Always learning

I'm always learning something new, even when I'm feeling crummy and my disposition is considerably under par. The verse on this blog, "Morning by morning he (The Lord) wakens me and opens my understanding to his will" is from Isaiah 50:4b. I have read this before many times. It wasn't until a week ago that it hit me, that it sunk in. That no matter how often we study a given passage, we learn, glean something from it that supersedes whatever we learned before.

Here are some of the things I learned this week through the Scriptures:

• Because Christ bore the reproach of others, so should we. That even though we often disagree with the beliefs of others, we are to live as Christ did. We are to look to Him for all our answers and be obedient to His will. Even though there are (and will continue to be) many differences between Jews and Gentiles, the common bond is faith in Christ. That common bond is much greater (or should be) than their difference.

• In discerning false prophets, each of us needs to figure it out for ourselves. I John 4 says, "Do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world. This is the way to find out if they have the Spirit of God: If a prophet achnowledges that Jesus Christ became a human being, that person has the Spirit of God. If a prophet does not acknowledge Jesus, that person is not from God. Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist (of deception)."