THE ONE YEAR BIBLE CLUB

 This is only proof to me, for what I've often thought was the case; and that is, often we don’t offer the same common courtesies to one another, that we often offer to those whom we are not even that close with. Why is that? Is it because we take each other for granted? What Paul is saying almost doesn't make sense, “if the masters are believers that is no excuse for being disrespectful….they should work “all the harder” because their masters are believers” I definitely would agree with that. How about you? Why is it that sometimes are poorest performance is what we do for one another or what we do for the church. Often someone has to come in behind the previous person and re-do what that person did because it was done with such a poor effort. We are short with each other, rude and inconsiderate. Paul notices this, he realizes that sometimes the fact that we are dealing with another Christian will not bring the best out of us, but the worse. If we were dealing with a sinner or...

 We know Jeremiah as The Prophet, but we don’t know Jeremiah, as The Trickster! Jeremiah is entering into some under cover work here, for God. Jeremiah is being used by God to try to trick this good folks into drinking some wine. These believers really have something solid working in their lives that we would be wise to envy and want for ourselves and our families. This is my personnel opinion, but who cares about my personnel opinion. What’s even more note worthy, is that this is God’s opinion too! Can you imagine yourself sitting in the presence of the great prophet Jeremiah and he says, “come now, sit and have a cup of wine”.  Unless Jeremiah is acting very odd or suspicious, I would think, “this must be okay” after all, Jeremiah is a man of God if there ever was. If Jeremiah says, it’s okay, let’s drink up!! These people, the Recabites have an amazing ability to not allow themselves to be influenced by others, no matter how much clout or status, those people have or in thi...

    There's nothing wrong with being moved by emotion and then making pledges, promises or commitments based off of that. Is it possible that we could be manipulated by others, of course, there's always that chance. Are some people mentally or emotionally week and very susceptible to people with strong personalities, of course, that's where we get cults from. You have one strong, charismatic, type-A personality who preys and draws upon the weaker to follow him by his manipulation. So now that we got all that out of the way, for the rest of us, that are able to guard ourselves, and make sensible decisions, while being moved with emotion, we have an obligation to follow through on those. Even more so when we have been moved upon to "do good" and we do it not. For one reason or another, the people make a decision to release the Hebrew slaves and not for no apparent reason either. God had established the year of Jubilee, where all slaves and debts were released. Bankr...

         WE read in the Book of Psalms quite a depressing passage, written by a man who really seems to be struggling in his Faith, depressed and at Witt's end.  Have you been there or are you there today?  As depressing as it is to read I am glad that God did not purposely keep such writings out of his Book. 14  Why, LORD, do you  reject me  and  hide your  face from me......You have  taken from me  friend and neighbor— darkness is my closest friend."   That's some scary stuff coming out of the mouth of someone that supposedly has a relationship with God. He's accusing God of rejecting him, hiding from him and taking from him. It would be wise before we passed judgement on this fellow, that we realize if we serve God for any length of time, we too will have to cross this bridge to continue along God's path for your life. Everyone comes to this bridge, to various degrees and must either c...

    "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...