Ecclesiastes 12:10

    Author Herman Rosenblat wrote a heartbreaking book called The Angel at the Fence about a girl , who would become his future wife, lovingly tossing apples to him over a fence at his concentration camp. Oprah Winfrey described it as the single greatest love story she heard in over 22 years of hosting her show. The only problem was that it wasn’t true. The story was fabricated and historically impossible.    Yet that did not deter him much.  Rosenblat would later say, "It wasn't a lie. Even now, I believe it, that she was there and she threw the apples to me. In my imagination, it was true."      Unfortunately, this ability to choose fiction over fact is not an unusual phenomenon. Scripture tells us man has “ exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator ” (Romans 1:25).  The world today is full of created religions and man-made plans of salvation. Even with the truth of the word of God...

  If I were to ask you the length of the Mississippi River, you probably wouldn’t know the exact number. So, if I said just put it between two numbers, you might have a better chance. You might be willing to wager a bit of money on it. In fact, it is a bet you could never lose. Just pick one and an obscenely large number, and it would be technically between those two. Yet when researchers did this as an experiment, that is not what happened. People gave way closer numbers even if doing so gave them a higher chance to lose.     There is an interesting psychological effect here; we are quick to set lower limits than we have to.   And it is also what we do with God.   In Ephesians 3:20, Paul writes, “ Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us ,” God can do far more than we can imagine, far more than we think, far more than we are willing to ask. Neither God’s love no...

  There is a quote from a tv series I watched years ago that has stayed with me over the years.  “When one has been angry for a very long time, one gets used to it. And it becomes comfortable, like old leather. And finally, it becomes so familiar that one can’t remember feeling any other way.”   Words from a fictional captain in a pretend world, but still containing a lot of truth   In a world today that has mechanized outrage, it seems that there are those who are continually mad about something. There is always someone who has done wrong, something to rant about, something to frustrate and irk.   Yet we seem very comfortable in it. The anger gives us a sense of high-mindedness. We are righteous in our anger. We care so much that we must bathe ourselves in disgust and outrage toward those in the wrong.   So, we carry on the grudge. We continue to poke the wound. We wear our hate as a cloak around us, thinking it is a regal robe that suits us we...

    Some may ask, “Why would I want to come to your church?”    You wouldn’t. You shouldn’t. My church would be just one of the many others that would be claimed to follow Christ, but still be based on human thinking and opinion.   You should be interested in attending Christ’s church.      The plea of the restoration has been and still should be to reject human creeds and denominational names and return to the practices, beliefs, and structure of the early Christian church as described in the Bible. We unite not on human leaders or traditions but under Christ alone.    If we give up what I think or what, what you think or want, what they thought or wanted, we are left with the pure gospel facts. Division comes not in the Bible or what the Bible says, but over what is outside of the Bible, or what the Bible does not say.   On the witness stand, one is asked to “tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. In the pulpi...

  Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love . 1 st John 4:7-8     If you are a painter, you have to know how to paint. If you are a runner, you need to be able to run. If you are an author, you need to be able to write.   That is the basis to do that thing.   What about a child of God?  John spells it out to us very clearly. If we want to be born of God and know God, we must love. That is who he is and what we must do.   To follow Him is to learn how to love. It is the defining trait(1 st John 3:10). It’s how the world will see we are his (John 11:35). It's the top of the traits that will always be (1 st Corinthians 13:13).   Love is why we follow his commands (2 nd John 1:6). Love fulfills the law (Romans 13:8-9). It is how faith works (Galatians 5:6).   So, we'd better know how to love. Wha...

  Whether it’s a new job, a new team, or a new school, it is hard to be the new guy. The rookie has a lot to learn and must take a lot of guff. Eventually, they will figure things out, and the newness will wear off.   Even spiritually, we start off green. A person doesn’t come out of the water knowing everything. But that doesn’t mean we are supposed to stay that way. As Paul remarks in 1 st Corinthians 3, Paul remarks “ And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ . I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it.” But he continues by rebuking them for still being in that state.   He also gives us insight to see if we are still in a novice state, “ for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men ?”   We are still greenhorns when we are fleshy, that is, worldly-minded. Also, ...