Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD. – Jeremiah 17:7 (Life Application Study Bible)
Jesus tells us… Trust Me with every detail of your life. Yes, trust Me with your life, your salvation—all the really big things. But also trust Me with your friendships, with your hopes and dreams, even with your choices about what to wear and do. Nothing is too big or too small for me. After all, I am the Creator of both Mount Everest and the tiniest grain of sand. You are safe with Me. Bring Me your mistakes; I won’t laugh at you. Bring Me your sins; I won’t keep reminding you of them. I am here to forgive you, to encourage you, and to love you. Nothing is wasted when you bring everything to Me. My grace can transform even your sins and mistakes into something wonderful—much like I transform a caterpillar into a magnificent butterfly.
Jesus concludes…Trust Me with everything, and I will give you “wings” to soar through your life.
Romans 8:28; Psalm 40:2; 1 Peter 2:9 Study Notes
Footnotes Jeremiah 17:9-10 God makes it clear why we sin—it’s a matter of the heart. Our hearts have been inclined toward sin from the moment we were born. It is easy to fall into the routine of forgetting and forsaking God. But we can still choose whether or not to continue in sin. We can yield to a specific temptation, or we can ask God to help us resist temptation when it comes.
Passage Romans 8:28 28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, whoa have been called according to his purpose.
Footnotes Romans 8:28 God works in “all things”—not just isolated incidents—for our good. This does not mean that all that happens to us is good. Evil is prevalent in our fallen world, but God is able to turn every circumstance around for our long-range good. Note that God is not working to make us happy, but to fulfill his purpose. Note also that this promise is not for everybody. It can be claimed only by those who love God and are called by him, that is, those the Holy Spirit convinces and enables to receive Christ. Such people have a new perspective, a new mind-set. They trust in God, not in life’s treasures; their security is in heaven, not on earth. Their faith in God does not waver in pain and persecution because they know God is with them.
Passage Psalms 40:2 2He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.
Footnotes Psalms 40:1-3 Waiting for God to help us is not easy, but David received four benefits from waiting: (1) God lifted him out of his despair, (2) God set his feet on a rock, (3) God gave him a firm place to stand, and (4) God put a new song of praise in his mouth. Often blessings cannot be received unless we go through the trial of waiting.
Passage 1Peter 2:9 9But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light
Footnotes 1Peter 2:9 Christians sometimes speak of “the priesthood of all believers.” In Old Testament times, people did not approach God directly. A priest acted as intermediary between God and sinful human beings. With Christ’s victory on the cross, that pattern changed. Now we can come directly into God’s presence without fear (Hebrews 4:16), and we are given the responsibility of bringing others to him also (2 Corinthians 5:18-21).
THE WORLD…we see history
SEPTEMBER 8, 1636 JOHN HARVARD FOUNDING OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Living By John 18:32 And You Shall Know the Truth And The Truth Shall Set You Free
The Puritans arrived in Massachusetts Bay by boatloads during the Great Migration of the 1630s, and many of them were well-educated graduates of England’s leading universities, especially Emmanuel College, Cambridge, England. Many were theologians, pastors, and Bible scholars. One thing was paramount on their minds as they settled into the New World: to establish a school in the colonies, especially for the training of ministerial students. As explained in the 1643 booklet New England’s First Fruits: After God had carried us safe to New England and we had built our houses, provided necessaries for our livelihood, reared convenient places for God’s worship, and settled the civil government: One of the next things we longed for and looked after was to advance learning and perpetuate it to posterity; dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the churches, when our present ministers shall lie in the dust.1 On September 8, 1636, the legislature of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay voted to create the first college in America.2 The records say: “The Court agree to give Four Hundred Pounds towards a School or College, whereof Two Hundred Pounds shall be paid the next year, and Two Hundred Pounds when the work is finished.”3 In 1637, the General Court appointed twelve eminent men as trustees of the college.
The WORD…we see Jesus, His Story!
That same year, a young clergyman from England arrived on American shores—John Harvard, who was described as a godly man and a lover of learning. Harvard, born in 1607, was the son of a butcher and tavern owner in a village near London. In 1625, the bubonic plague wiped out most of Harvard’s family. His mother, however, survived and was able to send him to Emmanuel College, Cambridge. John was ordained a dissenting minister, which meant he joined the Puritans who resisted the oversight of the Anglican Church. He married Ann Sadler in 1637, and the next year they emigrated to New England, where John became an assistant preacher in Boston. John was battling tuberculosis, and he died the next year at age thirty. He bequeathed half of his property and all of his library of approximately three hundred volumes to the new college.4 (Unfortunately a fire in 1764 consumed Harvard’s original library, with the exception of one book, which was in the hands of a student at the time and thus escaped the flames. The book’s title was The Christian Warfare Against the Devil, World, and Flesh . . . And Means to Obtain Victory.5) In appreciation for his generosity the new school was named for him— Harvard. The doors opened, and a student handbook was published, Laws and Statutes for Students of Harvard College, (now Harvard University) which said, let every Student be plainly instructed, and earnestly pressed to consider well, the main end of his life and studies is to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life. John 17:3. . .