Ah, Sunday – The day of rest! The day that we can recuperate from the spiritual drain of the week so that we can get ready for the next six days. We get run down and stressed out Monday through Saturday, and Sunday is the day we get “recharged” spiritually. We go to church and sing uplifting hymns and songs. We listen to an inspiring sermon and bang, we’re ready for another week! Or at least that is the way we think it should work. Many of us think our worship on Sunday prepares us for the week ahead, which it does. But I think we would get a lot more out of our group worship if we changed our …Continue reading →
Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. .. – Acts 16:16-40 (NIV) Paul and Silas were in Philippi, and a girl with a demonic spirit (a spirit of ‘Python’) followed them around town saying that they were of God and were proclaiming a way to be saved. That they let her do this for days makes me wonder if they were weighing the advantages and disadvantages of this free advertising. The girl was proclaiming that Paul and Silas were teaching a way of salvation. Maybe someone who wouldn’t pay attention to a couple of Jews would listen to her. But …Continue reading →
During the three months of our engagement, my wife, Wanda, and I went through pre-marital counselling with Jeff, our pastor. (I recommend pre-marital counselling for any couple who intends to tie the knot). During this time, we studied and discussed the various aspects of our relationship with each other, learning what we could do to keep our relationship healthy and growing. I view the marriage relationship as a picture of our relationship with Jesus Christ. How Christ loves us and how we are to love Him is the way we should love our mates: Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for it. – Ephesians 5:25 (KJV) This expresses the type of love …Continue reading →
it’s amazing how God designed the human brain to be able to pick out individual voices in a crowd. There could be any number of people talking all at once in a crowded room and you could mentally focus on one conversation and then another without having to move around in the room or tilt your head to hear better. The brain uses the different characteristics of each voice to give it something to focus on. This makes for an interesting experiment (and powerful sermon illustration). Suppose several people were in a room all speaking at once. The room is totally dark so you can’t see them. To make things worse, you don’t know any of these people. If I …Continue reading →
But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised, God has chosen, the things that are not, that He might nullify the things that are. – 1 Corinthians 1:27-28 (NAS) God is no respecter of persons. We know this as it relates to God’s judgement and His love, but it also applies to who He uses to do His will. God choose David to be king of Israel. David did not come from a royal line of descendants. He was a shepherd and the youngest of eight sons. …Continue reading →
How far back can you remember? Try to remember the time you were 3 months old. Hard, eh? I can’t remember when I was 3 years old, but that doesn’t mean I never was 3 years old. The fact that I am alive now proves that I was 3 at one time. I just can’t remember it. I can’t remember things that happened to me back then, and I can’t remember my overall attitude or “world-view”. But, it’s not important. Even if I could remember it all, I wouldn’t be spending my time dwelling on the past. I can remember falling outside in the snow and knocking a tooth out when I was young. This was painful at the time, …Continue reading →
For this reason he {Jesus} had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. – Hebrews 2:17-18 (NIV) As the supreme example of becoming approachable, Jesus came to earth in human form and experienced life on the same level as the rest of us. Our Lord and God become one of us. Although this is hard enough to believe, the way in which Jesus chose to live among us is even more amazing. …Continue reading →
Trees amaze me. You can take two different kinds of trees, plant them in the same soil, give them the same water, fertilizer, and sunshine, and they’ll grow differently. Each has it’s own style of growth, bark, and leaves. And each produce different kinds of fruit. I don’t know how it works, but I do know God designed it that way. For all the things that make trees amazing, each can naturally produce only one kind of fruit. That’s the trouble – you can’t rely on apple trees to produce bananas, or banana trees to produce watermelons. However, the Bible talks about some trees that are unique. In Revelation, it mentions trees in heaven that produce 12 different kinds of …Continue reading →
Some Evidence For The Deity Of Jesus Christ From The Old Testament There have been many opinions through the centuries as to who Jesus was. Today some think of him as a teacher, a prophet, a martyr, or a fool. Everybody has their opinion, but who did Jesus himself claim to be and what evidence did he give to support his claim? Jesus made many radical claims about himself. He claimed to be a king ( Matthew 25:31-34) and Lord ( John 13:13), the good shepherd (John 10:11,14), the Jewish Messiah (John 4:25-26), and the Son of God (John 10:36-37). He also claimed to be able to do anything God could do (John 5:16-24) because he claimed to be God …Continue reading →
(I did this study when I first started writing.) “Whether therefore you eat, or drink, or whatever you do, do all things to God’s glory.” – 1 Corinthians 10:31 Author’s Note: This is a study on what it means to glorify God and how we believers can become more effective at it. Why did I do this study? Well, I knew the Bible says that we are to do everything for the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31), but I didn’t have a clear understanding of what that meant. Obviously it meant something good – to please God, to honor Him – but I wanted to know more than just the general meaning. I don’t remember ever hearing a sermon …Continue reading →
