THE ONE YEAR BIBLE CLUB

    For 3 days we have been reading on wisdom.  The conclusion in today's reading is ..."whoever fails to find me   harms himself ;   all who hate me love death".   Wisdom here is a metaphor, but this statement is literal. Those who hate wisdom will end up dead quicker than most of us, but what about those of us that don't necessarily "hate" wisdom, but just kind of in the middle? We may end up being the most miserable. We don't love or cherish it enough for it (wisdom) to   benefit us, we don't hate it enough to where we will probably die for lack of it, so we just remain in this quagmire....of ...of misery. I am currently in a a very complex situation concerning my taxes, having lived, resided, worked and been a citizen of two countries in one year makes is very difficult to file tax returns.  The complication of doing my taxes far exceeds any financial benefit to me (as I have had to hire a CPA in each country), to the point...

     We like to encourage each other by often saying, "God always answers prayer", is that true?  It's comforting, but is it true?  Jesus says, "don't you think I can call on God now and he will send twelve legions of angels..... BUT,  how then would the scriptures be fulfilled that say,  it must happen this way?" .   Our answer to this question would be, "ughhh....Lord I didn't think all that through, all I know is this is a bad situation and I want it to end...NOW!".  And God's reply would be, "okay, but if I intervene here, things will take a different course than I had planned".  There will be times where the Father will not intervene even though we ask.  Are you going to the cross? It could possibly be and it could possibly be that every day you pray, "hey, I'm not Jesus, so why don't you go a head and send those 12 Legions of Angels, if Jesus won't take them, then I will!!!"  Unfortunately, the Father...

    Aside from Judas' satanic inspiration, many believe that alongside with that disposition was also a great disappointment Judas had with Jesus, yes Jesus, can you imagine?!!  In Judas' eyes, Jesus did not deliver as he could and should have and Judas finds himself not just grieved at what he is about to do (betray Jesus), but grieved over Jesus' failure do deliver the goods, so to speak. I love the flow of the reading today, it transpires from Judas (one of the twelve) negotiating the betrayal of Jesus right to the disciples (the other 11) asking Jesus what they can do to prepare for the Passover.  Don't miss this!  They're ALL "the disciples" the "chosen 12" and while one is off disappointed and betraying Jesus for his failure to live up to his expectations, the other 11 are marching along appreciating Jesus for ALL He is and ALL He is doing.  Is this not the same Jesus ALL 12 have had a relationship with for the past 3 1/2 year...

   This may end up being one of the greater indictments against The Church of Jesus Christ at our judgement; that we abandoned our brothers and sisters in their most dire time of need. In our reading today, the Psalmist eludes to a time of great anguish in his life and because of this his strength is failing; he then goes on to say concerning his friends, "I am a dread to my friends....I am forgotten by them". Unfortunately, it is when we are not at our best that our brothers and sisters in Christ seem to get turned off by us and often abandon us when we need them the most! Why is that? Is it because of selfish reasons, after all, who doesn't want to hang around upbeat people full of joy and victory, but are there not times that we need to also grieve with those that are grieving?! Another reason is their weakness probably turns us off, "why are you even struggling with this ....what's wrong with you!!?" Thence, we're turned off and leave them to struggl...

   As with everything about God, there is a Paradox.  Jesus' delay in his coming will add many to the Kingdom and also true, is Jesus' delay in coming will take many out. These virgins have enough oil for a quick appearance, but definitely don't have enough should the bridegroom delay.  We can call them "flash in the pan" Christians.  We see them come with much excitement and enthusiasm for the Lord, but their Oil, their light quickly begins to dim and go out, after a few months. Unfortunately, it's not just the "flash in the pan" Christians that I have seen this happen too. Christians that have been around for 20 + years are now beginning to loose their oil. Had Jesus come back when they thought, the '70's or 80's, they'd be in Heaven with Jesus today, however the Bridegroom has delayed in his coming. The longer you serve God, the more brothers and sisters we see falling by the wayside. Is it not our duty to keep the "fire alive...

   What a promise God makes to the children of Israel. I will be an enemy to your enemy and oppose those that oppose you. But doesn't God love everyone, how could he take sides? Aren't we all God's children? We may all be God's creation, ie: human beings, but we are not all his sons and daughters. We are not all His children. " but all who did receive him, He gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in His Name".  It is clear in The Bible that God does make a clear distinction between those that serve him and those that don't. What a promise this is to us, God's children; that our enemies will be His enemies and He will oppose those that oppose us! The only thing is, is that still relevant for us today? And if the answer is yes. Then why are so many of us, beat up and losing? It could be, that one of the most difficult aspects of Pastoring, is watching the members of your congregation get beat up and surrendering the white flag t...

    I've been saved since 1991 and have never really had a problem with wanton women trying to hit on and/or seduce me. HOWEVER, I've heard stories from other Christians that have often experienced this and I, have often thought, "odd that it never happens to me" (Thank God!!).      I've never been in a situation where I've had to run for my life and "all the better for me", I would say. Sometimes I have thought, "well, I must not be a stud muffin and that's why I don't have these problems that other men/women do. Could it be, perhaps, that there is more to this, than meets the eye?! In our reading today (Proverbs) we get a little insight into the matter. Our text gives us two insights into the situations of people who are approached by someone, into an immoral temptation. #1. That women (or men) can discern those that are open to be seduced, they can discern when a man (or woman) might be open to fowl play and they are the ones they go ...

    Have you ever met the Christian, who tells you, with that glaze in their eyes, "I don't fear The Lord, I just love Him". Fear is negative, Love is Positive.  It's interesting though, that the Christians I have met that spout this non-sense always find themselves involved in the most egregious sins. In our reading today we are clearly told by God Himself, to the people "..so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning."  I really don't care what you think or what you feel, it's irrelevant. The Word of God, the Wisdom of God, tells us, "fear will keep you" when nothing else will.  Love is great, my children love me to death. I come home and their arms are outstretched towards me, "daddy, daddy, you're home, I love you!"  However, with all their love they have towards me, there are days, when the only reason they don't sin, misbehave, talk back to my wife or pull and tear at each others hair and limbs, ...

 One might think that all the different names for God in the Bible were made up by Pastors and Theologians, to make them sound smart in front of their classes and congregations. However, we know that not to be true and the fact is, that The Lord himself is the one who identifies himself by these different names because there is more to God, than just one aspect of himself, ie: The Lord Saves. In our text he reveals himself to Moses and Joshua, as Jehovah Nissi, translated in English, The Lord is my banner. So what does that mean? It means, "The Lord who fights for you!" A more modern word for Banner would be Standard and a more modern word for Standard would be Flag.This coincides with Isaiah's Prophecy, "when the enemy comes in like a flood, I will raise up a Standard....". When the Israelites fought in war, they would have a pole with a Standard, a flag on it and where ever the fighting was fiercest, they would raise up The Standard and the fighting men would ...

    If you were a neutral bystander listening to the ranting rages of the unrepentant sinner, you would hear something like this, " I have a hard time believing in a God who just wants to send everyone to hell; poor, helpless people, loving people, just trying their best with the lot they have been given in life and yet, all this God wants to do is send them to hell". Pretty convincing eh! You might think after that, "yeah, that is pretty harsh, what is wrong with this God anyway". However, best advice we can ever take heed to, is to listen to both sides of the story before we make a judgement. AND here in our text today (Feb 2) Jesus (God) gives his side of the story. "The Kingdom of Heaven is like a King who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. ......but they refused to come". Wow! That is completely different side of the story than what I've heard...what I've heard is people want to go to heaven but there is this mean and unjust God that just...

         Verse 31  "And when the Israelites saw the great power the Lord displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant."     Faith by Necessity ,  they were forced to either believe or die .  How often in our walk with God will be be forced into situations that we would never have engineered (as long as we were in our right mind) and come to a place where either I believe here or I die. The faith that came, came by a situation that was forced on the Israelite s. Verse 31 is a longgggggg way from the beatings, the..."Moses why don't you leave us alone"....things are only getting worse, why don't you and your God leave us alone...".   Sometimes it's a long journey from..." God you're not helping..."   to  " and then I saw the hand of God and put my trust and faith in him".   As a matter of a fact, it's such a long journey, sometimes people ...

    "Whatsoever you ask and believe, it shall ge given unto thee", declares Jesus. This is both the scripture we love and the scripture we hate. It is the scripture we love because it inspires us of all we can have in and through Christ.  It is the scripture we hate because it reminds us of the endless possibilities that are not coming to pass in our lives; it is both the scripture we love and we hate. If only for one word, how different it could be.  One word, a word we wish Jesus had left out of the equation.  The word that ruins it for us, a condition that often nullifies this scripture for us....and that word, that condition that Jesus throws in, is that we must BELIEVE.  "whatsoever you ask and BELIEVE".  JESUS throws in a condition that is very difficult for us humans, even Christians. While we may all claim to be believers in Jesus, we are not all believers in His promises, we are not all believers in His Word. I would say that if we are tr...

        I am not a big supporter of those Christians who find themselves hated by everyone. I understand the words of Jesus, "they hate you because they hated me" and it is human nature to go to the one scripture in the bible (when there are plenty more) to justify our carnality and un-Christ like behavior.  Time and time again you will read that God's people have always been a people of favor. Yes, we will always have our enemies, we will always have the devil's ponds opposing us, but we will also have God's favor with the heathen. Our scripture clearly states  "The Lord  made  the Egyptians  favorably disposed  toward the people, and Moses himself was highly regarded in Egypt by Pharaoh's officials and by the people".  Isolated incident???? No, this is a common theme throughout the bible and SHOULD BE a common theme throughout your life, my life.  Daniel, Joseph, Ezra, Zerubbabel, Shadrack, Esther and the list goes ...

         BE careful of hinging your witness on the miracles that God does because you may find yourself taken back a little when you hear that you are not the only one that has experienced miracles. You may say, "live righteously, serve the true God and then you will experience miracles". Problem is you will find out that there are many who are not living righteously, serving false gods that have experienced miracles too! If our aim is to convince by miracles we will fail or worse, misguide people only to find out the people we were trying to win are now caught up in a counterfeit revival that is full of supernatural manifestations, but yet is not God, what will you say then after you put such an emphasis on "miracles". According to God's word our power is in  our testimony . Sinners, religious people, folks caught up in the occult our counterfeit revivals may have plenty of testimonies of the "supernatural" but the one thing t...

          Chapter 6 Verse 4  "He will not listen to you" God says, but go tell him anyway! (That makes a lot of sense!) It's important we REMEMBER this. This is  most  of our witnessing, most of the time we are witnessing to people who will not listen or convert to God's ways (like Pharaoh) and the danger is that we  clam up , because nobody is interested or getting "saved".  However, we must remember this text and also many verses in Jeremiah where God explicitly tells Jeremiah to go preach and also tells Jeremiah, "they will not repent". THE POINT...not all witnessing and speaking for God is  "to save"  but rather  "to judge".  God will use our witness to save some and judge others, but there is a purpose ALWAYS. In this case, with Pharaoh, he's not going to "get saved" but God is going to use Moses' attempt to judge Pharaoh, "did not my servant Moses come to you?".  The sad reality, is that a lot o...

         Not only must we fight against our human nature to do the good deeds God is trying desperately to prompt us to do, but then when we do venture forward we are hit with demonic opposition and that's often when we throw our hands up in the air and say, "God I tried, but this is ridiculous, things are only getting worse, I'm done" and we never look back or try again. "If God really wanted me to do that or succeed in what he asked he should have taken care of the opposition". Surely I would have said this, in this horrible situation that Moses has been put in; and now, also put the Israelite people in. The very people he is trying to save and deliver revolt against him and are ready to take his head off; and for a good reason!  Due to Moses meddling, they are now being beat and no longer is straw being provided for them to build their bricks. There's no way to look at this and say, "it's okay, really....". And if I were Moses I would ha...

    As I’m reading this story all I can think about is how quickly things can change. And that frightens me!  Moses in such a quick turn of events goes from living a luxurious life in the Palace of Pharaoh, with all the privileges of a Pharaoh’s son, to running for his life, forced away from all luxury and privilege, to living in the desert completely alone with absolutely nothing but the clothes on his back.  Now he’s in the wilderness, sitting by a well talking to the Priest of Midian and the marrying his daughter and becoming a Shepherd. We read even while Moses is in the Midian, he comes to the rescue of the women who came to the well to draw water. This is now the 3 rd  time we read of Moses entering into this mode of “rescuer” (twice in  Egypt  and now once in Midian).  Change is never good for the human Psyche, it messes us up royally. However, as a child of God can we trust in the providence of God when dramatic change comes unannounced to...

         Most disingenuous, religious folks would rather talk about their Love for God rather than their Fear of God. They have so much LOVE for God, but no fear, which explains why they live the contradictory lives they live. It is not the LOVE my son has for me (and he does love me dearly) that keeps him from mouthing off to his mother or I, it is his FEAR of me that keeps him from doing so. Love is not enough to keep us right in any relationship. We cannot love someone so much that it keeps us from all wrong doing. Why did God choose to inspire the author of our text to write verse 17 " The midwives, however,   feared God   and did not do what the king of  Egypt  told them to do; they let the boys lives".   Why not ..."because the midwives LOVED GOD they did not do what the King of  Egypt  told them to do"   Why not have it written like that? BECAUSE it would not be true!  Yes they loved God, but in this ...

  Ever do something you thought there was going to be "hell to pay" so to speak, but yet, no thunder cracked, you did not fall in a pit of mud, you didn't get struck with lighting, you didn't get fired, as a matter of a fact, nothing happened and you thought...I GOT AWAY WITH IT. This is what Reuben thought all these years, the firstborn son to whom all the rights and blessing should be bestowed, but it is when Jacob is distributing the blessings (symbolic of God) that he says, "Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, excelling in honor.......you will no longer excel, for you went up onto your father's bed onto my couch and defiled it" OUCH! Where did that come from, if Jacob knew about it why didn't he do something years earlier? ALL blessing flows down from God. People who are blessed are not those that gave the gal at McDonald's back the extra change on Sunday. It's those who over the long term live righteously, act justly and show mercy a...

  The Psalmist writes and/ or prays "keep me from willful sins". Would I sin willfully? Aren't all my sins just a case where I was caught off guard, backed in to a corner or baited by Satan? Are there different kinds of sin? Yes there are! There's willful sin, sins of commission and sins of omission. We may think "what did I do now to sin?" However sometimes we have sinned not because we did something but we have sinned because we didn't do anything, these are sins of omission. We failed to act, we failed to judge something, we failed to speak out, failed to correct a wrong, failed to intervene, failed to help, all these are sins of omission. James explains in his epistle that "to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin", a sin of omission! The Psalmist confesses that in him are " willful sins". These are sins that we willfully committed. We were not caught off guard or anything of the such. We thought about and ...

   We think, "what could be easier than a miracle?" Truth be known, God's people often think an "easier way" is just to send the problem away! An easier way would be to think logically, foresee the problem and then counter it with a solution. In our eyes, anything is easier than to have to wait on Jesus and hope he does " a miracle". The disciples foresee the problem that is coming and the miracle they are going to need to feed all these people. A miracle however, requires faith, a miracle brings with it anxiety and stress, a miracle, that's hard on us, why not just send them away before we get stuck having to BELIEVE God for A Miracle. The disciples approach Jesus and suggest sending the people away....and what does Jesus say, "you feed them!" The very thing they were trying to avoid, Jesus makes them face. We are trying to avoid having to believe Jesus for a miracle, Jesus is trying to place us in situations where "we have to belie...

   Sometimes I wonder who is more miserable, the atheist or the rebellious, religious person. I will choose the rebellious religious person over the atheist any day! In our reading today we read about the brothers of Joseph still tormented in their minds for the sin they committed against their brother. Everything negative that happens in their lives is attributed to "God getting them back". This is how the religious person lives, they know enough religion to drive them crazy. They know enough to realize that they are not living right and because of that, everything negative that happens is of course God getting them back. At least the Atheist convinces himself (or tries) that there is no God and therefore bad events in life are either bad luck, bad karma or just life. If Joseph was 13 when he was sold into slavery by his brothers and now Joseph is 30 yrs old ruling in Egypt, that is 17 yrs (is my math right???) since their great sin. Imagine 17 yrs of every time somethin...

  There's a two step process here with Joseph. Joseph names his first son Manasseh "God has made me forget all my toil and all my Father's house". Joseph was devout to God, but that can lead us to believe that Joseph was above bad situations affecting him. And now we see that is not true, Joseph was hurt and affected by what went on back home. Second, he names his second son Ephraim, "God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction". The land of my affliction, once again Joseph admits that it has been a rough and miserable time in Egypt, but yet we would never gather that by his attitude and faithfulness to God. Joseph brings up another key point that we should not miss and that is; that in the midst of our place, land, city or circumstance of affliction, if we keep our hearts right in our land of affliction we can say and testify as Joseph, "God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction". Something beautiful can be born (figuratively...

  We've heard it before I'm sure, but it is worth repeating...."if God was with Joseph why is he in jail, if God was with Joseph why was he falsely accused in the 1st place". I remember visiting a church from another fellowship one time when I was on deployment in the Marine Corps. After service we had a fellowship and it was brought to my attention that the man that had preached that night was not their Pastor, apparently their Pastor was in Jail! He was in jail for some trumped up charges for sexual abuse. The church members were confident that their Pastor would be vindicated and all charges dropped. I kept my mouth shut, but I thought, "helloooooo....dummies, if he was innocent why would God have even allowed it to go that far, they are in for a rude awakening when they find out he's guilty". In my mind, God would never allow something like that to prevail against one of his sons or daughters, but was I wrong? Joseph is in jail, falsely accused of ra...

   It's hard to find much fault in Joseph. He is one of the stellar examples of Godliness, in the Bible. But here, in Joseph's youth, we see some flaws or perhaps naivety. It makes you wonder what would have prompted Joseph to share these dreams with his brothers; dreams that depicted his brothers would one day be serving him. Joseph already knew that his brothers were not all that favorable towards him, how could he think for one moment, that sharing these dreams would help matters? And we know, as he should have known, but apparently didn't or didn't care; that it would only make matters worse between them. And not only does Joseph do this once, but twice! Perhaps Joseph felt some animosity of his own, towards his brothers. What other reason would Joseph tell his brothers that he had a dream and they were bowing down to him? Our text tells us that "even his father scolded him, "what kind of dream is this, will we be bowing down to you?", his father asks...

    We know that the 1st altar is built on man's own initiation. It's interesting to see God now using a good thing. He tells Jacob go back to Bethel and build an Altar there. God understands "altars" are a good thing! A modern day name for an altar, a secular name for an altar is...."memorial". A memorial is a secular altar. It is a lesson, a remembrance in life that we never want to forget. However life's lessons should have God involved...I digress, so God encourages Jacob to go back, back to the place God met him. This proves that there are times in a believers life that their faith is dimming, struggling  and puttering away and God says, these altars, they are a good thing, go back to them. Build them and remember where I have met you and what I have done for you in the past and let that memorial, spiritual reference point, ALTAR, encourage you into the future. Notice verse 16 "Then they moved on from Bethel".   God brought Jacob back here...

   Not the results you anticipated or wanted? Oh well, to bad!  If you and I were God we would manipulate results to be what we wanted them to be. We would never look bad and everything we did would succeed. Every outreach would yield incredible results and everyone would always respond to our preaching. Nobody would tell us "no" and certainly nobody would "reject" us. But here is God in the flesh and he allows himself to be rejected. Jesus gives his very best outreach and the response is slim to nothing! Clearly not the “anticipated” results Jesus had wanted, but yet, He lets them be what they are.  I wouldn't do that, I wouldn't accept minimal results, at the cost of all my efforts, plus it makes me look bad, so add that in the mix. It is clear that Jesus is not at all thrilled about the results of his evangelistic efforts in Capernaum and Bethsaida. Jesus even performed miracles, yet they do not respond.  My ego would not have been able to handle this. ...

  Jacob finally ventures out after twenty years. Jacob goes on a tirade and just lets it all out on Laban, this man that has practically ruined his life. Twenty years of Jacob’s life went by under Laban. It’s hard to believe isn’t it?  Or maybe not! How easily we can be in a rut and how easily we can allow 5, 10, 15 years of our lives to slip by. I think the lesson learned here is we need to be wise who we allow ourselves to associate with. We know the quagmire can be that as Christians we are reaching out to anyone and can find ourselves in some dysfunctional relationships due to that, but we must separate the ministry of outreach from our personnel lives or we will be of no use to anyone. There is a difference between those I am reaching out to help as apposed to those that I “purposely” surround myself with in friendship and fellowship. We don’t pick who we reach out too, but we should pick very carefully who we associate ourselves with. I've seen many people that were...

   When we are naïve and foolish, we find ourselves drawn in to arguments and dramas, where we are actually fighting and arguing, over an issue, that is really, not the issue. Selfishness is not the issue with Leah, although, at first glance, it would appear that way. Rachel could have stood there and argued with Leah about how she's selfish, she's always been selfish and that's the issue and until Leah learns not to be selfish....However, that would solve nothing because the issue is not "selfishness". Leah is not withholding the mandrakes from Rachel because she's selfish. They could stand there and argue all day, as some do, about an issue, that is not the issue. Often times there is a much deeper issue than what is being argued about on a surface level. Rachel could have won the argument and Leah surrendered the mandrakes over to her sister, but the issue would not have been solved. The reason, we find out later, that Leah won't share the mandrakes wit...

    God sees Leah in her distress, He sees that she is not loved and because of that He opens up her womb that she may have children.  God does this for one, because He cares and also, to win her love. God so wants to be loved by us.  Unfortunately all Leah can think about is Jacob. The first thing she thinks of once she becomes pregnant, is NOT, "how gracious is my God and how I love him so"; instead, Leah just thinks about Jacob and how perhaps Jacob will now love her. It's ironic how she's hurt because she so loves Jacob, but yet Jacob does not love her back with the same love and yet she does the very same thing towards God. Every blessing God gives her she only thinks about how she can use it to win Jacob's heart, totally ignoring the fact that God is wanting that love. We so long to be fulfilled by a relationship, a career or something else and we are completely blind to the God that has been there for us, seen us, blessed us, when nobody else saw or ...