God’s mercy is our escape
Jan 08
"O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever." Psalm 136:1 God’s "mercy" is a monumental theme in Scripture. This word, "mercy", appears some 341 times in the Bible. Variations of this word in both Hebrew and Greek appear a total of 454 times and are also translated by "kindness," "lovingkindness," "goodness," "favor," "compassion," and "pity." Of the 66 books of the Bible, only 16 do not use one of the words for mercy. Even though "mercy" is an important concept, it is somewhat difficult to prescribe a definition for it, especially since "grace" is occasionally coupled with it.
Jesus Music History – part one
Oct 27Sometimes in our lives, seemingly unrelated events come together in such a way they make a very strong point. Such was the case for me a few weekends ago. I had just received the two video set First Love and planned on watching it Saturday evening. In the Saturday morning paper, within just two pages, were two stories that impacted me significantly. First was a long story about Mitch Albom, the Detroit sportswriter, who wrote the monstrously successful book Tuesdays with Morrie. The point of the article was that Albom could with great eloquence recount the lessons he learned from Morrie Schwartz, his former professor, yet in reality he struggles to show evidence of the lessons in his life. Then came a review about a biography of Henri Nouwen, which talked with some sharpness of Nouwen's shallow theology and the life he led. While these stories were interesting, I passed them off as interesting weekend reading. I sat down on Saturday evening expecting to watch just a portion of First Love Part One. Some four hours later I found I had watched both tapes in their entirety and was anxious to see more.
When NOT to pray…
Feb 12
"And the Lord said unto Joshua, Get thee up; wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face?" (Joshua 7:10) After the mighty victory at Jericho, it was abundantly obvious that God was fighting for His people as they entered the land of Canaan. God had promised Joshua: "There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life" (Joshua 1:5), so nothing could stop them now. Except one thing--sin in the camp! After a humiliating defeat at Ai, "Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face" and began to complain to the Lord about how He had let them down (Joshua 7:6-9). Now, normally prayer is a good thing, especially in such times of great need as this. Yet God rebuked Joshua for praying! There is a time to pray, and a time not to pray.
The walk of a "Christian" is anything but easy…
Feb 05
Our lives today are continually badgered by various trials, or "manifold temptations." The trials are to bring about a pure and effective faith, pleasing to God. But the apostle Peter is not referring to trials or their results when he declares: "Wherein ye greatly rejoice." On the contrary, he is summing up a list of blessings given in the preceding three verses. As we delineate them, let us rejoice as well. "His abundant mercy" (v. 3). Mercy implies a compassionate act on one who is in desperate need. In context, God's mercy was granted to us in salvation when there was nothing we could do to save ourselves. "Begotten us again" (v. 3). We have been born again! We are now His children, born into His family. We now have spiritual life--eternal life.
Why are we not in one accord?
May 04
"If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, Fulfill ye my joy, that ye be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind" (Philippians 2:1,2). Churches haven't changed much in 2000 years. The call to unity in these verses is as needed now as it has always been. Let us examine the prerequisites for unity found here.
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