Sheep Food

  I can remember back in both high school and college…there was no other phrase uttered by the instructor that could bring more calm and ease to an anxious mind after taking an exam than the statement of “I graded this test on a curve”. I f you know…you know.   Of the many multiple ‘dysfunctions’ that we human possess, and there are many, one of the more commonly shared tendencies we have is the propensity to want to ‘compare ourselves with our selves and by ourselves’ which the bible teaches is just a really dumb thing to do. (2 Cor 10:12)   But. We. Do. It. All. The. Time.   Scripture offers multiple examples of this and Jesus never shied away from confronting it. He pointed out a Pharisee who ‘prayed with himself…thanking God he was not like other men’…then listing just a few of what ‘real sinners’ looked like while following up with all of the righteous and holy things he did regularly. (Luke 18:11)   Then there was our ‘super church member’ in Matt 7:21 who was rather shocked t

  “Come to me, all of you who are struggling and burdened, and I will give you rest...and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. -Jesus (Matt 11:28-29)   I think we would agree that ‘suffering’ comes in many forms. Countless people today are suffering physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually…etc. In fact, there is so much suffering that takes place today …both inside and outside the church world, that books upon books have been written explaining ‘suffering is just a part of the human and Christian’s experience’.   Yes, the bible has much to say about suffering; but not in the way most people have come to believe.  The kind of ‘suffering’ that God takes pleasure in has nothing to do with someone going through extensive chemo treatments or imprisoned by the chains of depression or starvation from war-induced famines, etc. Some would think otherwise.   I would even dare suggest that many, many people today are suffering nee

  The Bible is not a buffet line.   We are not given the luxury of just going through and picking out the things that appeal to us. I mean, we can do that…and have done that for a very long time. Which is why we probably have so many denominations to choose from when it comes to churches we attend.   But how does one go through that book and say ‘Oh, I believe this’ but then a few chapters later we declare: “Now I have a hard time believing that!”?   We have been conditioned to only see or embrace what fits with our narrative or our doctrines. What we end up doing is conforming God to our image and likeness, instead of allowing Him to conform us to His. (Rom 8:29)   Take for example the passages I shared Friday and probable conclusion I drew regarding Job being smitten by Satan with boils from head to toe. That is what we are told at least, in the Book of Job. Then we looked at Deut 28 where God declared that if/when His people refused to obey and rejected His law, the repercussion

  “Don’t open any messages from me…I’ve been ‘hacked’!”   How many times have you seen that posted or received a message in social media with that warning?   I always chuckle to myself when I see those because it has such an odd and most likely unintended meaning to it. The first question that comes to my mind is “Who would be wanting to ‘hack’ you, the Chinese or Russian intelligence agencies? Are you really a national threat to them …or does your FB account really have top-secret data stored in it?   Or did you by chance, mistakenly click on an unknown link that some bored 15 year old created and sent out to see how many people he could aggravate one afternoon that would create some challenges with your page.   I’m revisiting this idea of the ‘devil attacking’ vs. the ‘devil tempting’ us.   A person drops off a bundle of clothes at a homeless shelter and drives a mile down the road and ends up with a flat tire. Some would suggest they were ‘attacked’ for doing a ‘good deed’. Other

  So today is ‘Black Friday’.   I have no doubt that where we left off yesterday at the end of Job 1, that Job felt his day had grown quite ‘black’ and darkness was closing in on him. We’ve all been there to varying degrees, have we not?   Sometime back, I was talking to a friend on the phone and they told me that their day had been a challenge because, in their words: “I feel like the devil has really been attacking me.”   It’s not like I had never heard that phrase before and have used it myself in years gone by.   But then, I felt prompted to ask them for clarification. “Can you be more specific and tell me, are you being ‘tempted by the devil’ or ‘attacked’ by the devil?” Their response was immediate and definitive: “Oh, it’s an attack!”   I then felt compelled to just drop that part of the conversation with them, but it has stayed with me for some time.   We’ve been discussing Job and the use of God’s ‘hedge of protection’. Scripture seems to suggest that God uses Satan (and h

  Who’s up for a look into the Book of Job today?   Happy Thanksgiving, by the way. This book actually opens up where families are gathered eating, and 42 chapters later, it ends with a similar setting. So this has to be a ‘confirmation’. :- )   Why Job? Well…I believe we are offered more insight here to some significant truths that can only better help us understand certain ways in which God operates.   I make no pretense in being an expert on the bible nor do I want to sound like I have this ‘all figured out’. But I have no doubt, that all that I continue to study and learn is making more sense and so biblically sound and connected…and all I can do is share and put it out there for others to study for themselves. [and just to add here, God is not obligated to ‘make sense’ to us. But He loves us enough to give us ‘understanding’. ]   The book of Job is certainly one of those books that has created some challenges for believers over the years. And the ‘go to’ line I often hear w

  The very last book of the Old Testament is written by a minor prophet we know as Malachi. If you see these books laid out on a timeline, after his writings, there followed a period of time that we know to be as the ‘400 silent years’.   Then we see the arrival of the Messiah and the four gospel accounts beginning with Matthew.   The way God is preached about in many churches today, one might conclude that during those 400 years of silence, God went off to a spiritual retreat to deal with anger issues and most likely learned how to chill out. Because if you spend any time at all reading and studying God’s word in the OT, that’s a ‘different God’ we read about. Or have been taught about in church.   So if the ‘serpent’ was effective in altering the way Eve perceived God’s word, who are we to think he could not do the same with us? John tells us in Revelation 12 that that old serpent is still deceiving the whole world, and in his letter states that the world is under his influence. (1

  If you did not get a chance to see yesterday’s post, please go read it now. [And you’ll want to read through all of todays to the end]  I believe there has been a serious omission of attention given to the subject of ‘sanctification’ in the church world today (at least here in America) and many sincere believing people are in for a rude awakening.  This process of ‘purifying’ is vital to anyone and everyone who claims to be a follower of Christ. And the subject can make one feel ‘uneasy’. It involves ‘heat’ and ‘fire’. And ‘suffering’. You know, all those words that make our ‘flesh nature’ squirm and start scampering to find ‘another gospel and another Jesus’ to latch on to that will be easier on us.  God spoke through Isaiah the prophet and uttered this phrase: “I have refined you, but not as silver. I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.” (48:10)  Let me pause here and offer some encouragement to those who just don’t think they want to read any further on this subject

  When you think of being ‘purified’, what comes to mind?   A simple definition of the word is: “having had contaminants removed; cleansed.”   When a precious metal is ‘refined’, there is a process in which it is heated up with fire or a furnace of sorts and as the heat intensifies, the ‘impurities’ that resided within that gold or silver rise to the top.   Then they are easily removed and the metal that was refined is made …pure. And that increases its value.   The bible has much to say about the ‘refining’ process of the saints of God.   Perhaps you have heard the word ‘sanctification’. It’s a big word.  We will nod our heads in agreement when we hear it used occasionally from the pulpit and might even whisper a few ‘amens’ as well.   But can you explain to a new believer what that ‘process’ actually is, why we are to go through it and why it is so important?   The topic often gets hijacked by religious entanglements that want to debate if ‘sanctification’ is tied in with ‘salvati

  In Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians, he uses a phrase that should stop us in our tracks and give consideration to. But, like most ‘bible student’s, when we do our daily or occasional readings, if you are like many folks, it’s more about getting those chapters done and checked off so you can get about your day. You know who you are. ;-)  Paul writes that he had ‘been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel…to speak and not to please men, but God who tests our hearts.” (2:4)  Wait, … ‘God tests our hearts’?  Why would God need to ‘test our hearts’? Doesn’t He already know what’s in them? He certainly does. So this idea of being ‘tested by God’ has somewhat of an ominous or discomforting feel to it, does it not?  I can remember early on in my Christian walk sitting under a very influential pastor for several years, who from the pulpit would chide and make fun of people who were of the mindset that God was ‘testing them’ or suggest they were ‘going through a test’.