Jesus replied, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and the greatest commandment. The second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:36-40 “For the entire Law is […]
“Follow Me.” (Matthew 9:9) “Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead.” (Matthew 8:22) “You still lack one thing: sell all that you have and distribute it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.” (Luke 18:22) “If I want him to remain until I come,” Jesus answered, “what is that to […]
If I were a soldier in a nation’s army, I would have been taught the basic tenants of how to act as a soldier in boot camp and other early training. When an event arose that thrust me into a situation of my nation being at war, I would need those basic teachings to be well memorized, so that I […]
Once upon a time I was debt-free. I had been in debt, having borrowed money for a home and a car, but I made sacrifices and wise choices for a while, eliminating the debt. I was in the process of shopping for my first keyboard at that time. I had looked at a few, tried a few, and considered how much to […]
I have trouble not being surprised at the number of people who are frequently complaining about Scripture being taken out of context, yet who insist on yoking all of the family of God to a code of rules that includes every “command of Scripture,” with no regard for what a particular commandment’s context was in terms of the hearer’s location, issues unique […]
Recently a strong believer was visiting my home when another believer happened to be present, casting demons out of a woman. I had given the man permission use my home to cast out the demons, but I was in my workshop, not realizing that he had arrived, and that the work was in progress. The believer who happened by at the time […]
If you have listened to me very long, you have, by now, heard me suggest many times that the Bible is not a book of rules, but revelation of a Ruler. One of the most powerful ways to prevent unity from emerging in the relationships of believers is to be more interested in rules than in the Ruler. In Walmart recently […]
Partly because of the popular American practice of using words wrongly, there is a debate over how exactly to define the words jealousy and envy. The argument includes what the difference between them really is. Most people have no intention of changing their minds on the matter, and just use them each as they like, including interchangeably in some cases. […]
He was in the world, and the world was created through Him, yet the world did not recognize Him. He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him. But to all who did receive Him, He gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in His name, who were born, not […]
Two conditions that promote or provoke change are vision and pain. Vision – the idea that something is happening that shouldn’t, or that something isn’t happening that should, awakens the person it can influence with a desire to pay the cost of changing themselves so that the vision can come to pass as other things change. Pain can force change […]