THE ONE YEAR BIBLE CLUB

We don’t know all that is going through Daniel’s mind, but with a little thought, we can piece it together. No doubt Daniel was a very spiritual, Godly man; not easily persuaded or scared away by the ungodly. But what was really going through his mind as he was told the edict had been passed and anyone who disobeyed it would be fed to the lions? We like to see Daniel as this man that was unmoved by death, resolute to serve God even if it meant being devoured by hungry lions and I’m sure that is half of the story. However I believe the other half of the story is Daniel believed that the King, once he found out who it was that had disobeyed the edict, (not to pray to any other God) would make allowance for him. Daniel was no fool and neither are we. We know when we have favor with someone. We know when someone likes us. Daniel has seen himself rise from captive to Wiseman and from Wiseman to ruler over all the Satraps in the country. It has already been made known to Daniel that the King...

We are apt to look at the Bible as a whole as a time when God brought swift judgment on his people. Nobody got away with nothing, sin & lightning struck, swift judgment was the law of the land...or so we think! No doubt there was incidents in the Old Testament when there was swift judgment, but there were plenty of times where it was more of a looming judgment. Yes even in the New Testament Ananias & Sapphira were quickly dealt with in their scheme to defraud the Church & Disciples, but these are rare incidents. What you will find if you read your bible thoroughly is that it was not much different than today. People seemed to sin in the church without any accountability. For the rest of us that are trying to live for God it drives us crazy to watch others go on in their sin with what seems at times like, impunity. We want the hammer to fall and we want it to fall..."yesterday!". Peter today is definitely on his "soap box" about all that he sees in the ch...

One thing we can learn from today's reading, is God's judgments are just. Very few times in life will we get to see the chances God gave a person before he judged him. Most often we only see the final scene and think of God as quite a harsh judge. For once we get to see the behind the scenes, we get to see the "before" the judgment.  Nebuchadnezzar is not the only person every to be warned of impending judgment and given a chance to alter his course, it's simply the only one that we were privy too. I believe God has done the same for many. I myself have often dealt with people and forewarned them not to continue on a particular course and not everyone is privy to that either, especially as a pastor and parishioner confidentiality must be maintained, all most people ever see if the final judgment or the disciplinary action that was brought. Such an opportunity of Grace and Mercy Nebuchadnezzar was given, Daniel gives him once last prod, just in case he is dense eno...

For sake of argument, let’s say David wrote this Psalm(choices are David, Ezra or Daniel). David writes, “ I am worn out waiting for your rescue ”.  Well, if David is sick and down why wouldn't God come to the rescue right away? “ When will you comfort me ?”  There is not even any comfort for David either. Unless you have suffered or watched others suffer than this scripture means nothing to you yet, until one day you experience this situation. I have experienced this watching my wife suffer. She had one ailment, that was very bad, went to emergency was prescribed the wrong drugs, after a few days of that she went to another doctor who prescribed a new medication that she ended up being allergic to and have a horrible reaction, fever, swelling, her skin literally looked burned from the high fever she carried for 3-4 days. I prayed for her every night as she lay there crying, often in pain. My powers were impotent, as far as I could tell. I prayed for her in the morning, her fe...

Nobody ever realizes that in the great story of a great young man, Jeremiah, God has another great story of another great young man, whom we know as Daniel. As we read the book of Jeremiah we are caught up in all his exploits (“my people shall know me and they shall do great exploits” [ironically we read this in the Book of Daniel]. While Jeremiah is doing his great exploits, Daniel is in the background, being fashioned by God, for phase II, of His great plan. We get so consumed with our little world and churches and Christians begin to see Christianity through their own little world and experience.  In essence, we box God up.  We claim, “this is where it’s at, this is where it’s happening”, but yet as we read the Bible we see God’s plans and purpose are vast and include many others and are far beyond us and light years ahead of us. God is not limited to one man/woman or any one particular group of people. Think of it, in this large and grand scheme, God is working through Jer...

    Well, it sounds like “unbelievers” have been trying to trash talk Christians for a couple of thousand years; and to think I thought this was only happening to us, here in the 21 st  century. Glad to see, nothing has changed….., neighbors, co-workers, relatives are always waiting for the day when we are going to slip, mess up or say something we shouldn't have said; and when we do,  you can count on it, everybody is going to know about it.  It’s interesting to see that nothing has changed in the past 2000 years. However, what I do take issue is Peter eluding to the thought, that I, might behave in such a way that would give my neighbor, justifiable cause, to have slander against me. I’m insulted and I’m sure so are you, that Peter feels like he has to write this and caution us to “act & behave” like Christians in front of our unbelieving neighbors! Verse 12, “be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors”.   Are you just as ...

There’s no denying, James is not that fond of “rich people”.  If it was only this reference in Chapter 5, that would be bad enough, but James has taken jabs at the rich in other chapters as well. No doubt, James did not grow up with affluence of any kind. We know from the Gospels that Joseph and Mary (James’ parents) were poor. Historians believe that Joseph died at an early age, as he is not mentioned in the Gospels; except in the early stages of Jesus’ life. Now with Joseph dead, James & Jesus (step brothers) probably had to work that much harder to make ends meet at home. Jesus himself takes a jab at rich people saying, “it is easier for a camel to get through the eye of an needle than for a rich person to get into heaven”.  I’m sure in the Church of Jerusalem where James was an elder, there were not many affluent people in that congregation. However we cannot deny that it was Joseph of Arimathea, an affluent man, a prominent member of the Sanhedrin...

     WHERE were they?  Where did the priests take off to and who's hands have they left the responsibility of the Sanctuary & Temple in?  Surely not just anybody???  Can you imagine when these young boys, young men were first given the honor to bear the responsibility of the Temple!  They probably couldn't sleep the night before, so excited that they finally would be trusted with the Temple and Sanctuary of God, Wow!      We have all been there, a place we never imagined we would have the honour of filling, but through time, faithfulness and God's Grace we find ourselves in that place, in that ministry. At first we pamper it, at first we treat our new found responsibility with honour, at first we treat it as a " holy thing ".   I wonder if the first few times the Priests had the duty of caring for the Temple and Sanctuary, if they sang and prayed to The Lord all day and/or all night?  I wonder if they w...

There’s no denying, James is not that fond of “rich people”.  If it was only this reference in Chapter 5, that would be bad enough, but James has taken jabs at the rich in other chapters as well. No doubt, James did not grow up with affluence of any kind. We know from the Gospels that Joseph and Mary (James’ parents) were poor. Historians believe that Joseph died at an early age, as he is not mentioned in the Gospels; except in the early stages of Jesus’ life. Now with Joseph dead, James & Jesus (step brothers) probably had to work that much harder to make ends meet at home. Jesus himself takes a jab at rich people saying, “it is easier for a camel to get through the eye of an needle than for a rich person to get into heaven”.  I’m sure in the  Church  of  Jerusalem  where James was an elder, there were not many affluent people in that congregation. However we cannot deny that it was Joseph of Arimathea, an affluent man, a prominent member of the Sanhe...

James today follows up on his theme in Chapter 2 that he was touching on; he comes right out and says it now in Ch. 4, "purify your hearts for you loyalties are divided between God and the World". Loyalty is a virtue of a by-gone era. Our kids are raised watching professional athletes run from one team to another, it's all about the mighty dollar, there is no loyalty. These athletes have no loyalty to any team or any city. It's all about "me". You bring that mind set into the Church or into your Christianity, and it's a nightmare. It goes against the very grain of Christian ethics, that teaches us to " do all things without selfish ambition, but rather considering others more than ourselves ". Churches today are so desperate for parishioners that we put up with this quasi Christian that is coming out, but yet Joshua confronted them and told them, " if it's to difficult to serve the Lord, make a decision today whom you will serve. ...

Sometimes I blame it on the State I live in....Texas!.  It is the Bible Belt of the southwest.  I came here with a preconceived notion that people would be terribly religious, everyone would claim to "know the Lord", but would they live it? I blamed it on the South West Bible belt, but as I read what James has to write in his Epistle, it makes me realize, this is a very long standing issue and has nothing to do with a particular state and/or country. According to James, over 2000 years ago, this was an issue and James was not living in Texas; America did not even exist, but yet James is having to address people who claim to be pious and religious folks, but don't have the actions and character to back it up. James mentions folks praising God and then turning around and cursing somebody. He mentions lots of talk of faith, with little action. He mentions people who can't or don't control what they say. He mentions people who hear sermons, but don't do what the s...

It seems like brother James is trying to school us in some “good ‘ol fashion people skills”.  Simple gestures like not to show partiality, show mercy to one another and that “love” covers a multitude of sins. We know that according to scripture, “God has ordained that we be fruitful”, so then why are we often, not fruitful? James helps us to understand that if we want to be fruitful, there may be more to it than praying, “Lord make me fruitful, make my church fruitful”.  It’s not like a “super power” that you just miraculously get endowed with. Fruitfulness will not be the result of something you “just get”, but it will be a result of how you treat people. Obviously James has seen this in the Church, as one of the Elders in the Church of  Jerusalem .  He has seen preferential treatment being giving to one Christian as opposed to another, he has seen lack of mercy in the dealing with each other and he has seen people holding grudges for past sins. “Love covers a multi...

  We read today about a “double minded man”.  A divided man, or woman, you know…can’t make up his mind what he wants, she has divided loyalties, divided affections and divided interests which lead to divided and unstable commitments. I think I know a few of these people. If we like to throw around the term “bi-polar” then let’s do it! They are bi-polar Christians, bi-polar in attendance, bi-polar in commitments and as we rack our heads trying to figure them out, what makes them tick, what makes them so fleeting and unpredictable we just cannot figure it out. James give us insight that what we are dealing with is an individual with divided loyalties.  Joshua says, “stop wavering, make a decision today” David is not allowed to fight with the Philistines, they tell him to go back, David is accused of having divided loyalties (which David had whether he realized it or not). We can live in a Country, be in a Faith, attend a Congregation, each Sunday, faithfully, but have divid...

This is the scripture preachers don't like to read. Every time I read it it leaves me a little unsettled. To think of myself as nothing more than mere entertainment for parishioners is not comforting, in the least. But the reality is, for many Americans, Sunday church attendance is a form of a religious, habitual ritual for many. You get up, put on your best dress, show up to church, it's very social, mingle a little, listen to the sermon (with half our minds on something else) then mingle a little more, go out to lunch and then head home and begin to wind down for the evening. The idea that your sermon is going the be the very spiritual breath in their lungs and change their course, catapult them forward is perhaps naive or overly optimistic. However, this is how the true preacher feels about his sermon. He studies, prays and tries to get the mind of Christ for that service believing that his sermon can make a difference in someone's life. God is really bursting that bubbl...

     THE most disobeyed thought that comes to our minds, more often than we would care to admit is, "Don't do it!" How many times have you and I heard that voice and ignored it. When I am angry....I'm not listening to that voice. When I am filled with lust...I am not listening to that voice. When I am filled with "my way"....I am not listening to that voice. When "I'm tired" I'm not listening to that voice. Isn't that dangerous?! In the times when I need to listen to that voice the most, my feelings override every other faculty of the mind. Don't do it! This thought, may even be screaming to some that are reading this blog today. Everything I feel, everything I sense, everything within me (except for that thought) is urging and pressing me to doing this. I'm tired, I'm fed up. I'm tired of being broke, I'm tired of not having enough, I'm tired....I'm tired, I'm tired....and yet the answer is the ...

Depeche Mode even had a hit in the 90's called "Personal Jesus ", the lyrics went something like this... Your own personal Jesus Someone to hear your prayers Someone who cares Your own personal Jesus Someone to hear your prayers Someone who's there Pick up the receiver I'll make you a believer..... We read the verse today in Ezekiel and we might question it. God is telling Ezekiel to let Pharaoh know that He heard him say, "for you have said the river is mine, I have made it myself" Really? Six Billion people in the earth and God is paying attention to one sentence uttered by one person, in the midst of billions of people and quint trillion conversations. How can this be? Somehow this idea of a Personal God doesn't resonate with us. We can believe in God's existence, some kind of moral being in the Universe, even Creator of all. We can even see his as a judge, judging people, as they die, one by one. However this notion of a God who pays...

There are times my daughter (Shania) has not understood me. There are times Shania has thought that I was mean, uncaring…..and probably thought my behavior was quite unchristian.  I remember harshly confronting a young unchristian man that kept coming out to church and was vehemently pursuing my daughter and always trying to get her somewhere alone where they “could talk”.  On several occasions I politely said hi to him and then interrupted their “moments” and told my daughter to come with me. However he would follow or cut her off in the hallway later on in the service, he just would not be deterred. I’ve seen too many, young, unsuspecting, easily flattered girls, seduced and ripped off from the church, by wolves in sheep’s clothing, to allow it to happen to my own daughter.  After the stern confrontation, he stopped coming to church. My daughter did not look at me with high regard and respect for this act, as a matter of a fact, it was the opposite, she saw me in a diff...

      THE Secular and the Christian World sure don't agree on much, but one thing they do believe in is that if an individual has Faith, whether that is, Faith that they will be healed, faith that they will succeed, faith that they will not die, often times, even Doctors will testify that the catalyst to the persons recovery & survival was driven by their faith, no matter what or whom that faith was in.  Christians say, "you need to have faith" and non-Christians say, "you need to have faith". Don't you find that odd?  It seems like there is this universal code, imprinted in humanity, that somehow understands the premise and the power of Faith.  Paul describes Faith as, " Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see ".  Jesus said, " if you have the faith of a mustard seed you could say to this mountain, "be moved and cast into the sea" and it would be done .  What do you do with a statement like that...

     MY guess is that many people reading this blog will have, perhaps 2 things in common.  #1. They often wondered "there's got to be more to life than this" and # 2.  They wondered, "why do I never get away with anything, but my friends and others always seem to get away with stuff??".  I do not have a perfectly vivid memory about my childhood, but I do remember this, " I never got away with anything ".  I remember this one incident in elementary school, 6th grade, we were running up the stairs, trying to be first as always (everything was a race) and this one kid is pushing me, pulling on me and driving me nuts.  I was always one to keep my cool (unlike other kids in my grade) and I did not fight or cause trouble often, but the one time I decide "I'm not going to hold back".  I just stopped, grabbed the kid and pushed him off of me, he went backwards, hit his head up against a brick wall, cracked it and his head started bleeding prett...

Could you be a Psalm writer?  "No, I'm not poetic".  The Psalms are not about poetry, they're about relationship. What encourages us in reading the Psalms is reading about the relationship the writer(s) have with God. It's refreshing, it's encouraging, it shows us what we can have; and should have!  "Your faithfulness reaches to the sky"  "I will sing your praises"  "all human help is useless, with God's help we will do mighty things". It is so refreshing to read and in so doing , it implants in our minds, thoughts that are right, thoughts that are in line with God's Word.  So different than what we hear otherwise, from week to week from our brethren and sisteren! Staying home from church, speaking doubt and negativity, talking of losing their faith, God's not coming through, etc..etc...and then we read the Psalms, we read about men that are enthused, pumped up, about their relationship with God and something inside of...

     I was once in a morning prayer meeting at our church with a few other Christians, when I saw a young boy approaching me.  He bypassed everybody else in the room and came directly to me and said, "my mom needs help getting her car started".  Then he stood there just waiting for me to jump to my feet and help. My first thought was, "who in the world are you?" Then, people in the room began looking at me to see how I was going to respond to this stranger. The second thought that came to me was "why in the world am I being summoned to go help a woman start her car when I can barely change a flat tire?".  I walked outside with the boy and asked him where he lived, he pointed his house out to me....and then I remembered who he was.  I had outreached that neighborhood a month prior and had spoken to the little boy and his sister about coming to church and about God.  The boy, his sister, nor his mother had ever come out, but now, that...

"An external washing, ceremonies" that's all they are, writes the author of Hebrews, UNTIL, the time of the New Order. Do some research, find out, "are there more Catholics, than Born Again Christians, in the world?"  I believe there is. If God ever slept, this idea of the New Order would have kept Him up at night with excitement. Away with religious ceremonies, away with an external washing, that does not clear or clean the conscience. The new order will be Christ coming Himself, by the Holy Spirit, to make His dwelling place in our hearts. Now are consciences can be cleansed/cleared, now we can be washed within. Now we can be clean inside and out, not just a superficial, surface change, but a true change, "if any man be in Christ, he is a New Creation". Well, the New Order has come and Praise God there are many all over the world that rejoice at being saved, being Born Again, being made a "New Creation", but yet there are literally millions...

I am so glad I serve the God of the New Testament. I think somewhere between Malachi and the Gospel of Mathew, the God of the Old Testament was converted. The God of the Old Testament seems like He's always judging people for their sins and angry and Jesus of course, is more like Grandpa, He's just so nice and accepting and tolerant and forgiving, almost a "pushover", but hey, that's fine with me, I'd much rather that than this angry God in the Old Testament. How could God be so different in the Old Testament as opposed  to the New Testament? It almost seems like two separate Gods; unless I begin to look closer. The first place I need to go in my research of these seemingly two separate Gods, is Golgotha. When I get up to Golgotha, I see Jesus, hanging on that cross, with a crown of thorns forced unto his skull , nails driven into his hands and feet and a side pierced with a sword and a back that has it's flesh so beaten, the flesh is just hanging and then...

The Psalmist writes, "who can list the glorious miracles of the Lord!" I dare say, there are some reading this blog that might challenge that!"  They would say, "list them, I'm hard pressed to think of one! How'' your miracle life? Miracles go hand in hand with opportunity. We have our lives so structured and we don't venture out in faith, we keep it safe. Well then don't complain you have no miracles. Peter had to step out of the boat to experience a miracle, but don't forget there was a handful of other disciples that stayed in the boat, safe and experienced no miracle! You can have it both ways.  Christians who venture, in faith, are the ones that have the "lists of miracles" to write about.   "Does God still do miracles? In your intellect you say, "yes of course", but in your heart what do you say? God does miracle, yes! Does He do miracles for you? Do you encourage others to believe in miracles and now you ne...

AS we function in a natural world we can begin to view Christianity as a natural process, we can begin to view salvation as a logical decision. Although, in many ways "salvation" is a logical decision, it is anything but logical to the natural or carnal mind. The verse in Ezekiel is a common verse through out the bible, "they have eyes to see but they do not see and ears to hear but do not hear". Isaiah also spoke these words and so did Jesus in quoting Isaiah say, 14 In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: “‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. 15 For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’[ a ] 16 But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear." How many times have we ...