Butterfly Effect Ministries

Butterfly Effect Ministries 💜 We are a Nonprofit Organization dedicated to building commUNITY within a community. 💜

08/31/2026

✏️ Side-Notes:

🔑 Blue Letter Bible:

B. The resolution of resurrection.

2. (Daniel 12:3) A promise for the righteous:

a. Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament: Those who live in God’s wisdom will shine. Despite the entire calamity, all the difficulty coming upon Israel, God has those who are wise, and they shall shine.

b. And those who turn many to righteousness like the stars: Here, the wise among God’s people are those who turn many to righteousness.

i. All God’s people are like stars in the sense that they radiate light and help others to see and find their way. But certainly, those who turn many to righteousness shine even more brightly, helping even more people to see the light and find their way.

ii. This promise applies to all the wise, and all of those who turn many to righteousness through all ages. But it may have its most specific application to the 144,000 evangelists from Israel’s tribes during the Tribulation (Revelation 7).

c. Forever and ever: The brightness of God’s wise ones, and those who turn many to righteousness, will last forever. It isn’t fading. It endures, when so many other things that we put our effort into, even if they succeed, give only a temporary “shine.” It is worth it to invest our lives into the things that last forever and ever.

08/30/2026

✏️ Side-Notes:

🔑 Blue Letter Bible:

OF RIGHTEOUSNESS AND KINGS

a. A man’s heart plans his way: This is not a bad thing. We, as the God in whose image we are made, think about and plan our way. Many people would do well to more carefully plan their way.

b. But the Lord directs his steps: We plan as we can and should, but we should never think that our ability to plan makes us lord over our lives. It is the Lord who directs our steps. Every plan we make should be held in humility before God and in surrender to His ultimate will.

i. “A man may plan his road to the last detail, but he cannot implement his planning, unless it coincides with Yahweh’s plan for him.” (Waltke)

ii. “A man can and does devise his own way under the direction of his heart. If desire be evil, the way devised is evil. If desire be good, the way devised is good. But that is not all the truth about life. This is also true: ‘Jehovah directeth his steps’…. That is to say that no man can step outside the government of God, no man can devise a way that enables him to escape from God.” (Morgan)

iii. This is true with both good and bad plans. “The point is the contrast between what we actually plan and what actually happens — God determines that. As Paul later said, God is able to do abundantly more than we ask or think (Ephesians 3:20).” (Ross)

iv. “As rational agents we think, consult, act freely. We are dependent agents, and the Lord exercises his own power in permitting, overruling, or furthering our actions. Thus man proposes, and God disposes.” (Bridges)

08/29/2026

✏️ Side-Notes:

CONFIDENT IN GOD’S PROTECTION AND POWER

A. God present among His people.
1. (Psalm 46:1-3) The help of God greater than any crisis:

a. God is our refuge and strength: Many of the other psalms begin with a description of the psalmist’s crisis. In Psalm 46, the poet begins with God’s provision. He looked to God for help in difficult times and found it. He could say these things by experience:

That God Himself was a place of refuge, as the cities of refuge protected the fugitive in Israel.

That God Himself was strength for His people, being strong for them and in them.

That God alone was his refuge and strength, not God and something or someone else.

That God Himself was their help — not from a distance, but a very present help.

i. A very present help: “The secret of the confidence is the consciousness of the nearness of God.” (Morgan)

ii. This has nothing to do with the safety or strength inherent in the creature. “We may be as timid by nature as the coneys, but God is our refuge; we are as weak by nature as bruised reeds, but God is our strength.” (Spurgeon)

iii. “All creatures, when in distress, run to their refuges, Proverbs 30:26 [The rock badgers are a feeble folk, yet they make their homes in the crags].” (Trapp)

08/28/2026

✏️ Side-Notes:

LIVING A POSITIVE CHRISTIAN LIFE

B. Instructions in worship.

1. (Hebrews 13:8) The enduring principle: the unchanging nature of Jesus:

a. Jesus Christ is the same: The unchanging nature (which theologians call immutability) of Jesus Christ could be inferred from His deity, even if it were not explicitly stated. God doesn’t change over the ages, so neither does Jesus, who is God.

b. Yesterday, today, and forever: His unchanging nature provides a measure for all Christian conduct, particularly in the word and in worship. We should not expect something completely “new” as if it were from a “new Jesus.” The nature of Jesus as it is revealed in the Bible is the same nature of Jesus that should be seen in the church today.

08/27/2026

✏️ Side-Notes:

🔑 Blue Letter Bible:

PUT OFF, PUT ON
A. Put off the old man.

1. (Colossians 3:1-4) The basis for Paul’s practical instruction:

a. If then you were raised with Christ: Paul here begins a section where he focuses on practical Christian living, with the clear understanding that practical Christian living is built on the foundation of theological truth. Because we know that Jesus is really raised from the dead, then our identification with Him becomes real. It is only because we were raised with Christ that we can seek those things which are above.

i. The idea of being raised with Christ was introduced back in Colossians 2:12, where Paul used baptism to illustrate this spiritual reality. Now, seeing that we are raised with Christ, certain behavior is appropriate to us.

ii. “The opening verses of chapter 3 sustain the closest connection with the closing verses of chapter 2. There the apostle reminds the Colossians that ascetic regulations are of no real value in restraining indulgence of the flesh. The only remedy for sinful passions is found in the believers’ experience of union with Christ.” (Vaughan)

iii. Because we were raised with Christ, we should act just as Jesus did when He was resurrected.

Continued Below 👇🏾…

08/26/2026

✏️ Side-Notes:

🔑 Blue Letter Bible:

JESUS ANSWERS AND ASKS DIFFICULT QUESTIONS

D. Question from a Scribe.

2. (Matthew 22:37-40) Jesus answers: Loving God and your neighbor:

a. Jesus said to him: Perfectly understanding the essence of the law, Jesus had no difficulty answering. Instead of promoting one command over another, Jesus defined the law in its core principles: love the LORD with everything you have and love your neighbor as yourself.

i. It is clear enough what it means to love the LORD with all we are, though it is impossible to do perfectly. But there has been much confusion about what it means to love your neighbor as yourself. This doesn’t mean that we must love ourselves before we can love anyone else; it means that in the same way we take care of ourselves and are concerned about our own interests, we should take care and have concern for the interests of others.

ii. The first and great commandment: “In respect of order, quantity, and dignity.” (Trapp)

08/25/2026

✏️ Side-Notes:

🔑 Blue Letter Bible:

A PSALM OF THANKSGIVING FOR ALL LANDS

This psalm is simply titled A Psalm of Thanksgiving, and it is the only psalm in the collection to bear this title. It speaks of an invitation to the whole earth to know and to worship God. “It is jubilant with confidence for the whole earth, as it contemplates the glory of that earth, when all its people are submitted to the reign of Jehovah.” (G. Campbell Morgan)
…

B. The what and why of giving thanks

2. (Psalm 100:5) Why to do it: God is good and merciful:

a. For the LORD is good: Thanks and praise are right in recognition of God’s goodness. He is good in His plans, good in His grace, good in His forgiveness, good in His covenant, and good in every aspect of His being.

i. For the LORD is good: “The gods of the heathen were not good. They were selfish and capricious. You could never know when they might turn against you and do you harm. Not so our God. The God of the Bible is and has always been good.” (Boice)

b. His mercy is everlasting: The brief psalm ends with God’s unending mercy and truth. These are everlasting reasons to give thanks and praise to God.

i. “So long as we are receivers of mercy we must be givers of thanks.” (Spurgeon)

ii. “How glorious will be that day which shall behold the everlasting gates of heaven lifting up their heads, and disclosing to view those courts above, into which the children of the resurrection are to enter, there, with angels and archangels, to dwell and sing forevermore!” (Horne)

08/24/2026

✏️ Side-Notes:

🔑 Blue Letter Bible:

B. How to live in the liberty of Jesus.

1. (Galatians 5:13-15) Using liberty to love each other:

…d. For all the law is fulfilled: This attitude of service towards one another fulfills the great commandment (You shall love your neighbor as yourself), and it keeps us from destroying ourselves through strife (beware lest you be consumed by one another!). It’s as if Paul addressed the legalists again, and said: “You want to keep the law? Here you have it: Love your neighbor as yourself and you have fulfilled the law in one word.”

i. “If you want to know how you ought to love your neighbor, ask yourself how much you love yourself. If you were to get into trouble or danger, you would be glad to have the love and help of all men. You do not need any book of instructions to teach you how to love your neighbor. All you have to do is to look into your own heart, and it will tell you how you ought to love your neighbor as yourself.” (Luther)…

🔑 Paul is telling the Galatians not to use their freedom to choose to follow the sinful desires of the flesh but to instead obey the Spirit by serving each other through love. This is what living by faith produces.
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The problem is not the law. The problem is that “law-keeping” is a “self-improvement” approach. And the flesh cannot be improved. That is why Paul advises believers to daily crucify the flesh.
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The Spirit is also not under the law, just as Paul showed the Galatians in chapter 2. When Peter ate with the Gentiles he was following the Spirit, not the law. And when he withdrew from the Galatians he was not walking in the Spirit (recall: You shall love your neighbor as yourself) but instead trying to obey man’s version of the law. As Paul argues in Romans 7:14, the Law of God is spiritual and good, but we are carnal. That is how we turn something meant for good into something bad.

Paul’s point is that the flesh and the Spirit are complete opposites. Our most fundamental choice as believers is choosing each day, each moment, which to obey.

08/23/2026

✏️ Side-Notes:

🔑 Blue Letter Bible :

2. (Deuteronomy 6:4-5) The great commandment: Love the LORD your God:
…
d. Love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might: Knowing who God is enables us to act towards Him rightly. We give Him His due.

i. God wants a complete love from us. This love is appropriate because He loved us completely: We love Him because He first loved us (1 John 4:19).

ii. What God most wants from us is our love. We often think God demands a hundred other things from us — our money, our time, our effort, our will, our submission, and so forth — but what God really wants is our love. When we really love the LORD with all of our heart, soul, and mind, then everything else is freely given to the LORD. If we give the LORD all the rest — money, time, effort, will, and so forth — without giving Him our love, it is all wasted — and perhaps, all is lost.

iii. Jesus called this the great commandment (Matthew 22:37-38); and He said the second commandment, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, was like this first, great commandment. When we love the LORD our God with all our heart, soul, and mind, we will find it easy to love our neighbor as ourselves.

08/22/2026

✏️ Side-Notes:

🔑 Blue Letter Bible:

6. (John 1:14) The Word became flesh:

a. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us: This is John’s most startling statement so far. It would have amazed both thinkers in both the Jewish and the Greek world to hear that the Word became flesh.

i. “The most general expression of the great truth He became man. He became that, of which man is in the body compounded…The simplicity of this expression is no doubt directed against the Docetae of the Apostle’s time, who maintained that the Word only apparently took human nature.” (Alford)

ii. The Greeks generally thought of God too low. To them John wrote: the Word became flesh. To ancient people, gods such as Zeus and Hermes were simply super-men; they were not equal to the order and reason of the Logos. John told the Greek thinkers, “The Logos you know made and ordered the universe actually became flesh.”

iii. The Jews generally thought of God too high. To them John wrote: the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Ancient Jews had a hard time accepting that the great God revealed in the Old Testament could take on human form. John told the Jewish thinkers, “The Word of God became flesh.”

iv. God has come close to you in Jesus Christ. You don’t have to struggle to find Him; He came to you. Some think they go from place to place to try and find God, and continue their search. More commonly they stay at a place until God draws close to them — then they quickly move on.

v. “Christ entered into a new dimension of existence through the gateway of human birth and took up his residence among men.” (Tenney)

vi. “Augustine afterwards said that in his pre-Christian days he had read and studied the great pagan philosophers and had read many things, but he had never read that the word became flesh.” (Barclay)

b. And dwelt among us: The idea behind this phrase is more literally, dwelt as in a tent among us. From the sense and the context, John connected the coming of Jesus to humanity with God’s coming to and living with Israel in the tent of the tabernacle. It could be stated, and tabernacled among us.

Continued Below 👇🏾…

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