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BIBLE READING: Revelation 19-22 DISCUSSION                                                                                                               As we read the final chapters of our Bible for the year, I hope that we now have a better understanding of making “His Story, My Story”.  I feel it is very important for us to understand what we have learned.  Out of all the lessons that we could gather from our study, I find that there are two that stand out the most.  Fir...

Bible Reading: Revelation 12-18

BIBLE READING: Revelation 6-11 DISCUSSION                                                                                                     As we get to this part of Revelation 6-1, things may begin to get difficult to understand.  One thing that we must remember is that most of the book of Revelation contains a great deal of symbolism.  Although the book can be understood by us today, much of it was intended be understood by its original audience.  However, just like any other portion of Scripture, it was place...

BIBLE READING: Revelation 1-5 DISCUSSION                                                                                                       There was only ten seconds left on the clock in overtime and we were down by one.   After throwing the ball in the defenders jumped in overdrive forcing the young point guard to pass to his teammate.   The man takes one dribble in the lane and looks up at the clock, three….two…; with only a second to spare he gets his shot off.   As the buzzer sounds it seems like an e...

BIBLE READING: 2 John, 3 John DISCUSSION                                                                             If you go to a local bookstore, you should have no trouble finding a book that will help you learn to love yourself.   Millions of people seem to struggle with having a positive self-image of themselves.   Whether they have grown up in a broken home, struggled with maintaining a healthy relationship or swayed by the media’s idea about what is attractive; people seem to have trouble falling in love with themselves.   It is important for us to know that God created us all in His image and that every single person has been given ...

BIBLE READING: 1 John 1-5 DISCUSSION                                                                Fill in the blank:   God is _________.             Take just a moment to see how many different words you could place within this blank.   There are probably a million praise worthy words we could place within the empty space that would describe God, but for most of us the first word that came to mind was “love”.   One of the major themes of the book of I John is love.   In fact, the word love is used 46 times.   Now, it is easy for us to understand that God loves us and that we should love one another, but John takes it a step f...

Bible Reading: 2 Peter 1-3, Jude

BIBLE READING: 2 Timothy 1-4 DISCUSSION                                                                                          As many of us gather with our families for this Christmas Eve night, we will share in the holiday tradition of giving and receiving of gifts.   Many of us will shop for days and spend enormous amounts of money to ensure that we get the perfect gift for our loved ones.   However, in all the holiday hoopla I pray we never forget to make sure we give our loved ones the gift of faith.   As we come to this portion of our daily reading, we ...

Bible Reading: Hebrews 11-13

BIBLE READING: Hebrews 7-10 DISCUSSION                                                          Did you know that according to the internet there are over 87 different types of lettuce in the world?  Of course, we have the common iceberg and romaine, but there are also Butterhead, Jack Ice, Nevada and Roger (yes, there is a type of lettuce named Roger).  However, the writer of Hebrews mentions only three types of “let us” and they are found in Hebrews 10.   “… let us  draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.  Let us  hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who ...

BIBLE READING: Hebrews 1-6 DISCUSSION                                                                        Have you ever had something that was just too hard to explain to someone else? My wife is an accountant for a successful business in town and from time to time I will ask her what she did today at work; her response, “you wouldn’t understand if I told you”.  Now you might think I would find that offensive, but on the contrary when she does tell me what she did, I don’t understand it.  The truth is I could not tell you the difference from assets to expense reports.  If she were to try to explain to me what she did, she would have to give me...

BIBLE READING: 1 Peter 1-5 DISCUSSION                                                                             Why is it that we always think that our situation is much worse than everyone else’s?   Whether it is trials that we are faced with, pain that we are feeling or stresses that we are under, each person usually feels that theirs is greater than yours.  The old saying goes that we really don’t know what someone else is going through until we walk a mile in their shoes.  We really don’t have any clue what someone else is dealing with, and although our life may be difficult, there is always someone else that i...

BIBLE READING: Titus 1-3 DISCUSSION                                                                            In Titus 2, we find Paul giving some simple instruction about what it means to teach “sound doctrine”.  I understand that not all of us are called to be teachers; in fact, James warns us that teachers will be held to higher standard for what they teach (James 3.1).  However, we all have some responsibility in sharing the good news about Jesus.  Paul illustrates to us that we do so by our behavior.  Like the old saying goes “our actions speak louder than our words”.  In fact, Peter encourages wives to treat t...

BIBLE READING: 1 Timothy 1-6 DISCUSSION                                                 When I was in college at International Bible College (currently Heritage Christian University), I took a health class.  One of the first assignments was to discover a passage of Scripture that had to do with exercising.  Of course, in my mischievous mind I immediately thought of I Timothy 4.8 “…bodily exercise profits little”.  Now before your get your feathers ruffled, I do understand that bodily exercise has a tremendous amount of value.  However, when we compare bodily exercise with spiritual mental training, as he does in I Timothy 4, the difference is clear.  Rather than train our physical bodies, we must make every effort to train our minds in godlines...

BIBLE READING: Philippians 1-4 DISCUSSION                                                  “ I am so sick and tired of how things have been going at church lately, he preaches so long, and his illustrations are so dry. Our singing is so pathetic, and don’t you dare get me started on the elder-ship and their lack of decision-making skills. I got a good mind to move my letter to the church down the street. Oh, I almost forgot we got a special service coming up this Sunday, you wanna come with me?”                 I hope that is not your idea of a church invite.  I mean seriously, would you want to go and visit a church where the members are complaining like that?  As...

Bible Reading: Ephesians 1-6

BIBLE READING: Colossians 1-4, Philemon DISCUSSION                                                                                      Even though it is the holiday season, I am always looking forward to the Spring.   The Spring brings about sunshine, flowers and yard work.   Yes, I said it…I enjoy working out in the yard.   I love the smell of fresh cut grass, the look of fresh mulch around the shrubs and the exhausted feeling at the end of the day for a job well done.   One of the tasks that seems to go along with yard work is weeding out the flowerbeds.   If you don’t ...

BIBLE READING: Acts 27-28 DISCUSSION                                                                                       Have you ever felt that no matter how hard you tried to do the right thing, there was always something that would happen that would throw you off course or discourage you?   Maybe you were doing well with your faith, but then you would have a tragedy, a setback, a temptation that got the best of you and sent you down a wrong path. I believe with all my heart that the Devil is either directly or indirectly responsible for those things.   Now don’t get me wro...

BIBLE READING: Acts 24-26 DISCUSSION                                                                                  In our readings today, we are confronted with two of the saddest stories within all of Scripture.   The first is the story of Felix.   Felix was the  Roman   procurator  of  Iudaea Province , whose wife Drusilla was a Jew.   Felix had come from Jerusalem to bring charges against Paul because of his preaching.   In the closest thing that Paul has received to a trial at this point, Paul gives his defense.   Felix, maybe due to his wife being a Jew, had a “rat...

BIBLE READING: Acts 20. 4-38, 21, 22, 23.1-35 DISCUSSION                                                                           As a preacher I try to be mindful of how long my lessons last.   Of course, there is always going to be a joke about how I preached too long, or about how I put their baby to sleep, and of course my favorite “If a preacher can’t say what he has to say in ten minutes, he ought not to be preaching.”   Deep down in my heart of hearts I know that they are just joking, but I also know that there is a little truth to their jabs. I wonder if the Apostles ever got that kind of criticism?   I can hear it now “Paul, i...

BIBLE READING: Romans 14-16 DISCUSSION                                                                                    Just a few days ago I witnessed an object lesson that I will never forget.   Jordan Abrams was speaking in high school chapel at Mars Hill Bible School on the subject of working together.   He took a concrete block and held it over an egg and asked the question “what will happen if I set this block on this egg?”   Of course, the response was “Crush it!”.   He then attempted to gently lay the block onto the egg and of course it did crush the egg.   However, when he placed four eggs w...

BIBLE READING: Romans 11-13 DISCUSSION                                                                                   It is a blessing to be able to study the Bible for a living.   Of course, I would study it even if I wasn’t paid too, but being a minister enables me the luxury of having more time to dedicate to studying the Word.   However, along with that also comes the danger of thinking that you know everything there is to know about that subject or passage.   That sounds very arrogant for someone to ever feel that way, but it is very dangerous and happens a lot more often than you might think.   In ...

Bible Reading: Romans 8-10

BIBLE READING: Acts 20. 1-3, Romans 4-7 DISCUSSION                                                                                                 There are many occasions in our lives that give us reason to rejoice.   The birth of a child, a promotion at work, obedience to the Gospel. These are all occasions in which rejoicing would be the perfectly acceptable expression of our feelings.   Paul, however, gives us a most unusual reason to rejoice; our sufferings.   That is right! Paul says that we have reason to rejoice because of ou...

BIBLE READING: Acts 20. 1-3, Romans 1-3 DISCUSSION                                                                                      The term “righteousness” means “the character or quality of being right or just".   In most cases, it is used to describe the way a Godly person is expected to live.   However, in this reading for today Paul uses it to describe God’s righteousness.   I think we can all agree that God is the very definition of being right, but how is God’s righteousness expressed in our lives?   We know that God has expressed His righteousness by giving us grace, mercy and every other blessing that we have received ...

BIBLE READING: 2 Corinthians 10-13 DISCUSSION                                                                       You did it again didn’t you?   Just when you think that you are making progress, you slip right back into your old self and sin again.   We try to make ourselves feel better by saying things like “everybody does it”, or “I can’t be perfect anyway”, but the truth is you are still a sinner.   It is hard isn’t it?   I mean, Satan knows what He is doing, and the world today just isn’t what it used to be; it is just so hard trying to be a Christian in today’s world.   Is it though?   I know that we do face so many temptations, and Satan is clever, but this world...