Judge Not What exactly did Jesus mean, when He said: “Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven… For with the same measure that you use, … Read More
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Wash Your Nets !
Luke 5:1-11 records an incident in the life of Jesus which occurred on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. Most people remember this as the time when Jesus’ apostles caught so many fish, that their ships nearly sank.
There is another, rather incidental, detail in the story. In verse 2 Luke says that Simon and the others were washing their nets. What is significant about this? Simply that they had…
It is not uncommon today to hear older Christians who have already reared their children comment somberly in the presence of young prospective parents, “I certainly wouldn’t want to be bringing up children in times like these.” It may be innocently done, but it is not helpful. These already anxious young people do not have a choice of times in which to rear children. For them, it is now or never.
Candidly, from the short term perspective, these are certainly not the best…
In Acts 16:14 Luke records:
“A certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul.”
This language is sometimes understood to support the Calvinistic doctrine of the direct operation of the Holy Spirit. It is affirmed that man, because he is born…
Romans 8:26 (ESV) “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.”
Have you ever felt like this? So overwhelmed or sad or depressed, that you don’t even know where to begin your prayer? The Spirit of our Lord knows our hearts and can understand our despair, without us even uttering a word. But sometimes we can neglect…
Reading scripture in a less than careful way can lead to many erroneous conclusions. For example, some have read Peter’s instructions to the wives of unbelieving husbands and concluded that a person may be won to Christ apart from the word of God. Let’s take a close look at what Peter wrote to see if that is a correct understanding:
1 Peter 3:1 “Wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the…
God is serious about His name. He always has been and always will be. When He punished Israel for bringing idols out of Egypt, He later explained His actions by saying, “But I acted for the sake of My name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations among whom they lived, in whose sight I made Myself known to them by bringing them out of the land of Egypt.” (Ezekiel 20:9, NASB) In His commandments given to Moses, who in turn gave them to Israel, God…
I was recently in a class led by Pat Gaughan. He asked the question, “What is the purpose of salvation”? As you can imagine the wise and thoughtful answers begin to churn inside the thoughts of each one present. As the thoughts matured into speech, the answers you would expect were all present. “To be with God” . . . “To live forever” . . . “To walk streets of gold.” There was even the jovial “I want to live in a mansion.” However, the answer sought was not found in…
It has been said that a virtue in excess is a vice…. Examples:
The claim that Jesus was raised from the dead is the most vital point in the Bible. Without it, Christianity is a waste of time (1 Cor 15:12-19). It is important that we know why we should believe that Jesus was raised from the dead, because there are many theories that try to counteract the resurrection story.
One theory holds that the disciples of Jesus stole the body from the tomb. This is actually the oldest theory because it dates back to the…
John Owen was an influential Puritan preacher in the 17th century. Consider what he wrote concerning acceptable worship:
Question: What doth God require of us in our dependence on him, that he may be glorified by us, and we accepted with him?
Answer: That we worship him in and by the ways of his own appointment.
Question: How are the ways and means of the worship of God made known
It’s not good theology to attribute to the Holy Spirit that which the Holy Spirit never attributes to Himself. Doing so results in both faulty and contradictory claims, and this is exactly what we often see. Feelings get attributed to the Spirit, which are then contradictory to the feelings of others, who might also claim the Spirit as the source. Such feelings may also directly contradict God’s own word. Claims are made about what the Spirit is doing, when all the person has is a good feeling about a work. I wish it…
A 93-year-old man in Iowa named Bob Williams is known for sharing chocolate bars with random strangers in his small community. Every Saturday, he goes to the local dollar store to buy boxes of chocolate bars before handing them out to random people. People in his community say it puts a smile on their face and makes them feel special. They also tell how an act of giving a simple chocolate bar from an old retired teacher can turn a bad day on its head. “The Candy Man” – as…
