THE ONE YEAR BIBLE CLUB

   This is one of my least favorite stories in the Bible, especially having a daughter myself.  Jephthah's irrational promise to God is going to take his daughter's life.  This just goes to prove, that even the best of us have the propensity to be serious "flakes" at times.  Here is a man whom "the Spirit of the Lord" is upon. Here is a man whom God is using, a man who goes out and accomplishes a great conquest for God and for Israel, but when he comes home, Jephthah must deal with a very ugly situation, that has stemmed from his only, incredible, stupid and irrational promise he has made to God.  As if he had to make this promise to God in order to gain this victory. This is a horrible story about a poor young girl, who's life is going to be cut short because of a Father who is just "a flake".  The lives of many children have been subjected to "the whims" of flaky parents and I'm talking about Christian parents.  Our text today ...

      Sometimes the greatest miracle is the one that's right in front of our eyes, that we take for granted. We are looking for a leg to grow out, a cancer prognosis to be vetoed, but we miss the many other miracles that God is doing right in front of us.  Does anybody take notice of the miracle in our text we read,  in Luke 24:33 " they got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. They they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together ". How quickly we forget that this group wasn't a group Jesus found all together on the Basketball Court, a group of friends he called unto himself.  And so they were together before they met and followed Jesus; and of course they are together once Jesus has died, why wouldn't they.        However, that's not the case.  Luke, the one writing the narrative, is a Dr., Matthew was a sniveling, tax collector, James & John our brawley cussing Fishermen, Simon, a political zealot....the point i...

    Imagine for one who was the Alpha and Omega, according to John He was the word who had always been. Never was death even a concept to Jesus until this moment. He was going to let himself die and BY FAITH believe that he would not remain dead, that God, the Father, would raise him from the dead. 100% of all those reading this blog will one day have to face death. Some of us will die quickly, not having a chance to even think about it, but others will die a death they know is coming, whether through cancer or some other fatal disease or even old age; they will have time to contemplate and think over their death. They will know that in a few weeks, a month or a few years they will close their eyes one last time and the question they must ask themselves is will my eyes ever open again and if they do open again, what will be the next thing that I see...Heaven or Hell? Or, will I be somewhere else in some intermittent state? Death is the scariest event any human being ...

   God wants to slim down that vast numbers of men, going to fight with Gideon, to make sure it's known, that it was He (God) that brought the victory, not their own might. So God thinks to himself, "what's the quickest way to bring that number down, substantially?" God knowing the hearts of men, goes with fear. Fear strikes the heart of so many men and women serving God today and back then. As the story goes, He tells Gideon, tell those that are afraid, they can return..well that will knock out a couple of thousand...NO, it knocks out Twenty-two (22) THOUSAND men. You have to read it twice! It's hard to believe that there was 22,000 men out there that were so afraid and given the first opportunity to return home, they would. God has not always given men the opportunity to not fight because they were afraid. How many times did God tell Joshua, "do not fear, be courageous". He told Jeremiah, "fear not their faces". Jesus tells us not to fear for...

          " 4  They camped on the land and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys.  5  They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count them or their camels; they invaded the land to ravage it.  6  Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the LORD for help."      The easiest (but dumbest) thing to do is step into any bad situation and without knowing the history or the facts, lash out and say, "where's God in all this? If he's so wonderful and powerful why is this happening?".  It would be easy to look upon Israel's plight and ask those same questions, as a matter of a fact, Gideon does ask that question,   13  “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the LORD is with us,  why has all this happened to us?     FIRST thin...

         "But this is your hour—when darkness reigns.”  We know Jesus is physically speaking to the Roman Soldiers, but who is He really speaking to? Is He speaking to the demonic world, is He speaking to Satan himself who has been at him for quite some time....probably all of the above! This is the hour when darkness reigns. We sometimes sing this song in church "he's under my feet, he's under my feet, Satan is under by feat"  I sing that song cautiously and not to braggadociously. Fact is, there are days, weeks, months when darkness does reign and Satan is not under our feet. It is not your triumphant hour! It can be a time of darkness, oppression, depression and very few victories to speak of other than you have not giving up your faith in Christ and you have not jumped off a bridge, but other than that, darkness reigns. This is your hour Satan, go ahead and enjoy it (and Satan thoroughly enjoyed the inhuman scouring and beating of Jesus). Howe...

    If you follow the life of Joshua, you will find little to no error, in his service to God. Nor will you find any flaws in his character. Perhaps Joshua learned enough watching Aaron over the years, to learn what not to be and what not to do. Joshua is pretty much a straight shooter, impeccable in his ways, so why does he not leave a disciple, why "no disciple" for Joshua? Where would Israel have been if Moses had not discipled Joshua? Yet, even knowing the impact and the importance of a disciple, Joshua leaves none.  "No disciple" is the only thing you can hold against Joshua, but it doesn't make sense. If Joshua was such a stellar disciple in every other area, why did he fail in this most important area? I've often thought about this and there can only be one conclusion......it's not that he failed to think, or to leave a disciple, it's that there was none to disciple. Yes, Moses discipled Joshua, but Joshua was interested in being discipled, it...

  I'm not sure which 1/2 of the tribe of Manasseh this is that "did not drive out the people of Beth Shan.....for the Canaanites were determined to live in that land". God's response, "You have disobeyed me. Why have you done this? Now therefore I tell you that I will not drive them out before you; they will be thorns in your sides and their gods will be a snare to you". Who was it that thought we will just stay here, and not cross the other side of the Jordan? 1 The Reubenites and Gadites, who had very large herds and flocks, saw that the lands of Jazer and Gilead were suitable for livestock. 2 So they came to Moses and Eleazar the priest and to the leaders of the community, and said, 3 “Ataroth, Dibon, Jazer, Nimrah, Heshbon, Elealeh, Sebam, Nebo and Beon— 4 the land the LORD subdued before the people of Israel—are suitable for livestock, and your servants have livestock. 5 If we have found favor in your eyes,” they said, “let this land be given to your se...

   It's hard to imagine Abraham ever serving any other God but Jehovah, but he did and so did all his family. “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your ancestors, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates River and worshiped other gods." Often people look at our families and can't imagine us being anything other than Christian. Some of us grew up Christian as our heritage, the rest of us served the gods on the other side of the river, so to speak. We have seen what it is like so serve a false god or give ourselves to impotent religion. In our text we are not sure why these people are holding on to relics of their past gods and religion; while trying to serve the true God. And when challenged by Joshua to throw down their idols and relics there is no argument from them. "throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. 15 But if serving the LORD seems undesi...

    THIS is way too close to Easter, to be talking about false religion of "no resurrection", as we read today, has been around for a long, long time.  However what makes this particularly interesting is the group that propagates false religion is propagating this false claim to "the Resurrection" Himself, ie; Jesus Christ. John 11:25 Jesus says, "I am the Resurrection". Arrogance has no boundaries. "A fool is wiser than 7 wise men" we read in Proverbs. These Sadducees are going to sit there and argue "stupidities" with The Resurrection Himself. Proverbs also tells us that the man who argues with a fool becomes a fool himself.  Jesus doesn't get into an argument with these boys, He simply makes them look like the fools they are and moves on. Not much has changed today, there are still cults/false religions that want to argue their false doctrine. Jehovah Witnesses still try to propagate that when we die we remain in the earth and th...

    THE group of Pharisees hated Jesus, there was no love loss between the Pharisees and Jesus. There were other groups who loved Jesus and were open to what he had to say and with them he sat down and talked.....nicely! Jesus is no respecter of persons and neither should we, but you cannot deny that Jesus had various methods for reaching various groups of individuals. Jesus knew who is target audience was and that affected how he responded. It is written in scripture "do not cast your pearls to the swine", but yet we see Christians do this everyday. No doubt, we will be persecuted, that will come naturally but do we really have to subjugate ourselves to it?! We cannot discern whom God is leading to himself and who He isn't (although sometimes it is quite obvious) but we can discern the mocker vs. the serious seeker. We cannot discern who will be saved and will not, it could be the mocker who one day gets powerfully converted and the serious seeker goes on to seriously se...

    "Always favoritism around here", we can't stand favoritism, at least when it doesn't include us, then we are staunch opponents of it. Well, if you are a staunch opponent of favoritism than you were probably upset by today's reading. "After all the land was divided among the tribes, the Israelites gave a special piece of land to Joshua".  There you have it, in black & white, they are not even trying to hide this favoritism, do they have no shame! Wait, is this the Israelites giving Joshua this favoritism or God? Read on...."For the Lord had said, he could have any town he wanted".  Favoritism from God? How am I going to resolve this? I thought God was perfect.  Well, God is perfect and sinless so we can only conclude that favoritism is not always such a bad thing. Is our God not a God of recompense, of God of rewards? If favoritism is coming to an individual because of hard work, than it is earned and is probably due and in cases of many...

    Unlike the world, we do not just find ourselves physically tired, we also find ourselves spiritually tired. Not only are we having to deal with issues at work, home & school but we are also having to contend and deal with spiritual issues, issues we are struggling with and then trying to help others with spiritual issues they're struggling with and I'm tired, are you?  I have to say that while I was shocked to read that the tribe of Ephraim did not get rid of the Canaanites [ 10 They did not dislodge the Canaanites living in Gezer; to this day the Canaanites live among the people of Ephraim but are required to do forced labor. ] I have to also say, that I'm not so surprised. What the Ephraimites don't realize, is that if you don't fight now, you will have to fight twice as hard later. The worse words Jesus ever spoke were "go the extra mile". Is there a principle in that admonishing that we have yet to understand? Why didn't they "dislodge...

  Too old to fight? Not Caleb! He was one of the original 12 spies to spy out this land many decades earlier and was one of the two (the other was Joshua) . When a young man is entering puberty we know that a surge of Testosterone runs into and through his body. This testosterone causes hair to grow, pimples to form and aggressiveness to rise up in him. Here is the transformation from boy to manhood and the fight; that once was not in the boy, is now there! He becomes more aggressive, stronger, muscles begin to develop, but what happens in old age? The opposite, Testosterone begins to wear off in our later years of life. So much so, that men, today, can purchase drugs to increase their testosterone in their latter years. As men grow old, because of the decrease in Testosterone, they lose the fight that once was in them. They become very complacent, they become very passive. This is how it works in the Physical world and I wonder how much the Physical mirrors the spiritual? Fewer an...

   If you've ever felt or suspected that sometimes God puts you off, you may have had that suspicion confirmed in today's reading. Jesus acknowledges through this parable that often we can be asking for something and being put off, not just by this Judge, but by God himself. Jesus doesn't say "He doesn't put people off" but He does say, "He will not put you off forever". Jesus says, that our persistence in prayer will work. Asking once, twice is not enough. Even Elijah prayed a few times for rain until his pray was answered. We sure kept asking our parents for something when we were kids, until we wore them down and they gave in. Why don't we take that same approach with our Father in Heaven? We pray for a few weeks for finances, see no change and give up. We pray for an unsaved loved for a while, see no change in him/her and we give up. We pray a couple of times for a pain to go away or a healing, no change, we give up. The list is endless of th...

   ARE Christians altruistic? There's a question that deserves some thought! I personally don't know the answer to that, but I do know that Jesus was. I am amazed how many times Jesus helped and healed people, without first negotiating with them whether or not they would follow him. "If I heal you will you follow me, If I heal you will you repent, if I heal you will you be my disciple, will you join my group?", these were never words heard from Jesus. Jesus healed and helped (and some may be scandalized by this) without even preaching to them. So why did Jesus heal, without first getting a commitment? Why did Jesus heal, knowing full well he was just being used? The answer of course was because Jesus was truly altruistic, he was the epitome of selflessness. What are the motives of Christians today? Are we helping others and being nice, pretending to care when really all we want is for them to join our church and the moment we realize they have no interest in our churc...

  OUR idea of righteousness is not even close to what "righteousness" truly is. I was at a convenience store this morning, bought a refillable coffee cup cause I'm sick of paying for a cup every time I go (I digress) so the clerk offered for me to go in the back of the store to rinse the cup. I looked around and there was tons of goods lying around that I could have easily slipped into my pocket; any thief would have taken advantage of the situation. "But you are not a thief" you would say. That's right and I could walk away feeling quite smug that I was not even remotely tempted to take anything for my gain; I could feel quite smug about my righteousness....UNTIL I read today's reading. Let's be honest, WE would have broken this oath as quickly as we made it. You deceived me and there's no way I'm going to honor this oath! "but you gave me your word, you promised", they would say, and we would reply, "I don't care!!!"...

  I'm not so sure if "catch me if you can" is the best policy to follow in life. There is a mindset that says, "it's a win win situation", if they catch me me oh well, what will they do and of course if they don't, I get away with it, so why confess?". I'm sure Achan is thinking, "man, I almost got away with it, this is embarrassing, oh well, the risk was worth it". Achan says, "yeah, it's in my tent, you found me out, go get it" (paraphrased by me of course). Imagine his surprise when Joshua says, "take him outside the camp and stone him TO DEATH, and his wife & sons too". Now the RAMIFICATIONS of CATCH ME IF YOU CAN have been amped up. Now it's no longer a game of cat and mouse chase. God cannot stand the "catch me if you can" mindset. If we confess before we are caught, there will always be Grace and most of the time there will always be leniency with those you confessed to. That being said,...

  Joshua is a pretty impressive fellow! If I asked you to quickly mention something negative, most would not be able to give an answer within 30 seconds, try it! Couldn't come up with anything, could you? In our story today we do see signs of human frailty in Joshua. Right after the great conquest and victory of Jericho, Joshua sends in a small dispatch of 3000 men to go in an wipe out a small segment of enemies remaining on the outskirts, but when those men come back with their tales between their legs and explain how they were defeated and had to retreat, Joshua falls apart. Joshua starts blurting out statements as, "we should have just stayed on the other side of the Jordan" Really?! Joshua begins to panic and blurt out that now all their enemies will hear about this defeat and they will be doomed. He goes into panic mode and a defeatist mindset. It just goes to show, how easily our confidence is broken. One loss, one set back and our faith crumbles. After a victory, ...

  We all want to go to a party right? "Well, that all depends on who's having it", we would say. I guess you could say, "a Christian" (can we call JESUS a CHRISTIAN?) is having this party, still want to go? "I guess that means there won't be any alcohol?" Probably not! " I guess there won't be any drugs there?" You guessed right! " and I guess there won't be any chance of "hooking up" at this party either?" No, there won't be any hooking up, that's for sure! So, just let me know if you are going to be going? "Oh, I can tell you right now, I'm not going, sounds like a pretty lame party to me. I don't know who you're going to be able to get to go to that party". For many people, "a Christian Party" is an Oxymoron, because it's missing all the elements of a good party, ie: SIN! Jesus gives us a parable of a party He is throwing and people are not overtly interested in go...

      I don't know how they did it, they, being the tribe of Gad, Reuben and the half tribe of Manasseh, but they did. They left their wives and children behind to go fight for the rest of the Israelites that still had not possessed their land. Imagine knowing and or thinking..."this is crazy, I have my inheritance, my land and here I am, out here fighting, I could get killed doing this and never get to go back to my family, who am I fighting for and why?! Let them fight for this land, they are the ones that want it, I already settled for my land on the other side of the Jordan!" I know what you are going to say, "they had already promised they would when Moses agreed to let them have that land". And to that I say, "big deal!" People promise all sorts of things when they are excited, but when reality sets in they retract every promise they made under the guise of, "it was irrational, c'mon, I was to excited to be thinking straight, I mean what...

  In our reading today, we read a very good parable about a fig tree that is about to be chopped down, for the simple reason, it's not producing figs. For 3 years now this fig tree has been visited, never once bearing any fruit, finally the command is made, to "chop it down". Your average person, would have said, "sure, if the stupid tree is not producing figs, cut it down, what do I care". However the average person is not the subject of this parable. It is a man that is above average. We would do well to have men and women like him in the church. He steps in on behalf of the tree and negotiates for the tree's life, even though it has no bearing on him. Not only does he negotiate for the tree's life, but makes a commitment to invest in the tree, do some digging, add some fertilizer, anything to give this tree "one more year". What a difference a year can make! The wisdom of this simple sentence, how many lives could have been saved from much h...

 It's hard to believe, that we "Christians" actually get a warning from God, that He's coming back and that some of us are still not going to be ready! And even with this warning, even with time to get things right, many of us will still be caught with our pants down, figuratively of course! Actually, in some cases it will be quite literally! I believe that God's frustration with us, is not a whole lot different than his frustration with the Israelites in the Old Testament reading. It doesn't help that we have Preachers teaching that once you get saved you can do whatever you want and you will still make Heaven your home. This kind of preaching really takes the punch out of Jesus' warning to us to get ready or else! Or else what? If I'm going to Heavan, then what? What is there to watch for, what is there to be ready for? Jesus is clear to illustrate in His story "that they that know what they should be doing and don't do it, will be greatly p...

  There's a lot of negativity in today's Old Testament reading. Moses is telling them they need to memorize a song because it will serve as a testimony against them when they enter the land they have been promised. God seems upset with these people, Moses seems upset with these people. The Church of Jesus Christ remains a Paradox. It is both a very pleasant place and a very negative place. God has worked with these people knowing the end result, how much more so are we required to work with difficult and ungrateful people, NOT knowing the results. It's a difficult bunch, this group of Israelites seems like they just can't live for God with any measure of long term faithfulness. The Church is in a constant flux. The average Church functions somewhere along these lines.....for every 20 people added to the Church 10-15 leave, net gain, 5! Ministry leaders and laymen are being removed from ministry, other members are having to be removed from Church all together, there are ...

       It’s so easy for the ones who frustrate others, to be sanctimonious and criticize them, “wow, they get so angry”.  Its so easy for those that disobey the law to criticize those that do obey it and have to enforce and it’s so easy for “the lawbreakers” (us sinners) to criticize the God who has made those laws and offer to bless us in return and spare us from harm. And its not just “do what I tell you or else!” It’s do what I tell you and it will be to your benefit. Sound like a good deal? For some reason, humans say, “ no, it’s not a good deal, I reject it and I want to do what I want; and it still better go well for me, or I will smear your name.”      God then points out a major flaw in our thinking, “ when such a person hears the words of this oath, he invokes a blessing on himself and thinks, I will be safe, even though I persist in going my own way ” If that doesn’t describe the insane, religious, community we live in. The fallacy that ...

      WE know that a mother gets her loving and nurturing instinct from God, but here's where God and the mother differentiate; a Mother ALWAYS comforts, God DOES NOT always comfort. I know we hear Christian songs that make us wonder, "what's wrong with me" where the vocalist sings out, "every time I call upon God he wraps his arms around me" but I don't find that in scripture. What I read this morning illustrates to us a man, a desperate man, who is crying out to his God and he is not being comforted. "at night I stretched out untiring hands, and I would not be comforted." Then the Psalmist goes on to write, "6 I remembered my songs in the night. My heart meditated and my spirit asked: 7 “Will the Lord reject forever? Will he never show his favor again? 8 Has his unfailing love vanished forever? Has his promise failed for all time? 9 Has God forgotten to be merciful? Has he in anger withheld his compassion?”       I ADMIRE this man becaus...

  Mary and Martha, this has always been a peculiar story to me. As one that has hosted many social gatherings, I know and can relate to the stress of hosting. While everyone else is enjoying themselves, you are left with the responsibility of the dinner, the preparation, the serving and timing of all. You don't have the leisure to just sit around and chat, ie: Mary! Sometimes my wife is just sitting there enjoying the company while I'm up and down, taking plates away, serving the next dish, getting the coffee and I want to just scream, "what are you doing, hello, I need your help here!" At first we can think Jesus is being insensitive to Martha's predicament, after all, why isn't Mary helping, I sure can empathize with her? Wouldn't we all love to be able to just sit down, relax and be served. I'm sure Martha was relying on Mary's help. My impression of this story is that Martha is right in being vexed with Mary. Mary is in the wrong and should hav...

  It was so easy back then for them to see, all that they had came from this God that rescued them. They had nothing, they were slaves, living in Egypt....now they are free, now they are conquering armies greater than them, twice the size of them, now they are living in a land flowing with milk and honey, rivers, streams, fruitfulness and God says, "when you get your first fruits, bring them to me in recognition and honor of the one who has made all this happen for you". Trying to get people to honor God with their first fruits today, is not so easy or clear cut. They are the ones who went to college and earned their degrees to get the good paying jobs they have. They are the ones who worked hard and climbed up the corporate ladder. And so when the Preacher stands before his congregation and challenges them to bring their first fruits, of all, that it is the Lord thy God that has done thing, the honest Christian thinks within himself, "well I know theologically that'...

   “after these things the Lord appointed other seventy-two; and sent them two and two “ There was much wisdom in sending them this way, even as he had given Solomon the same wisdom. “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up.” It was done obviously that they might help one another, so they could sustain and comfort one another in the persecutions and trials they were about to face. Jesus set the example here, with these men; of the importance of a Christian counterpart, a friend, with someone we could confide in and help each other. This would be key to the success of the mission of these 70 men. Every Christian, needs such a friend. Every Christian needs to seek someone in whom they can unload themselves too. Someone who can be their friend. Yes, I know, our mindset is “no need for that, no time for that.” I was reading also in chronicles and found interesting this verse… Ahithophel was the kin...

  How can you tell if what a prophet speaks is from God?" Here we are waiting for some great Revelation from God, but yet in our daily reading today, April 1st, we learn that it is actually quite simple. "If what the prophet speaks does not come true, then he did not speak my words". Very simple. Common sense right? So why would someone speak what is not of God? Well, the 1st and most obvious reason is, they are deliberately doing so, evil men, being guided by an evil spirit. The 2nd reason would be because they prophecy out of "the inclinations of their own hearts", as stated in another verse in the bible. They are not evil, but the words they are speaking are what they think and what they feel or perceive about the situation and/or person. And quite frankly, they are hit and miss on their words, depending on their discernment. Very few people actually speak directly from God. And the few that do you will see that 100% of what they speak, comes true, it's ...