The Good Place – Psalm 73:21-28; James 4:8

At our prayer meeting last Saturday, I shared James 4:8 with the men who were there. “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.” After a few of my simple remarks, one of the men asked: “How do we draw nigh to the Lord?” Quickly I fired off a couple more shallow...

Satan’s Toolbox – II Corinthians 2:10-11

I make no apology for coming back to yet another consideration of the doctrine of the devil. As I have said several times recently, Satan is a real and powerful spirit creature. He has us on his radar, and I am sure that he has been disrupting our efforts to bring...

Making the Most of the Moment

There are churches whose primary doctrine is to have no doctrine at all. I know that sounds ridiculous, but what I mean is they deliberately have no doctrinal position on much of anything. For some denominations, like the Quakers, that is their official policy. They...

Ever Exulting – Philippians 4:4

There are people who are willing to do the hardest and most extreme things in order to be saved. There are people who beat and cut themselves, thinking they earn God’s forgiveness for their sins. There are people who starve their bodies, and starve their emotions, in...

Walkin’ an’ Talkin’ – Colossians 4:5-6

I know very little about the sport of boxing, and that suits me just fine. But I have heard of the boxer’s use of the “one/two combination.” As I understand it, if he can connect a second punch to a good first punch, he can score a point or two. And it makes sense to...

On a Clear Day – Romans 12:10-13

We have all heard the colloquialism: “as light as air.” This can be a misleading comparison. Actually, air has a bit of substance, weighing 14.7 pounds per square inch at sea level, and about 12 pounds per square inch in Denver, a mile above the level of the sea. In...

Signs of Life (Sincere Love) – Romans 12:9

We are skipping over five verses in this chapter because they are parenthetical to the theme of this series. I am trying to examine some of the characteristics which make Christians different from non-Christians. And when we bring two dozen Christians with these...

Signs of Life (Transfiguration) – Romans 12:1-2

I don’t know about your neighborhood, but at our house there is only one kind of elegant butterfly. It is the Yellow Tiger Swallowtail. When it flits its way through our backyard I almost always look up to see. When it lands on one of Judy’s flowers, it usually only...

Signs of Life (Sacrifice) – Romans 12:1

According to IRMI, a risk management company which works with industrial insurance companies, about 100 years ago, 80% of the US population was involved in some aspect of farming. Today, it is 2%. And today, the average farm size is 434 acres, but 55% of all US farms...

How to Get God’s Work Done – I Samuel 17:45

I make no apology for bringing another lesson from the battle between David and Goliath. There is so much to learn from this event, and I continue to see new things in it. For this lesson, I’m going to assume that you are familiar with the basics. Let’s briefly...

Faith Casting – Ecclesiastes 11:1-6

I briefly shared this scripture with the men last Saturday morning, but I didn’t develop it very far. It hadn’t developed in my heart very far. But the Spirit has kept it on my mind, and now I hope there might be a blessing in it for all of us. For those of you who...

The Davidic Kind of Prayer  – Psalm 5

Generally speaking, we can’t go wrong if we make David one of our Biblical examples.  Of course, the man was a sinner, and especially while standing in God’s spotlight, we see his flaws and sins.  But twice in God’s Word we are told that he was a man after the Lord’s...

Uplifted Eyes  –  Psalm 123

We are told in the inscription of this Psalm that this is one of the “Songs of Degrees.”  The meaning of that phrase is a mystery, but there are several possibilities.  One opinion is that with each of these fifteen special psalms there is a slight rise in spiritual...

The City at the Top of the Hill – Psalm 48:1-14

I have been using this particular Bible for decades. I may have had it even before I moved here in 1990. As I’ve told you before it is a Thompson Chain edition of our old King James. I don’t know anything about Mr. Thompson, but I would guess that he was a fundamental...

Selah – Psalm 46:1-11

Three times in this Psalm, God’s penman uses the word “selah.” That word is found 77 times in the Bible, with all of them in the Psalms except for twice in Habakkuk. Only once is it ever used other than at the end of a verse, and most of the time it marks the end of a...