Posts

JULY 8 “CAUGHT IN THE STORM”

The perplexity of God and His will. Was it God that gave Paul the premonition that the voyage would not be a good one if they left port? Or was it God that caused the storm to drive Paul to be a witness on that island? Or is God making the most of the situation (Paul is shipwrecked unto an island, let's use this). Who knows? We do know that it must have been very hard for Paul to keep a good attitude on that ship, after warning them not to attempt to make the voyage, they disregard him (I don't blame them, what experience does he have with sailing?) and now he has to suffer and is in danger of losing his life because of their bad decision. But Paul, rather than go to the lower deck, get an attitude, sulk and wait for death, rally's himself, he rises up to the occasion and lives out his faith for them all to see. What an example Paul is for all of us, if only we could follow his good example in in our daily lives. He had every reason to have an attitude, but he gets a hold o...
Post a Comment
Read more

JULY 7 “BLESS ME LORD”

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 ...
Post a Comment
Read more

JULY 6 “I ADMIT IT, I’M ONE OF THEM”

 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  ...
Post a Comment
Read more

JULY 5 “GOD’S PROVIDENCE SO IMPORTANT “

   If you don't understand "Providence" then you have to read today's reading. Paul is pretty much a dead man. 40 men have made a vow not to eat or drink until they have killed Paul. However, as it would "happen" to be, Paul's sister's son (Paul's nephew) happens to overhear the conversation of these men conspiring to kill him. He reports this to Paul and then Paul has his nephew go tell the one in charge of Paul's security/safety and the plan is thwarted. As we get ready to tackle on the 2nd half of the year, God's Providence is definitely something we want to contend for. He really is the God that goes before his people and prepares the way. He can circumvent events on our behalf, even in to our favor. He can cause the schemes of the enemy to be thwarted. From the time we wake in the morning until the time we lay our head down on the pillow that night, there are so many unknown factors. The idea is not to go through the day looking over...
Post a Comment
Read more

JULY 4 “FREEDOM FROM WHO?”

   It's ironic (or maybe not) that on the 4th of July, "Independence Day" that we read in Psalm about people wanting to be free, about people breaking off the chains and being free, ironically they are wanting to break off the chains from God, "l et us break off our chains and free us from the slavery of God ". Could anything be more ironic than that? Than wanting to break free from God to be free, but yet only God can bring true freedom. We can say, today in the 21st Century that humanity has followed through in this quest to free themselves from the chains and slavery to God. Today, America is more of a secular Nation than a Christian one and the question, then to ask is ...."are we more free than we were before?" The answer is definitively "NO". We freed ourselves from the slavery of God only to become enslaved by everything else.      Today, many will celebrate their Freedom, all the while using the things that enslave them, to celebrate ...
Post a Comment
Read more

JUNE 3 "THE BAD GUY ISN'T ALWAYS THE BAD GUY"

         The bad guy isn't always the bad guy, sometimes he's the good guy.  It's easy to read this story today and read it dismissing David as the calloused killer, insensitive to the lives that he is affecting by having these innocent people murdered. These parents and citizens must be filled with hatred and animosity towards David. I seriously doubt that this is easy for David to do and the text does make mention to his sparing Mephibosheth from the slaughter. David is simply trying to help Israel, Saul is the culprit and the reason behind why David must do, what to many is, a senseless slaughter of innocent lives. David inquiries to God why the famine (which is also leading to the death of innocent lives) and God's response to David is, “ It is on account of Saul  and his blood-stained house; it is because he put the Gibeonites to death.” Saul is long gone now and David is left with the mess left behind by the previous King. A true leader is one th...
Post a Comment
Read more

JULY 2 "I QUIT THE MINISTRY"

       The reality of Ministry is…the very people you are in ministry to reach and help are the very people that will want to make you quit the ministry, if you let them. We always have to remember that we are not in “the ministry” to help the people (that’s a by-product) we are in the ministry to serve God. If we are in the ministry out of some noble quest to “serve the people”, once the people start stepping all over you and spreading rumors about you, you will say, “well, if that’s how they are going to treat me, if they don’t appreciate what I’m doing for them; then forget this, I quit!” However if we are in the ministry to serve Christ, who is always grateful and appreciative of our efforts and service, then we will not quit even when the people we are trying to feed, bite us! As the saying goes, “don’t bite the hand that feeds you”, well people don’t seem to abide by that a whole lot, in the Church. The Elders in  Jerusalem  explain to Paul that the J...
Post a Comment
Read more