How much are you reading your Bible? Beyond just reading, you could be studying. You could memorize, and be meditating. However much you are doing, it is not enough. It’s not enough even if you have the whole book memorized. It’s insufficient because no one ever got saved by just reading the Book. No one ever achieved righteousness by learning and obeying the law Yahweh gave Israel through Moses. No […]
Author Archive: Douglas Thomas
Alignment and Timing
If not much happened today, and if tomorrow looks at least as bleak and eventless as yesterday, it is possible that the appropriate response could be to thank God that we have a bit more time to prepare for the day of Salvation and the time of His Favor. That’s when He is going to fulfill His promises and answer our cries (Isaiah 49:8). I am perplexed every time I […]
The Lord’s Prayer
Religious leaders have taught us to memorize the prayer Jesus used as an example of how to pray. He was responding to his followers when they got upset because John’s disciples knew how to pray but they didn’t. We were told to call that prayer the “Our Father” or the “Lord’s Prayer.” The implication is that it’s what Jesus prayed every morning. Since He wasn’t asking our Father to forgive […]
Leaving Comfort, Looking For Peace
Nehemiah was quite likely comfortable in his government job in Babylon. Nehemiah was comfortable, but not at peace. He had learned that Jerusalem, the “City of Peace,” had been razed and its gates and walls had been destroyed. This broke his heart to the end that his employer noticed it and inquired about it. Nehemiah shared his pain with the king. The king made provision for him to travel to […]
Cleaning Fish
One day, congregations will serve their members and their neighbors and their God by using the Holy Spirit’s empowerment of each member. Evangelists will be spending more time with unbelievers than with members of the body of Jesus. When they lead someone to Jesus, they will introduce them to the people who are gifted to teach and prophesy and pastor, in a culturally matched congregation – where the new people […]
Comforting
When you are offering ministry to someone, if you could make them more comfortable by offering them a seat or a drink of water, it would be good to add that blessing. Two other things that comfort almost anyone, though almost no one realizes it, are touching and mimicking. If you touch a person’s forearm for a few seconds, the results for almost anyone include making them more accepting of […]
Interpreting Tongues
Recently I was in a meeting of believers. At the end of the meeting a couple of the leaders wanted to pray over a woman who was visiting. Apparently everyone in the crowd knew her but me. I was asked to pray for her after the leaders prayed. I felt that the Spirit told me to pray for her to receive the gift of interpretation of tongues. I didn’t want […]
Unholy Roman Empire
WRONG RULERS Every time the leaders of the church have come to believe that they need to rule over the rest of the world, what was birthed was something evil. WRONG RULERS Every time members of the church have come to believe that they should abstain from becoming leaders in government and other culture-forming entities (including education and news agencies and the arts) the culture gets […]
Sanctified Vision
In John 4, Jesus saw Samaria as a field ready to be harvested. The disciples who were with Him saw a food market. The woman at the well made no sense to them. In Luke 9, Jesus saw Samaria as a place to rest on His way to Jerusalem. Because the locals refused Him hospitality, James and John saw a crowd deserving damnation, and asked for permission to call fire […]
More Disciplined
The US Army has clear rules about how their employees should set up the schedule of their daily exercise and work and for interaction with their superiors when they are on duty. If my rank is inferior to yours, I must salute you, and there is a proper way to salute. Failure to perform according to the rules can be costly through punishment. Buddhist monks undergo similar indoctrination and discipline. […]