Treasured Truth

When God instructed Abraham to sacrifice Isaac He was testing him. But after Abraham demonstrated total faith, God ultimately revealed Himself as Jehovah-Jireh and provided the sacrifice to take Isaac’s place.  Today we’ll learn more about the reasons why God tests His children and see how He becomes our Jehovah-Jireh in the midst of those tests.

As we conclude this message from Jeremiah 18, Pastor Ford encourages us to quit looking at other people, thinking we need to be where they are.  We need to realize that we need to be right where we God has placed us and then we need to let God take us where He wants us to be.  We need to strive to just be ourselves in the process.

We should learn to connect the good times and not separate them from the bad times because God loves us in the good and He loves us in the bad.  We’ll see that even negative things in our lives have divine purpose and can be part of God’s ultimate provision for us.

Today as we start to look at Genesis 22 and see how God is our ultimate provider, Pastor Ford asks us to consider this—how many of us have blown our blessing because we have not been prepared for what God has prepared for us? We’ll learn that there’s probably a lot of people to whom God hasn’t given their blessings, because He’s said to them, “You aren’t ready for Me to bless you yet.”

As we wrap up this study from Genesis 2 and take a concluding look at “the perfect guy,” we can thank God for His grace and His power, as He continues the job of shaping us and molding us into His image. As long as we don’t become too stubborn, by not allowing Him to work in our lives, the Lord is continually making us into the people He wants us to be—whether that’s the “perfect guy” or the “perfect gal.”

As we continue to look at the character of “the perfect guy,” if you’re a husband, instead of putting down your wife because of her weaknesses, you should rather strive to become her strength in her weaknesses.  Then as a husband, you can become like Jesus to your wife.  And Pastor Ford will remind us that’s exactly what the Bible says, that a man ought to be like Jesus to his wife.

How do you know if you’re on your way to becoming “the perfect guy”?  One way is to look at your stewardship in the areas of time, talent, and treasure.  Are you following the Lord’s commandments about those areas in the way you’re supposed to be following?  The perfect guy has resources that have been given by God and he exercises good stewardship of those resources.”

Pastor Ford encourages us today to remember that God has a specific purpose for everything that happens to us.  God always intends for His ultimate plan to be executed in our lives.  It’s a great reminder as we continue to look at God as the Potter and at us as His clay in this message from Jeremiah 18.

Before you make a commitment in a relationship, you should really consider some facts about the person with whom you are seeking a relationship.  Pastor Ford will urge us to quit making deep commitments to shallow people.  According to him, there’s too many who are making Mercedes investments into “hooptie” people.  Find out what the means on today’s Treasured Truth.

The perfect guy will be someone in whom Jesus is resident and through whom the power of the Holy Spirit can be observed. So he has the residency of Christ and he has transparency.  We’ll also see that he has security and liberty.  Pastor Ford asks, “What else could you want in a man?”