Bringing Up Children
Oct 01
And all of this training should be done in love. "Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged" (Colossians 3:21). Then we trust the Lord and pray.
Raising a Man in a Boy’s World
Jun 10
One day, Baseball Hall of Fame Inductee Frank Howard, was playing ball out in the front yard of their beautifully landscaped home. Suddenly, the Frank’s wife appeared from inside the home and front their front porch yelled, “Honey! You and the boys are ruining the lawn!” Frank snapped back, “We’re not raising grass, we’re raising boys!”
Noah and Joshua – Examples of Priority
Apr 10
"By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith." (Hebrews 11:7) Noah was indeed a man of mighty faith, believing God's Word even about "things not seen as yet," preparing for a worldwide Flood in a day when God had never yet even "caused it to rain upon the earth" (Genesis 2:5). Noah was "a preacher of righteousness" (2 Peter 2:5) to an unbelieving world for at least 120 years (Genesis 6:3), "while the ark was a preparing" (1 Peter 3:20), WITHOUT GAINING A SINGLE CONVERT except his own family!
The pragmatic life in Christ demands daily living…
Feb 25
"And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come." (Luke 19:13) This "parable of the pounds" indicated to His disciples that they should not wait idly for the second coming of Christ, thinking "that the kingdom of God should immediately appear" (Luke 19:11), but that they should stay busy, using whatever abilities and opportunities they had in the Lord's service until His return. The word "occupy" is an unusual word, the Greek pragmatenomai, from which we derive our modern word "pragmatic," meaning "practical," and it only occurs this one time in the New Testament. There is another related word, however, also occurring only one time, in 2 Timothy 2:4. "No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier." Here the word "affairs" is the Greek pragmateia, and Paul is cautioning those who would be "good soldiers of Jesus Christ" against becoming involved in the pragmatic affairs of civilian or business life, if they would really be pleasing to their commanding officer.
Walk by faith
Feb 25
Although our text for today appears in parentheses in the King James Bible, it is a most important concept in Scripture and is the summary of an extensive passage which precedes it. Beginning with II Corinthians 4:8, Paul continually contrasts the seen and the unseen, finishing up with the admonition to "walk by faith." "We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed" (vv.8-9). Though we have trials on the outside, through faith we have inward triumph. "Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus . . . that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh" (vv.10-11). Even though "death worketh in us," that same persecution results in "life in you" (v.12). Through faith we know "that He which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus" (v.14).
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