THE ONE YEAR BIBLE CLUB

Sometimes the most joyous of occasions are met with disappointment and grief, so much so, that I'm often to get too excited about anything. David makes a decision to bring back the Arc of the Covenant, to Jerusalem. This is a festive celebration with great fanfare and David is in high spirits, until the Arc wobbles, Uzzah reaches out to stabilize it and gets killed. The Bible tells us, "And David became angry that day". Was he angry or was he festive? Was he in a good mood or a foul mood? Was this a good day or a bad day? I remember some years ago, my neighborhood and I did I festive Christmas Trailer Caroling around our block. Many of us were on the trailer, sitting on the hay, drinking hot cocoa and singing Carols and others were alongside, walking with us. It was quite a festive occasion, everyone was in high spirits, until one of the kids got his leg under the moving trailer and the trailer went right over it. The kid screamed his head off, the driver pulling the trai...

 The only thing we've heard about this movement is………”  Are you ready for the answer? Obviously the answer is going to be, “it’s the best thing that has ever happened! People are healed, lives are restored, demoniacs are set free, the poor are being fed and taken care of…”  Unfortunately, to our surprise, or maybe not to our surprise, we read, “… only thing we know about this movement is that it is denounced everywhere ”.  That’s impossible. How could something so good be “denounced everywhere”. How could something that leaves a trail behind, of such good, not be embraced enthusiastically by every community? This is a movement that carries around it, all the evidence of a remarkable and benevolent ministry.  Paul is bit by a poisonous snake on the island and suffers no sickness. Paul prays for Publius’s father who has dysentery and he is healed. Paul prays for many others on the island and they are healed too. Paul is speaking before this crowd, as a prisoner wi...

 A little disobedience can’t hurt, right? Well then, let’s remove that scripture in Proverbs that God put in there that says, “ a little fly spoils all the ointment”. As we are busy reading about all the good things Solomon is doing “for the Lord”, …..the building of the Temple, the making of all the Holy Artifacts that will be used for worship and sacrifices for generations to come; there, mixed in the middle of all that, we read “he also built similar living quarters for Pharaoh’s daughter… whom he had married ”.  In the middle of all that good, surely there is room for a little faux-pas? Surely the Lord will overlook my one little transgression in the midst of all this good I’m doing.  Solomon was not the last person to ever think like that.  Many of God’s people think like that, not just Solomon. If Solomon was waiting for a sign, a bad omen to convince him he had done wrong, he didn’t get one. He didn’t’ get struck with lightning, the ground did not open up and ...

You were probably were skipping through the lineage in today's reading and probably missed what was penned about two of Ephraim's sons. Ezer and Elead, "these two were killed trying to steal livestock from the local farmers". If we continue to read out, this incident is described as a "tragedy". Ephraim mourned a long time for his boys, it was a senseless death. No doubt, Ephraim did not need his boys to steal cattle for him. It was a senseless act, a daring act, a stupid act, that cost these boys their lives. Their stupidity and this tragedy is penned in God's eternal Word. In recent months, we have had a number of senseless and stupid deaths in our city, mostly by young teens and twenty year olds. Maybe our prayer for our families should be "Lord, don't let their be stupid and senseless deaths in our family". The prayer that would have to follow that would be, "Lord, let the communication lines flourish in my home among our family...

THERE is a lot of stats about sons and tribes that might just cause you to doze off in our text today, but you can miss a great nugget of truth and revy (revelation) in the midst of it. Verse 10 "Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, " oh that you would bless me and enlarge my territory!” I  would say that request is a number of things ....#1, it's pretty gutsy, #2, it's pretty self-serving, #3 it's pretty honest, maybe too honest or maybe not! Because surprisingly, God doesn't rebuke him for being so self centered and audacious to ask that God bless him and his family. What about the rest of the world, there's people starving all over the world and all your concerned about is that God bless you and your family, c'mon! So what is God's response...."And God granted his request!" What are you serious?! God granted him his request......well why don't I pray that then, why can he ask that and I can't? Who said you couldn't??? Why ...

 Paul's main problem is not that he believes in God, most people do.  Paul's main problem is that he is attached to a  certain group  of people that believes in God, " followers of The Way " he calls it and then goes on to say that is is also known as " a cult" .  Who in the world, who in their right mind, wants to be associated with a cult?! People who are enticed into cults are more often than not, people with issues, people who are mentally & emotionally weak, naive and in short..., stupid. The hardest thing in the world for a person who is none of the above, ..is to   "admit"  that they are in a group of religious people that are known as a cult. Many will not  "admit"  to this, many are not willing to die a  social death  and end up walking away. I never wanted to be perceived as a individual that was mentally and emotionally weak, naive, vulnerable and stupid, but when I  "admitted"  that I was a  ...