"Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so." - Acts 17:1 We live in a social-media-infested world in which everyone is a practicing physician, historian, or theologian...or at least that what they claim; a world in which everyone is now an expert. Many claim truth is relevant, and others say it does not exist at all. And opinions? Well, opinions are as numerous as the stars in the sky. The result is that truth is often left behind. During one of his missionary journeys Paul ended up in Berea. There he preached and taught of Christ just as he had done in many other places. In Berea, the believers listened to what the apostle Paul said, but they did something even more important: they measured his words against Scripture. Paul was--arguably--the greatest evangelist in history, and his reputation was well-known. However, the ...

"Indeed, has God said...", (Gen. 3:1, NASB).     It seems to me that one of the most effective tools Satan has in his arsenal is his ability to twist and misconstrue the Bible. A thorough reading will uncover that he often attempts to discredit and undermine the Word of God. And, since God's Word is our foundation for life and godliness, Satan compromises truth at its very.  Notice, Satan said to Eve,  "Indeed, has God said..." In contemporary language, "Did God really say that?     Satan is the master of taking God's truth and turning it into "if".  I would not go as far as saying that doubt is the exact opposite of faith (see Mk. 9: 14-27), but I am comfortable stating that when Satan can cause a child of God to take an "if" attitude towards the Bible, or even Jesus himself, then disaster is on the way. God's Word is God's Word , whether we believe it or not. Our unbelief does not change reality per se; it simpl...

"The Pharisees came out and began to argue with him, seeking from Him a sign from heaven, to test him." (Mk. 8:11, NASB)    It's a classic, and anyone old enough to know who Gilligan is knows the story well. Charlie Brown wants so desperately to kick the football. His desperation is such that he will continue to believe that Lucy will actually hold the ball steady until he kicks it. However, after nearly 50 years of comic strip appearance, it just does not happen. Well, actually she does leave the ball in place on one occasion but he misses the ball entirely. He stubbornly refused to believe that he was going to kick that ball. He believed what he wanted to believe.    In the passage above, Jesus has just finished dismissing the crowd after feeding 4,000 men (not counting women and children) miraculously, and it has only been a page or two since we read of Him feeding 5,000 men (again, not counting women and children). The response of the Pharisees is a...

"Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them..." (Lk. 6: 1-6, ESV)    In these short six verses, Jesus outlines three areas of spiritual life: righteousness, giving, and praying. This is not meant to be an exhaustive list of spiritual qualities. These were chosen by our LORD to teach a very important lesson in Christian living. What lesson is this? Knowing who your audience is. Notice how Jesus addresses each aspect. The issue is not the acts themselves. I doubt many people would argue that these are unimportant or irrelevant aspects of serving God. Righteousness should be an important (and growing) part of any Christian's life. Giving is the same, and so is prayer. Each of these qualities should be present and increasing in our lives. In addition, these things should certainly be seen by those around us. If we truly are the people of God, then these qualities should be evident to those around us. The problem is when we p...

"But also some of the Jewish exorcists, who went from place to place, attempted to name over those who had the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, "I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches." Seven sons of one Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. And the evil spirit answered and said to them, "I recognize Jesus, and I know about Paul, but who are you?" - Acts 19: 13-15 (NASB)    One of the great problems we have in the church today is one the apostle Paul encountered early in the Christian church: head knowledge of Jesus without heart knowledge. Paul encountered these brothers while ministering in Ephesus.  Ephesus was the hub for all things political, philosophical, and spiritual. This was the location of the temple of Artemis, one of the "Seven Wonders of the World". These "sons of Sceva", as Luke refers to them, were sons of a Jewish Chief Priest. They witnessed Paul doing some amazing things "in the n...

Zacharias said to the angel, "How will I know this for certain?"...  (Lk. 1:19, NASB)    There are a number of similarities between Zachariah and Mary. Both had angelic visitors, both were encouraged, "Do not be afraid", and both were told about future events. Even more so, their responses were almost identical: "How will I know this for certain?", "How can this be...?". However, this is where their similarities end. Mary, when she questioned the angel, was comforted and answered rather specifically. Zachariah, on the other hand, was rebuked and left mute until after John's birth.  Why was God so unfair? I mean, both simply asked a question. Could the angel not just simply answer Zachariah in the same manner he did for Mary?    The answer is found when we look at the difference between the two individuals involved. Mary was a virgin. Although Scripture informs us that Mary was most certainly a virgin in regard to sexuality, here the ...

"like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word..."  - 1 Peter 2:2 (NASB)    I'm not very knowledgeable in the mechanical world (truthfully, I'm probably dangerous), but steam engines are interesting to me. Not too many years ago trains, and various kinds of other engines, were powered by steam. The power behind the massive engines was produced through a system of converting water into steam. However, to create the necessary steam some person had to shovel coal into the engine. The more coal that was fed into the grate the greater the potential power would be available. If, by chance, someone were to neglect feeding coal to the engine it would slow then stop working all together. In other words the power of the engine was directly tied to the amount of coal supplied. Actually there's more to it but you get the idea.    I see our spiritual lives as not too dissimilar to coal engines. As long as we provide a fresh supply of fuel (the Word of ...

" As I urged you upon my departure to Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines." - 1 Tim. 1:4 (NASB)   I am a teacher. I have had the wonderful privilege of conducting kids crusades, serving in youth pastoral roles, associate pastoral roles, as a church planter, and a pastor. Currently I have the privilege of serving a great church in rural Texas. In addition, I am pursuing my Ph.D in theology, and I write Sunday School curriculum and teach in a school of ministry within the fellowship that I serve. In all these things, teaching the Word of God is my passion and what I do best. Why am I giving you my resumé? Years ago my wife and I planted a church in Texas. The same message that Paul was giving to Timothy was one that the Holy Spirit implanted upon my heart. Although I pastor another location now, the calling has not changed. I am called to teach sound biblical doctrine.    The verse above is the o...

Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person. (Col. 4:6, NASB) There's a song many of us sung as children in church. The third verse went like this: "Oh, be careful little mouth, what you say, Oh, be careful little mouth, what you say, For the Father up above, Is looking down in love, So be careful little mouth what you say." This was and is a kid's song, but the principle that is presented in this song is not merely one for children.  Paul stated that our speech should be with grace "as though seasoned with salt" . We often seemed to be focused more on the salt  part of Paul's statement than the grace part. Social media is a fairly new dynamic that many are still struggling with. There seems to be an air of anonymity when we stare at our electronic devices that allows us to say things that we would never say in person to another individual or to a gr...

"If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments so as to carry them out..I shall also grant peace in the land...But if you do not obey Me and do not carry out all these commandments, if, instead, you reject My statutes, and if your soul abhors My ordinances so as not to carry out all My commandments, and so break My covenant, I, in turn, will do this to you: I will appoint over you a sudden terror..." - (Lev. 28, NASB)     To be fair to the biblical context, there is no way to include the entire chapter in this post without turning the post into a book, but the above serves as a glimpse of Leviticus chapter 28. The chapter is split neatly into two parts as God speaks to His people. He is informing them of the consequences of their future actions. If they choose to obey, then blessing follows them. If they choose to disobey, then rough times lay ahead. It is a simple principle that the people of God would test time and again, and find it to be true. Later, Paul ech...

   Holiness and legalism are two terms that are often thrown around, at least in the Christian circles that I find myself. So, sometime back I asked my Facebook friends about their insights pertaining to legalism, and liberty, and the Mosaic Law. My purpose was to gain some feedback in comparing the two. Several thoughts came shining through, one of which being that there is no consensus among bible-believering Christians on how God addresses these. One thing I learned, along with some biblical insight, is that there is a fine line that separates legalism and holiness. That line is a  crucial one.       Paul is clear that justification, the state of "being right" before God, is a result of the work of Christ and NOT human effort. He wrote,  "nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not ...

(the following is a condensed excerpt for a message I recently preached) "Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not goon presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace." – (Rom.6: 12-14, NASB How many times have you made a decision by flipping a coin? Honestly! This may work when deciding on pizza topping choices or the color of paint for your house, but for bigger, more important decisions we need some guidelines. Discovering if a behavior is sinful can be a bit more complicated. One preacher says it is, another says it is not. So, who is right? Possibly both, and possibly neither. The best help in navigating difficult issues is the Word of God. The following principles are based on Scripture,...

"He said, 'But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.'” - (Ex. 3:12, ESV)    Earlier in this chapter we are told that Moses had taken the flocks of his father-in-law to a location west of the wilderness and came to Mt. Horeb, where he met with God. It is here that the LORD tells Moses that he, Moses, will bring the Israelites out of Egypt (through God's power), and will return to the mountain. You are likely familiar with the rest of the story, for Moses does indeed lead them out, and they do return to Horeb.     There are two thoughts I want to share that we may not always connect with. First, Mt. Horeb and Mt. Sinai are two different names for the same mountain. I am aware that there are those who view them as two separate mountains. In that case, these would be two separate mountains in very close proximity of each other, possi...

" So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God".   (Rom. 10:17, NKJV)    Jesus told us that we only need faith the size of a mustard seed in order to cast the mountain into the sea. (see. Matt. 17:20) That's impressive, but was Jesus telling us that the size of our faith does not matter? I do not think so. Jesus was speaking of the power of faith in Himself. Even a small amount of faith in Jesus can do mighty things. But, what if we had a large faith? What might God be able to do? Well, faith is like a muscle, in a sense. The more we exercise our faith in Jesus, the greater our faith becomes. However, there is a danger. We can actually get to the place in our spiritual lives where we  trust in "faith", rather than trusting in Jesus, who is the the object of our faith. Faith in Jesus is always grounded in the Word of God. So, then, the real question becomes, "How can I strengthen my faith in Jesus?"     Paul's subject in ...

"...And your Father who sees in secret will reward you." - (Matt. 6:4, ESV)    Jesus uses the phrase above three different times in this chapter of Matthew: in relation to giving (v.4),  prayer (v.6), and finally fasting (v.18). We understand that when things are repeated in the Bible the author is letting us know that we need to pay attention to something is important.    We must be clear that Jesus is not telling us that others cannot  see these deeds. Anyone who has ever fasted while sharing a home with others understands that this is impossible. In addition, sometimes giving anonymously is just not possible. The same holds true with prayer.  So the questions is, "What is Jesus telling us?" Jesus is telling us is that spiritual deeds should not be done for the purpose of displaying our "spirituality" in front of others. If you fast more than a meal or two chances are good that someone will notice. Does this mean that your fast was useles...

"But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also." - (Matt. 5:39, ESV)    Life is not always pleasant this side of Heaven, and it is not always easy to handle those difficult moments that find their way into our life. Someone yells at us and we want to yell back. Some anonymous driver cuts in front of us on the road and we fly past them with an angry glare. Someone accuses us, lies about us, otherwise mistreats us, and the list goes on. We know how the world reacts, because it is the way that we often want to react, and sometimes do. However, the Bible calls us to live in a way that is, shall we say, unnatural.     Jesus's words are piercing, even to the most faithful servant, "If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also." Is Jesus telling us that we need to allow ourselves to be mistreated and just take it? I do not thing that is the point that Jesus...

"In the beginning God....God created man..." - (Genesis 1:1, 27 ESV)      In a world where gods are promoted everywhere, and new ones "created" by the hour, it is helpful to remember exactly where we are in the hierarchy of creation. God is the center, not man. The center of what, you ask? Everything! It is no coincidence that the first four words of Scripture is, "in the beginning God." Before anything and everything that we can know, God was present. He has neither beginning nor ending. These are impossible concepts for us to grasp, and yet neither our ability to understand nor our unwillingness to believe limit Him. And, i t was this God, eternal in nature, that created man of His own design, not the other way around. We sometimes like to think that we are the superior being, but it is not even close. There is one God, and we are not Him.       As we enter a new year on the calendar, consider your own views of this God of the Bible. If He tr...