The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Pastor Ray Bentley says wisdom comes from our respect for God. One of the first things that the Bible says is to fear the Lord, but to honor him, Revere him, to love him, and to adore him, he's awesome. So revering God, it is a coming into a deep awe of God and reverence for God and love for God.
From time to time, we've all let a careless comment slip. But today, pastor Ray Bentley has a warning for those who continually let their words get out of control. If you have a tongue that is uncontrolled, you can literally start a forest fire in a human sense. You can devour multitudes of lives and literally it can be as hot as the fires of hell itself.
Proverb says, pleasant words are like a honeycomb. Sweetness to the soul, health to the bones. Pastor Ray Bentley comments, the power of speech is one of the greatest gifts that God has given to human beings. If you will believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, and then if you will say with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, then thou shalt be saved.
God is omniscient. He knows everything. Pastor Ray Bentley points out why that fact is so encouraging. I want you to know this. Your dad in heaven loves you so much. He knows you how you're wired. He knows what would make you the most complete, happy, and fulfilled. And guess what? If you will delight yourself in the Lord. The Bible says he also will give you the desires of your heart.
We are saved by grace through faith. The Bible is clear about that. It's not by anything we've done. And yet, pastor Ray Bentley says, the Bible also points out works are still important. James comes along and says, hey, if you have faith or belief, but you don't have works in your life that demonstrate that you actually believe, he says, then you have a dead faith and that won't save you.
Insights on attitude today from pastor Ray Bentley. What's the best attitude of the heart you can have? It's to have a merciful heart. Jesus was known for being merciful. He was known to the sinners as a friend of sinners because he was merciful. He got in trouble with the religious leaders for the same reputation being too mercy spread.
Albert Einstein said, make things as simple as possible, but no simpler. Today, pastor Ray Bentley makes the Christian life simple. If we would live by this one royal law to love our neighbor as we love ourselves, we wouldn't need all the other laws that there are. Basically, the reason we have so many laws is because nobody loves one another.
Pastor Ray Bentley begins today with a word about our purpose in life. We are here to share grace with all and the beauty of the Lord is that he ignores national differences. God wants to raise us all up and treat us all as royal sons and daughters. I guess the true test of our belief in grace is how we really treat people loving them, befriending them, being a witness of the love and the grace of Jesus Christ spreading.
Pastor Ray Bentley says, our love for God on the inside reveals itself in the love we display on the outside. The way we treat other people reveals what we really believe about God. In other words, you cannot separate human relationships from divine relationships if they are a Christian, we love them because Christ is in them. If they're not a Christian, we still love them because Christ died for them.
To live a life of real blessing and satisfaction before God. Pastor Ray Bentley says it takes full surrender, radical obedience. That's what God's will is for your life and mine. You want to know the reality of the Bible? You want to experience the glory of the Lord. Then radical obedience. Lord, I want to obey you in every area radically.
Today, pastor Ray Bentley points out why some people don't choose the good news of the gospel. Every other path other than Christianity offers an easier road. That's why it's so alluring, and why so often the Colts and weird things and people go after it, but it doesn't answer to the sin problem that you finally go, mama! I need something more powerful to deliver me.
Today, pastor Ray Bentley points out, full blessings come with full surrender. There are degrees to which we are willing to obey God's Word, and we have to make the conscious choice that I must submit all of my life and all areas of my habits, behavior, and feelings. Submit them to the Word of God. If you will submit every area to the word, it will be life to you.
Pastor Ray Bentley points out how to reach others most effectively. The Holy Spirit is speaking in a thousand different ways every single day. To those who here invest in the Kingdom of God and grow in your faith, because then come what may. You will have better than gold shining within you. You have peace that passes understanding, and that's what we'll be able to share with others, even in difficult times.
Today, pastor Ray Bentley highlights the message of James to a generation facing great temptation. Since we are God's children and he is content gingerly showering us with gifts from the perfection of his throne. Why should evil have even the slightest attraction for us? So take temptation. Can't get to the curb and walk into the light of the glory of God.
Pastor Ray Bentley with insight today on our times of testing. Every child of God has a unique path that is designed by God to bring you into areas where you will be tested. He tests us to let us know what's really in our hearts or what areas need to be worked on. He does not test us so that he can find out what's in our hearts.
Some real life insights today from pastor Ray Bentley. You were never going to get to the point where you're not going to have bad thoughts or wicked thoughts, or lustful thoughts, or prideful thoughts or covetous thoughts. But Lord, what can I do? He will not condemn you for having the thought. But now take that thought captive and say, Christ.
People follow their hungers. Passion. Popularity. Pleasure. Pastor Ray Bentley says God wants us to exercise self-control. All of the normal desires that you have. They are not sinful in and of themselves. And in fact, without those desires, we couldn't function as human beings. It is when we seek to satisfy these desires outside of God's will that we get into trouble.
Pastor Ray Bentley on God's plan for our lives. God's goal for your life and mine is maturity. Too often our prayers are spent wanting to be sheltered from the very things that will bring that maturity and trustworthiness. God cannot build our character without our cooperation. If we resist him, he will chastened us into submission. If we choose to submit to him, he will accomplish his work, and that is our maturity.
With the problems of life. Sometimes when it rains, it pours. Today, pastor Ray Bentley has encouragement for each and every one of us. All of us are facing a variety of trials in our lives right this moment. But how many of us say when we are being tested? Lord, what I really desire and what I really need is wisdom.
Pastor Ray Bentley shows us how we can consider it joy when we face various trials. When you go through horror, it draws you close to him. If you are a child of God, no matter what happens to me physically, no matter what diagnosis the doctor shares, no matter what financially is taken away from me. I have learned by experience and I have passed the test.
Problems come in tangled clumps like bird's nest. Pastor Ray Bentley says untangling is the Lord's specialty. How many of us have gone out and made a bird's nest out of our lives? And we go, oh, man, I can't do anything with this. Our father is very, very good at untangling the mess and then putting the pole back in our hands to make us fishers of men and women once again spreading disease.
Pastor Ray Bentley has words of reassurance for troubling times. Our God is a God of peace. And no matter what happens in the next few years, your God will pick up the pieces. He will order your steps. He will take care of you. He will heal all your wounds. He will fill all that may be lacking in your life.
Pastor Ray Bentley says if Jesus found benefit in prayer, we all the more. Jesus prayed more than all the disciples and that was the source of his strength. But he did not just pray. His prayer moved him into action. Prayer is where he derived his strength from his relationship with the Heavenly Father, but it was also where he received direction from the father.
Pastor Ray Bentley urges us to cling to the truth no matter what. One of the things that happens when there's pressure and persecution is that people are no longer satisfied with the simple gospel, and they want something new. It blows into this church, or that church or this denomination or that movement. Everybody races around and gets really excited for a while, and then it and it's gone.
Forgiveness can be a difficult but necessary assignment. Today on Maranatha Radio, pastor Ray Bentley says her own outlook on life depends on it. We are to forgive even if they don't ask, because unforgiveness only leads to bitterness and bitterness only hurts you. You simply must forgive. You choose to forgive. Spread disease. All love is people coming down before the key.
Coming up today on Maranatha Radio. Pastor Ray Bentley encourages us to have a long range view of where we invest ourselves. We have only one life, and only the things we do for Christ are going to last. Everything else is going to be destroyed. So if you put all your values in the material world, you're going to lose everything.
The mighty Roman Empire at one time was allied against the small fledgling Christian church. Pastor Ray Bentley gives us a glimpse of history. What happened to the Roman Empire? It came and it is no more. What happened to those little tiny Bible studies meeting in homes 2000 years ago? Today they're about 2.5 billion people. Not because of walls and institutions.
Life can give us so many things to worry about. Pastor Ray Bentley says believers don't have to fall victim to that. What can you do to reduce stress and that floating anxiety that attaches itself to anything negative that happens in your life? The spiritual antidote to that is a growing faith. If you could have a faith this year that would grow and that would reduce your anxiety level.
Without faith, it is difficult to please God. No, that's not what the Bible says is without faith it is impossible to please God. Pastor Ray Bentley, how many of you want to please God in your life? I say you want to please God? Then believe in him not only intellectually, but by your choices and by your actions and by your obedience.
The Bible's Faith Hall of Fame includes the name of a harlot. Pastor Ray Bentley says that's not the only surprise about Rahab. Do you realize Rahab is in the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the incarnate God, manifest in the flesh? So, wow. An MRI harlot becomes a believer. What does that tell you about our king and about his kingdom spreading?
