Bible Reading Journey with Sears Church of God

01/20/2025

12/15/2024

12/09/2024

Powerful message by Dr. Joe Fears

12/02/2024

December 2nd https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%2020%3A13-21%3A36&version=NIV
Paul spends a decade traveling the Mediterranean basin to evangelize people and plant churches. He is driven to proclaim the Good News, calling everyone to repent of sin, turn to God, and trust in Jesus. His purpose is to finish "the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus, the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God" (Acts 20:24).
At the end of his third missionary journey, Paul decides to spend the Festival of Pentecost in Jerusalem. Upon arriving, a group of Jews accuse him of encouraging Jews to disobey the Law of Moses. He is arrested, and he would spend the remaining decade of his life in and out of prison, still fulfilling his mission. During his final years, Paul writes the letters of Ephesians, Philippians Colossians, Philemon, 1 and 2 Timothy, and Titus. Paul's decades of church planting and letter writing and his ministry from prison bear witness to a life of faithfulness (see Acts 20:21).

Paul’s Farewell to the Ephesian Elders - We went on ahead to the ship and sailed for Assos, where we were going to take Paul aboard. He had made this arrangement because he was going there on foot. When he met us at Assos, we took him aboard and went on to Mitylene. The next day we set sail from t...

11/28/2024

November 28th

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the church of God in Corinth, together with all his holy people throughout Achaia: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Praise to the God of All Comfort - Praise be to the God and Father...

11/27/2024

November 27th

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11/26/2024

November 26th

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11/25/2024

November 25th https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Roman%27s%205%3A1-8%3A17%20&version=NIV
Paul contrasts the impact of Adam's sin with the impact of Christ's sacrifice. Adam's sin results in death and condemnation by God and passes to all his descendants. Jesus' righteous life ends in death (which He did not deserve, since He had no sin), but He is vindicated by His resurrection, which redeems sinners and restores them to God. Faith in Christ unites Adam's descendants to Christ; the penalty of their sins is transferred to His death, and His resurrection makes them right with God and gives them peace.
Christ does what the Law cannot do; free us of the penalty of sin. The Spirit does what the Law cannot do; free us from the power of sin.
Paul presents the mind as the tool either of the Spirit or of sin. Sin controlling the mind brings defeat and death. The Spirit controlling the mind brings freedom, peace, and joy. All believers are servants to the master of their minds.

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11/23/2024

November 23rd https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Corinthians%2016%3A1-24%2C%20acts%2019%3A21-20%3A6%2C%20romans%201%3A1-32&version=NIV
Some people in Ephesus, a center of idol worship, are threatened by Paul's preaching of the Good News and the abandonment of idolatry that results. Making and selling religious artifacts generates wealth for merchants who profit from humanity's rejection of the living God, so they oppose Paul and the gospel.
Everywhere the gospel goes, it opposes false ideas about God and life. Embracing the gospel is costly; it demands full allegiance to the living God.
At the beginning of his letter to the believers in Rome, Paul establishes that righteousness is gospel based and faith based (Roman's 1:16). He also explains that people's separation from their Creator leads to false religion (idoltry). "Instead of worshipping the glorious, ever living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles" (Roman's 1:23) and sexual and relational brokenness (Roman's 1:24-32).

The Collection for the Lord’s People - Now about the collection for the Lord’s people: Do what I told the Galatian churches to do. On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will ha...

11/22/2024

November 22nd

Intelligibility in Worship - Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy. For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people but to God. Indeed, no one understands them; they utter mysteries by the Spirit. But the one who prophesies speaks to people for...

11/21/2024

November 21st https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Corinthians%2011%3A2-13%3A13&version=NIV
Paul addresses further problems within the Corinthian church that produce disunity. He begins with the need for structured authority. Though Paul affirms that men and women are equal to one another before God and are interdependent (a view quite radical for his day), he teaches that God established an authority structure that began in the Garden of Eden and is illustrated by the creation of man and woman (1 Corinthians 11:3-10).
The indwelling Holy Spirit makes believers other centered. The church functions effectively when believers depend on one another and employ the gifts the Spirit gives them. Paul uses the body as an analogy to demonstrate how the health of the whole depends on the working function of each part. Believers need the contribution of diversity to become all that the gospel promises.
Love, genuine and other centered love, creates a healthy atmosphere for human flourishing. Relationships within the body of Christ reveal our brokenness and provide opportunities for healing. Biblical love produces true unity in diversity.

On Covering the Head in Worship - I praise you for remembering me in everything and for holding to the traditions just as I passed them on to you. But I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. Every man who prays or p...