THE ONE YEAR BIBLE CLUB

    I have a harder time believing this story than I do the story of Jonah, 3 days in the belly of the whale. Is this story really true? If you take your time and read it and try to digest (mentally) this story, it seems unbelievable that Samson would give Delilah the secret of his strength after 3 collaborated murder attempts by this woman. However, I am going to stand on God's Word that every story in the bible is true unless said or written otherwise. I can say, that I have noticed that people who play church and play with God's word often do become very mentally unstable. I have seen people do much better who just make a decision that they don't want to serve God rather than live a life of duplicity. I believe that God gives these kind people over to a reprobate and warped mind. A sure way to lose your mind is to sit in a Full Gospel Church every Sunday, nod your head, say "Amen" and then live a life that contradicts everything you know. A sure way to lose you...

   Perhaps I'm in a melancholy kind of mood today, but it is interesting how often "jubilant news" can precede hard times ahead. Can you imagine how thrilled Manoah and his wife were that she, who was barren, was actually going to give birth; and not only give birth, but this boy was going to be special. This is a very exciting time for this couple, but you and I know, that Samson is going to be a disappointment, you and I know that Samson is going to break the heart of his parents with his life; and horrible decisions he makes. For all the joy and excitement they are experiencing now, the very same news that brought them joy, will bring them misery. One man once gave me advice I thought was pretty good, "don't let your highs get to high and don't let your lows get to low". I'm not advocating going through life with a stoic mentality. God gave us feelings to feel. We are emotional creatures and who wants to be around someone that has no emotions beca...

   This is one of my least favorite stories in the Bible, especially having a daughter myself.  Jephthah's irrational promise to God is going to take his daughter's life.  This just goes to prove, that even the best of us have the propensity to be serious "flakes" at times.  Here is a man whom "the Spirit of the Lord" is upon. Here is a man whom God is using, a man who goes out and accomplishes a great conquest for God and for Israel, but when he comes home, Jephthah must deal with a very ugly situation, that has stemmed from his only, incredible, stupid and irrational promise he has made to God.  As if he had to make this promise to God in order to gain this victory. This is a horrible story about a poor young girl, who's life is going to be cut short because of a Father who is just "a flake".  The lives of many children have been subjected to "the whims" of flaky parents and I'm talking about Christian parents.  Our text today ...

      Sometimes the greatest miracle is the one that's right in front of our eyes, that we take for granted. We are looking for a leg to grow out, a cancer prognosis to be vetoed, but we miss the many other miracles that God is doing right in front of us.  Does anybody take notice of the miracle in our text we read,  in Luke 24:33 " they got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. They they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together ". How quickly we forget that this group wasn't a group Jesus found all together on the Basketball Court, a group of friends he called unto himself.  And so they were together before they met and followed Jesus; and of course they are together once Jesus has died, why wouldn't they.        However, that's not the case.  Luke, the one writing the narrative, is a Dr., Matthew was a sniveling, tax collector, James & John our brawley cussing Fishermen, Simon, a political zealot....the point i...

    Imagine for one who was the Alpha and Omega, according to John He was the word who had always been. Never was death even a concept to Jesus until this moment. He was going to let himself die and BY FAITH believe that he would not remain dead, that God, the Father, would raise him from the dead. 100% of all those reading this blog will one day have to face death. Some of us will die quickly, not having a chance to even think about it, but others will die a death they know is coming, whether through cancer or some other fatal disease or even old age; they will have time to contemplate and think over their death. They will know that in a few weeks, a month or a few years they will close their eyes one last time and the question they must ask themselves is will my eyes ever open again and if they do open again, what will be the next thing that I see...Heaven or Hell? Or, will I be somewhere else in some intermittent state? Death is the scariest event any human being ...

   God wants to slim down that vast numbers of men, going to fight with Gideon, to make sure it's known, that it was He (God) that brought the victory, not their own might. So God thinks to himself, "what's the quickest way to bring that number down, substantially?" God knowing the hearts of men, goes with fear. Fear strikes the heart of so many men and women serving God today and back then. As the story goes, He tells Gideon, tell those that are afraid, they can return..well that will knock out a couple of thousand...NO, it knocks out Twenty-two (22) THOUSAND men. You have to read it twice! It's hard to believe that there was 22,000 men out there that were so afraid and given the first opportunity to return home, they would. God has not always given men the opportunity to not fight because they were afraid. How many times did God tell Joshua, "do not fear, be courageous". He told Jeremiah, "fear not their faces". Jesus tells us not to fear for...

          " 4  They camped on the land and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys.  5  They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count them or their camels; they invaded the land to ravage it.  6  Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the LORD for help."      The easiest (but dumbest) thing to do is step into any bad situation and without knowing the history or the facts, lash out and say, "where's God in all this? If he's so wonderful and powerful why is this happening?".  It would be easy to look upon Israel's plight and ask those same questions, as a matter of a fact, Gideon does ask that question,   13  “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the LORD is with us,  why has all this happened to us?     FIRST thin...