Sheep Food

  Want to hear some good news?   You don’t have to be a genius or an intellectual giant to understand the bible. Nor is it required for us to be an expert on Middle East issues or even be proficient in ancient languages like Hebrew, Greek, or Aramaic. (That’s not to say one might glean some interesting insights having knowledge in these areas)   Yesterday, I stated in my post that the bible was ‘just a book’.   I guess I could have added the fact it is also a ‘closed’ book. And there are some very enriching and significant truths woven through it that God truly wants to make known. But He has ‘conditions’. Now I can’t tell you why...He has set it up this way, but He has. The fact of the matter is...He’s ‘hidden’ these truths and we don’t find them or discover them because of our intellectual prowess.   He “reveals” them to us. And He desires to do just that. But as I just said: He has conditions.   I love that story in Acts...

  It really is for the most part, just a book. (Granted, a best-selling book I might add)  That is, until the author... begins to ‘open up’ our understanding to it. I’m talking about the bible – Written Over A Span Of 1600 Years Across 3 Continents By Over 40 Authors In 3 Languages. That fact alone is the reason most folks are skeptical of it being the ‘true Word of God’. And it’s usually the first reason offered up by those skeptics as to why they have a difficult time wanting to give it that kind of credibility to base one’s life around it.   Few will argue that there are beneficial ‘truths’ to be gleaned from it. There is plenty of historical information to be found in there interwoven with countless stories that entertain, encourage, and yes...even shock its readers. One can find inspiration and comfort and of course so many valuable ‘moral lessons’ taught by the writers. Then there is the fascinating account of this historical figure we know as Jesus, the ...

  For those looking...all good here. :- ). Felt the Holy Spirit have me 'tap the brakes' this weekend. Perhaps a slight shift or change in delivery coming. I'll let you know. Meanwhile..be blessed...enjoy the day and Memorial weekend...and know...that He is Good and Faithful and continues to look for hearts that He can show Himself strong to. :-) 2 Chron. 16:9

  Whoever commits sin is a slave to sin and a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. (John 8:34)   Go, and sin no more. (John 5:14; 8:11)   The one who practices sin is of the devil. (1 John 3:8)   Whoever abides in Him does not sin.(1 John 3:6)   Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God. (1 John 3:9)   We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him. (1 John 5:18)   How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? (Rom. 6:2)   Knowing this: that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.” (Rom. 6:6)   He who has died has been freed from sin. (Rom. 6:7)   You, having been set free from sin, you became salves of ri...

  We are told there were ten of them there in this certain village. They were lepers. Which also meant they were ‘outcast’ and ‘unclean’. Their lives were ‘marked’ and defined by their disease. You could also say that for the most part, back then, - ‘once a leper, always a leper’.   Yet these ten men, defined by their condition and condemned from ever living a normal life again, had apparently heard of this ‘Jesus’ guy who was drawing a lot of attention. I only say this because as we read of this account in Luke 17:11-19, “Jesus entered their village, they lifted up their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” (13). I find it notable as well, that we are told these men ‘stood afar off’. Sin has a way of doing that...separating us or putting distance between us and God. (Isa. 59:2) And we are the ones who usually make that first move…away. Remember what Adam and Eve did after their incident at the tree and then they heard God’s voice looking for them? Th...

  What if God really meant all what He said?   Seriously...think about that. If God ‘is true and every man a liar’ (Rom. 3:4) that would suggest that regardless of what you or I believe, feel, think, or have been taught...if it doesn’t fully line up with what God says, then we are building on a faulty foundation. Levels and plumb lines don’t lie. “Eye-balling” may work in some situations where the stakes are low and outcome is inconsequential. But when lives/souls and eternity are on the line, you’d think we would give ‘more earnest heed’ to the things which God has given us in His word ‘lest we drift away’. (Heb. 2:1)   The Apostle Paul made no attempt to delude the people with ‘soft messages’ in order to ‘tickle ears’. He was committed to declaring the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:27) come hell or high water. He wrote admonishing us that if we ‘thought we were standing firm, we should take heed lest we fall’. (1 Cor. 10:12). He would later challenge th...

  We’ve been looking at this topic of idols and idolatry and how demon spirits can often be the driving or compelling force behind them. Back in the OT, God often referred to it where people went off and ‘served other gods’. We also took a look at that second commandment about having or making idols that got between us and God... provoking a ‘jealous God to anger’ and He would end up ‘visiting the iniquity of the fathers to the third and fourth generation’. (Deut. 5:8-9)   I have no hesitation admitting to you here that there is much I do not know or understand about this subject. But what little I am begining to see and understand I share freely with you. I feel no need to be afraid of exploring God’s word which is truth and we know what truth does...it sets captives free. (John 8:32).   Perhaps you are familiar with the term ‘generational curses’. While the idea of God ‘visiting the sins of the fathers to multiple generations down the line’ poses some tro...

  Years ago I was standing in an aisle at Walmart while helping my wife with the weekly grocery shopping. I must have let her continue on after getting sidetracked in thought with a beer display standing in front of me. It got me thinking how odd it was still, to see all the beer and wine there in our local store given the fact when I first moved up to this part of Texas, we lived in a ‘dry’ county. I had never known such things existed until I moved here in 1989. Then years later, it was finally ‘voted away’ which at the time, I remember being bit controversial for multiple reasons.   My line of thought went down that path of pondering what it was about alcohol that could have such a devastating and destructive effect on so many people in so many ways. What was it about some people who could not ‘control it’ or probably more accurately...allowed it to ‘control them’? Personally speaking, I could sit down and drink one single glass of wine or one can of beer and thin...

  Is it ‘either/or’...or is it ‘both’.   You know...’saved by faith’ or is there ‘something else’ that follows or comes in to play? (ah...I hear the sound of theologians pulling out their swords to sharpen them). No need...you can put them away...I’m not here to debate who is ‘saved’ and who is not. But I’ll talk about what it means to ‘abide’ in Christ as long as you want. :- )   Yes...I’m fully aware it is ‘by grace’ and ‘not of works lest we boast’ and ‘faith alone’, as we like to tell ourselves regularly. So now that I’m on board with those verses...let’s talk about a few others we tend to skate over that bring in other points to consider besides ‘faith’. Like where Paul told us that “it is not the hearers of the law who are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified’. (Rom 2:13) “Doers”...of the law?   Then when addressing the issue of circumcision, he told the Corinthians that whatever option they chose on that physi...

  It’s easy to understand why so many believers prefer to stay away from all that serious doom and gloom of the Old Testament. It’s almost like the ‘God of the OT’ was a different character...or deity. He sounded so serious about sin and rebellion and disobedience back then. Much easier to just ‘put your trust in Jesus’ who we read about in the New Testament. Good thing He loves us and accepts us ‘just the way we are’, right? Just ‘say you believe in Him’, go to church regularly, and try harder to be less of bad person. And there sure are plenty of ‘bad persons’ out there that we ‘could be like’ if not for Jesus.   The only thing is...are you believing in...the ‘right Jesus’? Or better yet...are you ‘following the real Jesus’? Paul did warn us in 2 Cor. 11:3-4 of the danger in receiving ‘another gospel...another Jesus...and even another spirit’. ‘Another spirit’? Interesting...   Did Jesus not warn His disciples of a day that would come when ‘false Chr...

  Speaking of flies....(actually we were the past few days), Jesus used that term ‘Beelzebub’ in reference to Satan in a few places and that word literally means ‘lord of the flies’. I was reminding us how dead things can attract flies...and buzzards, among other things. Most folks around here know that when a local rancher loses a cow, they often haul it off somewhere and it is devoured by buzzards and coyotes and such. You know, ‘beast of the field’. That term is often used as a ‘type’ for the powers of darkness, (demons). Same with the ‘birds of the air’.   Remember Jesus’s parable about the sower? He used the illustration about how the ‘birds come immediately to snatch the seed that was sown’. Later, when His disciples asked about the meaning of it all, He painted a clearer picture for them saying that the birds were ‘ the devil who comes to take away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.’ (Luke 8:12)   Here...take a qui...

  “’A house divided against itself cannot stand’. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved - I do not expect the house to fall - but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other.” - Abraham Lincoln   That was an excerpt from Lincoln’s famous speech after receiving the nomination in Illinois to run as the candidate for the U.S. Senate in 1858. And there is much one could unpack and chew on from that one paragraph alone. He obviously was referring to a well-known passage and statement made by Jesus in several of the gospels. I was actually reading in the gospel of Luke yesterday morning and came across that verse which made me think of Lincoln’s use of it. Perhaps you would like to read it yourself there in chapter 11. Given what I have written about the past few days, I found myself drawn once again, to another instance of Jesus healing a physic...