“Say to all your people and your priests, ‘During these seventy years of exile, when you fasted and mourned in the summer and in early autumn, was it really for me that you were fasting? (Zechariah 7:5 NLT) At times our prayers and religious observances can be an offense to God. We can say and do […]
30
Jul
Jul
These events happened in the days of King Xerxes, who reigned over 127 provinces stretching from India to Ethiopia. King Xerxes The celebration lasted 180 days—a tremendous display of the opulent wealth of his empire and the pomp and splendor of his majesty.(Esther 1:1,4 NLT). Xerxes was a proud and somewhat egotistical King, yet God used him […]
Ezra stood on the platform in full view of all the people. When they saw him open the book, they all rose to their feet. Nehemiah 8:5 NLT) When the people stood up, it showed respect for what was being read and who was reading it, in that order. Taking the Word of God seriously is the […]
Lovingkindness and Truth Your prophets have said so many foolish things, false to the core.They did not save you from exile by pointing out your sins.Instead, they painted false pictures filling you with false hope. Lamentations 2:14 NLT) People sometimes try to help us and end up hurting us. Hope to be genuine is based on truth. False […]
04
Jul
Jul
Fight the good fight for what we believe….( I Timothy 6:12 NLT). Patrick Henry The famous words of the title, spoken by Patrick Henry in 1775 were the fuse that ignited The Revolutionary War. Today the church is in a struggle. This conflict is not being fought with bullets and cannons as in Henry’s day, but […]
The Second Coming of Christ Return to the stronghold,You prisoners of hope.Even today I declareThat I will restore double to you. (Zechariah 9:12 NKJV) As Christians, we all have hopes and dreams. God has promised us to keep us in this world, yet our ultimate anticipation should not be in this world but the next. Of course, we should maintain […]
22
Jun
Jun
so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 3:10 NASB) The church is God’s theatre to heaven and earth. Without embracing God’s full expression on this earth, the church with all its varied expressions, we will never understand God’s multifaceted wisdom. The […]
so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 3:10 NASB) The church is God’s theatre to heaven and earth. Without embracing God’s full expression on this earth, the church with all its varied expressions, we will never understand God’s multifaceted wisdom. The […]
All the ways of a man are clean in his own sight, But the Lord weighs the motives. Proverbs 16:2 NASB) We can feel pretty good about the things that we do, but we often do not understand why we do what we do. It is possible to give with your hand but not your heart. In […]
Let me relate to you a somewhat embarrassing little story. Yesterday morning I was in the drive-thru lane at a local Chic-fil-A. On Saturday morning, I sometimes pick up a couple of breakfast sandwiches for my wife and myself. As I approached the young lady who was taking orders that morning, I reached for my […]