If I give you five pounds of platinum, you can verify the weight of it. You cannot verify the value of it, though. You could verify that someone is willing to trade a certain amount of some other material for it, but someone else would offer a different amount of the same material for it, because its value is different […]
Wikipedia, the modern displacer of almost all encyclopedias, includes this statement in its definition of “religion:” “…there is no scholarly consensus over what precisely constitutes a religion.” No wonder I have felt so much like it was not a problem to have a different definition for the word “religion” from almost everyone. It is as vague and multi-identitied as “world […]
If my Bible study is not making me know Jesus better, and giving me help toward being more like Him, instead of just giving me more history or more information, even about Him, it might be a poor investment of time.
Luke recorded a message from some messengers from Heaven (2:14) that sounded like, “Glory to God in the highest!” The “highest” is a place, not a volume level… And like, “And on earth, peace and good will to all of humanity!” The announcement of the presence of Yeshua (“Salvation of Yah”) in the earth included the fact that He had […]
Today, just a simple quote from one of my heroes, E. Stanley Jones: “It doesn’t matter how much you’ve got; it matters how much God’s got of you.”
The information that I can properly use to refer to my identity is located outside my self. The two points of reference I can use are my relationships and my work. If you ask me who I am, and my answer is “Douglas Thomas,” I have not answered your question. I have only given you the label by which I […]
As many as I love, I rebuke and discipline. So be committed and repent. Listen! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and have dinner with him, and he with Me. (Revelation 3:19-20 Holman Christian Standard Bible ®©) Jesus is committed to you. He is […]
You are important and valuable. Your life is important and valuable and powerful. How could any alternative be true when it is Yahweh, Who breathed the stars and universes, Who works in you to want to do what is righteousness and to be enabled to do what is righteousness (Philippians 2:12-13)? Go be awesome.
On days, Yahweh is in your face with power and fire. On other days, He seems to be hiding, and the only communication you sense seems to be a quiet, garbled whisper. Further complication comes when He uses another person to communicate with us. Finding the thread through all of that which is like you “knowing your Shepherd’s voice” can […]
All these were approved through their faith, but they did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, so that they would not be made perfect without us. Therefore since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily ensnares us, […]