Opened Scriptures Bible Studies

We are allowing our Lord Jesus Christ to teach us about prayer. We spent time in the Lord's prayer and now move into other places where Christ taught about prayer. Asking, Seeking, Knocking while Praying Matthew 7:7,8  Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:  8)  For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.  When teaching the Lord's prayer to us, Jesus commanded that we pray following that pattern. God will honor prayer that follows His parameters.  However in this text, prayer is presented as a God appointed means to obtain what we truly need, and for grace to obey His commandments.  There are three verbs for believers who pray. They imply that we must be active and engaged when we pray to our Father in heaven. We are to ask, seek and knock. This conveys the idea of praying often, praying with sincerity, praying with seriousness and pr...

We are working our way through the longest chapter in the Bible. The number of posts needed to accurately and carefully teach about Psalm 119, may seem daunting.  However, Psalms is the Hebrew hymnal and we can recite verses of Psalm 119 back to our God.  This is a good way to praise Him.   Also, the indexes for all posts in the archives each year since the blog's inception, were posted on September 7th, 2022. I hope that the indexes are a good resource to help you find studies on specific topics.  Psalm 119:41  VAU. Let thy mercies come also unto me, O LORD, even thy salvation, according to thy word.  Jehovah is merciful and His mercy has no limits. However, only believers in Christ who repent of their sins, shall receive His abundant mercy. All Christians still have their old man, a sin nature we inherited from Adam due to the fall. We still have a body that lusts after things that God says "No" to, and there will be times that we sin and fail G...

Jesus Christ is teaching us what we need to know about prayer. Our Lord insists that our prayers be without pretension and that we must avoid vain repetition.  Jesus tells us that we ought to pray privately when possible, so that we are not like the Pharisees who stood on busy corners when they prayed, in order to be noticed.  Jesus gave us a model or pattern for prayer, in the Lord's prayer. He showed us that we should pray for three specific things regarding God. That His name be hallowed, that His kingdom come and that His will be done on earth as in heaven. Then, Jesus led us through four petitions that address our needs.  We are to pray for our daily bread.  We are to seek the Father's forgiveness when we fail Him and we are to forgive those who wrong us, just as Christ forgives us.  We are to pray that we are not led by our lusts into temptation and sin. We are to pray for deliverance from the evil one (Satan) and from evil doers.  Ending with a ...

We are moving ahead in an overview of seeing the will of God revealed in the scriptures. We now come to the book of Joshua.  You may recall that Joshua was selected by God to minister to Moses in preparation for assuming the mantle of leadership. God permitted Moses to see the promised land and then Moses died and God buried him.  Joshua received instruction from God about conquering the promised land and the book bearing his name is the account of his leadership. Joshua and Caleb were the only two spies who brought back a good report of the promised land, urging the people to rise up and take it.  God's charge to Joshua.  Joshua 1:1-9  Now after the death of Moses the servant of the LORD it came to pass, that the LORD spake unto Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' minister, saying,  2)  Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israe...

We have been hearing Jesus Christ as He teaches us about prayer.  He showed that we must not be pretentious when we pray because hypocrisy is offensive to God.  He taught us to pray privately by entering our prayer closet (a secluded spot) when we pray. Why? So that our prayer is centered on God and not a public display of prayer, like the Pharisees did. So that we are away from distractions that compete for our attention. He taught us to be careful with the words we use when praying, for some people in that day, used vain repetitions. That is to say, they prayed the same words or phrases over and over.  Jesus then taught us three prayer requests that focus on the Father, and advancing His kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. Now, our Lord is teaching us four petitions that speak to our own needs as individual Christians. We need daily bread. We need to seek the Father's forgiveness when we sin and we need to forgive those who wrong us.  In our last post we stud...

Remember, you can find an index listing each post in the archives, by year. I posted the indexes on September 7th for 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022.  Please use them as a resource to help you find studies and specific topics you are looking for.  The beautiful mercies of God.  Psalm 119:41  VAU. Let thy mercies come also unto me, O LORD, even thy salvation, according to thy word.  The Psalmist is teaching us to pray for the sure mercies of God. His mercy is connected with deliverance from sin and deliverance from our enemies.  They are connected with deliverance from life's various troubles, as we noted in our last post on Psalm 119. God's names express His mercies.  Exodus 34:5-7  And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD.  6)  And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,  7)...