THE ONE YEAR BIBLE CLUB

    How many times does the Psalmist tell us, "I cried out...."  and he goes on to write, "your word unfolded to me".  This is what our generation would call " ol' school Christianity".  Today's Christian tries to get by by joining themselves to some fancy mega Church, with a dynamic motivational speaker and a dynamic, moving worship concert. They leave that place, Sunday morning, somewhat moved, somewhat enlightened as one who has just attended some kind of seminar, but as the week presses on and they tune in to their favorite T.V. programs, movies, work & other activities, they find themselves in that same place, mentally, emotionally and for sure, spiritually and the cycle goes on.  In between is...divorces, child custody battles, drama, alcoholism, abusive relationships, verbal and some times physical....and this becomes what we know to be "the church" today.      The reality is, there is only one kind of Christianity. and it'

  Was the One Year Bible inspired by God so we could read these stories side by side?  Our reading in the Old Testament is about David being told by Ziba that Mephibosheth has turned on David. You can imagine how much this hurt David to hear this news from Ziba, that the one who he extended his arm too, the man who said to David "why do you take interest in a dog like me", this man Mephibosheth, that David cleaned up, gave him his inheritance from his grandfather Saul, made him a member of his own household and had Mephibosheth sit as this table to eat with him, a King.  David is thinking his charity, mercy and grace has all been in vain and in a time when his own son has turned on him, this is just more bad news.  David tells Ziba, "all that was Mephibosheth's is now yours!"  This is exactly what Ziba wanted.  However, as we come to find out later, this was all a deception, Ziba was very impure in his motives and I find it interesting, that we read in Psalm 119

   The lesson is proven here that we are often much harder on our own family and loved ones; than we would be with strangers. David has no problem having empathy towards this man and this situation which is being brought before him by the woman of Tekoa (which we know is Joab in disguise). This is very wise on Joab’s part to realize that David would not be this harsh in a normal situation. As David hears the story he is able to quickly discern, “the punishment has gone to far”.  This is a lesson not just for David to learn, but also you and I. Compassion and mercy we would offer to others, often is not given to our own family members. We hold grudges for years for offenses that we would have told others, “they must forgive and let go”.  Joab is able to bring out of David, that he knows right from wrong, but Joab allows David to see, that though he may know right from wrong, he’s not exercising it with his own son, Absalom. The mercy and grace we show with others, is often not the mercy

  Coincidence or not, you tell me; that the day after we finish reading about David’s transgression with Bathsheba, do we read about David’s son’s transgression with Tamar. David Looked upon Bathsheba with raging lust and had to have her. David inquiries to find out who she is and when he is told it is Uriah’s wife, one of his soldiers, he still persists to sleep with her. Bathsheba was married and not only married, but married to one of his soldiers that was fighting in a war, that David should have been fighting. While David’s soldier is risking his life on the battle field, David is at home having sex with his wife. This is the stuff movies are made up of, but yet this is true life. Why did David do this? According to David, “he could not resist her”, she was too beautiful. Fast forward a few years down the road and we have Amnon, saying those same words about his half sister Tamar, who apparently, was strikingly beautiful, as was Bathsheba. Amnon cannot deprive himself from her, th

        DAVID is unshaken in his faith, he has always been unshaken in his faith.  When running for his life from Saul, he was unshaken in his faith, and encouraged himself in the Lord at Ziklag. When faced with a grueling miserable tortuous death, facing Goliath, he was unshaken in his faith and here, suffering in the consequences of his sin, after much fasting and contending to the mercies of God to spare the life of his son, he yet, once again, even when his son dies, is unshaken in his faith. What does David do when he finds out his son dies; that he has just fasted for; our text today says,  "he went into the house of the Lord and worshiped.  Then  he went to his own house....and ate".   You may say, "well what else was he supposed to do?"  Well, certainly not go worship the God who ignored his prayer! Instead he could be angry at God, begin to waiver in his faith and wonder..."is God real, maybe this is all just a joke, maybe there is no God and if there

       WE cannot speak enough about David. David is "the real deal".  He is not a Jew trying to practice his religion, he truly is  a man of God  and has a genuine relationship with Jehovah.  "Is there still anyone left of the house of Saul to whom I can show God's kindness?"   And David is not just trying to sound good! He really does want to show God's kindness. God's kindness, shown through God's people will go a whole lot further in our witness than preaching fire, hell and brimstone. Mephibosheth is mentioned to David. He is a disabled man and has now become associated with the rift raft of society. He is a nobody, forgotten by all the "somebody's"  David brings him into his household, restores everything to him that belonged to his grandfather Saul and then adds this,    "And Mephibosheth, grandson of your master, will always eat at my table" .   Not only am I bringing you into my Palace, but you will eat at my table, yo

 Are you being led by an imperfect leader? If you are, then welcome to the rest of The Church of Jesus Christ; for we are all being led by an imperfect leader. The heart of a leader is what matters, not his perfect tract record in decision making. David asks his spiritual leader/adviser what he thinks about his desire to build God a house to dwell in. Samuel responds, "whatever you have in mind, go ahead and do it, for the Lord is with you". The problem is that most of us rely to much upon our leaders and not enough on God. Our relationship with our leader is much stronger than our relationship with God and this is a ticking bomb waiting to explode. On the other hand, others are "super spiritual" and they believe all they need is a relationship with God and they have no relationship with their leadership. They avoid spiritual leadership and refuse to give them any recognition, "he puts his pants on in the morning the same way I do" is often the mantra of t

       JESUS is going to be leaving his disciples, I'm sure that brought allot of thoughts to his mind about what was best to address with his disciples.  In Jesus' absence, what would need to be addressed? With this going through his mind, this is what Jesus comes up with. " a new command I am giving you, "love one another" by this men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another".  What would be one of the major concerns in Jesus' absence, according to Jesus, that these men would bicker, fight and devour one another without him there to be the peacemaker.  Pastor's spend half their time trying to convince congregations members not to kill each other.  Paul writes in his epistles, "stop devouring one another". No doubt, Jesus' foremost concern, concerning his leaving the disciples is that He will no longer be around to be the peace maker. Who will keep these men from ripping each other apart....hmmm....hey guys, listen,

      This is a sad story (in the O.T.) about two leaders who do not have their heads screwed on straight. It leads to the senseless death of many; and if that's not bad enough, the drama continues years after this horrible incident. Years later when Abner decides to come over to David's camp, Joab is incensed and plots to murder Abner, to revenge the death of his brother, who was killed by Abner, in self defense....to much drama! Take note, when there is to much drama amongst God's people, this is a clear sign of a lack of relationship with God. David is the only one who mourns the death of this innocent man.  He makes sure to let everyone know he had nothing to do with this vengeful killing of Abner, by Joab and his men.  David has to live a life by which he is surrounded by other Israelites, all Jews by birth but yet none, or very few of the men around him have a relationship with God.  They all know the sacraments, sacrifices and rituals that a Jew must live by, but the

       The Voice was for you! “the wow effect” is normally for the crowd that you don’t want to be identified with. Jesus is quick to tell them, “the whole voice thing, that was for you…not for me”.  We would say, “You mean that’s not the way it normally is? God’s not always talking to you in an audible voice?”  Jesus’ answer would be, “no, that’s  Hollywood ”. There is no greater paradox than God himself, his workings and his dealings with humanity. Although there is no more Supernatural Being or experience in the Universe, God’s dealing with us, from the outside looking in, may seem unimpressive to the unsuspecting eye. We listen for “the audible voice”, we look for the “paranormal” but we get nothing. This is what attracts many people into the occult, is the “paranormal”, to them a spiritual experience must include “voices”, “objects moving”. In other words, “if you’re a supernatural being, if you’re not just like us, prove it!” With this in mind, now let’s look at this verse again,

  Without trying to be "melodramatic" this is a Life Changing event for David.  David is set to go to war against Israel. However, in God's Grace, Mercy and Providence He prevents David from making probably the worse decision of his life (aside from Bathsheba & Uriah).  It is a "Pivotal Moment" in David's life and God is behind it all orchestrating. God is the Master Orchestrator! Not only does David not go to war against Israel, but when he returns to Ziklag he finds that Ziklag has been raided and his family and the family of his men are taken captive. The scripture indicates that his own men are getting ready to turn on David and stone him. At this moment David decides to seek God, the God  of Israel, that is! The scripture says, "David encouraged himself in the Lord, at Ziklag!"  Had David gone to fight in the battle against Israel, he would never have been back at Ziklag, desperate, seeking his God and getting reconciled/right with the God

       I just finished remarking in my mind, about how spiritual and in tune David is with God until I begin to read the next paragraph and then I'm forced to take it back. One thing that cannot be overemphasized about David is how truly righteous he is and what an awesome man of God he is.  That being said, he, like us, seems to flip flop back n forth between two opinions. In this paragraph he is on a roll,   9  But David said to Abishai, “Don’t destroy him! Who can lay a hand on the LORD’s anointed and be guiltless?  10  As surely as the LORD lives,” he said, “the LORD himself will strike him, or his time will come and he will die, or he will go into battle and perish ."   David is right on the money here, not just on his convictions but also on his hunch about Saul's future. Saul will perish in battle, by the hand of the Lord. His convictions are right on, he's premonitions are right on, He's right on, he's in tune with God until...the next paragraph....  1

  WE have two instances of relationships gone bad in just one reading. The first part we read about David and Saul and in the latter half we read about David and Abigail. David has the perfect scenario he needs to convince Saul that he is not malicious; and at first it works, Saul calms down but eventually that "proof" is forgotten, it has no lasting effect and the relationship between David and Saul quickly deteriorates back to what it was. Trying to prove we are not "bad' and vindicate ourselves to those whose view of us has been tainted and/or even poisoned, is often a useless exercise. The cleverest argument, the most convincing evidence will have no lasting effect because the real issue is "their heart". When one individual in a relationship does not have a right heart, nothing can be resolved; however the opposite is also true, that when both individuals have a right heart, the worse circumstances can be reconciled.  Anything can be resolved by two pe

  I will be the last person to stand up the religious folks, especially the Pharisees, but it must have been hard to look at some man standing in front of you, claiming to be "The Son of God", miracles or not. I have seen miracles happen but never began to look at the people who performed them and think, "is this God?".  Now you can say, "well we know better today". How many times has God stood before us and we did not believe that it was Him? It's hard to see God and accept that it's God you see. And I mean this as a metaphor, imagine how much harder this is, when it's literal! Even Christians when witnessing a tremendous miracle stand there and say, "can this really be?". We almost try to dismiss, what we have witnessed, "maybe they really didn't have cancer, they were mis-diagnosed?"  We believe..., but we don't believe. I believe in you Lord, just don't stand in front of me and say, "This is me, God"

 Our reading today says,   "Then they kissed each other and wept together— but David wept the most."    I would imagine David wept the most.  David's life used to be simple. He had a family, he had a job that he loved, he had peace and quiet times out in the field, with God and his sheep, he was quite content sitting out in the fields, writing Psalms to God and watching over that flock that he had been assigned to by his Father.  Life was simple, life was carefree, life was good! David had no aspirations for anything else,  but yet God did (look out David!)   This poor, little shepherd boy gets called out of this simple, carefree living into a life of turmoil, hurt & disappointments. He is now very much removed and detached from his family, he is married to a woman who does not at all share his values or his love for God and now he is alone and on the run for his life and I'm sure David thought,  "how I long for when things were simple, why God did you not ju

  Well we read about dagon favoritism today; I thought God was above all that, after all, isn't He perfect? Well, God is perfect and not only is He not against favoritism, but he is the author of it since He is the author of all, He's the Alpha & The Omega.  We read in Verse 14. "David continued to succeed in everything he did, for the Lord was with him. When Saul recognized this, he became more afraid".  I don't think there is too many reading this today that would disagree of the favor that God had towards David as opposed to Saul. Should the student who talks back, doesn't listen, doesn't care, throws spitballs at the teacher have the same favor as the student who listens, is interested, respects the teacher, sometimes helps the teacher? Most protesters of "favoritism" are most often those that have always found themselves  on the wrong side of favoritism . This is really the issue. When we protest, it's because it affects us, if it do

   “You will die in your sins” I have heard that mentioned in many altar calls and one on one witnessing but never quite heard it from Jesus, even though I've read over this passage, many times. I looked it up in the King James Translation and there too, it is written, “you will die in your sins”. Dying in your sins….as opposed to……dying outside of your sin? We understand what Jesus means, but do they? Do the people we work with, live with and go to school with? “To die in your sin”, is not a verse of forgiveness. First thing we would say to explain Jesus’ phrase here is, “well basically it means that if you die unforgiven, you will not make Heaven your home”.  Sorry, not the right interpretation! This verse has nothing to do with forgiveness, it has to do exactly with what is mentioned, ‘in sin” as opposed to “out of sin”.  “If you die  in your sin ”. One of the most popular message Christians preach is God forgiveness, but an equally important message is that God has come to get

 I don't know maybe it's just me, but I can relate to Saul in this story.  I possess all the negative traits that Saul displays in this text, how about you? We are all prone, if we will be honest, to selective listening and partial obedience. Authority, Headship, they are not merely there for "window dressing" as the expression goes. We can become too familiar with authority and become wise in our own eyes, as the years pass on. Never would Saul have argued with Samuel, in the beginning! Never! And never would Saul have thought that "Samuel's way was 100% percent, the best way!".  Saul is even at the point where he begins to argue with Samuel, "that He did do what He was told" and what Saul is really saying here is "I did do what I was told, that was utmost necessary, at least in my opinion. I defeated the Amalekites. The rest, about not keeping the plunder, killing everyone, not so sure about that, to be honest". How many times have

  This is amazing….or maybe not so amazing. These men are making critical decisions about Jesus (their Savior) based on wrong assumptions and un-researched heresy. Had they cared to do their research, had they cared to “seek the truth” they would have found out that Jesus was not from Galilee, he was actually from Bethlehem. Verse 41, “Still others asked, “how can the Christ come from Galilee? Does not the Scripture say that the Christ will come from David’s family and from Bethlehem”. Are you kidding me?!!! Jesus is of the line of David, Jesus is from Bethlehem, He is everything they’re looking for but they are making serious judgments against Jesus based off of information they have heard, but have not researched for themselves! Jesus is just standing there listening to these men, you think He would have cried out, “hey, I am from the line of David and I wasn't born in Galilee, I was just raised there, I’m from Bethlehem!” Jesus messed up here, had He simply spoken up and explain

       I have to admit, I read this story about Saul and think to myself, "I would have done the same thing". I don't know what else to say, maybe you're different. Let's read Saul's excuse,   When I saw that the men were scattering and that you did not come at the set time and that the Philistines were assembling at Mikmash, I thought, "now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal and I have not sought the Lord's favor. so I felt compelled to offer the burnt offerings"    I say, "Amen brother".    # 1 Samuel is late, # 2 the men are scattering # 3 the Philistines are assembling...there's a lot of pressure mounting here and the only thing that is stopping them is not being able to do the sacrifice and move on to attack...and where is Samuel? He made what we call today, "an executive decision". So what is the deal here?  The only thing I can derive from this is that God makes no exception "to the rules"

  We do our best to live for God, live peaceful lives and experience Joy, however, often infiltrating that is countless hours of drama on the phone or in person or at the coffee shop listening to the tales and drama of those that simply don't want to do right. And let me tell you, it's drama! "The cops were at our house last night, my son got put on probation, we had our car repo'd, we can't pay our rent, my 3rd grader cussed at his teacher and my husband is drinking again..." everything is doom & gloom, everything is dire circumstances, everything is negative and we leave that coffee shop, hang up that phone feeling quite drained and quite depressed ourselves. As a Christian we feel that it is our duty to continue to be friends with this person. As a Christian we feel it is our duty to be there for them every time they want to call and puke all their drama on us. As a Christian we feel it is our duty to meet with them every time they want to spew their dr

       Many of us remember Jesus' repelling words in  John 6:66  (notice the number) that drove the crowds away, "unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood...and from that point many turned away and followed him no more".  We remember that, but what we don't realize is before He said that he pre-empted it all with the text we read today. In our text today, Jesus is laying down some facts before He is about to "seemingly" drive the crowd away. Jesus says (verse 26) "you're not here for me, you're just here for a free hand out, you're here for the food, the hand out". (paraphrased by me of course).  Then he goes on to say, "whoever God draws to me I WILL NEVER drive away (verse 37) but then he turns around and drives this crowd away after just saying he would not. Actually he says specifically "   37  All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.  38  For I have come down from h

  You would think that in the first instance where they put the Ark of God in the house of Dagon and twice found the "Supposed" god Dagon, fallen on his face and broken up that they would have realized that their god was nothing more than an idol, but the God of Israel was the true and the living God, but these people are Dagon stupid! They can't put 1+1 together to equal 2. Or maybe they're not stupid and they just don't care. Quite often we give people the benefit of thinking "they care" about the truth, about what's wrong and what's right and if we could only prove to them, somehow show them then they would believe, repent and come to church with you and be forever more, your new Christian BFFL. In our text..."is all the evidence"; we would ever pray or want for our friends or relatives to see, but yet in our text we do not read about one person converting over to the God of Israel. All we read about is the people not wanting Him aro

  "And Samuel, the boy grew in stature and favor, with both God and Man".  I have always been a big fan of this scripture and have prayed this over my life and my son's life, very often. The truth is we don't all have to be hated because we are Christians.  Yes, we will always have our enemies, but God's scripture teaches that while we will have enemies, we can also have favor with men and that favor comes from God as we are rightly related to Him .  What is interesting is that this scripture comes in the midst of a horrific description of Eli's sons, sleeping with women at the Temple. These boys, Hophni and Phineas as some bad, bad boys. To make matters worse, they are the Pastor's sons, so to speak. They are Eli's sons, the Priest, the Priest that Samuel is under. Samuel has been growing up under Eli, with his sons, his whole life. It would have been so easy for Samuel to think, "well if this is how Eli's sons behave, then it must be okay, a

  Such a valuable lesson, I think we can all learn from today's reading. We know that Hannah had prayed for children many times before. We know that this has been a long standing issue with her. It's been a thorn in her side for many years and no doubt she has cried and prayed about this before. But today, for one reason or another is the day that God is going to answer her cry and prayer. Why not last year? Why not last month? We don't know, but the prayer that seems as if it is being "ignored"; on this day, is over. On this day, God answers her prayer and her life will never be the same. I wonder how many of us were on the verge of getting that prayer answered and then we  gave up. We give up, never to see come to fruition what we had prayed for, forever wondering why God never answered our prayer, our cry, our need only to find out, perhaps in eternity, that had we prevailed, persisted just a little longer, victory could have been ours.  What a testimony this w

       There are certain people that you meet that you just know will not remain in the lowly state where they are, at least not for much longer. Have you met them? It could be a server in a Restaurant, it could be a servant in your church, it could be a new employee, whomever and wherever is irrelevant, the point is, YOU KNOW they will not remain in that state. God is going to raise them up, it is inevitable and it is just a matter of time. As low as Ruth is (and she is low/rock bottom) you know upon meeting her that she will not remain there long.  Boaz is not in the position he is in either by luck or fortune, Boaz is also in the position of authority and prosperity because of who he is. I have met these people and so have you, there is an undeniable Grace upon their lives (that we almost envy) that you would have to be blind to miss.  Ruth no matter how lowly a place she has come to will not remain there. Her meeting with Boaz, her willingness to go out and labor in the heat for he

 We have these men of God who have devised a planned, for their single men, to go to the festival at Shiloh (it must be a Cinco de Mayo celebration seeing that it's on the 5th of May). So these men of God go to this Cinco de Mayo celebration and steal for themselves wives. They are crying out to God, thinking, praying, trying to figure out what to do and they hear nothing from God. They simply, it seems, are left on their own to figure it out. They come up with a plan, that seems a little odd in my own personnel opinion and I'm sure yours too, but yet we hear nothing from God. And so the men of Israel go to the Cinco de Mayo celebration, steal wives for themselves, we don't hear from God, the chapter ends and the book of Ruth begins. I am glad that this story is in our Bible because it downplays they hyper spirituality that we are accustomed to in Christian circles. God is speaking to everyone, God is the own personnel GPS or their own personnel " Siri " (Apple

       This story that we read today in the book of Judges prompts many questions in our minds. Had the Levite decided to stay just one more night (as the step father was trying to persuade him) would his wife have been spared of this brutal raping? Had the Levite stopped in the first city to rest (as was suggested by his servant) perhaps his wife have not been murdered. This little, seemingly, insignificant decisions perhaps are not so insignificant.  Are lives, yes are affected by the BIG decisions we make, but they are just as much, if not more, directed and affected by the countless seemingly, insignificant decisions we make every day, on a whim. There was many instances in this story that this man could have just as easily chose differently and the question that bares asking is..."would it have made a difference in the final outcome?"      How about the war? The Levite convinces  Israel  to go to War against the Benjamites to avenge this murder and God allows them to tak

     Whether this is a cleverly crafted strategy of the Enemy of our souls or not, is irrelevant, the end result, is the same. Are we just introverts or are we being set up...regardless, the outcome (easy prey and defeat) is more of what we need to focus on. "There was no one to rescue them because they lived a long way from Sidon and had no relationship with anyone else." There are numerous Christians sitting in numerous churches all over the world that are in this situation right now and it's just a matter of time before they are taken out. They have no relationship with anyone else and they too will have no one to rescue them when they need help. One of the greatest joys, outside of Jesus himself, that we received when we became Christians was the Fellowship of the Brethren. In the book of Acts we read,  “All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals, and to prayer.”  How did we get here? How did we get to a