Reflections
Greetings and blessings to all of you. In Luke 4:18
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”.
Surely there are no people on earth who should be as happy and rejoicing as those who have been redeemed by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus. We were chosen to serve God by the above. That assignment for all of us believers should make us inexpressibly happy. Think...
(Read More)Greetings and blessings to all of you. Question: Since we all arrive in this world spiritually dead, the only way to be brought to life is to be Born Again. Are you Born Again? Or as one author penned, “Are you a fan or a follower? Jesus had many fans but not many followers. Only 12 Disciples. Jesus said to the crowd, “Truly Truly I say to you; are seeking me not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate your fill of the loaves.” This crowd was motivated by superficial desires(food) and not the true spiritual significance of knowing Jesus and his mission. His missi...
(Read More)Greetings and blessings to all of you. Question: Do we value God above all else? Paul having been converted to Christianity and being beaten, arrested and told to stop preaching exhorted the Ephesians in 4:1 “to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.” How do we as Bible believing followers of Christ do that? #1 Live obediently. We are no longer children of the devil. We live in a decidedly optimistic but delusional age that places man at the very center of the universe and hails himself as the measure of all things. And because of this powerful delusion we may say to ...
(Read More)Greetings and blessings to all of you. Jesus spoke in parables or divine truths to those who are seeking after Him. Parables required more explanation and are rich in meaning. In the Parable of the Sower (Mark 4) Jesus made it clear that the seed represents the Word of God. The field is the world. The farmer is Jesus. The four soils represent the heart of four kinds of people and/or the congregation. Pastors understand this as they teach/preach; but we also must understand this concept when we minister to our family members and others so we will not get discouraged and give up talking and or p...
(Read More)Greetings and blessings to all of you. It has been said “that all sin is deceitful, but pride is especially sneaky.” Think of OT people such as David, Samson and the Israelites; we think to ourselves, “What is the matter with them? Why did they act so stupid? How gullible and foolish these guys were.” And in the NT we read about the Pharisees who knew God but refuse to know Jesus. Herod allowed himself to be acknowledged as “ A god” and it cost him his life (Acts 12:21-23) Our Bible warns us about pride. In Proverbs 3:7 the Word tells us “Be not wise i...
(Read More)Greetings and blessings to all of you. In Psalm 16:1 the Word says, “Keep me safe, O God for in you I take refuge”. We all need “a refuge” from a place of danger not only in our flawed world but in our own minds. Negative moods such as discouragement is a powerful destructive force. We can look at what caused my sadness or frustration and begin blaming or we can focus on our response. While it is a natural response to be angry, sad, despondent in a difficult situation we have the spiritual power the Holy Spirit power to choose a different response. For example, Jesus ch...
(Read More)Greetings and blessings to all of you. In Isaiah 43:19 the Word says, “for I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in dry wasteland.” God wants us to change. God wants us to live in a mindset of repentance. God’s purpose in creation and redemption is to have his children conformed to the image of his Son. In Romans 8:29 “for those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son…” Our attitude for this change should be welcomed...
(Read More)Greetings and blessings to all of you. It’s difficult not to fret about the evil in our world. Even if you did not look at the news ...you know it’s there. David had to run from his enemies who wanted to kill him. But he was able to say during that awful period in his life “Trust in the Lord and do good dwell in the land and enjoy safe pastures. Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” (Psalm 37: 3-4) The sin we have now is no worse now than in the other generations. It only seems so because we now have the ability to transmit inform...
(Read More)Greetings and blessings to all of you. Once again, we will be celebrating the 4th of July. It is a federal holiday that we should celebrate with joy and gratitude. Why? Because our forefathers were determined to establish a free and democratic system of government and the Declaration of Independence (together with our Constitution and the Bill of Rights). They fought for this with their lives. George Washington said, “it is impossible to govern rightly without God and the Bible.” Thomas Jefferson asked this question,” Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we ha...
(Read More)Greetings and blessings to all of you. There is a troubling issue that is going on in our culture that is affecting the Body of Christ. They are killing “The Truth”. There is an erosion of our foundation that is no longer resting on a Biblical worldview. Question: Is pride still one of the seven deadly sins? America has dedicated an entire month to pride -a sin which is absolutely abhorrent to God. Lev. 18:22 “do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable.” In Rom. 1:24-27 “therefore God gave them over in their sinful desires of their hearts t...
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