THE ONE YEAR BIBLE CLUB

    "Always favoritism around here", we can't stand favoritism, at least when it doesn't include us, then we are staunch opponents of it. Well, if you are a staunch opponent of favoritism than you were probably upset by today's reading. "After all the land was divided among the tribes, the Israelites gave a special piece of land to Joshua".  There you have it, in black & white, they are not even trying to hide this favoritism, do they have no shame! Wait, is this the Israelites giving Joshua this favoritism or God? Read on...."For the Lord had said, he could have any town he wanted".  Favoritism from God? How am I going to resolve this? I thought God was perfect.  Well, God is perfect and sinless so we can only conclude that favoritism is not always such a bad thing. Is our God not a God of recompense, of God of rewards? If favoritism is coming to an individual because of hard work, than it is earned and is probably due and in cases of many...

    Unlike the world, we do not just find ourselves physically tired, we also find ourselves spiritually tired. Not only are we having to deal with issues at work, home & school but we are also having to contend and deal with spiritual issues, issues we are struggling with and then trying to help others with spiritual issues they're struggling with and I'm tired, are you?  I have to say that while I was shocked to read that the tribe of Ephraim did not get rid of the Canaanites [ vs.10 - They did not dislodge the Canaanites living in Gezer; to this day the Canaanites live among the people of Ephraim but are required to do forced labor. ] I have to also say, that I'm not so surprised. What the Ephraimites don't realize, is that if you don't fight now, you will have to fight twice as hard later. The worse words Jesus ever spoke were "go the extra mile". Is there a principle in that admonishing that we have yet to understand? Why didn't they "dis...

  Too old to fight? Not Caleb! He was one of the original 12 spies to spy out this land many decades earlier and was one of the two (the other was Joshua) . When a young man is entering puberty we know that a surge of Testosterone runs into and through his body. This testosterone causes hair to grow, pimples to form and aggressiveness to rise up in him. Here is the transformation from boy to manhood and the fight; that once was not in the boy, is now there! He becomes more aggressive, stronger, muscles begin to develop, but what happens in old age? The opposite, Testosterone begins to wear off in our later years of life. So much so, that men, today, can purchase drugs to increase their testosterone in their latter years. As men grow old, because of the decrease in Testosterone, they lose the fight that once was in them. They become very complacent, they become very passive. This is how it works in the Physical world and I wonder how much the Physical mirrors the spiritual? Fewer an...

   If you've ever felt or suspected that sometimes God puts you off, you may have had that suspicion confirmed in today's reading. Jesus acknowledges through this parable that often we can be asking for something and being put off, not just by this Judge, but by God himself. Jesus doesn't say "He doesn't put people off" but He does say, "He will not put you off forever". Jesus says, that our persistence in prayer will work. Asking once, twice is not enough. Even Elijah prayed a few times for rain until his prayer was answered. We sure kept asking our parents for something when we were kids, until we wore them down and they gave in. Why don't we take that same approach with our Father in Heaven? We pray for a few weeks for finances, see no change and give up. We pray for an unsaved loved for a while, see no change in him/her and we give up. We pray a couple of times for a pain to go away or a healing, no change, we give up. The list is endless of ...

   ARE Christians altruistic? There's a question that deserves some thought! I personally don't know the answer to that, but I do know that Jesus was. I am amazed how many times Jesus helped and healed people, without first negotiating with them whether or not they would follow him. "If I heal you will you follow me, If I heal you will you repent, if I heal you will you be my disciple, will you join my group?", these were never words heard from Jesus. Jesus healed and helped (and some may be scandalized by this) without even preaching to them. So why did Jesus heal, without first getting a commitment? Why did Jesus heal, knowing full well he was just being used? The answer of course was because Jesus was truly altruistic, he was the epitome of selflessness. What are the motives of Christians today? Are we helping others and being nice, pretending to care when really all we want is for them to join our church and the moment we realize they have no interest in our churc...

  OUR idea of righteousness is not even close to what "righteousness" truly is. I was at a convenience store this morning, bought a refillable coffee cup cause I'm sick of paying for a cup every time I go (I digress) so the clerk offered for me to go in the back of the store to rinse the cup. I looked around and there was tons of goods lying around that I could have easily slipped into my pocket; any thief would have taken advantage of the situation. "But you are not a thief" you would say. That's right and I could walk away feeling quite smug that I was not even remotely tempted to take anything for my gain; I could feel quite smug about my righteousness....UNTIL I read today's reading. Let's be honest, WE would have broken this oath as quickly as we made it. You deceived me and there's no way I'm going to honor this oath! "but you gave me your word, you promised", they would say, and we would reply, "I don't care!!!"...