What Yahweh said to Moses: Now the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Tell the sons of Israel to turn back and camp before Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea; you shall camp in front of Baal-zephon, opposite it, by the sea. For Pharaoh will say of the sons of Israel, ‘They are wandering aimlessly in the land; the wilderness has shut them in.’ Thus I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and […]
Author Archive: Douglas Thomas
Hard Hearts and Swarms of Problems
Our God has designed our minds to value logic and to use it to find our ways and protect ourselves and our families. We use it to imagine things and then to build them. Paul suggested to the Believers in Corinth that they needed to have their logic influenced by the experiences that were recorded about the Israelis who followed Moses out of Egypt: Now I want you to know, […]
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 of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit […]
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 answer at all, is “Ask the Spirit.” Examine these two […]
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. “A man” in the story was the tree owner, who […]
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 that the tower in Siloam fell on and killed—do you […]
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 by Kenneth S. Wuest Copyright © 1961 by Wm. B. […]
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 no wrong to a neighbor. Love, therefore, is the fulfillment […]
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 who were jealous of the Jews, who were being blessed […]
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 “spell.” It means a good story. It was used frequently […]