Stepping out of the Crowd

Now great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For which […]

Ask The Spirit

Frequently, when I am asked for an opinion by someone who is making a decision, I don’t sense that I have been given the answer. I may still try to sense what is wisdom, but I don’t want to offer an answer that is not clearly from the Spirit without warning. My advice, when I don’t sense I have any […]

Praying for Figs

Unconverted human nature is much more likely than our new nature to provoke us to accusation than to intercession. Our new nature should be even more “more likely” to provoke us to intercession when we see failure than when we used to be accusers. Our behavior is not yet perfected, though… In Luke 13:6-8, Jesus described a fruitless fig tree. […]

Avoid Perishing Likewise

At that time, some people came and reported to Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. And He responded to them, “Do you think that these Galileans were more sinful than all Galileans because they suffered these things? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as well! Or those 18 […]

Only God

Jude 24 Now, to the One who is able to guard you from stumbling and to place you before the presence of His glory faultless in great rejoicing, to the only God our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, might, and authority before all time, both now and forever. Amen. (from The New Testament: An Expanded Translation […]

Love Your Neighbor

Do not owe anyone anything, except to love one another, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments: You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet, and if there is any other commandment—all are summed up by this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does […]

Help From Artaxerxes

Artaxerxes was a title of a few Persian kings. It meant “ruler from truth.” One of these kings gave the Hebrew Ezra a letter that authorized him to resume the work of rebuilding the temple of Yahweh, which had been originally authorized by his predecessor Cyrus. The work had been stopped because of the complaints of some rulers near Jerusalem […]

Evangelistic Evangelicals

Can you be an Evangelical without being an Evangelist? Can you be an Evangelist without being Evangelical? Yes. The “ev” part of both words means “good.” The next section, “angel,” means “angel.” That’s because “angel” means “messenger.” In a stretch, it really even means “message.” “Gospel” is an Old English word that is made of “good” or “god” smashed with […]

Problems

Problems are probably always related to people. Unclean spirits are frequently the sources of problems, but apart from people accepting or even hosting their activities, those spirits are like poverty-stricken orphans in a Charles Dickens story, peering in a bakery window at the warm pastries with no pennies to buy one. John saw in the Revelation of Jesus that one […]

9 Tithes

What should we be doing in terms of giving to the King’s work and blessing His servants by offering them financial assistance? First, consider that in a Kingdom, everything belongs to the King. If something is in someone else’s possession, it is because the King is entrusting it to them at that time. They are just stewards of it, and […]