THE GIFT OF SPIRITUAL RECEPTIVITY One can have ears and eyes, yet still be deaf and blind. The Lord has made both the physical and the spiritual ability to hear. Both are grace. The physical we all understand, but few recognize the spiritual. The first offers wisdom of the physical world, the second makes one
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE CLOTHED IN CHRIST? What does it mean to be “clothed in Christ?” This is a most worthy meditation. First, isn’t there the necessity of putting off our old clothes? Certainly, this is what the Word teaches us. Some of the articles of the old clothes are listed by
LEARN TO ENJOY THE COMPANY OF ORDINARY PEOPLE Look for someone “ordinary,” or as in the KJV, someone of “low estate” to sit with next Sunday at church. Stop avoiding those that you feel are beneath you or who make you feel uncomfortable by their lower social status or awkward demeanor. And if you notice
EVERYTHING IS FROM, BY, FOR, AND TO GOD! Paul’s benediction at the end of Romans 11 is all encompassing. It declares that all things come from God, for He is the Creator. All things exist by God, for He is the Sustainer. All things are made for God’s glory, for creation displays His “invisible attributes,
DO NOT BE UNEQUALLY YOKED The KJV renders “some time later” as “after this.” The phrase begs the question, “After what?” No doubt it refers to the earlier warning from the prophet Jehu who warned that God’s “wrath had gone out against” Jehoshaphat because of his alliance with the wicked Israelite king, Ahab. For Jehoshaphat
CHRIST IS THE CONSUMMATION OF THE LAW (Or how Christ is God’s “10-4” to us) If God’s law cannot save, what good is it? There are at least three good purposes for God’s law and they all point to Christ: THREE “R”s OF THE LAW: (OR “P”s) 1) Reflect our guilty condition (Like a
WILL THE LORD FIND YOU FULLY COMMITTED TO HIM? King Asa started well but finished poorly. He trusted God early in his reign and overcame a million man army. Later, he trusted his accumulated wealth and bribed a foreign king to help him. God rebuked him for this, but he was unrepentant, ending his life
DOES GOD WITHHOLD GOOD FROM US? God already gave us His best. Therefore, let us not accuse Him of withholding any good thing from us. If we do not have it, it is because He has something better for us. Or it is because He is training us in righteousness through suffering. Our God has
WHO WILL BOW THE KNEE TO THE SON OF DAVID? Thus began the divided kingdoms of Israel and Judah. The writer of 2 Chronicles must have been living during the time of the two Jewish kingdoms, so his words had a historic meaning. Yet, they also have a prophetic meaning because Israel is still in
WHO ARE YOU TRYING TO PLEASE? The apostle Paul wrote that only those under the control of the Holy Spirit are able to think about the things that please God. Without the Spirit, we are left to ourselves and to the control of the sin nature, which the Bible calls the “flesh.” The flesh is