THE ONE YEAR BIBLE CLUB

  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 ...

       How many times does the Psalmist tell us, "I cried out...." and he goes on to write, "your word unfolded to me". This is what our generation would call " ol' school Christianity". Today's Christian tries to get by by joining themselves to some fancy mega Church, with a dynamic motivational speaker and a dynamic, moving worship concert. They leave that place, Sunday morning, somewhat moved, somewhat enlightened as one who has just attended some kind of seminar, but as the week presses on and they tune in to their favorite T.V. programs, movies, work & other activities, they find themselves in that same place, mentally, emotionally and for sure, spiritually and the cycle goes on. In between is...divorces, child custody battles, drama, alcoholism, abusive relationships, verbal and some times physical....and this becomes what we know to be "the church" today. The reality is, there is only one kind of Christianity. and it's the ...

  HEARD someone (it was actually my sister) recently say, "you mean a Christian that actually has money and is not poor and broke like the rest of us!" Many Christians, if we would be honest would utter that same phrase. Why are so many of God's people poor and broke? Did you read today's reading? Are there not some guidelines here? Verse 15:3 "However, there need be no poor people among you...  if only you fully obey the LORD your God" So we can only conclude by this that we as Christians must not be obeying God. "Obey Him in what?", you ask. "Tithes"....NO! God getting most Christians to Tithe is like trying to squeeze juice out of a grape, no it's above and beyond the Tithe that Jehovah is speaking about. Verse 7  "If anyone is poor among your fellow Israelites in any of the towns of the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward them. Rather, be open handed and freely lend them whatever ...

   WHEN we think of unbelievable stories of the bible, we think of Jonah in the belly of a whale for 3 days, we think of Joshua praying that the sun would stand in place or Elijah praying that it would not rain for 3 years, but I think this story is equally unbelievable and stands just as strong (in the category of "unbelievable") as the previous stories mentioned. It is hard to believe how cold and indifferent the heart of a human being can be towards another human being. It is hard to believe how mankind would be more concerned about his livelihood than the welfare of another human being, but regardless of whether it is hard to believe, it is TRUE. The unfortunate incident here is that these men lost their herd of swine (what were Jews doing with a herd of swine anyway?), but yet a life has been restored, a man that was bound by demons has been set free, free to go home and be a son to his father again, free to go home and be a father to his sons, free to go home and li...

    One of the most common complaints, apparently for Christians, is that God does speak to us audibly, if only He would just speak to us. Having Pastored for 10 years I have learned to bite my tongue, more often than not. If I spoke my mind every time someone slipped a bit from the straight & narrow, well.......and that's me, imagine if God spoke audibly to us, imagine if God didn't bite his tongue (so to speak). In our text we read today God speaks and it's all about "house cleaning". I believe they mindset of the Israelites, whom God did often speak to was the opposite of ours. Their mindset was more, "if God isn't speaking, that's a good thing". We may look different than the Israelites, but as humans we are not much different. We fill our lives with junk, idols, compromises & false gods. We think if God was to speak it would be marvelous and loving; and I'm sure at times it would be, but other times it would be "a shake down...

    "But that is the time to be careful! Beware that in your plenty you do not forget The Lord your God" This is ridiculous! Who would forget someone who has done so much for them? I thought it was the opposite, I thought we had to worry about people in the Church that are not doing well, that are not prospering. Now you're  telling me that we also have to worry about those that God is prospering? I could see how someone could leave the Church who felt like God let them down or wasn't doing enough for them (as spiritually immature as that might be), but I don't think that, as our scripture says, we need "to be careful" that those that are prospering, by the hand of God.....would actually stray from God. And if that be true (which obviously it is if God has said it) then I can't help wonder....Does Christianity contain in itself; it's own ingredients for its demise? In other words; if the tendency is for Christians to prosper in their ways, can th...

    I will rarely be the one to say that, "God made a mistake", but I have to say, God made a mistake here when He instructed them to "wear them on their foreheads".  What was He thinking? Did God not think that one day, as hard as it is to believe that they might actually make boxes and put them on their foreheads? Or maybe God knew how religious they would become some day and He wanted them to look like fools, walking around with a box on their foreheads.  Fact is, all religious people look like fools to those outside the church.  They see us with all our dogmas, all our rules and regulations but then they see us, when push comes to shove, act like heathens, hateful, prejudiced, unforgiving, cheap, mean, bitter, and the list goes on.  God promised the day when His laws and precepts would be written upon our hearts. A few thousand years later, Jesus came, died and rose from the dead, with that promise now available to all (his laws written upon o...

    How do you respond to correction.  Is it true that Adults, are just kids in grown up bodies?  Moses says, " But the Lord was very angry with me, because of you. he vowed that I would never cross the Jordan River into the good land the Lord your God is giving you as your special possession". If only the leaders we corrected were still willing to carry out their duties and responsibilities with dignity and honor, as Moses did in our text.  Our reaction to such a stern correction would be, "fine, I've given the past 40 years to getting these people into the Promised Land and now you're telling me I'm not going in because I lost my temper or disobeyed you one time? Well then you lead them, you tell them what they need to do or, better yet, have Joshua do it, since you see perfectly fit to have him go into the Promised Land! After all, where was Joshua when I was confronting Pharaoh, where was Joshua when I was leading these people through the dese...

         Maybe I'm just in a somber mood this morning, but I was just overwhelmed with how depressing this scenario is and maybe that 's good.  I don't know how they did it? I can just imagine how many could not take this aimless wandering and left the group, went off on their own into the desert and probably died out in the wilderness.  Imagine knowing, you have no purpose but to wander in circles until you die.  They were going absolutely "nowhere", there was no final destination, no purpose, but to wander around aimlessly and die.  That's depressing!!!  This is still the curse of the unbeliever (for it was their unbelief that angered God and drove them out into the desert), whether inside the church or outside.  The curse of the "unbeliever" is still aimless wandering, purposeless living; without an end destination. If we are going to know God, we must seek God for the greatest benefit (on earth) of ...

   VERSE 22, "Then ALL OF YOU (that was a red flag right there) came to me and said, "let us send men ahead to spy out the land for us and bring back a report about the route we are to take and the towns we will come to". I'm not so sure this sneak preview was so much about "scouting for a route", this scouting venture is purposely phrased to Moses, not to let out a hint of negativity, it's all positive.  They make sure to say to Moses the "right words", they make sure not to allude in any way that this spying out the land is really to see if the rumors they have heard are true (giants in the land) and if they are, there's no way....but none of that is mentioned to Moses. I believe Moses was manipulated here. Why would God allow Moses to be manipulated? Notice Moses doesn't tell the people, "I'll seek God get back to you on this" as he usually did. Moses now is trying to be nice, he's believing the best in people, tru...

  HOMICIDE STATISTICS BY GENDER: A 2000 global study on homicide by the  United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime  found that men accounted for about 98 percent of all homicide perpetrators worldwide  and 79% of the victims.  As much as people want to deny God and diss the bible as merely a book written by men, you can't get away from the truth and accuracy of the bible; it's ability to still speak into our lives 3000 years later and the impressive writing, by a mere man, like Moses to write 5 flawless books (Genesis-Deut).  The laws  written by Moses in these books still apply today, how can that be?  In our reading today, the emphasis, written by this man, writing (supposedly) on his own accord; is MURDER.  "He is a murderer" is repeated at least 5 times. It was to be considered at the time, the most heinous of crimes/sins a person could commit, was to takes somebody else's life, on purpose.  Moses (a mere man apparently...

       Imagine this conversation, "I have a better place, than what God has in mind, I would prefer this, no really, go ahead, this is good, trust me, I know, but God had ......I know, I know, but this will do, thank-you for offering Lord, but I'm good, really!!”      That's what this group of people is saying to God. And I say, "are you kidding me?"  What is this, what can you call this, I don't even know...is it stupid, arrogant, ignorant, fearful, or all of the above and more?!  Imagine telling God, who knows what's best for us and is trying to offer us  "His" best  and we turn around and say to Him, "no thanks, this will do just fine".  I know I've tried to offer people good things I had for them and had them tell me "no thanks", I was a little insulted, but can you imagine a human being saying that to God himself.  Maybe this group was thinking "at least we won't have to fight for this, we alr...

         WELL, poor Balaam is killed...and once again this confirms the idea in our previous reading, that God will use the wicked, but eventually He will judge them.   Balaam was the wicked one that was hired to curse Israel, but even Balaam turns around and says, " I cannot curse those whom God has not cursed " and we love that scripture, don't we! The problem is, we fail to read on because the people of Israel end up being cursed regardless, so in the end God's people are cursed. So if our aim is " not to be cursed " it is not enough to simply quote one random text from God's word but to understand the full idea of the story of Balaam.  Verse 15 to 16 goes on to tell us that Balaam could not curse them  directly or by his own  will, BUT Balaam thought of a better way to curse God's people, Balaam figured out that he could get them to  curse themselves .  "They were the ones who followed Bal...

 I wrote a mini e-book, available on smashwords.com entitled “The Reality of God”. How important it is that we have the ever and present Reality of God in our lives. How important it was back then, but even more, how important it is today. We can discuss all day long the significant aspects to all these offerings, but one thing we can say for sure, without speculation, is that it kept God, His purposes, His reality, at the forefront of the minds of His people. It is so easy to get caught up in the business of life and become distracted and lured away, from this relationship with this invisible God. In obeying these commands to have these frequent offerings, no matter how busy they were, this had to be done and it brought them constantly back to the place God wanted them. Today, we don’t have these laws, we don’t have these constant offerings, sacrifices, rituals, so what keeps God at the forefront of our minds? When Jesus describes the seeds (the Word of God) that the sower sows in...

  WE want to bury the past, but the past cannot be buried, the past becomes part of our history. Stop bringing up my past! Well, sorry, we are! Because if we don’t remember the past, we repeat it. What will your history be? Well let’s ask, “who are you banding with?”       “ Our father died in the wilderness. He was not among Korah’s followers, who banded together against the LORD "       Why is this coming up now? Because the past, our history always comes back. Men who forget history repeat the same mistakes, this we know! Israel has certain reference points (a history) just as we do. Korah and what happened is part of their history and will be until their death. Mahlah and her sisters are quick to mention that their father was not part of the group that "banded together" against the Lord. A few thoughts here, #1. It was not against the Lord that they banded, I thought it was against Moses? But when God inspires this text to be written, it ...

      Such a short verse here, slipped in the midst of all the numbers and counting, but did you catch that?  Vs. 9 "...were among Korah's followers when they rebelled against the Lord".  Moses must be mistaken here, so I went back and read the story where it actually happened.  It seems as I read the story that Korah approaches Moses, with his gang, to confront Moses. Korah says, "why do you set yourself above the people, we are all holy too!".  So at first appearance, it seems like Korah is not rebelling against the Lord (after all, who would do that?) Korah is merely rebelling against the leadership.       I like (actually I don't) how we separate the two. "I love the Lord and would do anything He tells me, it's just this incompetent leadership I am rebelling against. And not only will I rebel, but I will spend my time convincing others to join me, against him. Rebels in the Church are always pretty convinced that they are rebell...

  HOW spiritual are you? Of course nobody likes "super spiritual" people, but that does not mean we should not be spiritual. "Super Spiritual" people are those who try to spiritualize matters that are more practical in nature than anything else, they also try to hide their flaws and judgmentalism behind "spirituality"...., well we know all about them, but let's talk about us. We are proud that nobody would call us "super spiritual" but would anybody call us "spiritual" ??? THE FACT IS some of us are more spiritual, more in tune with God and seem to have more of his Spirit, than others. Paul prayed, "that they may be filled to FULL measure with His Spirit". Full meaning that any Christian can be from a quarter empty to overflowing full (just like a gas tank) with God's Spirit. If only we had a gage like our gas tank, to show us where we are at. Aside from violations & money problems, the balance of divorces stems fr...

 Balaam is a confusing character to many people. At first when we are reading about him going over to meet Balak to partner with him against Israel. However when Balaam pronounces blessing on Israel instead of cursing; Balak sends him off angry so now we think, "oh, he's a good guy". Balaam is saying good things, but he is still bad. Later on Balaam mentions to King Balak that although he cannot curse Israel himself, Balaam suggests to King Balak that he can have the Israelites curse themselves by enticing them into sexual immorality. This turns out to be quite an effective course and thousands of Israelites die in a plague that strikes the Israelite community because of their sexual immorality between the moabite women and the men of Israel..What we can learn from this is "saying good things does not make you good", doing good things makes you good, even if you don't say a thing. We are confused about Balaam, but there really is nothing to be confused about...

  A healthy dose of reality for us is to be able to see our selves in the Israelites. I sure don't dress like them and I sure don't talk like them, but I sure act like them, how about you? First of all, they have to get angry, before they are willing to pray. It shows they know the value of prayer but only seem to pray when it benefits them; nonetheless, they pray to God. our scripture says, "The Lord heard the Israelite's request and gave them the victory". A tremendous victory it was 100% correlated to their prayer to God. You would think that would be a reference point for them of how real God is and how good He is, but as the story goes on, as it will with you and I. the journey grew long. This is where we become fickle. If only serving God was a 50 yard sprint, we would all be doing much better. However it's not a sprint, it's a long distance journey, called life! The long journey causes many of us who once had fire coming out of our finger tips, to b...

  We read about this Godly couple, Zechariah and Elizabeth, both our text is clear to tell us come from a Godly/Priestly, lineage. They are described as being a Godly COUPLE , righteous in God's eyes careful to obey all his commands. There is no greater blessing to the Church than a Godly couple. More often than not, you have a devout single mom, or a married woman coming on her own, serving God faithfully, while her husband stays home or you have the couple that comes out, the husband is devout and the wife is more interested in many other things, but the rare jewel of the Church and/or the Kingdom of God, is the Zechariah and Elizabeth or the Joseph and Mary. There is nothing more powerful and influential in the Church than a Godly couple, without sounding redundant. There is the situation where a couple comes into the Church and the other simply does not have that same passion, what can you do? However, how often single men and women are Christian Singles and have the oppor...

  God in the Old Testament reminds me of a parent with young children. The constantly argue and squabble and mom and/or dad spends most of those early days settling disputes amongst the children. The children learn to depend and expect that mom or dad is going to settle the dispute, make a judgment of who is right and who is wrong and then discipline the guilty party. There is immediate intervention and immediate judgment when we are young. I liked the God of the Old Testament, how about you? There's squabbling and fighting against Aaron and God intervenes, shows them who's right and who's wrong, who's side He is on and the matter is settled. God is continuously intervening in their lives and settling disputes as the parent(s) of young children. My children are at a stage now where I hear the arguments and squabbling and more often than not I stay out of it, they need to start learning how to resolve conflict themselves. There is just as much conflict "in the camp...

  If there's one thing that is for sure, that is, not "if" men will rebel, but when! It's an unfortunate circumstance of life to know, that often those that we have invested in and others loved, will often come back and oppose us. Whether that's are own children, whom we've loved & sacrificed everything for and now you're watching them with rage, confronting you, cussing at you as if you are their sworn enemy, or it's people in the church you've loved and invested in, or an employee at work, one thing is for sure, men do rebel. It hurts, it hurts really bad. This is not to say we go through life with a jaundiced eye and live as a cynic, but it is just to know, men rebel and many times it has nothing to do with the one they are rebelling against. As Pastors it is very disheartening to see the men we've appointed, to see the men we've raised up, we gave responsibility; the men we invested, it hurts when they rally unto themselves another ...

        WHY am I here is probably a common question we ask ourselves and God. Why am I here with these people, why am I here with this family, with this woman, with this man? Again, we see God acknowledging a man that has a different spirit than others. If you did not read yesterday's blog, go  ahead and read it. God says to Moses, "I will take the spirit that is upon you and put it on them”. And here again, God acknowledges this concept with another man; that man is  Caleb .   "But because my servant Caleb has  a different spirit  and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it."  Caleb basically serves God in the midst of a bunch of "malcontents" but yet chooses to have a different disposition, a different mind set,  a  different spirit!    A new church, a new spouse, a new job, a new city, is our answer.  We say, " I have such a great...

        WHY am I here is probably a common question we ask ourselves and God. Why am I here with these people, why am I here with this family, with this woman, with this man? Again, we see God acknowledging a man that has a different spirit than others. If you did not read yesterday's blog, go  ahead and read it. God says to Moses, "I will take the spirit that is upon you and put it on them”. And here again, God acknowledges this concept with another man; that man is  Caleb .   "But because my servant Caleb has  a different spirit  and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it."  Caleb basically serves God in the midst of a bunch of "malcontents" but yet chooses to have a different disposition, a different mind set,  a  different spirit!    A new church, a new spouse, a new job, a new city, is our answer.  We say, " I have such a great...