THE ONE YEAR BIBLE CLUB

    If you don't have time to read Paul's discourse on Christian benevolence, let me sum it up for you today! Stop being dogmatic with each other; especially young Christians, if you want to be fruitful and see people saved. This is all nit picking and petty stuff, the kind of stuff that repels people, not draws them in. Paul writes that his end focus in everything, is to see people saved.  It's not about you, it's about them.  But I wonder if his words are falling on deaf ears, I wonder if our words today, are falling on deaf ears.  It would be like gathering a group of men together in a room and delivering your dissertation on bargain shopping and how to find the best sales at Macy's and the best yard sales to find great deals. You may have all the wisdom and expertise in the world on the subject matter, but you just don't have the right crowd to share that with. "Well, the church is definitely the right crowd to share this with!"  Is it?  I won...

     WAS the Apostle Paul a Calvinist?  While we can debate all day long; as to whether Paul was a Calvinist in theory, more importantly is how he lived. And when we look at how he lived it appears more than anything, that he believed in Arminianism. Jacobus Arminius was a Dutch Pastor and Theologian who rejected his teacher's theology (John Calvin) that it is God who unconditionally elects some for salvation. Instead Arminius proposed that the election of God was of believers, thereby making it  conditional on faith . The scriptures that John Calvin used to prove his theory of "predestination" mostly, if not all, came from the Apostle Paul's writings.  No doubt many of Paul's writings do refer to the "elect in Christ" and those "whom God predestined and chose", but yet while Paul might have seemed Calvinist in theory, look at how he lived his life! For a guy who taught allot about "the elect" & predestined" he lived h...

   Paul, in his writing to the Corinthians opens up about this stigma, that he has had to live with. As hard as he has worked and as faithful as he has been, Paul is still not considered an "Apostle" within many circles. He is not regarded as being in the same class and group as Peter, James & John. They are the "Apostles".  Paul is like the black sheep of the Apostles, at best. Paul writes himself, "even if I am not considered an Apostle to others, I am to you!". In other words, "don't you start treating me like that too, enough is enough!". We think that to be able to flourish in our Church, to be able to flourish in the Kingdom of God, we have to be that Christian that everybody loves, everybody accepts and everybody thinks the best of. "It's easy for them, everybody thinks they're so great, let them try living with the stigma that I have to live under". Paul teaches us that we can flourish as a Christian, despite wha...

     DON'T be so free to exercise your freedoms lest you cause others to stumble, Paul warns us, what a lost concept this is. Actually it's not just a concept, it's a command. Paul goes on to write, "when you sin against your brothers by doing this and wounded their weak conscience, you sin against Christ."  It's almost as if God makes sure it is phrased like this, "you sin against Christ" because otherwise we would not change our behavior. If all the scripture said is that we sin against our brother, most would say, "oh well, to bad, he/she just needs to suck it up, grow up and mature. I believe God really knows human nature very well, doesn't he!       I have been a Christian for 20 years and have yet to meet a Christian that practices this.  Have you?  I have met the opposite. Christians who refuse to stop drinking, because it is their right to drink and nowhere in the bible does ...

     This is now the 2nd to 3rd time the Jews face opposition in the rebuilding project. Now it's coming through different individuals, this time it's the SanBallat & Tobiah team. It comes through mocking, gesturing and intimidation. Opposition is a formidable enemy. In the middle of all this opposition the people come to Nehemiah and say, "we can't do this". You'll notice they come to Nehemiah right after they agree to pray together and believe God. How many times have I prayed with people and agreed with them to believe God and then, the next week, "Pastor we/I can't do this". You'll notice when they come to Nehemiah and say "we can't do this" they mention nothing about the opposition, they mention nothing about Sanballat or the intimidation. They come up with another reason, "the people are tired and there is just too much rubble".  In other words, "this is too big a mess".  But it was always too big a...

   THE four steps and in this order always seem to be: 1. Prayer and Fast  2. Then Opportunity - Doors open  3. Opposition arrives on the scene.  4. To quit It takes enough energy to fast and pray, then we must conjure up more energy to press through with the opportunity, but at least we are where we wanted to be. It has taken a lot of mental, physical and emotional energy and steadfastness, but we are there, or so we think! NOW  the least expected (although I don't know why) hits us, OPPOSITION and that is more than most can handle. After all I've been through to get here, now there are people (we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and wicked spirits in high places...) here that want to oppose me, why? "I'm tired of this, this is to difficult".  This third step is the nail in the coffin (so to speak). It is more than most can bare, but it is reality. You can count on it!  Always remember the sequence of...