Xtreme Daily Bible Study
Tuesday, September 30th
Written by Janet Scott
Proverbs 29:18a
Where there is no vision the people perish
Sometimes when everything seems overwhelming to us and we just can’t seem to see beyond right now we need to take a moment and remember the “Big Picture”. Every struggle you go through in life and every frustrating job is usually training for what God has planned for you down the road. If you let today’s circumstances and frustrations get you down then it will take even longer to get where you are going. We all get down at times and frustrated beyond words, but it is so important to pull yourself into the position to look up. Did you know that you can pull yourself out of feeling down sometimes just by changing your body posture and holding yourself up and your head up? It is weird, but unless it is a heavy depression, that will usually work when you are just really having a bad day. The point though is, that sometimes we can’t fully see the vision God has for us but we still have to keep pushing ahead to get there. Satan will throw everything he can at you as you get closer because he is scared of what you might accomplish. God’s vision for you will always be beyond you so that you will have to depend on Him and give Him the glory for it. So take heart, if things just seem to be overwhelming - STOP and spend some time in your Bible and ask God to encourage you and show you what you need to learn so you are fully equipped for His plan for your life!
Extra time in the Word Proverbs 29
Written By Bill Scott
Monday September 29th
Proverbs 4:23
Above all else, guard your heart, for it affects everything you do. (NLT)
It’s easy to have a million excuses as to why you cannot or will not do this. You might say but I have the right to not forgive, but I have the right to have sex, but I have the right to be bitter etc. It’s time to let lose of your BUT and go with God. We have to guard our hearts. If your heart is broken, it affects everything you do. Most of you have experienced that at some point in your life. If your heart gets hard it causes you to go down the wrong path and not be open to God. I think you get the idea of how important it is to guard your heart and to make sure it’s in tune with God on a daily basis. This is a very short verse but it’s one that could change your life forever.
Extra time in the Word Proverbs 4
Written by Mike Williams
Sunday, September 28th
The poor will eat and be satisfied; They who seek the Lord will praise him, may your hearts live forever! Psalm 22:26.
God and fast food have nothing in common,fortunately for me, rather I realize it or not. Did you know that the fast food industry started right here in the US of A? Yea, it all started with McKee Dee’s fries and happy meals and what not. Make food ready and available at almost anytime, almost anywhere. It’s a pretty popular idea, and so is copying and pasting your business all over the country, while making money from other people running it. Genius. Franchising and corporate establishments are on the rise, and it’s funny when you think about it. A great country that’s all about hard work and individuality, was founded on the exploitation of convenience and increasing personal gain at the cost of the individual. Capitalism can be just as rich in greed as anything else.
Ahh, I digress. Have you ever noticed that you can see the Golden Arches from a mile away, and they are usually near an exit off the interstate or on some busy intersection? Yea, there is a point to that. So that you can see that they are ready and available to offer you their food. Some times I wonder why the cheapest and poorest in quality is the most available. Maybe because it is the cheapest and it is the easiest to see at night, (by the way, that’s the darkest time of the day). Have you ever wondered why God doesn’t have Golden arches? I mean it would be perfect, People could just pull up and order what ever they wanted and move on. Fast, cheap, convenient. But wait, God does not cater to us. We submit to Him. If it was the other way around, what would the value of our relationship be? Cheap. Now, if He where easy to find, what would be the point of looking for him. He is invisible to our human eyes for goodness sake! Not to mention, He isn’t the easiest character to understand, which furthers my belief that women are made more in the image of God than man (just kidding). Go figure, who really knows anyway.
Extra Time in the Word Psalm 22
Saturday, September 27th
Written By Kyle Shultz
I Kings 20:28
The man of God came up and told the king of Israel, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Because the Arameans think the Lord is god of the hills and not god of the valleys, I will deliver this vast army into your hands, and you will know that I am the Lord.”
This story takes place at a time when Israel wasn’t following after God. It so happened that an army wanted to turn the Israelites into slaves. They refused and got ready for battle, which they would be easily wiped out. The Lord sent a prophet to the king wanting Israel to come back to Him and serve Him. He gave Israel signs that He was God by saying He would give them victory over the enemy. What makes this crazy is that the writer compares the enemy to Israel as a crowd covering a countryside against a flock of goats! They were severely outnumbered! The difference was that God was with them and God gave them victory.
It’s easy to think that the world is against you and that your situation is too big for God. When you compare yourself to whatever you’re facing, you’re outnumbered and overcoming seems impossible. The truth is that when God is for you, nothing can stand against you. God is in complete control of your situation and He’s not going to lose control either. All you need to do is look to Him and let Him take care of it however He wishes. Whatever He does will be good and He will show Himself mighty to you through it.
Extra Time in the Word 1 Kings 20
Friday, September 26th
Written By Bill Scott
Isaiah 38:17
It seems it was good for me to go through all those troubles. Throughout them all you held tight to my lifeline. You never let me tumble over the edge into nothing. But my sins you let go of, threw them over your shoulder–good riddance! (MSG)
We all go through tough times. During those times God has His mighty hand on you to protect and watch over you. There have been times in my life when I walked through the darkness. During that time I made some really bad decisions and yet God made sure that I didn’t go over the edge into complete darkness never to return. I asked the Lord for His forgiveness in regards to my sins and to my surprise He let my sins go and threw them over his shoulder. That means my sins are not being held over my head. They are gone, forgotten and destroyed. Was it good for me to go through the trouble times? The answer is yes. Would I want to face those times again? The answer is no. You see, God can get the glory out of everything and He will if you give Him the chance. I am a much stronger person today because of what I went through and I am an individual who understands God’s grace at a much deeper level
Extra time in the Word Isaiah 38
Written by Janet Scott
Thursday, September 25′th
2 Corinthians 4:18
So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is
temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
Do you set goals for your life? What kind of goals do you set? A goal is seeing
something that isn’t but believing it could happen. The Bible says, “you have not because you ask not.” It also says that “without faith it is impossible to please Him.” Are there things in your life you are discouraged about or people in your life that need a heart change that you should be praying about and asking God to take care of it. Maybe there is something that you or someone you love needs to be healed or given victory over. Maybe it is a serious financial need. How about goals in your spiritual life? Have you ever just really poured out your heart and asked God to help you to grow closer to Him? Having a goal set to read your Bible everyday and have a closer relationship with Him is probably the most effective goal you can set! The better you know Him the more victory you will have in your life and everything else will fall into place!
Extra Time in the Word 2 Corinthians 4
Written By Kyle Shultz
Wednesday September 24th
I Kings 19:12-13
After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentile whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.
There are going to be times in our life when we feel like we just can’t take it anymore and we want out of it. We feel like if God doesn’t come and help us out, we just won’t make it. In this story, Elijah was definitely in that situation. A great victory turned into a defeat. He called out for God to take his life. While he was filled to the brim with frustration, God told him that he would meet with him. Elijah went out of his hiding and saw many great wonders. He saw a mighty wind, an earthquake, and a great fire. Yet for all these wonders, he did not encounter God in them. When all those wonders left, Elijah heard a whisper from God, and from that whisper, Elijah received strength to move on.
Those times when we really want to meet with God, we think that God will come to us in might power and proclaim Himself with a great voice and a powerful beam of light that almosts blinds us. Maybe not that extreme, but we do at times expect God to show up so strongly that we know that He is with us. Sometimes we look for some great sign and it never comes. The reason is because God doesn’t always work like that. It has nothing to do with not wanting to help us out. He is always available for help if we trust Him. What He wants is for us to learn to be quiet, knowing that He is in control and that when we trust Him to the point that we stop worrying, He will give us the strength to move on. You won’t always see God’s mighty signs, but are you willing to be quiet enough to hear Him whispering strength and encouragement to you?
Extra Time in the Word, I Kings 19
Written By Bill Scott
Tuesday September 23rd
Romans 8:25
But if we look forward to something we don’t have yet, we must wait patiently and confidently. (NLT)
It’s all about faith! The waiting game can be a killer. If you know that God has called you to do something then do not give up and react to something he has not called you to. The Bible encourages us to wait patiently for what God promised us. Some of you already know the calling on your life and Satan will try to get you to settle for second best. I would encourage you to wait patiently for your calling. There may be days were you do not see anything that resembles your calling, my encouragement is to wait. Do not settle for second best, wait for the very promise God has given you.
Written By Janet Scott
Monday, September 22nd
Jonah 2:1
Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish’s belly.
In spite of where you are, God is not against you. Jonah had directly disobeyed God,
was rebellious and ended up in the fish’s belly and yet he was still confident that he
could turn back to God. He confidently called on God to ask for forgiveness and to be
delivered out of the situation he got himself into and God was there for him. God is
always eager to have you back on track and willing to walk right along beside you to help
get your life back on track. He loves you and it is NOT conditional, He is never against
you, he is always on your side if you are willing to come back to Him. I don’t know if
it gets much worse than the belly of a fish, but whatever the case may be, He wants you
back! I am sure it took a few days to lose that “fishy” smell and that’s the same way it
can be when you have gone your own way and are on your way back, there are
consequences for choices we make but knowing God will be there for you every
step of the way makes it a whole lot easier to bear.
Extra time in the Word Jonah 2
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Written by Kyle Shultz
Sunday September 21st
Romans 14:19, 22
Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the man who does not condemn himself by what he approves.
This passage was written to believers who had different opinions about what things were good and holy and what things were not acceptable for believers. These things did not violate any areas of Scripture, they were simply personal preferences or convictions about various things. God says that it’s ok to have different personal convictions or preferences than another believer. What He doesn’t want is one believer to think that his stance on something is right and another believer’s stance is not, and that believer criticize that believer for not being as right as he is. God disapproves of this because both believers stand before God accepted. It is not our place to blame other believers for their preferences. When we do this, we take God’s place as judge. We also need to remember that all believers will stand before God to have their works on this earth judged. All that we need to make sure is that we are right with God and that we do what we can to keep the body of Christ unified.
Extra time in the Word Romans 14
