You may run out of grits one day. They are a temporary answer to a temporary problem. Shortbread, too. There already is no electricity in many places on the earth. Some places only have it 1/3 of the day as an improvement from having none. It could all stop one day. You should never run out of peace, though! You should […]
Cursing, in most peoples’ minds, amounts to someone talking to them loudly with the inclusion of offensive words to the conversation. Another possibility would simply be the use of phrases like, “damn it!” or “I’ll be damned if…” Looking to examples in Scripture of both blessings and curses reveals something different from these cultural examples. Asking the Spirit how to […]
If I decide that I am going to start saving money, or stop using tobacco, or be nicer, or stop beating the dog, I am not likely to be successful if I have only had a change of mind, and not had a change of values. If I am not going to beat the dog anymore, but then the dog […]
Avoiding 4 things in your life can improve the outcomes of your warfare against your enemies drastically: C omplaints – spending time complaining instead of praying or prophesying better outcomes can lock me as a prisoner in the situations about which I am complaining. (1 Corinthians 10:10) A ccusations – even if the people I am accusing of evil are […]
It seems that the difference between the definitions of “prostitute” and “mercenary” is simply what kind of work is being sold. Mercenary and merchant are words that have the same root. Our most common use of the word mercenary is related to the work of a soldier. The idea from its beginning was simply trading work for pay. Malachi reported […]
Do nothing out of rivalry or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. Everyone should look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. (Philippians 2:3,4 Holman Christian Standard Bible®©) Part of the contention that existed around Jesus before He was crucified included the Jewish religious leaders’ fear of losing […]
Now I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from a spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock […]
Some of my evangelical mentors (Navigators, Campus Crusade, Intervarsity Press) instructed me to believe that when I turned to Jesus in faith I had my sin paid for. In Scriptural terms, they called that being “justified.” The next step of my process from death to life is an on-going one: “sanctification.” In this part of God’s plan, I am having […]
Men like to make things out of materials that are uniform and straight and fit together without much trouble. God likes to make things that are alive be built together into something that seems misshapen and asymmetrical and poorly attached to each other from our carnal perspectives. Peter wrote: “Coming to Him, a living stone—rejected by men but chosen and […]
When a story passes through enough peoples’ lips, it is no longer the story it was when it was first told. Words that have been abused long enough become something new. Part of Archie Bunker’s fame came from his misuse of words and stories. He was poorly educated, but strongly opinionated. His vocabulary increased by hearing other people use words, […]