THE ONE YEAR BIBLE CLUB

         Maybe I'm just in a somber mood this morning, but I was just overwhelmed with how depressing this scenario is and maybe that 's good.  I don't know how they did it? I can just imagine how many could not take this aimless wandering and left the group, went off on their own into the desert and probably died out in the wilderness.  Imagine knowing, you have no purpose but to wander in circles until you die.  They were going absolutely "nowhere", there was no final destination, no purpose, but to wander around aimlessly and die.  That's depressing!!!  This is still the curse of the unbeliever (for it was their unbelief that angered God and drove them out into the desert), whether inside the church or outside.  The curse of the "unbeliever" is still aimless wandering, purposeless living; without an end destination. If we are going to know God, we must seek God for the greatest benefit (on earth) of ...

   VERSE 22, "Then ALL OF YOU (that was a red flag right there) came to me and said, "let us send men ahead to spy out the land for us and bring back a report about the route we are to take and the towns we will come to". I'm not so sure this sneak preview was so much about "scouting for a route", this scouting venture is purposely phrased to Moses, not to let out a hint of negativity, it's all positive.  They make sure to say to Moses the "right words", they make sure not to allude in any way that this spying out the land is really to see if the rumors they have heard are true (giants in the land) and if they are, there's no way....but none of that is mentioned to Moses. I believe Moses was manipulated here. Why would God allow Moses to be manipulated? Notice Moses doesn't tell the people, "I'll seek God get back to you on this" as he usually did. Moses now is trying to be nice, he's believing the best in people, tru...

  HOMICIDE STATISTICS BY GENDER: A 2000 global study on homicide by the  United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime  found that men accounted for about 98 percent of all homicide perpetrators worldwide  and 79% of the victims.  As much as people want to deny God and diss the bible as merely a book written by men, you can't get away from the truth and accuracy of the bible; it's ability to still speak into our lives 3000 years later and the impressive writing, by a mere man, like Moses to write 5 flawless books (Genesis-Deut).  The laws  written by Moses in these books still apply today, how can that be?  In our reading today, the emphasis, written by this man, writing (supposedly) on his own accord; is MURDER.  "He is a murderer" is repeated at least 5 times. It was to be considered at the time, the most heinous of crimes/sins a person could commit, was to takes somebody else's life, on purpose.  Moses (a mere man apparently...

       Imagine this conversation, "I have a better place, than what God has in mind, I would prefer this, no really, go ahead, this is good, trust me, I know, but God had ......I know, I know, but this will do, thank-you for offering Lord, but I'm good, really!!”     That's what this group of people is saying to God. And I say, "are you kidding me?"  What is this, what can you call this, I don't even know...is it stupid, arrogant, ignorant, fearful, or all of the above and more?!  Imagine telling God, who knows what's best for us and is trying to offer us  "His" best  and we turn around and say to Him, "no thanks, this will do just fine".  I know I've tried to offer people good things I had for them and had them tell me "no thanks", I was a little insulted, but can you imagine a human being saying that to God himself.  Maybe this group was thinking "at least we won't have to fight for this, we alre...

           WELL, poor Balaam is killed...and once again this confirms the idea in our previous reading, that God will use the wicked, but eventually He will judge them.   Balaam was the wicked one that was hired to curse Israel, but even Balaam turns around and says, " I cannot curse those whom God has not cursed " and we love that scripture, don't we! The problem is, we fail to read on because the people of Israel end up being cursed regardless, so in the end God's people are cursed. So if our aim is " not to be cursed " it is not enough to simply quote one random text from God's word but to understand the full idea of the story of Balaam.  Verse 15 to 16 goes on to tell us that Balaam could not curse them  directly or by his own  will, BUT Balaam thought of a better way to curse God's people, Balaam figured out that he could get them to  curse themselves .  "They were the ones who follo...

 I wrote a mini e-book, available on smashwords.com entitled “The Reality of God”. How important it is that we have the ever and present Reality of God in our lives. How important it was back then, but even more, how important it is today. We can discuss all day long the significant aspects to all these offerings, but one thing we can say for sure, without speculation, is that it kept God, His purposes, His reality, at the forefront of the minds of His people. It is so easy to get caught up in the business of life and become distracted and lured away, from this relationship with this invisible God. In obeying these commands to have these frequent offerings, no matter how busy they were, this had to be done and it brought them constantly back to the place God wanted them. Today, we don’t have these laws, we don’t have these constant offerings, sacrifices, rituals, so what keeps God at the forefront of our minds? When Jesus describes the seeds (the Word of God) that the sower sows in...

  WE want to bury the past, but the past cannot be buried, the past becomes part of our history. Stop bringing up my past! Well, sorry, we are! Because if we don’t remember the past, we repeat it. What will your history be? Well let’s ask, “who are you banding with?”      “ Our father died in the wilderness. He was not among Korah’s followers, who banded together against the LORD "      Why is this coming up now? Because the past, our history always comes back. Men who forget history repeat the same mistakes, this we know! Israel has certain reference points (a history) just as we do. Korah and what happened is part of their history and will be until their death. Mahlah and her sisters are quick to mention that their father was not part of the group that "banded together" against the Lord. A few thoughts here, #1. It was not against the Lord that they banded, I thought it was against Moses? But when God inspires this text to be written, it is...

      Such a short verse here, slipped in the midst of all the numbers and counting, but did you catch that?  Vs. 9 "...were among Korah's followers when they rebelled against the Lord".  Moses must be mistaken here, so I went back and read the story where it actually happened.  It seems as I read the story that Korah approaches Moses, with his gang, to confront Moses. Korah says, "why do you set yourself above the people, we are all holy too!".  So at first appearance, it seems like Korah is not rebelling against the Lord (after all, who would do that?) Korah is merely rebelling against the leadership.       I like (actually I don't) how we separate the two. "I love the Lord and would do anything He tells me, it's just this incompetent leadership I am rebelling against. And not only will I rebel, but I will spend my time convincing others to join me, against him. Rebels in the Church are always pretty convinced that they are rebell...

  HOW spiritual are you? Of course nobody likes "super spiritual" people, but that does not mean we should not be spiritual. "Super Spiritual" people are those who try to spiritualize matters that are more practical in nature than anything else, they also try to hide their flaws and judgmentalism behind "spirituality"...., well we know all about them, but let's talk about us. We are proud that nobody would call us "super spiritual" but would anybody call us "spiritual" ??? THE FACT IS some of us are more spiritual, more in tune with God and seem to have more of his Spirit, than others. Paul prayed, "that they may be filled to FULL measure with His Spirit". Full meaning that any Christian can be from a quarter empty to overflowing full (just like a gas tank) with God's Spirit. If only we had a gage like our gas tank, to show us where we are at. Aside from violations & money problems, the balance of divorces stems fr...

 Balaam is a confusing character to many people. At first when we are reading about him going over to meet Balak to partner with him against Israel. However when Balaam pronounces blessing on Israel instead of cursing; Balak sends him off angry so now we think, "oh, he's a good guy". Balaam is saying good things, but he is still bad. Later on Balaam mentions to King Balak that although he cannot curse Israel himself, Balaam suggests to King Balak that he can have the Israelites curse themselves by enticing them into sexual immorality. This turns out to be quite an effective course and thousands of Israelites die in a plague that strikes the Israelite community because of their sexual immorality between the moabite women and the men of Israel..What we can learn from this is "saying good things does not make you good", doing good things makes you good, even if you don't say a thing. We are confused about Balaam, but there really is nothing to be confused about...

  A healthy dose of reality for us is to be able to see ourselves in the Israelites. I sure don't dress like them and I sure don't talk like them, but I sure act like them, how about you? First of all, they have to get angry, before they are willing to pray. It shows they know the value of prayer but only seem to pray when it benefits them; nonetheless, they pray to God. Our scripture says, "The Lord heard the Israelite's request and gave them the victory". A tremendous victory and it was 100% correlated to their prayer to God. You would think that would be a reference point for them of how real God is and how good He is, but as the story goes on, as it will with you and I. the journey grew long. This is where we become fickle. If only serving God was a 50 yard sprint, we would all be doing much better. However it's not a sprint, it's a long distance journey, called life! The long journey causes many of us who once had fire coming out of our finger tips, t...

  We read about this Godly couple, Zechariah and Elizabeth, both our text is clear to tell us come from a Godly/Priestly, lineage. They are described as being a Godly COUPLE , righteous in God's eyes careful to obey all his commands. There is no greater blessing to the Church than a Godly couple. More often than not, you have a devout single mom, or a married woman coming on her own, serving God faithfully, while her husband stays home or you have the couple that comes out, the husband is devout and the wife is more interested in many other things, but the rare jewel of the Church and/or the Kingdom of God, is the Zechariah and Elizabeth or the Joseph and Mary. There is nothing more powerful and influential in the Church than a Godly couple, without sounding redundant. There is the situation where a couple comes into the Church and the other simply does not have that same passion, what can you do? However, how often single men and women are Christian Singles and have the oppor...

  God in the Old Testament reminds me of a parent with young children. The constantly argue and squabble and mom and/or dad spends most of those early days settling disputes amongst the children. The children learn to depend and expect that mom or dad is going to settle the dispute, make a judgment of who is right and who is wrong and then discipline the guilty party. There is immediate intervention and immediate judgment when we are young. I liked the God of the Old Testament, how about you? There's squabbling and fighting against Aaron and God intervenes, shows them who's right and who's wrong, who's side He is on and the matter is settled. God is continuously intervening in their lives and settling disputes as the parent(s) of young children. My children are at a stage now where I hear the arguments and squabbling and more often than not I stay out of it, they need to start learning how to resolve conflict themselves. There is just as much conflict "in the camp...

  If there's one thing that is for sure, that is, not "if" men will rebel, but when! It's an unfortunate circumstance of life to know, that often those that we have invested in and others loved, will often come back and oppose us. Whether that's are own children, whom we've loved & sacrificed everything for and now you're watching them with rage, confronting you, cussing at you as if you are their sworn enemy, or it's people in the church you've loved and invested in, or an employee at work, one thing is for sure, men do rebel. It hurts, it hurts really bad. This is not to say we go through life with a jaundiced eye and live as a cynic, but it is just to know, men rebel and many times it has nothing to do with the one they are rebelling against. As Pastors it is very disheartening to see the men we've appointed, to see the men we've raised up, we gave responsibility; the men we invested, it hurts when they rally unto themselves another ...

        WHY am I here is probably a common question we ask ourselves and God. Why am I here with these people, why am I here with this family, with this woman, with this man? Again, we see God acknowledging a man that has a different spirit than others. If you did not read yesterday's blog, go  ahead and read it. God says to Moses, "I will take the spirit that is upon you and put it on them”. And here again, God acknowledges this concept with another man; that man is  Caleb .   "But because my servant Caleb has  a different spirit  and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it."  Caleb basically serves God in the midst of a bunch of "malcontents" but yet chooses to have a different disposition, a different mind set,  a  different spirit!    A new church, a new spouse, a new job, a new city, is our answer.  We say, " I have such a great...

    One of my most annoying sayings is "he puts his pants on in the morning same way I do!". This is implying that we're all on the same level here buddy. We know that no man should claim to be better than another man, but that is different than saying "we're all on the same level".  Twice in our story today God makes a clear point, "we are not all equal".  God tells Moses take these 70 men and I will put the Spirit that is upon you and place it on them. In others, Moses had something they had not. This is an undeniable truth in God's Kingdom that we are not all function on the same level. When the Seven Sons of Sceva  try casting out Demons, the Demons say, "Jesus we know and Paul we know, but who are you!?" And the demons start beat these men to a pulp.And later on in our text when Miriam and Aaron decide to grumble and gossip about Moses, once again God makes his point clear, "with Moses I speak face to face who were you to th...

    The Devil is a master at re-writing history.  I'm not meaning to compare Hollywood to the Devil and His works, (or maybe I am) but we know when the  read introduction says,  "Based on a true story" you're in for quite a fabrication and stretch from the truth.  Was there any truth in that? Sure, 1%, the other 99% was fabricated. The Devil takes our history and re-writes it in our minds and leaves an ounce of truth so we don't completely dismiss it. Did the Israelites eat fish in Egypt, well I guess they did if they say so, but to somehow look back at Egypt as "the good 'ol days", really?!? Had Moses stopped them at the Red Sea and say, now remember, you're going to miss this place and one day look back at this place as the "good 'ol days" are you sure you want to cross with me?" ......They would have run him over! Nostalgia is a precarious place to go in our minds. Feelings and thoughts sweep through us to create a utopia ou...

    HEAVEN pass away, did I read right? And perhaps if it had come from another source, then it might be debatable as to whether that statement or prediction was to be worth listening to, but I'm pretty sure (correct me if I'm wrong) that Jesus is a valid source when it comes to the subject of Heaven. How can Heaven pass away? Where am I supposed to go when I die? Where will we say people have gone to, when we do funerals? Perhaps some don't really care; maybe the thought of them playing a harp on some celestial cloud, never quite appealed to them anyway (where people get this notion I don't know). Where will the people in Heaven go to when Heaven passes away? If there's not going to be a Heaven what is my hope, after I die? Okay, perhaps I have dragged this on a little to far, especially for those that already know where I'm going with this, but I am just trying to make a point...okay, maybe two points. The first point is how we can read over very serious state...

  If any of the people, either men or women, take the special vow of a Nazarite, setting themselves apart to the lord in a special way..." I've always been intrigued by this scripture, God almost seems cavalier about this. Again, "if there's any.......who want to set themselves apart to the Lord in a special way..." wouldn't all Christians want to do that? Imagine someone speaking up and saying, "no, not me, I don't want to set myself apart for the Lord in a special way, I just want to coast, I just want to do the bare minimum". I am amazed at God's understanding with his people that some "do want to" and others simply "do not want to". I get frustrated, I get angry, I want to bully people into "setting themselves up for the Lord in a special way" I want to condemn them, I want to make them feel guilty" God simply takes it in stride. Is it what He recommends...we know the answer to that is "no", T...

    How are we ever going to make advancements in our personal lives and in The Church, until we learn, work IS NOT a dirty four letter word? Question: "Well, how much am I going to get paid if I help?"  Ans:  Nothing!  Are you really going to ask God that question?  It's like the son whose Father has spent his life feeding him, clothing him, driving him to Football, taking him out of town, paying for his summer vacations, paying for his school and one day, the father's car is broke down and he needs some help from his son, whose driver's license he paid for, whose car he bought for him, and the son turns around and tells him he'll drive him around for errands, but ONLY if he gives him gas money.  The audacity of the son.   This is where most Christians are in their relationship with God, full of nerve and audacity.  Thanklessness, not Thankfulness. God has no qualms, no hesitation about asking us to work for Him; do we have hesitation i...

         Well,  JESUS may have answered the question for the Pharisees, but He left a question for us...."what belongs to God?"  "You mean part of my income belongs to God?"  And if part of my income belongs to God, how much of it belongs to God. I know I am required (and I don't like it either) to give to the Government but I have a hard time believing I also have to give to God. It is one thing throwing in a five or ten dollar bill in the plate as it comes by, but to feel I have to give? What if I want to go out to eat, what if there's something I want to buy, I shouldn't feel compelled to have to give, that's legalism! Jesus said to give "unto God what belongs to God", but the only reference to that is in the Old Testament, surely Jesus is not implying that we should still be Tithing? But what else "belongs to God, but The Tithe".  I was told Tithing was Old Testament and we weren't under The Law anymore and that I only had...

         SOMETHING that should catch your eye in today's reading is the complete contrast in Jesus' knowledge between the situation with the colt  vs . the situation with the fig tree. The fig tree represents everyday life, eating and drinking, the home we buy, the cars we drive, the places we work;   the colt  however, is part of God's grand scheme for Jesus, this is not just a hap circumstance experience, this is part of God's Sovereign will. What we eat, where we eat, whom we marry, what we buy typically falls under God's Permissive will for our lives.  The difference  therefore between these two situations was  God's Sovereign will vs. his permissive will . It had already been prophesied in  Zechariah 9:9  [ The Coming of Zion’s King ] "Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and  riding on a donkey, on a colt,  the foal...

         These men are a mess, and to think they are men that have been with Jesus for 3 years. They have the boldness to approach Jesus and say, "hey, we need you to do something for us".  Jesus must have thought, "how peculiar this is, I wonder what it is that they want me to do for them? Maybe pray for them that they be filled with my Spirit, maybe teach them a greater understanding of some parables I've spoke, maybe go pray for a sick family member, who knows? Okay, boys, watcha got?       And their reply, "we want to be seated to the right and to the left of you, in your glory".  Jesus has only one response, or two..."you don't know what you're asking" [that's for sure] and the next, "can you drink the cup I will drink of?"  Without hesitation they answer, "we can!"   Really?  You are willing to have your back ripped open, your beard pulled out, a crown of thorns crushed into your skull, beat to a pulp and c...

    Sadly enough, the Bumper Crop Testimony was not one the Israelites were able to boast of.  In all practicality it sounded great, sounded cool, but when the moment actually came to "believe" and "have faith", a man with a household to feed, debts to be paid and looking down the road, "if we don't plant now, it would be insane to think we will have provision next year when our harvest would normally be coming in..."  In the end, they failed, they did not give the land it's rest, and they were not able to give "the Bumper Crop Testimony" and on top of that; by not giving the land it's rest, as God had told them, they depleted the land of all its resources and nutrients and they had a crop failure and had to go without.  For all their intentions, as usual, they were worse off for not having trusted and believed God.  What was wrong with God's people back then?  Well, the same thing that's wrong with us today, we just can't...

    One of the infantile arguments the homosexual agenda spouts is "if God is so against homosexuality" why didn't he speak against it, after all, He spoke against other sins". This kind of logic and reasoning is for 6 year olds.  Jesus did not speak out against bestiality either, with this kind of logic are we to  assume He was also giving us the green light to be involved in that? Jesus did not speak out against rape or child molestation, are we to conclude that he was therefore sanctioning child molestation? Jesus was too mature to get involved in mindless arguments over which "he had already spoken".  He was not like us who allow our children to bait us into foolish arguments that we have already spoken on and get us all flustered. Another point is....Jesus HAD long ago, spoken about marriage. One of Jesus' classic lines was "have you not read!". He was either amazed at their ignorance to His word or He was amazed at their lack of regard f...

L   Wow! If only we could all have the liberty to speak in contradictions and nobody challenge us on them. "Do you love me babe?" "babe, you know how it is, I love you, but I don't". Who's going to hit the Altar, to get married with that kind of statement. I am a Christian, I have to believe, it's "supposed" to be part of my genetic make up. Do you believe!? "ughhhh....of course, c'mon, are you serious, how could you ask me that, especially in front of all these people!" Jesus asks if " He will find Faith" in the earth in the last days. I know lots of Christians that have Christian attributes and cliches that the live by, but I don't know to many that are "walking on water". They are believing God For a good year, they are believing God for Health and for steadied employment in rough times, but who is really believing God for "the impossible?" Jesus told his disciples that He was training in Faith...

  "Don't do this" is HALF of righteous living, the other half is DO THIS, do these things and you will be blessed. HOWEVER today, it's about "don't do this" and the question is "why would we do these things" that God tells us not to? Simply cause....we are not righteous. Most people you meet in life are not righteous people. When I read this "when you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen..." I thought immediately of Boaz, as I'm sure you did. Boaz gives implicit directions to his men, that this principle is followed (did they not already know about this principle, of course they did) so that poor (literally) Ruth may benefit. If you study the life of Boaz you will find a man who lived a life worth wanting to emulate. Boaz is not a man of much fanfare, he is simply a righte...

  THE song that Frank Sinatra may very well be most remembered for may just be, "I did it my way". Not so much because it was such a wonderful song (although it was pretty good) but more so due to the irony of the song and how it's meaning played out in his life. Frank Sinatra did not leave behind a legacy anyone would want to follow in. It was certainly a life of failure, misery and destruction. He was an alcoholic, divorced, scattered children, scattered relationships and involvement with the mob. He died a broken, miserable and lonely man, but yet today, the radio stations will still play one of Frank's greatest hits, "I did it my way". So what does this have to do with today's reading....well we read that the children of Israel are offering sacrifices in the open fields and God commands them to stop doing this or be cut off from His people. God is telling Moses, "you tell these people they are not to make sacrifices in the open field but are to ...

It's always pretty amazing when the Old Testament reading coincides with the New Testament reading. In the Old Testament we have Jehovah giving all the requirements for the cleansing and forgiveness of uncleanness; then in the New Testament we have Jehovah, incarnate, giving us the deeper issues of uncleanness. Jesus explains to us uncleanness comes from what's inside the heart of a man/woman. We know that before Jesus ever spoke to the disciples about uncleanness being stored in the heart, He warned us through the inspired Word in Proverbs that we "should guard our hearts with all diligence, for out of it springs the issues of life." God gives us insight into the heart; that it is more than a muscle that pumps oxygen and blood through our bodies, but is actually a container that holds both evil and good. Psychologists try to deal with the mind when attempting to heal and help a patient. However, they are ignorant that therapy for the mind; pis not therapy for the hea...

   Have you had a long day for Jesus? Has he spent you for all the energy that you had? If He has, then He will say to you, “I have not asked of you what I myself have not given”. Jesus had such a large crowd of people around him that He and his disciples cannot even sit down to eat. And so they endure, they get through and finally Jesus suggests that they climb into the boat and get to a place where they can get some food in their stomachs and get some well over due rest. We know that when we are being exhausted physically and deprived of food at the same time, it’s a bad combination. It can make the most pleasant among us to be quite mean, moody and ill tempered. Well, at least we can say, there’s an end to the madness, they will get to their remote location, eat and maybe laugh about the whole, crazy event. However that’s not the case, our text says, they crowd saw them in the boat and ran along the shoreline to “meet them” on the other side. Can you imagine the anger ...