THE ONE YEAR BIBLE CLUB

     I used to have dreams of being caught in High School with no shoes and having to walk around in my socks all day, I felt like an idiot. I'm not sure what the meaning of those dreams were, but I know one thing, I felt like an idiot all day and couldn't wait for the day to end and I would be sure to double check that I had my shoes on the following day before I left my house. Paul in our text is using dress items as a metaphor of how we should dress ourselves up, as Christians. No more would I want to walk around without shoes all day than I should be willing to walk around without Peace in my heart and in my intentions. Paul mentions to put on "the belt of Truth". I don't know if it was my Marine Corps training that drilled this into me or it's just common sense, but either way, you don't get all dressed up and then forget to put on a belt.  If I catch my son before he leaves the house for Church, without a belt I quickly send him back to...

Today the mantra is "Tolerance". This mantra is being shoved down the throats of the Church. You must have tolerance.  Well, that could mean a lot of things, couldn't it?!  We need to be tolerant of sinners, we are, we understand we are all sinner's saved by the Grace of God.  It could mean we must be tolerant of each other; we are, so it can't mean that.  We must be tolerant of people who have different opinions, we are; so it can't possibly mean that.  We must be tolerant of people with attitudes, people who are unfaithful and uncommitted; we are, so it can't mean that. We must be tolerant of Catholics who come in with weird notions of worshiping Saints & The Virgin Mary; we are tolerant of that, so it can't possibly mean that. We must be tolerant of young Christians that are constantly falling and stumbling into sin; we are, so it can't possibly mean that. So when "tolerance" is being pushed upon the church and we are being accused...

     ISAIAH speaks it out very plainly and clearly,  "I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the the way you should go, if only..."   IF ONLY....those are not the best words to hear from a parent, an authority figure and most certainly God.  " If only " is usually a pre-cursor for what could have been.  " If only " you had chosen behind door #1..."  " If only " are the words that haunt us. If nobody else speaks them to us, we often voice them to ourselves; in our thoughts we wonder..." if only " I had taken a different path,  if only  I had married someone else,  if only  I had taken a different career path,  if only  I had or hadn't moved,  if only  ..if only if only...can haunt us to our grave; unless we just decide to let Jesus take control.  The quicker, the sooner we decide to let go of the wheel and let Jesus take over, the less " if only's " we ...

Are you into Astrology? I've got some bad news for you today. God is not! What we learn about God today is that He does take notice of all.  We are not going to hear about every day, He's not going to bring it up every day, but today, He chooses to "let it out" so to speak. "Let your astrologers come forward, those stargazers who make predictions by the month, let them save you".  God is talking about all the little things that upset him, the stupid things we do, like fashioning an idol for ourselves and them having to pin it down so it doesn't  topple over, what kind of god is that and while God is on his rant about stupid things, He brings up the topic of Astrology. I grew up Roman Catholic and every Christmas, I knew I would get my new astrology, horoscope book for the coming year, I was so excited! I read that horoscope book religiously, it was my bible. I believed in it, but God is saying today, "I believed in a lie'. What sign are you? Leo...

     WHAT valid reason does any genuine Christian have to exercise any tolerance towards this  LIE  that there are other gods and salvation through them?  It can only be through ignorance or cowardice that we would succumb to such a lie. Over and over Jehovah tells us in our text, "I am the first and the last and apart from me there is no God".  And if this is not clear enough we go on to read, "....Is not this thing in my right hand  a lie ?".  So there it is!  We can squirt around the issue, we can try to be fake, tolerant or politically correct but at the end of the day, what we are supporting is A LIE!  Yes, after much discourse, God finally comes out and just calls it for what it is...A LIE.  Any other God, any Idol, any carved image of a god or anything else outside of Jehovah, Jesus Christ, Yahweh....is a LIE.   There is no room for tolerance here . We have enough of a hard time making tolerances for thing...

"A bruised reed he shall not break, and a smoldering  wick he will not snuff out".   This is GREAT STUFF, great poetry, but it certainly is not us! In Football, we cut the weakest players, in Marine Corps Boot camp, you weed out the weak and in the corporate world, you fire or ax the weak and move on with the strong. The weak, put them in a home, the disabled, hire someone to take care of them, confused & depressed people.....I  don't know isn't there a drug you can give them, sedate them, anything, as long as we don't have to deal with day in and day it, give me a break!! There is nothing more frustrating than a smoldering wick, especially when you really do need that light, the electricity is off, you're trying to get some help, some light and that wick is flickering, spitting out more irritation than light; you and I both know, if that wick doesn't catch on soon we may just throw the wick and the candle, in the trash, after we snuff it out!  And tha...

Hezekiah has just come off a great experience and victory with God. Hezekiah was told by Isaiah that he was going to die, "to put his house in order", but yet Hezekiah turns his face against the wall and begins to cry and petition God for his life.  God speaks to Isaiah, tells him to go back to Hezekiah and tell him He has heard his prayers and will add 15 years to his life. Today, however, is a different day and a different story. A not so desperate Hezekiah. He is visited by some dignitaries from a place he would least have expected. Sometimes the people that dislike us the most are the people we want to like us the most. It's amazing to see how often people fall into this trap of wanting the popular kids at school, or the in crowd, to so desperately like them. Sometimes in order to gain favor with these unrighteous, but popular people, many of us did things we were ashamed of later or that went against our conscience. There is a tendency in every one of us (the people ...

     IF there's one thing King Hezekiah did right, was HE PRAYED.  Twice in our text today we read, in response to Hezekiah's prayers, Ch. 37 verse 21, " This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Because you have prayed to me ...."  and  Ch. 38 verse 4, " This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears ".  BECAUSE YOU HAVE PRAYED....remember those words. And it could equally be said that, because  you have NOT  prayed....that we can rightly say, events have just easily, taken a turn for the worse. We cannot pretend, just to appease our own conscience, that prayer does not impact our lives and the lives of others. This would be just short of insanity. There is to much circumstantial evidence to every point to any other verdict, than the verdict that prayer does change events and lives as we know it.  We have to accept that because we have prayed our lives are different and...

     I WAS not around approx 3000 years ago when this situation took place with the King of Assyria, but I sure do recognize the voice and the rhetoric, ie: " Don't trust in the Lord ".  Pastor's and Spiritual Leaders spend most of their time trying to convince God's people to trust in him while the individual and the masses of Christians face a bombardment of attacks, day in and day out, a voice that speaks to us in our conscience and says basically the same words the King of Assyria Spoke, which are: "don't trust in the Lord, where was He for so and so and where was He for that family, that situation and what makes you think it will be any different for you!". The enemy will remind us of the sister that was not healed of cancer, he will remind us of the family that did have to file bankruptcy, or the single mom that did lose her job, her home and then Satan will come to us and tell us, "what makes you think it will be different for you!"....

Things will change in a little more than a year, Isaiah prophesies; and the change is going to be based on our attitudes and decisions we are making today, tomorrow, next week and next month. You think it's no big deal now, but you won't think it's no big deal, a little more than a year from now.  One of the key factors that Isaiah warns us, that is going to affect us, a little more than a year from now, is going to be our complacency. "Rise up" says the Lord. Rise up you people of power. Ever sing that in church and wonder, "where are those people of power?"  Is it because we just know too much about each other or they simply are not there? Isaiah continues, "the harvest will not come and there will be no fruit, tremble you complacent. If I told you I could tell you your future and it would not be sorcery, it would be from God, just call me, get with me, my phone would be ringing constantly. Well, here it is....here's your future!  "Thanks...

The NFL (ironcially) issued disciplinary action on one of it's elite players for using excessive force in disciplining his son. His contract with his team was cancelled in lieu of the criminal charges against him, for using a tree branch to discipline his son, leaving marks, bruising and swelling on his son's body. No doubt there are parents out there that are too lazy to discipline their children or worse, simply just don't care! We have to deal with these children every week at Walmart. We pray that we could just have one moment alone with this child that is screaming as if he was being tortured, only to realize it's not that he's being tortured or kidnapped, he is screaming and raving because his mom told him he can't have the candy bar he grabbed by the cash register. So we have excessive discipline to no discipline and somewhere in the middle lies the balance. God is trying to give us wisdom through Isaiah, the wisdom that discipline is good, discipline is ...

We tend to read the bible and think about what is written, but we don't think about "who wrote it". This is very nice and comforting read, in Psalms 61, "listen to my cry.....I cry to you for help when my heart is overwhelmed..." I'm sure many women read this in their affliction and find comfort that they are not alone. And they are not alone, they are in great company; and who is their company, DAVID. King David, the Warrior, Conqueror! Women are finding great comfort in reading, poetic metaphors, not written by Ruth, Rebecca, Mary, Esther or any other woman, but by David. If today we found these writings in a private journal of a man, we thought to be a man's man, we would ex-communicate him.The only problem is, we cannot find more of a man's man, in the bible, than David. Today, we have this persona, that men do not cry and are not overwhelmed. So then why do they drink so much? Why are they so violent, so abusive? Why are they so unfaithful? Why ...

In the financial world, we monitor our investments and if the return is not what we anticipated or if we suffer to many losses, we pull our money out and reinvest in something else with greater dividends. Only in The Kingdom of God do we continue to invest, on what often is not yielding the returns we would want. Only in the Kingdom of God would we continue to invest where we continually take losses. Paul is writing this letter to the Galatians, trying to save a major loss, from a major investment he has made.  Paul himself quotes "the Lord's investment in me was not in vain!".  Paul understands investment and that there should be a return on investment. Paul has greatly invested in this Church, he writes, " Oh foolish Galatians! Who has cast an evil spell on you? For the meaning of Jesus Christ's death was made as clear to you as if you had seen a picture of his death on the cross. How foolish can you be".   He's frustrated, he's vexed, after all th...

     NO matter how far we think we have come as a Christian, if God is at work in your life (and I hope He is), He will always be faithful, from time to time, to remind you that you have not yet arrived.  Paul just a few verses prior has just referred to Peter twice and mentions God working through Peter's ministry and mentions Peter  as one of " those reputed to be pillars ".  In another text he refers to Peter as a "super apostle". NO doubt, Peter is  THE MAN !  For all the shame Peter had to endure when he forsook Christ, he has definitely made up for it with all the recognition, authority, influence and power he now holds. However, even with all that going for Peter, he is still a flawed vessel.  He is still a man who at times allows others to dictate his actions rather than Christ. He is still a man who cares what others think of him.  He is still a man who struggles with prejudices and dealing with inconsistencies in his walk with ...

The Great Apostle Paul would not have been deemed so great among us 21st Century Christians. We would have distanced ourselves from him and his ministry. We would have been quick to say, "he's not one of us", he's with the church down the street, but yet God thought quite the opposite. We love the "Politically Correct Jesus". We love the Jesus that gets along with everybody, the Jesus that's the Peacemaker, non-confrontational, non-controversial. Who is this Paul that Curses People? Curse people? In another Text Paul says (paraphrased by me) "I hope when you're circumcising yourselves you go ahead and cut the whole thing off and castrate yourselves". We read about Paul in another text where he "Curses a man, blind!". "Cursed be any man, or even Angel that preaches another gospel, again I say, cursed be him". I would assume that someone preaching another Gospel might be considered an enemy, didn't Jesus say, ...

     EVER wonder, why...if the Bible is inspired by the Holy Spirit, that such confrontational talk would be penned for eternity in God's word. I would almost consider some of the paragraphs in 2 Corinthians to be for "private consumption" wouldn't you? Is this not the kind of drama we try to hide from new converts & new church members?  Don't we want people to only know about the bliss and wonderful experience of the Church? The Apostle Paul is really getting down in our text today! He is "calling them out"!  In essence he is saying, "hey I'm saved, why don't you check yourself! Unless you fail the test!"  Is this what the situation between Paul and the Corinthian Church has succumbed to?  Well, if that's the case you can never accuse God of trying to hide the imperfections of the Church. I think it is best that God doesn't hide the imperfections of the Church, for our own sake!  We will all one day find ourselves in a chu...

We read today, Jehovah Witnesses' favorite scripture. Now if you're not familiar with the Cult of Jehovah Witness or their false doctrines, this means nothing to you (although you will be familiar with them after today). Their favorite scripture they put on the front of the "Watch Tower" magazine is the one quoted from Isaiah, in our reading today. "The Lion lying down with the lamb and the child will play in the midst of them" (paraphrased by me). Don't you want that? That's what we believe! "Don't you want to be part of us?", they ask? The only problem is, Jehovah Witnesses believe only 144,000 will make it on the new earth? 144,000? And their prophets believe the 144,000 are already chosen, so what hope does that leave for us? It's too bad when a Cult takes a scripture and makes false claims about it, it can ruin it for the rest of us. We can become disenchanted towards that scripture because it becomes associated with false teac...

Sometimes it's easy to think these "prophet guys" are just rambling on about....who knows what? We have to get out a Matthew Henry Commentary just to find out what it is they're actually speaking/writing about. Well, in the midst of our reading today, in Isaiah, there's something even the simplest of us, can understand.You don't have to be a theologian to have read and understand that Isaiah is talking about Jesus. "Unto us a child is born and He shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace" and if you notice, a little before that text, Isaiah also mentions "Galilee, by the sea" this we know would be where Jesus would launch his ministry and we know "Micah the prophet"  prophesied the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. It is hard to believe how many Jews today, and at that time, that failed to see the prophecies, through their own Jewish Prophets, that Jesus was truly the Messiah they had b...

Isaiah is Definitely seeing things that we will never see, at least on this side of eternity.  I was encouraged to read that in God's presence Isaiah did see something that I can say, I also saw!  What is it that we both saw? We both saw that we are sinful men of  unclean lips among a sinful people. Not, often, but I have had a few opportunities, in the past few years, to speak in front of some rather large crowds (larger than I'm used to at least)  God's presence was there, words were given, a picture drawn before them (metaphorically speaking) and what was heard and what was seen?  To the surprise of many, .....not much. I have been in the presence of much, much smaller crowds and yet have seen more eyes and ears opened. The Lord says, "they listen carefully, but do not understand, Watch closely, but learn nothing. Harden the hearts of these people.....they will not see with their eyes nor hear with their ears, nor understand with their hearts and turn to me ...

     WE have often heard, "don't lose your Faith" but how about don't lose your mind!  Is your faith in your heart or is it in your mind? Good question isn't it?  In Romans we read,  "for it is with the heart that you believe but with the mouth you confess" . However, that being said, Paul, the same author of the book of Romans, here writes,  "... your minds  may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ".   So while we may believe in our hearts, the battle will be waged in our minds. Yes we must guard our hearts with all diligence, for out of our hearts springs the issues of life.  However, I believe what is happening in our hearts eventually drips into our minds. Paul is saying that it is "our minds" that are led astray, not the heart. I have lost more friends who's minds have wandered more than anything else.  There is the occasion that someones heart just turns cold to God because of a tragedy that...

     IF you were hoping to find words of love, comfort and encouragement today in your One Year reading, you may want to look again...TOMORROW. You will not find much of that in today's reading.   If you were to have picked up the One Year Bible for the first time today, you would quickly put it down and think to yourself, "wow, this God sure is an angry and threatening God".   And of course in some people's unrealistic eyes, God should never be angry. The question is...."is God angry, does God need anger management classes?"  According to Isaiah, Jehovah is very ticked off.  Paul seems like an angry and frustrated man in the Corinthian Letter and again in Psalms God seems to be angry and threatening. What on earth is gong on here???      You ever have days when anybody who crosses your path that day is going to feel your wrath?  Is it new wrath they are going to feel that day or is it anger that you have been s...

 WE'VE all met or heard of those people that "swear" they will never return to church because when they did visit, all the preacher talked about was money and giving.  "That's all the church wants, is your money," they cry out.  If we falsely look at the church as simply a religious institution that teaches nice religious platitudes to make us feel better about ourselves and teaches nice principles such as "The Golden Rule" then maybe money should be left out.  However, if the church is an institution whereby God chooses to work through to help his people, to prosper them, to give them a future and a hope, then money better be a subject and a re-occurring subject, at that, because money is one of the areas that people struggle in more than anything else.  Any survey will tell you that couples (inside & outside the church) fight mostly about money.  The #1 cause of divorce is Money, not infidelity.  We have money problems and the church is there...

The Song of Solomon is quite some sultry poetry, for the Bible, or for any other book, for that matter. While there's much that we could analyse from this book, I will leave that to you! But one theme, that does keep arising, in the book, is " don't awaken love before it's time! ".  It reminds me of the warning to Jack, in "Jack and the Bean Stock" don't awaken the giant!  Eventually Jack awakens the giant and Jack cannot put the giant back to sleep afterwards. The moral of the story, is that some things in life, once awakened, cannot be put back to sleep. We are sexual creatures and once sexuality has been awakened in us, it will not be put down. This is one of the greatest violations of sexual molestation, sexuality has been " awakened before it's time " and children that are molested are now altered and changed, from that day forth. However, it's not always sexual molestation that awakens someones sexuality too early, it could be...

Heard this lady say, after bitter divorce proceedings, "and I gave the best years of my life to that bum!" She is probably right and what can you say? ....Better luck next time??? I can tell you, nobody will ever turn to God and say, "I gave you the best years of my life and...".  What is the greatest lie that has been perpetuated to the human race? Ans: serve God when you're older. In other words, give the best years of your life to some woman, some man, some sinful pleasure and then live to regret it. If only every 15-25 year old would read Ecclesiastes 11.  Solomon emphasizes youth in our chapter today and is not shy to write that are youthful years truly are the best years of our lives; contrary to many trying to hype up the senior years. "young man it's wonderful to be young! Enjoy every minute of it".  It's sad to think that our 15-25 year olds are giving the best years of their lives to drugs, violence, immorality, basically sin, the wor...

"Godly sorrow leads to repentance and leaves no regret."  It's interesting that there are different types of sorrow. "Godly sorrow" as opposed to what? I guess...."ungodly sorrow".  As the saying goes, "are you sorry for what you did or sorry you got caught?"  Both will bring sorrow, no doubt! What is the sorrow you are feeling? What are you feeling sorrow for? The sorrow that comes from God and is accepted by the individual with a right attitude and/or heart, will leave that person, better off.  Ungodly sorrow can ruin and destroy, it can send you into depression, the pit of despair or worse, even cause someone to take their life. We can conclude then, that not all sorrow is good for the soul and not all sorrow produces the same results. Sorrow and guilt from God, will bring forth something better, condemnation, which comes from the enemy is not to bring you to repentance but to crush you. Sometimes we have to ask ourselves, is this guilt fr...

 Solomon writes, " I saw the tears of the oppressed and there was none to comfort them".  How true that can be.  I have read these words of Solomon many times, but never have they rang so true. Solomon writes, "I concluded that the dead are better than the living". Solomon digs deeper and writes, " and better are those never even born, that will not have to experience the evil in the world. Evil, that's all we sense, around us, at certain times in life, when tragedy and evil hit. I. There is no doubt, in life, as Jesus said, "the hour where darkness reigns. However, we can defy the cynicism of Solomon, as wise as he may have been. We can re-write history that the mourner was not left alone with nobody to comfort. Life's darkest hours, should spurn on the Church's brightest moments. We know that has not always been the case; and that's why Solomon wrote what he did. The Church, at this Crossroads always has an opportunity, The Church can eit...

We have really digressed from Paul's admonition here to "live in such a way that no one will stumble because of us and no one will find fault with our ministry".  Today, starting at the top with Pastors and working our way down, we have totally let this scripture fall by the waste side and our famous line "nobody is perfect, get off my case". Paul admits he's not perfect in Philippians, Paul never claims to be perfect. Being perfect is not the issue. It's about thinking before you act, thinking before "you tweet" thinking before you speak, thinking before you "post". It's about THINKING, thinking of others, thinking of how your actions will cause others to stumble, even though you may receive forgiveness from God....what about the collateral damage? What do you do about that....answer is nothing! Today we have preachers unleashing tirades of profanity on the blogosphere, we have Pastor's divorcing their wives and marrying some...