THE ONE YEAR BIBLE CLUB

     "A bruised reed he shall not break, and a smoldering  wick he will not snuff out".   This is GREAT STUFF, great poetry, but it certainly is not us! In Football, we cut the weakest players, in Marine Corps Boot camp, you weed out the weak and in the corporate world, you fire or ax the weak and move on with the strong. The weak, put them in a home, the disabled, hire someone to take care of them, confused & depressed people.....I  don't know isn't there a drug you can give them, sedate them, anything, as long as we don't have to deal with day in and day it, give me a break!! There is nothing more frustrating than a smoldering wick, especially when you really do need that light, the electricity is off, you're trying to get some help, some light and that wick is flickering, spitting out more irritation than light; you and I both know, if that wick doesn't catch on soon we may just throw the wick and the candle, in the trash, after we snuff it out! ...

FIRST DAY OF FALL!!! “Open The Eyes of my Heart Lord, I want to see you” was a pretty popular Worship song back in the day. A catchy tune it was but how many caught its true meaning or where the song was inspired from? In our reading today in Ephesians 1:18 “ I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you”.  It was a selfless prayer “I pray…for you, that YOUR heart…” Today we sing open the eyes of MY heart”.  It’s about ME.  Paul understood that the birth of a Christian, was not the end all. That while Christians are Born Again everywhere and every day, not all will make it. Some will grow crooked and others will spiritually die off. Paul understood the importance of praying for new Christians and this is what he prayed for them, “I pray that The Father GIVE YOU the Spirit of Wisdom & Revelation, so that you may KNOW HIM BETTER.  I pray that they eyes of your heart be opened that you may K...

    IF there's one thing King Hezekiah did right, was HE PRAYED.  Twice in our text today we read, in response to Hezekiah's prayers, Ch. 37 verse 21, " This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Because you have prayed to me ...."  and  Ch. 38 verse 4, " This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears ".  BECAUSE YOU HAVE PRAYED....remember those words. And it could equally be said that, because  you have NOT  prayed....that we can rightly say, events have just easily, taken a turn for the worse. We cannot pretend, just to appease our own conscience, that prayer does not impact our lives and the lives of others. This would be just short of insanity. There is to much circumstantial evidence to every point to any other verdict, than the verdict that prayer does change events and lives as we know it.  We have to accept that because we have prayed our lives are different and ...

        I WAS not around approximately 3000 years ago when this situation took place with the King of Assyria, but I sure do recognize the voice and the rhetoric, ie: " Don't trust in the Lord ".  Pastors and spiritual Leaders spend most of their time trying to convince God's people to trust in him while the individual and the masses of Christians face a bombardment of attacks, day in and day out, a voice that speaks to us in our conscience and says basically the same words the King of Assyria Spoke, which are: "don't trust in the Lord, where was He for so and so and where was He for that family, that situation and what makes you think it will be any different for you!". The enemy will remind us of the sister that was not healed of cancer, he will remind us of the family that did have to file bankruptcy, or the single mom that did lose her job and her home; then Satan will come to us and tell us, "what makes you think it will be different for you?...

 Things will change in a little more than a year, Isaiah prophesies; and the change is going to be based on our attitudes and decisions we are making today, tomorrow, next week and next month. You think it's no big deal now, but you won't think it's no big deal, a little more than a year from now.  One of the key factors that Isaiah warns us, that is going to affect us, a little more than a year from now, is going to be our complacency. "Rise up" says the Lord. Rise up you people of power. Ever sing that in church and wonder, "where are those people of power?"  Is it because we just know too much about each other or they simply are not there? Isaiah continues, "the harvest will not come and there will be no fruit, tremble you complacent. If I told you I could tell you your future and it would not be sorcery, it would be from God, just call me, get with me, my phone would be ringing constantly. Well, here it is....here's your future!  "Thank...

   The NFL (ironically) issued disciplinary action on one of it's elite players for using excessive force in disciplining his son. His contract with his team was cancelled in lieu of the criminal charges against him, for using a tree branch to discipline his son, leaving marks, bruising and swelling on his son's body. No doubt there are parents out there that are too lazy to discipline their children or worse, simply just don't care! We have to deal with these children every week at Walmart. We pray that we could just have one moment alone with this child that is screaming as if he was being tortured, only to realize it's not that he's being tortured or kidnapped, he is screaming and raving because his mom told him he can't have the candy bar he grabbed by the cash register. So we have excessive discipline to no discipline and somewhere in the middle lies the balance. God is trying to give us wisdom through Isaiah, the wisdom that discipline is good, discipline ...