If you shop at flea markets, you have seen merchandise that is considered “knock-off” whether you knew it or not. Some of the items that have brand names or team logos are not manufactured by companies who have paid the royalties for the names or logos. Much of this merchandise is also made cheaply, unlike the true brand quality. It […]
Your righteousness reaches heaven, God, You who have done great things; God, who is like You? You caused me to experience many troubles and misfortunes, but You will revive me again. You will bring me up again, even from the depths of the earth. You will increase my honor and comfort me once again. Therefore, with a lute I will […]
John 8:51 – I assure you: If anyone keeps My word, he will never see death—ever! (Holman Christian Standard Bible® © 1999) The word Jesus used that is translated “keeps” in this exclamation is a verb: an action word. The noun form of it: thing, place word, is sometimes translated “prison.” How tight is our grip on the things that […]
I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. Now the one who plants and the one who waters are equal, and each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God’s co-workers. You […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]