heaven / Judgement / obedience / Uncategorized

What Does God Hate?

Hosea 9.15 observes, The LORD says, All their wickedness began at Gilgal; there I began to hate them. I will drive them from my land because of their evil actions. I will love them no more because all their leaders are rebels.image

Gilgal was a holy place. It was where Joshua landed with the people of Israel when he miraculously crossed the Jordan river into the promised land. It was the place where Samuel the prophet would make the will of God known to those who needed His judgement.

Gilgal was where God changed His mind about Saul being king as a result of Saul disobeying God by offering the sacrifice only the priest was to perform. Perhaps it is this last act that Hosea refers to when describing the leaders history of rebellion. (more…)

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November 3, 2016
Prayer / Uncategorized

Praying with Results

Daniel 10.12 encourages, don’t be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day you began to pray for understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your request has been heard in heaven. I have come in answer to imageyour prayer.

Imagine praying and an angel or Jesus Himself showing up to say your prayers have been heard and I have come in response. That would be pretty incredible. That was Daniel’s experience.

Why did God listen to Daniel? Daniel did two things any of us can do and if we do them we can be confident that our prayers too will be heard. (more…)

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October 27, 2016
Christian Living / Judgement / obedience

Integrity Building is Church Work

Daniel 6.4 observes, he was faithful, always responsible, and completely trustworthy.

Integrity Torn Paper Concept

Daniel was a trusted official in the Babylonian government. Often he was made the second highest official in the land after the king. He obtained this lofty position because of the three defining character qualities listed in today’s verse.

These qualities were not uncommon at our founding. They were the norm among most of our founding fathers. They were values held in high honor among most people of this country until fairly recently. (more…)

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October 21, 2016
Christian Living / Judgement / obedience

Keeping God’s Reputation

Ezekiel 39.25 observes that God jealously guards His holy reputation!image

All of us want to guard our reputation. This desire reflects our being made in the image of God.

Like God, we care what people think about us and why they think the way they do. Frankly, God’s marketing isn’t very good. God has chosen to limit His brand to the purveyors of His product. (more…)

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October 6, 2016
Christian Living / Judgement / obedience

What Is True Christianity?

Galatians 5.24 observes, those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their imagesinful nature to His cross and crucified them there.

What do Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump all have in common? They would all claim to be Christians. Do they look like Christians? Do we look like Christians? What is a Christian supposed to look like? (more…)

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September 29, 2016
Christian Living / obedience

Different is Better

2 Corinthians 12.21 laments, I will be grieved because many of you have not given up your old sins. imageYou have not repented of your impurity, sexual immorality, and eagerness for lustful pleasure.

Seeing is believing and those who believe should be causing others to see a difference in their life as a result of Jesus entering into it as Lord and Savior. (more…)

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September 23, 2016
Christian Living / obedience

Without God, Why Should We Be Good?

Ezekiel 8.17 asks, have you seen this, son of man? Is it nothing to the people of Judah that they commit these detestable sins, leading the whole nation into violence, thumbing their noses at Me, and provokingimage My anger?

My brother was sharing with me this past weekend about his diversity training class he attended prior to his return to teaching in an inner city school. Perhaps no greater sin currently exists in our culture than racism. (more…)

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September 6, 2016
Christian Living / faith / Suffering

The Fools Will Win the Culture War

1 Corinthians 3.18 commands we stop deceiving yourselves. If you think you are wise by this world’simage standards, you need to become a fool to be truly wise.

The cultural war around us is a war of ideas. The battle lines have been drawn between God and science and between the Bible and public opinion.

The war analogy is meaningful because there is much hostility brewing among those who oppose God and the Bible toward those who believe in God and the Bible. (more…)

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August 29, 2016