THE ONE YEAR BIBLE CLUB

       The reality of Ministry is…the very people you are in ministry to reach and help are the very people that will want to make you quit the ministry, if you let them. We always have to remember that we are not in “the ministry” to help the people (that’s a by-product) we are in the ministry to serve God. If we are in the ministry out of some noble quest to “serve the people”, once the people start stepping all over you and spreading rumors about you, you will say, “well, if that’s how they are going to treat me, if they don’t appreciate what I’m doing for them; then forget this, I quit!” However if we are in the ministry to serve Christ, who is always grateful and appreciative of our efforts and service, then we will not quit even when the people we are trying to feed, bite us! As the saying goes, “don’t bite the hand that feeds you”, well people don’t seem to abide by that a whole lot, in the Church. The Elders in  Jerusalem  explain to Paul that the J...

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