Paul founded the church at Corinth during his second missionary journey. Most of its membership were ex-pagan Gentiles. As a result, they still walked in their worldly desires. Their spiritual immaturity blinded them to the seriousness of their behavior. Paul (and God) desired this church to be victorious over sin. Painful as it was, …
John, the beloved disciple. One of the first disciples called. Part of Jesus’ inner circle. A fisherman by trade. The author with the most to say wrote his account of the gospel almost twenty years after the others. Ancient sources indicate an elderly John, living in Ephesus was asked to write his memories of Jesus…
I’ve always been told to write the book you want to read. In early 2021, I knew I wanted to read the Bible through this year. I had used the One Year Chronological Bible on several occasions and even used the format with a different translation. I didn’t want to revisit that, and…
A few years ago, my daughter and I had a heart-to-heart conversation. She’s the practical one, I’m the emotional one. We were discussing my move from my childhood/adult/entire life home. She wanted me to move closer to her. I’m still not sure why she thought this was a convincing argument. ” You need…
Thinkin’ about grace today. The unmerited favor of God coupled with forgiveness. Considering the price Christ paid, we need to be sure he’s getting his monies worth. We must be worthy of the call. Paul said this in Ephesians 4:1. In Philemon we see an escaped servant who had stolen from his master,…
Social media is the bane or the joy of our existence. We hear and read pros and cons of our time spent there. I really don’t write about social media due to its controversies. I’m sure I spend too much time on it and writers are admonished to use it for marketing. During…
Twelve for Dinner A few years ago, our church hosted a “walk to Calvary”. We paraded into Jerusalem waving our “palm” branches. Our path took us through several scenes, ending at an empty garden tomb. At one point, we stopped in the upper room to celebrate Passover. The table had paper placemats…
Over the years, I’ve heard many sermons from Ezekiel 37, the dry bones chapter. It’s the most popular content for sermons from the book of Ezekiel. Ezekiel is a difficult book to understand with all the imagery, metaphors, and similes. This time, however, a different portion stood out to me. In…
In this world we are living in , Isaiah 46:3-4, 9-11 bears repeating. Verse 3 starts out “Listen to me.” I was reminded of all the times that I have said to children, heard my daughter say to my grandchildren, “listen to me”. We usually have to say it several times and grasp their little faces…
Once again, my daily devotional with Jim Cymbala strikes a chord that I am compelled to write about. In Revelation 2:12-17 John pens the letter from Jesus to the church at Pergamum. Pergamum was a great judicial center, known as a wealthy city. According to the Pulpit Commentary, Pergamum was famous for…
