Notes of Faith April 26, 2025

Notes of Faith April 26, 2025

Introducing the NIV Application Bible—a Bible based on the bestselling NIV Application Commentary series and designed to help you connect Scripture to your everyday life. With insightful notes, articles and real-world application, it bridges the world of the Bible and contemporary times. Whether you’re new to the Bible or a longtime reader, this resource is here to help you grow in faith and live God’s truth daily.

Here are two of the 52 total Character of God articles included in the NIV Application Bible that explore different aspects of God's character and what they mean for our lives today.

Character of God: God is Love

But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions — it is by grace you have been saved. — Ephesians 2:4-5

To anyone who questions whether God truly loves them, Paul can point to a very concrete proof: “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). God did not love us because we were lovely or perfect or worthy. No, we were sinners, dead in our transgressions (Eph 2:1). God did not love people because we deserved it, and this shows the amazing measure of God’s love.

God’s love is central to His nature.

God lacks nothing, and yet He chose in love to create the universe. This act was selfless, directed out from Himself to His creation. God’s love led Him not only to watch that creation curiously from afar, but also to be involved with it. God upholds the workings of the universe by His loving providential hand.

God’s love led Him even further. When human beings, whom He formed in His image, fell into sin, God did not abandon or destroy them. Rather, He bound Himself to them even more closely. In love, He took on human flesh and came to dwell among people. God the Son emptied Himself of the glories and benefits of Heaven and lived as a man. He allowed Himself to be arrested and crucified to open the way for eternal life for all believers. God did not do this because He had to; He did it because of love. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us to take away our sin and make us children of God.

APPLICATION

While none of us can love like God, as God’s image-bearers we can imitate God’s love in our world. God’s loving nature is one of His “communicable” attributes — one that we ourselves can share in and demonstrate. When we practice the kind of selfless love Christ demonstrated, we glorify God and point others to Him. No Christian testimony is complete without a deep offering of love.

Character of God: God is Truth

I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. — John 14:6

Scripture teaches that God is truth. When the Son of God became a human in Jesus, He came “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Speaking to Thomas at the Last Supper, Jesus announced that He was “the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6).

Everything Jesus spoke was the truth. His words were not only His own; He spoke what the Father desired (John 12:49). Therefore, because we know that God is trustworthy and that God and Jesus are full of truth, we can be assured that no word of Christ will fail. In the same way, we can trust the words of the Bible. If God is truth, then His words in the Bible are true. There are no lies, mistakes, or guesses in God’s Word. Scripture is founded in God’s supreme wisdom and knowledge.

The completely truthful nature of God means that God is in fact the very foundation of truth. Nothing outside of God’s design is true, and there is and there is nowhere else truth can be found. Saint Augustine wrote that wherever truth is found, it belongs to God: All truth is God’s truth. This means that all things in creation that humans discover as facts belong to God. Nothing is outside of God’s domain.

APPLICATION

In today’s world, it can be difficult to know what is true. So many voices clamor for our attention and claim to have the right answer, the true answer. Truth is so important to our society and in relationships. It is necessary for trust. It is necessary for justice. So, how do we pick through the lies and find the truth? In order to know truth, we must know God. When we immerse ourselves in His Word and cultivate a relationship with Him through prayer, we will find that we can discern the truth from lies because we will become transformed into a person more and more like Jesus (Romans 12:2). As we remain in Him, we will know the truth and the truth will set us free (John 8:31-32).

Excerpted with permission from NIV Application Bible, copyright Zondervan.

I have this commentary series, although it is not my first go to, it is designed to give historical understanding and application for today. I have not seen this Bible, written in the same style, it should give help to understanding and application for the one who reads it. I pray that whatever Bible you use that you are reading it today!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith April 25, 2025

Notes of Faith April 25, 2025

Open Door Policy

I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut.

Revelation 3:8, NIV

Wilcox’s Pier Restaurant in West Haven, Connecticut, prepared great seafood for its patrons. But many people came just to watch waiters with arms full of trays walk right through a door that magically opened for them. The first automatic door was installed in 1931 at this restaurant so servers wouldn’t have to use their arms to push the door open.

Rev 3:7-13

7 "And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write:

He who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, and who shuts and no one opens, says this:

8 'I know your deeds. Behold, I have put before you an open door which no one can shut, because you have a little power, and have kept My word, and have not denied My name. 9 'Behold, I will cause those of the synagogue of Satan, who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie — I will make them come and bow down at your feet, and make them know that I have loved you. 10 'Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth. 11 'I am coming quickly; hold fast what you have, so that no one will take your crown. 12 'He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write on him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name. 13 'He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.'

The Lord has been in the open-door business from the beginning. The church in the New Testament city of Philadelphia had great opportunities to serve Him. Their location was strategic. Their presence was timely. The Lord blessed their efforts, and He does the same for us.

Pray for God to open doors for you to spread His Word. Look for the opportunities He sends, and take advantage of them. Sometimes the door opens just enough for us to say a few words or to exercise a moment of kindness. The Lord constantly sets before us open doors that no one can shut.

In how many ministries has God given to us illimitable opportunities! Oh, how many facets and in how many areas are there opportunities to serve God! “Behold, I set before thee an open door.”

W. A. Criswell

Our work on earth will soon be finished. We will be able to work no more. Pray, pray, and pray again, for more opportunities both small and great to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with someone today. A smile, a small gift, a helping hand, a sacrificial loan or purchase for someone in need, speaks the gospel without words, and may bring opportunity, an open door to share the gospel that someone may be saved! That is our work while life still lasts, to walk through those open doors of God and speak to the hearts of those in desperate need of a Savior. Pray for such an open door for you today.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith April 24, 2025

Notes of Faith April 24, 2025

Change Your Mind

Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you.

Revelation 3:3

Before the days of GPS, driving could be tricky. If we found ourselves lost, a reliable strategy was to retrace our steps until we discovered where we made a wrong turn. We would change our mind and go a different way.

Changing our mind is at the heart of one of the Bible’s most serious spiritual actions: repentance. The original Greek word for repentance is metanoeo, a compound verb meaning “to change one’s mind or to think again.” We think of repentance as being a serious change in behavior, and it is. But behavior begins with how we think and what decisions we make. So when we find ourselves acting in an ungodly way, we should retrace our steps and see how our thinking led us down a path of improper behavior. That was the message Christ gave the church at Sardis: “Hold fast and repent” or hold fast and change your thinking.

If your behavior is not what it should be, examine your thinking. Ask God to show you how to think God’s thoughts after Him.

Christianity starts with repentance.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Becoming a believer and follower of Jesus begins with realizing that you are a sinner in need of a Savior. If you do not believe that you are a sinner, you do not need to think differently, act differently, nor repent from anything. When we worship self, (most likely), or anything or anyone else, we will not recognize that we are sinners before the only righteous and holy God. Our lives will change when recognition of sin and repentance takes place because it is God who does the work in our heart and mind! We must seek His face, desire to draw close to Him, closer still every day, and pursue His will for the life that He gives us. It is eternal and we should deeply consider the promises and rewards that are waiting for those who love and worship Him!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith April 23, 2025

Notes of Faith April 23, 2025

Alive, Not Dead

Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God.

Revelation 3:2

Christians will one day stand before the Lord to have their works examined (Romans 14:10; 1 Corinthians 3:10-15; 2 Corinthians 5:10). How would you feel if He had not one good thing to say about your works?

In the fifth letter, written to the church at Sardis, Christ had nothing to commend them for. They had a reputation for being an “alive” church, but Christ said they were “dead” (Revelation 3:1). If they would not “wake up,” He would come in judgment “like a thief” at a time they would not suspect (verses 2-3, NIV). The church at Sardis could have benefitted from the words of Hebrews 10:24-25: “And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”

Are you part of a community of believers in which you are continually “stirred up to love and good works”? If not, begin searching for a local church today.

Good works are the fruit of saving faith.

R. B. Kuiper

Most people don’t understand “works” or “good deeds”. There is nothing that God calls good before a person comes to true faith in Jesus. Those good deeds that make us feel good for helping someone, serving at a food kitchen, etc., bring a temporal reward of hope in ourselves, our doing good. But after coming to Christ, the “good deeds” are done because of Christ and for Christ and in His name. These will be rewarded as said above, “the fruit of saving faith”! We all should love as God loves, sacrifice for the sake of others as Jesus did, and do it all through the power of the Holy Spirit that lives within us, for we most likely would only do things for ourselves without that pure and holy influence. Praise God! Do good! Wait expectantly for the return of your Lord and Savior!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith April 22, 2025

Notes of Faith April 22, 2025

Be an Overcomer

And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations.

Revelation 2:26

The theme of overcoming is consistent in the letters to the seven churches in Asia minor. Christ promised blessings of various sorts to the churches whose members would overcome the resistance they experienced in the world: Ephesus (Revelation 2:7), Smyrna (Revelation 2:11), Pergamos (Revelation 2:17), Thyatira (Revelation 2:26), Sardis (Revelation 3:5), Philadelphia (Revelation 3:12), and Laodicea (Revelation 3:21).

To the church at Thyatira, Christ promised two things: They would rule with Him over the nations, and they would be united with Him when He returned (Revelation 2:26-28). Jesus promised His disciples that they would rule with Him in His Kingdom (Matthew 19:28), a promise later affirmed by Paul (2 Timothy 2:12). Christ also said He would give them “the morning star” (Revelation 2:28)—apparently a reference to Himself: “the Bright and Morning Star” (Revelation 22:16).

We should take these two promises as our own and see them as motivation for overcoming the world. We who are faithful with little in this world will be given much in the world to come (Matthew 25:21). Whatever is before you today, remember that you can overcome through the power of Christ.

Conformity to the world can be overcome by nothing but conformity to Jesus.

Andrew Murray

1 John 5:4-5

For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world — our faith.

5 Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

We are overcomers by being in Christ! We have a new world and life prepared for us that we cannot imagine! Living through the trials and tribulations of this life is often distressing, emotionally stressful, often involving great sacrifice on our part. But the life to come should encourage us to persevere through any difficult circumstance. We are loved beyond our knowledge and drawn to God because of His love for us. Even after believing faith has made its home in our hearts, we are brought into a more intimate relationship with God by His work and not our own efforts. Praise Him today, that you are an overcomer through Christ and have abundant blessing prepared for you to experience with Him forever.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith April 21, 2025

Notes of Faith April 21, 2025

Growing in Maturity

I know your works, love, service, faith, and your patience; and as for your works, the last are more than the first.

Revelation 2:19

The natural order in all creation is growth: Seeds become plants, infants become adults, calves become cows, acorns become oaks, and minnows become fish. When something doesn’t grow, it is a cause for concern; something abnormal is happening. Growth is also the expected progression in the spiritual life: Babes in Christ grow into mature followers of Christ.

When the apostle Paul wrote his first letter to the church at Corinth, he addressed their lack of spiritual growth (1 Corinthians 3:1-3). Instead of acting like mature spiritual adults, they were acting like carnal infants. He could not address them as mature adults because they had not grown in their faith. Such was not the case with the church in the city of Thyatira. When Christ addressed this church, He commended them for their spiritual growth. They were displaying greater spiritual works in the present than they had in the past—a sure sign of increasing maturity (Revelation 2:19).

Take a moment to assess your spiritual growth. Is it increasing? Declining? Has it plateaued? Ask God to show you areas in which you can focus your growth in the future.

Faith, like a muscle, grows by stretching.

A. W. Tozer

True believers and followers of Jesus have an expectation to be blessed with spiritual growth, to become more like Jesus every day. If we did not have this expectation, why would we come to faith in Jesus in the first place. If you do not think that you are growing in faith, talk to God about it in prayer. Mention it every day. Read your Bible, again speaking with God about what you are reading. You may be surprised at the life change that He will bring because you asked. Many came to Him and Jesus asked them, “What do you want me to do for your?” My list of things would be very long… Have you asked God for greater faith and spiritual maturity? Do it now, sincerely, and wait patiently for His loving response toward you!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith April 20, 2025

Notes of Faith April 20, 2025

The Power of the Resurrection

HE IS RISEN! The resurrection of Jesus is the center point of all of history, the most important day from the beginning of the beginning to the day that He returns to rule and reign forever.

In many of the accounts of Jesus’ resurrection, people who saw Him had a difficult time recognizing Him. Before He spoke her name (v. 16), Mary thought Jesus was the gardener (vv. 14-15); the disciples had difficulty recognizing Jesus on the shore (John 21:4); and the men on the road to Emmaus did not realize they were talking to Jesus (Luke 24:15-16). In these resurrection accounts, all of the people ultimately do recognize Jesus. Yet there is something different about Him, some new quality that makes His appearance different from what it was before His arrest and crucifixion. This is helpful for us as we seek to understand our own resurrection in Christ.

The ultimate hope of the believer is not Heaven, but the new heavens and new earth, of which Jesus emphatically says,

I am making everything new! — Revelation 21:5

The essence of the word “new” in that phrase is not “different”, or “new” in terms of time, but rather “new” in terms of quality. One day Jesus will make all things that do exist new or better, fuller, more complete; this is certainly resurrection language.

In other words, the ultimate hope of the believer is the resurrection — when God will do for us and for all creation what He did for Jesus on Easter.

The resurrected Jesus was still the same Jesus who had lived for more than thirty-three years and worked among the disciples for more than three years, but He was changed; He was “new”, He was more, He was resurrected.

Paul gives us an exciting glimpse of this coming reality (1 Corinthians 15:42-44; 49-54). God’s plans for His people in Christ are so good. The sure hope that believers have is that, one day, the whole creation will be made new, and all will be made right. God Himself will dwell among His people, and He will wipe every tear from their eyes. More than that, there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain (Revelation 21:4).

In the new heavens and new earth, Jesus will reign fully and forever, and everything will be as it should be. There will be no sin and no possibility of sin, and believers will finally live the lives God had designed them to live from the beginning of time. So as believers think back to the glorious resurrection of Christ, it also becomes a reminder of the future resurrection in Christ.

The ultimate hope of the believer is the resurrection — when God will do for us and for all creation what He did for Jesus on Easter.

True Love

John 21:15-19

Even though the disciples had seen the resurrected Jesus, they did not really know what they were supposed to do next. For three years they had been following Jesus and carrying out His ministry, but now Jesus was not with them on a regular basis. That being the case, it only made sense for the disciples to return to what they knew: fishing.

Peter, in particular, had not seen Jesus for more than a few moments since He had denied knowing Him three times in Jesus’ hour of greatest need (Matthew 26:69-75, Luke 22:54-62, John 18:15-27). Usually when a person knows that they have hurt someone, or done something wrong to someone, they are not eager to see that person. Yet Peter was so confident in Jesus’ love and forgiveness that as soon as he realized it was Jesus standing on the shore, he jumped from the boat and swam to shore so that he could be face to face with his Lord. There, Jesus lovingly and gently reinstated His bold disciple and went on to use him greatly for the sake of Him Kingdom.

This story reminds all believers that those who repent of the pain they have caused Jesus and others in the past can have full confidence that His arms of grace are open to all who are willing to run into them.

Excerpted from The Jesus Bible, copyright Zondervan.

What a day to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus and as we look forward to our own resurrection and transformation into the perfect, sinless life that God has prepared for us! A better day is coming. Rejoice and give praise to the Lord!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith April 19, 2025

Notes of Faith April 19, 2025

A Renewed Life!

Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Colossians 3:9-10, NIV

Because of our Lord’s resurrection, every person can be made new. The Bible says, “Just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life” (Romans 6:4, NIV). Paul wrote, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17, NIV)

This involves growth, maturity, and transformation. For example, we stop lying. We no longer want to deceive those we love. We want to live with integrity because we’ve taken off the old self with its practices. This involves the practice of being renewed day by day as we grow in our knowledge and understanding of our risen Lord.

The message of the Bible is centered on the resurrection of Jesus. Study His Book today and every day. Let’s be constantly renewed in our knowledge of Him!

The minute you decide to receive Jesus as Savior and Lord, the power of the Holy Spirit comes into your life. It’s the power of the resurrection.

Tim Keller

2 Cor 5:17-21

17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. 18 Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

May you be blessed to have a great Resurrection Sunday celebration!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith April 18, 2025

Notes of Faith April 18, 2025

A Risen Savior!

When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.

John 20:20

The Easter Bunny is a very old rabbit. We can date his birth to 1682, when a German Lutheran named Georg Franck von Franckenau wrote a story about an Easter hare bringing eggs to children.

It’s fun to have traditions our children enjoy, but let’s help everyone around us truly appreciate the historical reality of the bodily resurrection of Christ. Most of all, let’s each come to the empty tomb for a fresh transfusion of joy.

John 20:20 contains a great understatement—Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Imagine the emotion packed into the word “glad”! They were thrilled, overwhelmed, lighthearted, exhilarated, and rejoicing. We should share their attitude!

The Resurrection prepares us, not just for our future in heaven but for now. We may have seasons of trouble in our lives, but never a moment when our risen Lord has forgotten or forsaken us. Determine to rejoice today. Shout: Praise the Lord! I serve a risen Savior!

The devil, darkness, and death may swagger and boast, the pangs of life will sting for a while longer, but don’t worry; the forces of evil are breathing their last. Not to worry…He’s risen!

Charles R. Swindoll

He is risen indeed!

Without the resurrection of Jesus our faith is worthless and we still live without forgiveness of our sin. Praise God for the truth and hope in the resurrection of Jesus, giving us a sure hope of our own resurrection to glory with Him. Death came to be through sin. Jesus conquered sin and death bringing us life and that eternal. We shall live with Him forever.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith April 17, 2025

Notes of Faith April 17, 2025

The Danger of Downgrade

I have a few things against you, because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel.

Revelation 2:14

In recent years, some churches have reinterpreted their teachings to align with contemporary social trends. They yield to the pressure to conform to the culture in vital areas of doctrine and morality. This is tragic.

We need separation from the world—not in our love for people but in our commitment to biblical integrity and personal holiness. When churches diminish their doctrine and devalue their convictions, their ministries lose their power. This is what happened to the church in Pergamos in Revelation 2. It also happened in Charles Spurgeon’s day, and he called it a Down-Grade. He said, “We have had enough of The Down-Grade…. What havoc false doctrine is making, no tongue can tell.”

We need an updraft of the Spirit, not a downgrade of the truth. So keep a high view of Scripture, starting today with a personal rededication to its wonderful teachings.

We look down into the abyss of error, and it almost makes our head swim to think of the perilous descent; but the road of the gospel, to which we hope to keep by divine grace, is a safe and happy way.

Charles Spurgeon

Some pastors and church leaders have sought to build their churches through being like the world. What does the world like? Let’s be like them so that we can draw people to our church. This leads to bringing in many people who having come for the wrong reason, never come to true believing faith. But they like the large social connections it provides for them. From the beginning Christ told us to separate from the world, to not be like the society around us that makes terrible ungodly decisions for themselves and the communities in which they live and work. May we strive to stand firm in the faith, not bend to society, praise and worship the One true God, being obedient to His Word alone.

Pastor Dale