THE ONE YEAR BIBLE CLUB

  I think we all know this Shunammite woman. She exists in every church. She is that woman of extraordinary faith in God to move on her behalf; and you know what, He does! The Shunammite woman believes God has given her the son she has and when he is taken away, she goes back to God, or at least her source to God and demands him back and Elisha raises her son from the dead. I believe her reasoning here, in our text is the same. She believes God is the source of all she has and she is right; therefore the land she had, that she has lost, was from God and she is believing God to give her that land back just like He gave her back her son. The only problem is, with her son, she had Elisha to go to, in this case who does she have? This is a woman who acts in faith, not logic. Logic would say, “she doesn't have a snow ball’s chance in Hell” of getting that land back, but with God all things are possible to them that believe. Her job as a believer is to motion forward and allow God t...

 I remember many years ago Pastoring in a Church where there was some minor issues, that were quickly escalating to major issues. My options were to ignore it or confront it. I looked at the parties involved and what I saw was a group of men that were strongly opinionated, but also mature and strong in their faith. So based on that, I chose the option of confronting, head on. We all met at every Christian’s church outside of church, ie; Starbucks and just brought out all the gossip and rumblings. The situation was fragile and could have easily escalated out of my control, but it didn't! I believe that when you are dealing with two or more mature Christians, solid in their faith, you should be able to bring up any issue, discuss any matter and still be able to have a civil conversation or even a civil argument; and not all leave hating each other and wanting to leave the church and/or ministry. If ever you have one of these meetings and things do not go well, it is because you were ...

 The Word of God declares, “two are better than one”. There are many reasons why two are better than one and here in our story, we have a perfect illustration of how that works. What happens is this woman’s son from Shunem dies. We are not sure what happened, let’s say it’s a tumor or brain aneurysm, he screams out, "my head is hurting" next thing you know the child is dead. We have a wife and husband in this story. The husband accepts, perhaps, to simply “accept the loss”, as I’m sure this hurt. The wife resolves something completely different. While the husband accepts the death, the wife will not. She has resolved to contend for this miracle (the boy) that God gave her. When she is saddling up to head out, the husband thinks she is going to see the man of God for some religious ceremony. Little does she know she is going to fight for the life of her son. This is why two are better than one in a home, in raising children and even when there are no children. It brings a grea...

 I can't tell you how many times this principle has been applied in my life & circumstances. The good that I did for others, as God moved upon my heart, has ALWAYS come back to do me better good than I did in helping others. All this woman has done is use the wealth God has given her to build a room for Elisha to stay in and has taken the time to feed him when passing through town. And we do give credit where credit is do, she could have easily made excuses for not doing so, but she didn't. However, look what she gets in return! Never in her wildest dreams did she ever imagine, that by simply doing good to this obvious servant and man of God, that she would reap a son in return. And not only does she reap a son, but when her son dies years later, that same man, Elisha, restores her son to life. That same man, Elisha, years later, is the cause of this woman having her property restored to her. The dividends, the retribution that is recompensed this woman far exceeds what she...

 You probably would never quote a New Testament Christian saying, "I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies." and then shortly thereafter also asking God to.... “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me..," This is almost comical to a new testament Christian, that someone would come out and speak about his hatred for another and then in the following sentence ask God, "to search him to see if there is any offensive way in him....HELLO! We would say..."are you stupid?" Hatred....this is what we try to conceal from God, is our hatred for others. Why would we openly admit it to God and then ask God to search us, as if we were as pure as the driven snow. Are Christians today confused about who they are and what they should feel? Are we trying "to be Christian" or is it more that we "simply are"....Christian. David never tried to be Godly. David never ...

I think we can safely say, there is a theme running, in today’s reading. Whether you are in the old or New Testament.  In the Old Testament we see Ahab, who purposely surrounds himself by advisors, prophets, who only tell him what he wants to hear. Then we have “the lying spirit that comes to entice him to go into war which will lead to his eventual death.  A good quote I read on that lying spirit, “God did not deceive a truth seeking King. God gave a “truth rejecting” King, over to the deception he preferred.”        Then in the New Testament, Paul is explaining to these people, that they did (crucified Jesus) exactly what the scriptures (that they read every week and some every day) foretold they would do.  How can we read The Word of God everyday and yet do the very things it warns we are capable of doing; if we don’t guard our hearts?  And the answer is simple…deception!      God will give us over not to what we piously espouse,...