THE ONE YEAR BIBLE CLUB

  The Church is a very interesting institution or organism, if I can use that term. Especially if you are part of an Evangelical Church that reaches out into the community to win and bring in the lost. All the effort that goes in to outreaching, all the money, time & resources, to win the lost and bring them in to the Church. A lot of planning and strategy goes in to evangelism, but do we ever think, "what will we do with them once they are in the church, will we be able to keep them?" We have a plan to "reach out" but do we have a plan to "reach in".  Paul in our text is admonishing us to "accept those who are weak in faith, and don't argue with them...".  I know people who are weak in faith bother you, I know people who seem to struggle allot bother you, I know.....people in general, that are in the church bother you.  I know this person bothers this person, and that person bothers that person. Paul is writing to the Romans to instruct

     You ever notice how some people have so much DRAMA in their life?! Do you feel bad for them? Do you feel like maybe there's something you could do? Do you ever wonder where God is in the midst of their drama? I do...or I have until today.  In our O.T. reading today we see such a dramatic change in atmosphere once Jehoiada dies.  Our reading goes from peaceful, happy times to more of a reading that's more like a Godfather Saga. There is murder, treason, chaos and revenge; this stuff makes the mob seem like kids play.  We see our story turn from peace to chaos, from no drama to nothing but Drama.  And the one difference is....Jehoiada has died.      You will find that where there is plenty of drama, there is often an absence of God.  We can easily be sucked in to people's drama and begin to have sympathy for them and perhaps get an attitude with God, but often, the attraction of drama in one's life stems from an absence of God.  The moment the man who brought God'

 The lesson we can all learn here, especially someone filling in as the newly appointed leader; is that we shouldn't be too quick to judge. Just because everyone doesn't jump right on your idea(s), doesn't mean they are rebels and evil people with no heart for God. Joash decides it's time to fix up and restore the temple.  "Go to all the towns of Judah and collect the required annual offerings, so that we can repair the Temple of your God. Do not delay!".   Joash wants this done and he wants it done quick!. As we read in the story, the people do not respond quick at all, as a matter of a fact, the do not respond at all. Joash is not pleased with this lack of response and now he starts getting on Jehoiada's case. "Why hasn't this been done, what's going on, haven't you demanded that the Levites go out and collect the Temple taxes? Don't you know Moses instituted this tax for the maintenance of the Temple!".  Joash just starts going

 "If the natural branches were not spared, but broken off because of unbelief, you have been grafted in by Faith" (paraphrased). You may or may not know, the natural branches Paul is referring to, is the Jews. The unnatural branches are the Gentiles, you and I (unless of course you are Jewish). God still have a special promise for the Jews, but for you and I, Faith is critical. Paul writes that they (the Jews) have been rejected because of their unbelief. I believe this is more proof that Paul wrote the book of Hebrews (there is debate over who wrote Hebrews) because the author of Hebrews also mentions that the great sin of the Israelites was their Unbelief and the reason they did not enter the Promised land was because of their Unbelief. The Israelites mirror the American Church of today, we are devoutly religious, but we are full of unbelief. Paul also writes, "in the last days, men will acknowledge God, but render him powerless". Which is partly because of unbeli

      I was looking over my blog stats and to my surprise one of the most read blogs is titled  "My Christian Life is Private".   And I know, or have experienced over time, that often, the title of the blog is what draws people to read. And I am alarmed that the title "My Christian Life is Private" drew so many readers.  Is this the crowd that I am catering too, I wonder? That TITLE "caught" your eye, didn't it. Unfortunately, as you read the blog it probably ended up being the complete opposite of what you thought. Readers probably thought it would confirm their delusion that their Christian Life was "private".  Instead, the blog was meant to blow that theory apart. I wonder if this title "My Christian Life is Private II" will draw another slew of readers. It discourages me that there are so many Christians out there that are off track, looking to confirm and console themselves in their decision to withdraw and become spiritual rec

       I was quite encouraged to finally read about a King who is doing well and serving God. "Jehoshaphat, you are the man", I thought....until....until out of nowhere we read,  " 1  Now Jehoshaphat had great wealth and honor, and he allied himself with Ahab by marriage."   You must be kidding?! Out of nowhere....isn't this how it normally happens. We see people doing "seemingly" so well and then "out of nowhere" they make a blunderous, stupid, ungodly decision.  And we think, "where did that come from?".  It proves that any one of us, can tomorrow make a decision that will totally throw us of course if we are not honest with ourselves, with others and foremost, with God.  The story gets worse as Ahab eventually convinces Jehoshaphat to go to war against Ramoth Gilead, even though, the very prophet Jehoshaphat requested, prophesied against it.  And on top of that, Jehoshaphat also lets Ahab to convince him to dress up as King of Is

 What’s going on with Granny setting up obscene poles that Asa has to cut down and destroy. Question we should ask ourselves is….does becoming old make us naturally virtuous? Does becoming old make us honest, pure and decent people? Is it a staple for grandmother’s and grandfathers to be human beings that are pretty much angelic & sweet? Or are they simply human beings, like you and I; that have aged in their sin, not grown out of it. No doubt, I hope grandpa has grown out of smoking weed and grandma has grown out of dressing to seduce men, but that doesn’t mean that they have metamorphosed into some saint like character. Perhaps some of the surface sins have diminished, but the deeper sins are entrenched. Hatred and bitterness are as strong as ever. I have seen old, nice grandma’s pouring gasoline on the fire of bitterness that has kept the family divided for years, even right up until their death. I have seen old people, right before their death getting vengeance on their familie

 "for many had traveled from Israel to Judah during Asa's reign, when they saw the Lord was with him". The truth of the matter is, we can tell when God's Grace is on someone's life and we can tell when it is not. There is a drawing that comes towards those that have God's Grace on their lives. People want to rally behind a winner in the secular world and the same is true in the Kingdom of God, Christians want to rally behind a person who seems to be a winner for God, we call it a "man or woman with God's favor and Grace upon their lives" or as we read in our text, "The Lord was with him". People traveled quite a distance to be with Asa. It wasn't as simple as going to the next block to choose Burger King instead of McDonald's, This was a big move and there may have been family that did not follow. This will no doubt alter their lives, Israel and Judah were at war, opposite spectrum's in life. Was this a wise decision? I woul

 We have areas in our lives that are so obedient to the Will of God and we have other areas in our lives that are so flagrantly disobedient to God. As I read about Solomon bringing this heathen women back to Jerusalem with him and building her, her own house, I am nauseated. Either in disgust, because God had told him not to marry foreign women because they would turn his heart away or I'm nauseated because it reminds me of my own life, at different seasons, or maybe it's a little of both. And of course, as with you and I, to appease his conscience he does something devoutly religious, after being devoutly rebellious, "Then Solomon offered burnt offerings unto the Lord on the altar of the Lord".  I wonder if Solomon had read about when Samuel rebuked King Saul with these words, "Obedience is better than sacrifice". I remember as a young Christian going out of town with a foreign woman. We stayed over night in a city, I got a hotel, requested twin beds and ke

 You would think, that by reading Paul's writing today, that he was the worse Christian. The type of Christian you sure don't want in any kind of leadership position in your church. You wouldn't want Paul in any ministry where he is supposed to be an example to anybody else.  "And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is , in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can't.   Let's just stop right there! What do you mean you want to do what's right but you can't?! What is that Paul? You're an example here to all these converts you have won over. Paul goes on to write,  "I want to do what is good, but I don't".     Paul, you're the one that has started all these churches, you're the one who wrote, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" and now you're sitting here saying, "you can't do good". Paul continues in his writing, " I don't' want to do what is wrong

  I'm always reminded when I read my Bible that "we are made in God's image". How often, I as the authority in my home have been persuaded by the children that I love so much to be persuaded against what I have said. I clearly laid down how things would be, it was set in stone (or maybe not) how things were going to be, what we were going to do or where we were going to go and how long we were going to stay, but yet, as I look back, somehow, these little kids were able to influence me, the great authority in the home, to do otherwise. How does a child, who knows really nothing about nothing, influence an adult who has been living & experiencing life for 40 years? It must be this thing called "love" that allows us to be influenced by a lesser "species" (if I can use that term). Take the example I have just given you and multiply it  to the Nth  Degree  and you have some sort of resemblance of us, a much, much lower species, influencing the Almig

 As we are reading our text today in the Old Testament, we are reminded of a Solomon that we often forget ever existed. It's hard to imagine a Solomon that was not always wise, powerful and influential, but it is a reality that there is a Solomon that we could never imagine. We've come to know Solomon as the Wisest, Richest most powerful influential King Israel ever had and cannot think of him otherwise. If I sound redundant here it is simply because I am trying to stress the point that we only know of the Solomon that God raised up and did the miraculous in. This is God's work! I stand before a congregation every Sunday and they look at a Pastor, they look at a man that has some wisdom ( I at least would hope), a man with influence, a man that is different from before the miraculous change.  Only a few people will ever know the Richard that once was; the rest, will only, ever know me as Richard, the Christian, the wise Pastor, the steadfast one, etc...etc.....I can even te

      I was just speaking with a brother (a Christian) the other day who has willful sin, but yet seems to continue in it. I wonder if God would find him blameless, I wonder if God would find you blameless? In our text we read,  " 1  LORD, who may dwell in your sacred tent? Who may live on your holy mountain?    2  The one whose walk is blameless,"  We can try to worm around this if we want, but why would you want to risk eternity on trying to squirm around a clear call from God.  Question you might ask then is "so do we have to be perfect to get to heaven? No, of course not, but we do have to repent and turn away from "what we know" to be sin in our lives. Paul writes to "the Saints" at Corinth and says, " don't be deceived .....the  ________ will not inherit the Kingdom of God". And he goes on to list a whole plethora of "willful" "knowledgeable" sins that people in the church are indulging in. Be blameless, in what

      In our reading today we are admonished  by God  to be  "kind to the poor".  I believe Christians today are confused on this whole issue of " the poor ". Perhaps it stems from Jesus condoning the breaking of the alabaster jar on himself and when the disciples criticize this act and say, "what a waste, the bottle of perfume could have been sold and the money given to the poor", Jesus rebukes them and says, "the poor you will always have with you, what she has done is a good thing".  We almost see a disregard for the poor being reflected in Jesus' statement. Sometimes the Church can project an anti-sympathy for the poor, "the poor are like that because they refuse to serve God, or they deserve it or they are just lazy people that want to collect welfare, they don't want to work....blah...blah..." and what this can create in Christians is a lack of empathy for the poor. Christians may be insensitive to the needs of the poor an

 Some men were set a part for the ministry of prophesying? That's interesting....the text goes on to say  "the sons of Asaph were under the supervision of Asaph, who prophesied under the king" Imagine your ministry is always to prophecy? I wonder if they ever just prophesied something, for the king, that really was more them, then it was, actually God speaking?  Do we ever do that? Do we ever prophesy, "thus saith The Lord" but it really is "thus saith me". It's not necessarily evil, neither is it a blatant lie like the false prophets during Jeremiah's time, but yet, they are not really words from God. God actually speaks on this issue, The Lord says, "they prophecy out of the premonitions of their own heart"  It's not "necessarily evil", they hear a sermon, are moved by it, think of a few scriptures that could attach to that sermon and they are really in agreement with the sermon and next thing you know, "they are

Some might be surprised, in the reading today, at the scope and enormity of The Temple duties. "The duties of the Levites was to help..."  So I guess now that we are all New Testament believers, we know that Old Testament ministry has fallen by the wayside...or has it? Hundreds or perhaps even thousands, (depending on the size of your church) just show up each Sunday and everything seems to just be functioning fine.  I remember as a child I put a tooth under my pillow at night and in the morning, "shazam" the tooth was gone and money was in its place.  How did that happen? To be honest, I really didn't care, as long as I got the money.  Many believers show up to church every week-end and "shazam" everything is working and in its place.  How did that happen?  Like, me, as a child, they probably have the same sentiment, "who cares".  The fact is, the care and functioning of the Temple takes a lot of hands.  For the Temple to function many peopl

  I remember sometime before either my sister or myself, came to know Christ, my sister had changed her Dog Tags (we were both in the Marine Corps) to read “Jewish” as her religion. I was dumbfounded by this. My Dog Tags had “Roman Catholic” in scripted on them. My sister was always eccentric, but this was odder than ever to me and to a family that grew up in the  French   Province  of  Quebec , we were Caucasian French Catholics, where did Jew fit in with that? And who would want to be a Jew anyway? In my eyes, Jews were strange people. I grew up around many Jews in  Montreal . We had a whole Community in  Outremont , of Orthodox Jews, with their side locks or side curls, black hats and long black trench coats. They seemed to be the most religious people in the City. Who would want to be religious, who would want to be a Jew? What was wrong with my sister? In our text today Paul makes this profound statement,  “For you are not a true Jew just because you were born of Jewish parents or

  Mark this day in your bible, this is the establishment of “The Church” as we know it today. David has the best of intentions, but the best of intentions from the best of people does not always produce the best of results. We can begin to view certain people, especially of “the clergy” as people that can do no wrong and say no wrong. Nathan himself is caught up in this and is so quick to tell David, “do whatever you have in mind, for God is with you”, but Nathan is completely wrong.    The   Temple  is built, this we know, by David’s son and we are still recovering from the effects of this decision to put God in a building. In the middle ages, also known as the Dark Ages, the structure, the edifice, the building became man’s sole connection with God. It was a cold existence; man’s relationship with God became the structure, stained glass windows, cathedral ceilings, sacraments, and ceremony. All this was introduced   to substitute   the inner relationship man was intended to have with

 IN our reading today we get some insight about what happened in the past,...that didn't work! Wouldn't we all like to get insight into why our efforts have failed in the past! Today, we get insight as to why they failed to bring in "The Ark of The Covenant". The insight is that they didn't do it "the right way" and because they didn't, they fell flat on their faces and failed. We, in our super-spirituality say, "well, let's just do it and God is God, it will all work out". However it doesn't all work out, they fail and God never says a thing! Are we catching this! There's Grace, God will cover.......not this time! People actually died! God says, "you didn't seek me about "the right way" to do this; and you didn't even seek me after you failed, so I will just sit here and watch you fall flat on your faces". The confession/admittance in our text today is that "we didn't do it the right way and

Sometimes the most joyous of occasions are met with disappointment and grief, so much so, that I'm often to get too excited about anything. David makes a decision to bring back the Arc of the Covenant, to Jerusalem. This is a festive celebration with great fanfare and David is in high spirits, until the Arc wobbles, Uzzah reaches out to stabilize it and gets killed. The Bible tells us, "And David became angry that day". Was he angry or was he festive? Was he in a good mood or a foul mood? Was this a good day or a bad day? I remember some years ago, my neighborhood and I did I festive Christmas Trailer Caroling around our block. Many of us were on the trailer, sitting on the hay, drinking hot cocoa and singing Carols and others were alongside, walking with us. It was quite a festive occasion, everyone was in high spirits, until one of the kids got his leg under the moving trailer and the trailer went right over it. The kid screamed his head off, the driver pulling

“The only thing we've heard about this movement is………”  Are you ready for the answer? Obviously the answer is going to be, “it’s the best thing that has ever happened! People are healed, lives are restored, demoniacs are set free, the poor are being fed and taken care of…”  Unfortunately, to our surprise, or maybe not to our surprise, we read, “… only thing we know about this movement is that it is denounced everywhere ”.  That’s impossible. How could something so good be “denounced everywhere”. How could something that leaves a trail behind, of such good, not be embraced enthusiastically by every community? This is a movement that carries around it, all the evidence of a remarkable and benevolent ministry.  Paul is bit by a poisonous snake on the island and suffers no sickness. Paul prays for Publius’s father who has dysentery and he is healed. Paul prays for many others on the island and they are healed too. Paul is speaking before this crowd, as a prisoner with his own private l

How many of you remember the story of when the Ark of The Lord was put in the temple with this Philistine god, Dagon.  It was a mockery, everyday they would find Dagon, there, fallen on his face, then the next day, Dagon is found on his face with his arms broken off. On that day, we rejoiced, "one great victory for God's people. Well on this day, it's not so great, we read about the King of Israel being beheaded (Saul) and his head is put in the temple of the Philistine god, "Dagon" and I'm sure Dagon is looking on saying, "I guess this victory is mine!" Dagon makes a dagon comeback! He's not the one being laughed at today; today Israel is the one being laughed at and the hero is Dagon, today! The thing to note is we do suffer losses in the Kingdom of God from time to time, Dagon does have his comebacks.  Don't expect every battle to be a victory; for reasons of disobedience, missing God and many other reasons, sometimes we have to accept, t

You were probably were skipping through the lineage in today's reading and probably missed what was penned about two of Ephraim's sons. Ezer and Elead, "these two were killed trying to steal livestock from the local farmers". If we continue to read out, this incident is described as a "tragedy". Ephraim mourned a long time for his boys, it was a senseless death. No doubt, Ephraim did not need his boys to steal cattle for him. It was a senseless act, a daring act, a stupid act, that cost these boys their lives. Their stupidity and this tragedy is penned in God's eternal Word. In recent months, we have had a number of senseless and stupid deaths in our city, mostly by young teens and twenty year olds. Maybe our prayer for our families should be "Lord, don't let their be stupid and senseless deaths in our family". The prayer that would have to follow that would be, "Lord, let the communication lines flourish in my home among our family&qu

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 ho

THERE is allot 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???

 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 over hear 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, " let 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 freer than we were before?"  The answer is definitively "NO". We freed ourselves from the slavery of God only to become enslaved by everything, but God! Today, many will celebrate their Freedom, all the while using the things that enslave them, to celebrate their s

 Josiah is left to undo years and years of disobedient parents, grandparents and great grandparents and beyond. A lot of this started with Solomon and all his foreign Miss Universe pageant winners that he brought to Jerusalem and built up Shrines for their gods. "I'm only hurting myself" is the biggest lie ever told! Do people really believe that? I guess we can convince ourselves to believe that, so we can live with ourselves and our self centered, self serving decisions. I don't know how many people reading this blog are gonna one day pull themselves back from making a very self centered decision because of this reading, but maybe, if it's just one, it's worth it! Because the fall out is immeasurable. I was listening to the story of a Vietnam Vet who was taken out of battle from shrapnel and he said it hurts worse than getting shot and often the fall out in our decisions does more damage than the original explosion. I'm not a genius but I'm thinking

    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 they 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 Jews are spreading lies and rum