Tag Archives: God Is Faithful

Sons Not Slaves

Before I can ever teach you this Scripture, I have to explain something that used to be normal and expected, but in America today has become as foreign as speaking Martian. In the ancient world great civilizations were built by pagan cultures. The longest lasting Empires were:

The Egyptian Empire lasted 3000 years (3100 BC – 30 BC)
The Assyrian Empire lasted 1300 years (2025 BC – 609 BC)
The Babylonian Empire lasted 1351 years (1890 BC – 539 BC)
The Roman Empire lasted 1480 years (27 BC – 1453 AD)

Though not classified as an “Empire”, the Spartan city-state Lacedaemon (pronounced lass-e-demon) lasted 1000 years. All of these empires – along with Lacedaemon – grew to greatness because children were trained to be good citizens – not entertained. We live in a day where children are coddled. When Paul was writing the Church at Galatia, he was speaking to what all parents and adults knew. … Continue reading

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Do Lord

Over the past few years I’ve heard a lot of complaining about our Presidents from both sides, Democratic or Republican. I have to admit, I’ve done my fair share of complaining. But the Scripture reminds us that – rather than complaining – we should rely on prayer and on the sovereignty of God. God can and does control the human heart. God can control the heart of the King, whether the King is a believer or a non-believer. The Bible is full of examples of this.

When the cupbearer to King Artaxerxes, Nehemiah, heard that the walls of Jerusalem were destroyed and the city was in disarray, he was very upset. But rather that grieve and despair, Nehemiah went to God in prayer. Nehemiah’s prayer shows how a believer should pray to change the heart of a king.

Nehemiah 1:4-7 (ESV) {Nehemiah said} I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven. 5 And I said, “O LORD God of heaven, the great and awesome God Who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love Him and keep His commandments, 6 let your ear be attentive and Your eyes open, to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before You day and night for the people of Israel Your servants, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against You. Even I and my father’s house have sinned. 7 We have acted very corruptly against You and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, and the rules that You commanded Your servant Moses.

Nehemiah did not blame God nor the enemies of Israel … Continue reading

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The Law Was Added – Why?

God loved Adam, and proved it by what he did. But Adam doubted the love of God, and proved that by what HE did. He disobeyed God. He hid from God. He blamed God. This is THE Transgression (1 Timothy 2:14). And yet, God loved him anyway, and gave Adam life for death. Death reigned on the earth from Adam to Moses. Why? It wasn’t because people ate of the forbidden fruit as Adam did (for no one could get into Eden).

Death reigned because people rejected the love of God, choosing instead love of self and by extension love of sin. The wages of sin is death, and God is life. There was no law, and man embraced death while rejecting God.

When Jesus Christ came to this earth, He came to mediate a New Covenant, to bring us, through the Gospel, into a loving relationship with God. The Bible says: Continue reading

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We All Need The Lord

It’s all the fashion now to get on the Internet through your “smart phone”, then to rant and rave over the phone via a video – usually about politics. I had to laugh out loud at a young black woman in her car. She went to a drive up ATM at bank, and got $60 in cash out (three 20 dollar bills). She suddenly had what my mama called a “conniption fit” because someone had stamped on the back of one of the 20’s, right over the picture of the White House, in red letters “Trump Lives Here”. She said she was so mad she wanted to throw the money away. I support that. Throw the money MY way.

The Internet has amplified self righteousness & virtue signaling. God says no one is clean

I know a lot of people do not like Trump, but he’s the President of the United States whether you like it or not. Yes, he lives in the White House. President Trump has his failings, but also his good points. Beloved, no one makes themselves clean. Shouting into your phone doesn’t make you clean, but stupid looking. If this nation was settled not by White Europeans, but Black Africans, I suspect we’d STILL have had a problem with slavery – only in reverse. We’re all a mess.

The heartbeat of Christianity is that “all sin, all fall short of God’s glory” (Romans 3:23). King Solomon wrote:

Ecclesiastes 7:20 (ESV) Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.

It is a sign of a deluded person who thinks they are righteous and perfect, but all others have flaws. Sadly when that young lady screamed and hollered about nothing, all this proved was that she is delusional. Those who are deluded stay in a perpetual child-like state. They never mature, and often become those in Continue reading

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Paul’s Second Amen

To be honest with you, there are parts of the Bible that I skim through, parts that I find difficult to read. Those parts are what I call the phone books of the Bible. Younger people have no idea what a “phone book” is, but when I was growing up you had phone books. These were thick, alphabetized books where everyone who had a phone number was placed in it. Unless you paid the phone company extra, everyone had access to your phone number. It was in the Phone Book!

As you go through the Bible, there are lists of names, often hard to pronounce, written in the Book. You find lists like this in Genesis, Exodus, Chronicles, Nehemiah, Matthew and Luke. One of the greatest lists of names is in the Book of Numbers. Name after names is listed, like: Continue reading

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Paul’s First Amen

As I stated when we began the Book of Romans, this Book is called the “Constitution of Christianity”. Throughout the Book our Lord explains the Christian way of life.

In the first 11 chapters God establishes that all are born physically into this world in need of the Savior. Because of Adam’s sin, we are born the first time separated from God, spiritually dead. We are absolutely unable to make ourselves physically born. We are also absolutely unable to make ourselves spiritually born. We must be born again.

Romans 3:10-12 (KJV) As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: 11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

In order to accomplish new birth for the spiritually dead us, God sent His Son Jesus Christ to this earth to first show us the Way of God. Jesus then went to the Cross. Dying for our sins, He made payment to God for us, a payment we could not make. Jesus offers this salvation to whosoever will receive Him as Lord and Savior.

Romans 3:24-26 (KJV) {We can only be} justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; 26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.

The first 11 chapters speaks of our need for salvation and what God did to offer it. The last 5 chapters tells us what God saved us for. He didn’t save us just for Heaven (which is what many believe). He saved us to bring Heaven to us. To make us into children of God. To use us as light in this present fallen world.

This section of Scripture is what I call “Paul’s Three Amens”. From Romans 15:14 till the end of the Book Paul uses examples of those who are saved, and how they live their lives. Paul ends each section with an AMEN. Today we look at Paul’s First Amen, which deals with how the Grace of God changed the Apostle’s life. Continue reading

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Bewitched Believers

Galatians 3:1-5 O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? 2 This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? 3 Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? 4 Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain. 5 He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

One of the social media sites I sometimes visit is called Linkedin. Recently I was intrigued by an article entitled “What Is The Worst Thing That Can Happen On A Sunday Morning?” from Church Growth Magazine. I rarely read these articles, because much of what people are doing to grow the “Church” is man-made, not Bible inspired. The article started out good:

“In the push to execute Sunday morning services, it is easy to forget the basics: churches grow when people receive Christ, and people receive Christ when they’re invited to receive Christ. Read the story of a church that has mastered the basics.”

So I thought, “Okay! I believe that. Salvation comes by RECEIVING Christ as He is. Let me see what this Church is doing.”

The article went on to say that this Church was growing so fast, they couldn’t keep up with all the new people coming in. The writer said:… Continue reading

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The Best Way, God’s Way

This is the first time that Solomon addresses alcohol in the Book of Proverbs. Here he personifies alcohol. The “wine” (Hebrew yayin) that is referenced here is naturally fermented juice of crushed grapes. The “strong drink” (Hebrew šēḵār) is fortified or distilled wine made from grapes, figs, dates, or grains. The difference between the two was that

Wine or Yayin is naturally formed. Strong Drink or šēḵār is engineered by man to increase the alcoholic content per volume.

It was naturally formed wine that our Lord Jesus made at the Wedding Feast in Cana. Wine diluted with water was often used in Jewish celebrations. The Bible tells us that:

John 2:3 (ESV) When the wine {oinos} ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine {oinos}.”

Jesus had the servants of the feast take six stone jars there for the rites of Jewish purification, each able to hold around 30 gallons of water. Jesus told the servants, “fill the jars with water”, and the servants filled the jars to the brim. Jesus told them to draw out the beverage, and take it to the “master of the feast”. This man declared:

John 2:10 (ESV) Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.

Jesus made “GOOD WINE”, naturally fermented, something only God can do. That which our Lord Jesus provided was not for drunkenness, but for celebration of Biblical marriage. The Psalmist praised the Lord, saying:… Continue reading

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God Never Gives Up

Romans 15:4-7 For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. 5 Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded one toward another according to Christ Jesus: 6 That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 7 Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God.

How Do We Define “God”? How Do We Define “Fool”?

Everyone knows that there is a God Who made all things. That’s an absolute truth. Oh, there are people who say “We’re atheists. We’re agnostics. We’re scientists. We believe that all things just evolved out of nothing. We believe in the survival of the fittest. There is no God. There is only “mother nature”, a mother who came about by accident.” If that were true, the name “God” or “Jesus Christ” wouldn’t be in your language whatsoever. “OMG”. Everybody knows there is a God Who is above us.

Defining the word “fool” is easy. The Bible says that the definition of a FOOL is:

Psalm 14:1 (KJV) The FOOL hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.

The FOOL says there is no God. The reason they say this is that, IF there is a God (and there is), THEN the stupid things they do, they will be held… Continue reading

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Frustration Or Fulfillment

The absolute number one worse sin in the Bible is the sin of idolatry. Idolatry is when a person worships or seeks to please any God but the God of the Bible. It was idolatry that got mankind thrown out of Paradise. The devil told Adam:

Genesis 3:4-5 (AP) {if you eat the forbidden} you will not die {implying God is a liar}. God knows when you eat of it you will be like Him, gods who determine good and evil …

Idolatry starts in the heart, when the created tries to take the place of the Creator.

Idolatry led to the first murder. Cain killed his brother, rather than worship God and kill a lamb (Genesis 4:4-8). Idolatry led to the Noahic Flood. “The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5). Idolatry led to the Tower of Babel. The people refused the command of God to multiply and fill the earth, saying …

Genesis 11:4 (NKJV) Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.

We don’t want to glorify God. “Let us make a name for OURSELVES. Let’s glorify US. Let’s build a building that will get us closer to God, maybe we can be gods.”

While Moses was receiving the Law of God from the finger of God, Israel in the valley was busy creating golden calves, gods to follow. Idolatry is in our DNA.

Even among God’s people. There are people today who take the Law of God (which is good, for the Bible says “the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good” (Romans 7:12)) and have turned it into an idol. The concept of Pharisaism has crept into many Churches today, the idea that “since I keep the Law, then I’m going to go to Heaven when I die”. Beloved, that’s a lie. Keeping the Law doesn’t save you. Continue reading

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