both places were very important as they were the center for all Israel. Those places were the places Israel looked to for direction. When you look at the qualities of these men, you find their qualities are needed in every leader.
Nehemiah 6:3
“And I sent messengers unto them, saying, I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?”
Any time you do a work for God, you will always have critics who will criticize everything you do. Nehemiah found this out when he rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem. Sanballat and Geshem did everything they could to get him to come down from the wall, but he understood that the work that he was doing wouldn't allow him to come down. He completely understood that their attempts to get him to come down were only an attempt to get him to stop building the wall, so he resolved that no matter what they said, threatened or offered that he would not come down from the wall.
You’re a Liar
Zechariah 13:3
“And it shall come to pass, that when any shall yet prophesy, then his father and his mother that begat him shall say unto him, Thou shalt not live; for thou speakest lies in the name of the LORD: and his father and his mother that begat him shall thrust him through when he prophesieth.”
A very important principle is being taught in this verse that will keep us from compromise. God tells the children of Israel about a day when all idols will be cut off. A day when even the names of these idols will no more be remembered. God says in that day when a person gets up to prophesy the untruths of these idols and false religions that even the parents of this person will stand against them and call them a liar and will have them killed. For a parent to stand against their child is a very strong statement and a strong stand for truth.
Zechariah 4:10
“For who hath despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the LORD, which run to and fro through the whole earth.”
For several years I have owned Rottweilers. We got each of these dogs when they were puppies. When you look at them as puppies, you can't imagine how big they will get, but trust me, they do get big. What used to be a little puppy that everyone thought was so cute has now grown up into a big beautiful dog. We had to keep in mind when we got the dogs that they were not always going to be small.