The Five-Minute Quest

One Minute Memory Verse: 1 Thessalonians 5:16-19  –

Rejoice always. Pray continually. Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not quench the Spirit.

One Minute Bible

Romans 8:26-31

²⁶In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. ²⁷And He Who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.

²⁸And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. ²⁹For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers. ³⁰And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those he justified, He also glorified.

³¹What then shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?

One Minute Prayer

Father, I want to pray more. I want to be ever-mindful of Your presence. It is my heart’s desire to be as close to you as possible while on this world. But, I don’t always know how to pray. I yield to Your Spirit when that is the case. Intercede for me, Lord, with groans that my words cannot express. According to Thy will and in Jesus’ name.

One Minute Praise

Psalm 63

A psalm of David. When he was in the Desert of Judah.

You, God, are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
I thirst for you,
my whole being longs for you,
in a dry and parched land
where there is no water.

I have seen you in the sanctuary
and beheld your power and your glory.
Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.
I will praise you as long as I live,
and in your name I will lift up my hands.
I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise you.

On my bed I remember you;
I think of you through the watches of the night.
Because you are my help,
I sing in the shadow of your wings.
I cling to you;
your right hand upholds me.

Those who want to kill me will be destroyed;
they will go down to the depths of the earth.
 They will be given over to the sword
and become food for jackals.

 But the king will rejoice in God;
all who swear by God will glory in him,
while the mouths of liars will be silenced.

One Minute Wisdom

Proverbs 15:1-3

A gentle answer turns away wrath,
but a harsh word stirs up anger.

The tongue of the wise adorns knowledge,
but the mouth of the fool gushes folly.

The eyes of the Lord are everywhere,
keeping watch on the wicked and the good.

One Minute Devotional 

Paul is wordy in his writings, and sometimes talks in circles. A good example of that is the end of Romans 7 where he uses half a chapter to say that sin can be an overwhelming struggle. This section in Romans 8 (above) he does the same thing. In verses 29 and 30 he rambles on about “predestination” and such that he can sidetrack the reader. When he wrote the book of Philippians about 5 years later, he said the same thing much more succinctly: “being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ” (1:6 NKJV).

The Five-Minute Quest

One Minute Memory Verse: 1Thessalonians 5:16-19  –

Rejoice always. Pray continually. Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not quench the Spirit.

One Minute Bible

2 Corinthians 5:16-21 NKJV

¹⁶ Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. ¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. ¹⁸ Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, ¹⁹ that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

²⁰ Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. ²¹ For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

One Minute Prayer

Lord, I believe that I am a new creation. Old things indeed have passed away, and all things have been made new. I understand, too, that I have it within me to turn my back on you, and return to the path to destruction, and I don’t want to do that. You, the Second Adam, the God-man who had never, ever sinned… You became sin so that I could become righteous. If you, my Living and Loving God, do not work through me, the only work I am capable of is sin. Keep me from all sin, I beg.

One Minute Praise

Psalm 1 NKJV

Blessed is the man
Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
Nor stands in the path of sinners,
Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;
But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates day and night.

He shall be like a tree
Planted by the rivers of water,
That brings forth its fruit in its season,
Whose leaf also shall not wither;
And whatever he does shall prosper.

The ungodly are not so,
But are like the chaff which the wind drives away.
Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment,
Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

For the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
But the way of the ungodly shall perish.

One Minute Wisdom

Proverb 6:20-23 NKJV

My son, keep your father’s command,
And do not forsake the law of your mother.
Bind them continually upon your heart;
Tie them around your neck.
When you roam, they^[b] will lead you;
When you sleep, they will keep you;
And when you awake, they will speak with you.
For the commandment is a lamp,
And the law a light;
Reproofs of instruction are the way of life,

One Minute Devotion

There is more doubt than ever in holiness churches about the nature of holiness. It may be grasped only through a “second work of grace (the first work of grace being salvation). Many Christians in holiness denominations, however, deny that second work of grace – commonly known as sanctification – and claim that we are only fooling ourselves if we believe God can make us holy one minute before we join him in Eternity. We must strive to live a holy life, but we must be realistic, they claim, and accept the fact that we will never achieve holiness.

Holiness is in fact both a second work of Grace and a discipline. We can no more make ourselves holy than we can save ourselves from hell. When Brother Lawrence sins, he reminds God that it is his nature to sin, and that unless God prevent him, he can do nothing but sin. It is God who makes us holy, not ourselves.

Yet here is the rub: we have been given the guidance and comfort of the indwelling Holy Spirit. We have been given the complete Word of God that contains all that is necessary to lead us to eternal life and to live a holy life. We have been given “so great a salvation” (according to the writers of the Epistle of Hebrews) that we dare not neglect it and drift away. Change my heart, oh God. Make it ever true. Change my heart, oh God. Make I be like you

The Five-Minute Quest- 8 Jan 18

One Minute Memory Verse: 1Thessalonians 5:16-19  –

Rejoice always. Pray continually. Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not quench the Spirit.

One Minute Bible

John 3:22-30

²² After this, Jesus and his disciples went out into the Judean countryside, where he spent some time with them, and baptized. ²³ Now John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water, and people were coming and being baptized. ²⁴ (This was before John was put in prison.) ²⁵ An argument developed between some of John’s disciples and a certain Jew over the matter of ceremonial washing. ²⁶ They came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan—the one you testified about—look, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him.”

²⁷ To this John replied, “A person can receive only what is given them from heaven. ²⁸ You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah but am sent ahead of him.’ ²⁹ The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. ³⁰ He must become greater; I must become less.”

One Minute Prayer

Lord, be so much greater in my life, and let me be so much less that when I meet someone, they will see only Jesus. When I speak, let me speak only the Truth. When I act, let it be with the hands of the Lord.

One Minute Praise

Psalm 145:1-3

I will exalt you, my God the King;
I will praise your name for ever and ever.
Every day I will praise you
and extol your name for ever and ever.

Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise;
his greatness no one can fathom.

One Minute Wisdom

Proverbs 3:5-8 

Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight.

Do not be wise in your own eyes;
fear the Lord and shun evil.
This will bring health to your body
and nourishment to your bones.

One Minute Devotional

In the classic sci-fi show, Star Trek: The Original Series, one particular episode tells the story of a being who had lived its life in a state of energy. This bodiless mass of living energy finds refuge in a human body, where it makes the comment that it feels isolated, in solitude, lonely. So alone. It’s true. We are solitary beings, alone, even lonely.

That loneliness often compels us to sin. It may rear its ugly head in many ways. Loneliness may lead to pride, infidelity, pleasure-seeking, overspending, envy, or even worse.

God’s perfect plan for the world was not for us live out our lives in solitude. Genesis indicates that His plan was to share our earthly existence. He seems to have made the Garden of Eden His throne room and there spent the cool of the day walking and talking with man.

Man was also made to find a partner. In the movie, Jerry Maguire, Tom Cruise tells Renee Zellweger, “You complete me.” That is exactly the way God designed us. No man and no woman are in and of themselves complete.

Still there is a more spiritual aspect to our lives, and here it is: when God drove man from the Garden of Eden, and hid it from mankind, He already had a plan in place to resume an even more intimate relationship with his creation. He would personally take up residence in the hearts of all who would accept Him.

As Christians, God lives in our heart. Now, let’s give him the rest of us, our body, our mind, our emotions, our occupations, our entertainment, our all. Let us become less, that He may be seen more. All to Jesus I surrender; all to Him I freely give.