Proverbs 11:29 promises whoever brings ruin on their family will inherit only wind.
Any male can marry and procreate but not all males become men, especially men who lead their family to greater generational impact for God than they themselves experienced.
There are at least three key ingredients to impacting our families for greater good than we experienced. (more…)
Exodus 34.6-7 describes the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in
love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished..
The current culture rejects the importance of fathering but the Bible describes God as a Father, in fact that is the Name by which He prefers we call upon Him. The fact that some have experienced the tragedy of poor fathering doesn’t diminish the goodness of fathering.
What we need to do is focus on the goal of fathering so all of us can strive toward it and encourage one another in it. (more…)
John 8.11 records God saying, ‘neither do I condemn you.’ ‘Go now and leave your life of sin.’
The story of God recorded in the Bible is fairly simple and incredibly gracious. God creates but creation rebels. Rebellious creation needs restoration, a Savior, so God comes not in anger or judgment but with compassion.
God came as a man not to condemn the world but to save the world by demonstrating His love for the world through the taking upon Himself the consequence of their rebellion against Him. (more…)
John 6.29 describes the work of God is this: to believe in the One He has sent.
One of the knocks on Christianity is it’s easy entry to heaven. Some believe going to heaven is as easy as believing in Jesus, after all, isn’t that what He just said? Its fair to say what He meant by belief and what we understand by belief are not the same.
If what we understand belief to mean, simply believe, then the devil and all the demons would go to heaven since they certainly believe. In the gospel it is only the evil spirits who consistently identify Jesus correctly as the Christ the Son of God. I don’t think they will live with God forever though they believe. (more…)
Luke 18.17 records God promising anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child
will never enter it.
This is a very familiar warning to us but few take it seriously because most of us don’t understand what He means to receive the kingdom like a little child.
We usually begin by thinking of sweet and innocent children all of whom will go to heaven because it only seems fair. Those of us who have children however know they are often not so sweet nor innocent but are rather quite overt in their selfishness.
This takes us back to ignoring the meaning of God’s warning because it fails to make sense to us. (more…)
2 Corinthians 1.5 promises just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort
abounds through Christ.
We are promised abundant sufferings of Christ. The word ‘of’ is the key to understanding what the Apostle is promising those who believe.
Jesus suffered the shame and humiliation of Creation not honoring Him as God, Lord and Creator of all. Instead, all of creation rejected Him, some spat upon Him while others struck Him with their fists. Many cursed Him and a few crucified Him.
Though He was God He did not demand His honor and rights as God but instead took the role of a servant and humbled Himself to the point of death, even death as a criminal upon the cross. (more…)
Exodus 8.23 declares ‘I will make a distinction between my people and your people.’
Pharaoh needed a great deal of encouragement before he would release his slave labor. This encouragement came through plagues that nearly destroyed everything and everyone in Egypt.
The first three plagues were suffered by both Egyptians and Israelites while the final plagues were only suffered by the Egyptians in order for them to understand that the God of the Hebrews was able to distinguish between those who are His and those who are not.
This cycle of both receiving the same difficulty and being sheilded from these difficulties will continue until that day when God separates for all eternity those who love Jesus from those who wanted nothing to do with Jesus. (more…)
Exodus 6.30 records Moses said to the Lord, “Since I speak with faltering lips, why would Pharaoh
listen to me?”
Moses is certainly one of the great saints but he wasn’t flawless. Moses began serving God the way most of us do; he measured his ability by the size of the task and counted himself inadequate.
If we are serious about God, His will and His work, we find it daunting. If we are honest about ourselves we find our capacity to obey His will and complete His work beyond our current assets. (more…)
Luke 6.26 warns, ‘woe to you when everyone speaks well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated
the false prophets.’
Earlier God said it was blessed for men to speak evil of you on account of Him.
Have you ever been called a ‘goody – goody’ or some equivalent? Have you ever felt left out because of your Christian faith? Most of us recoil at these events if they ever happen.
The truth is we do our best to fit in and get along with everyone because our need for acceptance and approval runs so high. (more…)
1 Corinthians 3.19 reveals the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight.
No one wants to be the fool. The fool is that person who just doesn’t seem to know what’s going on or how to appropriately assimilate into the mainstream.
No doubt God was such a person when He lived among us as Jesus. Probably explains from the human dimension why He was so adamantly hated by the leadership of His time. Jesus continued to live and teach against the common flow of thinking while being able to so perfectly, logically and easily defend His wisdom from God.
So what is the wisdom of the world that is foolish to God? (more…)
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