THE ONE YEAR BIBLE CLUB

    "Don't throw in the towel yet" ....This idiom comes from the world of boxing, when a boxer's manager or coach throws the white towel into the ring, signaling that his boxer is done, he can fight no more. We should have this idiom up on our fridges, up on the mirror in our bathroom or we could simply read the Word of God and get it there. Jeremiah 30:7 "It will be a time of trouble for my people, yet in the end they will be saved out of it.” How important it is to know that. If we can see the goal in sight, it re-invigorates us to keep pushing forward. We've all heard the story of the world distance swimmer that stopped short of the beach because it was hidden by the clouds and fog. Had she seen the shore was so close in sight, she would have pressed on, but exhausted and discouraged, not  able to see the shore, she gave up. Praise be to you, who does not need the shore in sight to keep pressing on, but for the rest of us, we do! Hold on! There are better ...

    Who would know, that one of the most famous passages of the bible "For I know the plans I have for you,” says the lord. They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope." was spoken to a people that were exiled, captives in  Babylon . There were probably two groups of responses the day this word went out from Jeremiah. One group would have greatly resented these words, almost as if Jeremiah was patronizing them. Here they are, at rock bottom, have just been taken from Jerusalem to Babylon, their city has fallen and they are now captives in a foreign land, "and you Jeremiah are going to tell me about the goods things God has for us, is this captivity part of that great plan...get out of here Jeremiah, before we stone you!".  The other group of people would have believed Jeremiah; and taken those words as words of hope for a better future.  I wonder which group I would have been in? The classic mantra of Christians and No...

    I'm feeling for Jeremiah, this morning! Are you? If you're not, than you're pretty cold.  The statements that God is having Jeremiah speak to these people is likely to leave him without any friends at best, and get him beat up or killed, at worse. If I spoke my mind, I would have a very hard life too. At work, at school functions, family get togethers, If we spoke our minds we would find ourselves the most hated in the neighborhood. People would talk about us. When they saw us coming they all would scatter or block us out of the conversation. We would be deemed as "haters", "insensitive", religious fanatics. My heart goes out to Jeremiah, it always has. If ever I feel sorry for myself or feel bad for any persecution I may face, I think of Jeremiah. Let me ask, does God still  ask us to speak our minds? Are we withholding more than we should? Should we be speaking out more? My guess is, the answer is yes to some of those questions. We should speak out...

          I ONCE had a woman cover over to my house, she wanted to "talk with me", that's always a little nerve wrecking. So I said come on over, my wife is here and we can sit down together, with my wife. Well don't you know she wanted to tell me about her dreams and have me interpret what those dreams meant. Not only what they meant, but what " spiritual " aspect was to be applied.  This is where we get into trouble as Christians; we know as Christians that we are not just functioning in the "natural" but also in the supernatural and we have a hard time knowing where to draw the lines.  Truth is, we will never know "exactly" where to draw the lines, but the New Testament does caution us to discern and "test the spirits", to discern "Prophecy's" and judge them as to whether they be from God or " the delusions of man's own heart".     However this can also lead us down another slippery slope, where th...

DON'T remind me of who I am or don't try to label me!!! We hate that, when people say, "you've always had a temper" or whatever it is they try to label on us. I'm not sure I like being labeled or told "you've always..." however sometimes it's true and cuts like a knife, but then there are times that the individual who voiced his or her opinion is completely wrong in his or her judgement. I think it's safe to say that if God himself says, "this is how you are and this is how you've always been" then it's time to listen and begin to look introspectively at ourselves. He might just be right!!!        This verse would be quite a shock for any of us to hear, it is Verse 21 in Jeremiah, "I warned you when you felt secure, but you said, ‘I will not listen!’ This has been your way from your youth; you have not obeyed me.". In most cases this is where we would say, "who do you think you are, telling me...." bu...

Christians want to fight for their right to drink. Of all the battle grounds that a Christian must choose to fight on or not, this is one that Christians will fight 'till their death, their right "to drink". We all know, some Christians drink and other Christians don't.  We all know, some Christians get a good buzz and other Christians don't, some Christians get drunk and other Christians don't. Which Christian are you? Is sobriety still a Christian virtue? As we read in Thessalonians, we are reminded of who we are; we are Children of the Light, Children of the Day, Children of Sobriety.  There's nothing more embarrassing than the drunk uncle at the wedding, the drunk father or mother at the family gathering. As Christians, we of all people should be sober and practice sobriety. Drunkenness is an altered state of mind. I have not heard of too many Christians that will push for their right to smoke weed, but they are the same. Whether you are stoned or drun...

   Our society is obsessed with sexual immorality. Our society is not obsessed with sex, just immoral sex. There's no headline news about any monogamous, married couples having sex; no that's boring, that's sanctioned by God.  What we like is the notty, the immoral, the illicit, affairs, sex videos, anything that defies God's moral laws; is really what our society is about. Sexual perversion is the reason for the original flood, but nobody knows or cares about that. Now sexual sin is being pushed upon the church and to be accepted as "the norm" in the church because it's so flagrant outside the church. We want to blame sexual sin on "the last days". However, if Paul is writing about the subject a few thousand years ago; and God flooded the earth because of it at least a millennia before that, then we know that sexual sin has nothing to do with "the last days" it's simply part of our fallen nature. Paul is addressing the church, chal...

   "Satan prevented us from seeing you" these are not words, we often read from the great Apostle Paul. It reminds me of Daniel, who is told by the mighty Archangel, that the "prince of Persia" withstood him". The reality is, we don't always get what we want, simply by "name it and claim it" theology. It is mentioned in the Gospels when Jesus was crucified, "this is the hour when darkness reigns".  Satan and the principalities that work against us, do have their seasons, "their hour" and sometimes do get to put a "check mark" next to the heading of "victory" on their chart, if they keep one. How can we deny that Sept 11, 2001 was not a great victory for the Kingdom of Darkness, Osama Bin Laden and the Muslim Terrorist, it surely was "the hour where darkness reigned". Paul is a mature enough Christian to admit, "Satan stopped us" and Paul doesn't allow this loss to set him into some th...

         IF you've been in the church for any number of years, you will know that "backsliding" is par for the course in the goings on,of the local assembly. There are multitudes that are in and out of the church and cannot make up their minds as to whether or not to give themselves fully to serving God or many others that have out rightly turned away and become apostates & reprobates. As a Christian we can become quite accustomed to this epidemic in the church, but it is no small thing in the eyes of God.  I have heard the scripture " God is married to the backslider " quoted many times, but here is a scripture   I HAVE NEVER  heard quoted.  It is not that I haven't heard it quoted in a few years, but rather I have not heard it quoted in 20 something years.  However, it is here, in black and white for us to read today.  Verse 7 "You keep on backsliding, so I will lay hands on you and destroy you;  I can no l...

 It has been said, "Constructions workers build houses, families build homes". Paul may not have had a family, but he has definitely tapped into "the mind of Christ" for the family, here in his epistle to the Colossians. It just goes to show, that God can give us wisdom and insight we need to navigate through life properly and we do not always need experience to have wisdom & insight. Paul gives us great wisdom and insight into the 4 dynamics of a successful family. Not in any order of priority, but he starts with wives being submitted to their husbands, husbands not to be harsh with their wives, children to be obedient to their parents and parents not exasperating their children unto anger (as we often do). Turmoil in a home is when one or worse, all of these elements are out of place. How often parents are fighting and frustrated because the kids are misbehaving. How often the children listen to the mom and dad go out at it because the wife is bent on leading ...

"IN spite of all this they kept on sinning; in spite of his wonders, they did not believe." As we have learned (I hope) with our children, spoiling them and showering them with gifts does not lead them to love, respect and obey us. God himself has seen that giving people what they want and working miracles in their midst has not converted their hearts, one iota! Question to ask then is this, "if God spoiling and doing miracles doesn't change a sinner's heart, what does? Isn't that what we pray for, for God to do a miracle in a family member, whether it be a financial miracle or a miracle healing of a fatal disease. Then we and the family member, that we were praying for, witness for ourselves this prayer answered, the miracle happens, they are healed or receive a miraculous blessing and we think now they will "get saved" and serve God, but yet to our amazement, they do not! What are you praying for, concerning your family, co-workers and friends? Ar...

The Church's mantra is always, "Everyone Welcome!", but do we really mean that? Is everyone really welcome? One preacher coined the term "religious devils", are religious devils really welcome into your church? Are people who sow and spread false teachings and doctrines in your church..., really welcome? Are those that cause divisions and strife really welcome in your church? Is the couple that caused a rebellion and church split, in their last church, really welcome? Is everyone really welcome? And I think, if we would be honest, the answer would be "no", not everyone is welcome, after all. Paul is writing the this letter to the house Church at Colosse. The house church that is meeting there of course has "everyone welcome" on their door and on their flyers. And guess what, everyone is walking in and causing major confusion and discord. People promoting the worship of Angels, pious self-denials (sounds like Lent for the Catholics). Trying to...

  The Psalmist is reminiscing of the "good 'ol days of old". Nostalgia..."a wistful desire to return in thought or in fact, to a former time in one's life". Beware of nostalgia, it sometimes brings to us good memories of the past but it can also create of false impression of the past and create in our minds and feelings, what never was! Nostalgia also has the ability to create a discontentment for the present, while longing for the past. A song, a smell, certain seasons & smells or deja-vu's can immediately create a sense of nostalgia. If we can appreciate them and move on, that's fine, but if it creates a longing for the past, that's not fine. Beware of nostalgia, it's a slippery slope. It can create utopia's out of what was really a nightmare chapter of our lives. When we were in that chapter of our lives, we couldn't wait to get out, now, we are reminiscing...thinking, "those were the good 'ol days..." were they r...

 Ever hear that argument from atheists, "I believe human beings are really creative and invented God to help them through tough times and un-explainable events". Well, if human beings created God to help them, why does history show that human beings want nothing to do with who they (according to atheists..) created? The atheist says "we created God for us, to help us believe, but history has shown that humans want nothing to do with God? So which is it? In our text today in Jeremiah we read, "why do my people say, at least we are free from God, we don't need him anymore". Atheists embrace many fallacies and one of them is that they are living in a Christian World and they are the rugged few that reject God , so they come up with ridiculous theories that "we" created this notion of God because that's what we wanted. If that's the case, then when Pontius Pilate offered humans and option to release Barabbas, the loathe some murderer, or Jesus...

Many Christians are "fruitless or spiritually childless". They've never lead anyone to Christ, normally don't engage in that arena of evangelism, they just come to Church on Sundays and lead a decent, Christian, moral life. They have never really dealt with the heartache of investing in someone that turns on you or walks away, back into their life of sin and destruction, but neither do they know the "joy" of fruit, the joy of being used by God to see another life transformed, right before your eyes; and make Heaven their home. Paul writes, "friends, for you are my joy and the crown I receive for my work".  If you have ever labored in this area you will find how true this statement is. As much as I've been hurt, I must also say, that many, many good relationships, that became a great blessing to me, were from fruit that I labored for. My joy, when nothing else is going right, is in them and they are the crown for all my work too!  How about you?...

     What do you base your success on? We all, secretly in our minds, base our success on something, whether we will admit it or not.  "I know, the secret of my success".  Others are not so closed about "the secret of their success" because they don't think "their secret" is conceited. One Pastor accredits the secret of his success to his Tuesday Night prayer meetings. "That's the key, right there!". We listen and we think, "makes sense, prayer, of course prayer is the key, let's implement Tuesday night prayer meetings in our Church". However, this Church finds no success in these Tuesday night prayer meetings, they can't pay or offer enough food, to gather any kind of substantial crowd to participate in these Tuesday night prayer meetings, another Church is able to rally good support for the meetings, but a year or two down the road, they cannot say that they have seen any difference. The church who bases the secret of ...