Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. James 1:12 Growing up I loved reading. One of my favorite genres was spy novels. I read all of the James Bond novels.…
We all have a past. Some good and some bad. How we deal with our past impacts our future. In the Old Testament, Joseph certainly had a strange and difficult past. He was thrown into a pit by his jealous brothers and then sold into slavery. He was falsely accused of impropriety by the wife…
In the Old Testament, there is a man named Nehemiah. Nehemiah’s story started with a burden. As the people were set to return to Jerusalem, he saw the condition of Jerusalem’s wall and knew the situation was desperate. Without a wall, people returning to Jerusalem after years in captivity would be unprotected and vulnerable to…
Remember the Tina Turner hit song, “What’s Love Got To Do With It?” Well, as I read through God’s Word – the scriptures, I find that Love has a lot to do with it. “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels but have not love… I am nothing…Love is patient and…
Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving; Colossians 4:2 As we continue our study of Paul’s letter to the Colossians, we came to this verse about the importance of prayer. Prayer is one of the primary means by which we communicate with God, both bringing to Him our thanks,…
“For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily” Colossians 2:9 Sunday we looked at how the church in Colossae was using a mash-up of Christianity, bad Judaism, and paganism in their church. They believed in what Jesus did for salvation, but added to it rules (Judaism) and strange rituals (paganism) to “help” God…
When I was younger, every Saturday featured The Lone Ranger. He would don the mask and seek out the bad guys and restore justice. I didn’t think about it until much later that he was never really “lone” – he had Tonto as his helper and friend. In the Bible, when God created man, he…
“Sing to the LORD a new song, Sing His praise from the end of the earth! You who go down to the sea, and all that is in it. You islands, and those who dwell on them” Isaiah 42:10 As a musician for most of my life, I have found that the greatest, most noble,…
The Apostle Paul’s goal in the passage we looked at Sunday – Colossians 1:14-23, was to give the Colossians a real picture of who Jesus is and what he accomplished on the cross. He was encouraging them to remain faithful to Jesus, challenging them to not lose hope in the gospel. Jesus is the most…
Each day it becomes more real to me that we are in a battle of good versus evil – and this has eternal consequences. I know we have confidence in the victory through Jesus but we have to prepare for this battle each day. For me putting on the full armor of God begins with…