THE ONE YEAR BIBLE CLUB

   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...

   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 ...

         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...

       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...

   I'm not one to rip apart my clothes in despair, but I have been there, it's a bad place to be. The King of Assyria is definitely personifying the voice of Satan in our story.  "Don't let King Hezekiah deceive you into thinking your God will deliver you from us, look what we have done to other nations".  You have to remember this whole scene started with Hezekiah trying to bribe the King of Assyria into not marching out against them. Not exactly a sign of strength. Perhaps it was Joash who started this pathetic display of unbelief by trying to bribe his way out of battle. Israel has fallen and sunk quite low from her former stature of Faith, Power and Dominion. Now she is weak, cowardly and begging the enemy not to hurt her. The thought of fighting and winning is a bygone era. Now she will compromise, bribe; anything because she knows even herself how pathetic she has become. Does this remind you of some Christians you once knew? How the mighty have fallen! Unfo...

        I'm so confused..are you?  They worshiped the Lord (well that's good) BUT, they also served their own gods...."      At least there's a "but" in between, but that's a big  butt..... I mean, which is it, did they serve God or not? I'm confused.  Confusion, that's what we get when we try to serve God along with our own gods along the way.  Confusion, is what you get when you try to serve God along with your own religion.  The world looks on and they are confused. The world ought to be able to look at an individual and either see a sinner or a saint, Christian or Heathen, which one is it? Choose, make a decision and then let it be clear what you are. I am confused by this.....they worshiped the Lord...BUT they also served their own gods. This confuses me just as much as our duplicate lives confuses the world that looks on at us in the church. And to add to the confusion  Verse 34  says,  "They neit...