Almost everything can be improved on. Increased vocabulary. Improved use of simple communication. Not needing spell check. My attitude toward people I don’t trust. Violin skills. Time intentionally set aside for important things. And important people. Driving habits. New glasses prescription. If I’m not a little better at something than I was last week, and a lot better than last […]
I have just become eligible for a new telephone from Verizon. If I bite the bait and get a new phone, I will shop for the phone that does what I like done. My phone is really a pocket computer that happens to also work as a telephone… I will then complain silently for a while as I find the […]
2 Corinthians 1:3-8 Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. He comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction, through the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For as the sufferings of Christ […]
Yahweh told Israel not to eat pork. He also told them not to worship or pray to idols. He didn’t mention eating food that had been offered to idols. In Acts 15, Luke recorded some of the discussion and the resulting letter that the Jewish leaders of the Church wrote to Gentiles who were becoming believers and facing some Jews […]
Paul said No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to humanity. God is faithful, and He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation He will also provide a way of escape so that you are able to bear it. Francis Frangipane said something like God will offer you a […]
When Constantine gathered people he perceived to be the leaders of Christianity together in Nicaea in the year 325, part of what he caused to occur was an entitlement of “ecumene” over the church. This description means literally “the whole inhabited world.” It is as much a mistake as calling the church of Rome “catholic,” which means literally “the universal” […]
In John 15:16, Jesus informed His listeners that He had appointed them, ordained them, set them in place, to bear much fruit, and that their fruit should remain. They should have their thumbprints on lives that cause their own character, their giftings, their work, to continue after they were gone by residing in the followers’ lives. In 1 Corinthians 4, […]
Being baptized is a three part process like sanctification and repentance are. You were this, then this happened, then you were that, or you were here, then this happened, then you were there, or you thought this way, then this happened, then you thought this other way. An image that appears often in discussions of baptism in the Bible is […]
When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. Our mouths were filled with laughter then, and our tongues with shouts of joy. Then they said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.” The Lord had done great things for us; we were joyful. Restore our fortunes, Lord, like watercourses in […]
Much of the stress in our lives comes from struggles related to winning or losing our battles with sin and our enemies. I believe that the line should be drawn in a different place. Winning and losing are on the same side of the line. On the other side of the line are the sidelines. If you fight correctly, you […]