Skip to main content

Posts

Three Storehouses

Here are verses on three storehouses: earth, heaven, and heart: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break, in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matt. 6:19-21). “You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him” (Matt. 12:34-35). The first has to do with where your treasure is—on earth or in heaven. Where that treasure is, that is where your heart is. The second passage is talking about the storehouse of your heart and what you put in it. What is stored up in your heart determines what comes out of your mouth. “Since, then, you have been raised with...
Recent posts

An Unreaped Harvest

“Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few’” (Matt. 9:37). “Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest?’ I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying, ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor” (John 4:35-38). I believe these statements of Jesus are still true today: ·        The harvest is great. ·        There are few reapers. ·        The harvest is ripe. ·        We are to pray that God would send forth reapers to the harvest. Unless we pray, as God commanded, we are facing a great tragedy, an...

The Way of Holiness

“And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not journey on it; it will be for those who walk in that Way; wicked fools will not go about on it. No lion will be there, nor will any ferocious beast get up on it; they will not be found there. But only the redeemed will walk there, and the ransomed of the Lord will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away” (Isa. 35:8-10). I am not sure how literal this is, but it sure sounds wonderful! If it is spiritual, then the Redeemed should be experiencing this joy. It is part of Philippians 4:4: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” This post coordinates with Saturday's reading in the To the Word! Bible Reading Challenge . If you are not in a daily reading plan, please join us at TotheWord.com . We would love to have you reading with us.

Five Wonderful Attributes

“Your eyes will see the king in his beauty and view a land that stretches afar” (Isaiah 33:17). “For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; it is he who will save us” (Isaiah 33:22). Here are five wonderful attributes of God: King, beautiful, judge, lawgiver, and savior. Here are a few more qualities of His in relationship to believers: “The LORD your God is with you , he is mighty to save . He will take great delight in you , he will quiet you with his love , he will rejoice over you with singing” (Zephaniah 3:17). This post coordinates with Saturday's reading in the To the Word! Bible Reading Challenge . If you are not in a daily reading plan, please join us at TotheWord.com. We would love to have you reading with us.

Joy to the World

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it…. The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:1-5, 9-14). This is the Christmas sto...

Christ’s Unique Death

“ Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death” (Heb. 2:14-15). “But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship” (Gal. 4:4-5). This is what Christmas is all about. Jesus was uniquely born to uniquely die. That unique death was: ·        To redeem us ·        To give us full rights as sons ·        To destroy the devil ·        To set us free from the fear of death

Getting Your Conscience Back on Track

God has given us different means for us to know the difference between right and wrong. They include the ten commands in Exodus 20, the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7, and many other commands. There is no excuse for saying, “I didn’t know it was wrong.” He has also given us civil and criminal laws in Romans 13 and other people we should obey: our slave masters (1 Peter 2), our fathers (Ephesians 6), and our husbands (Ephesians 5), and, finally, He has given us a cleansed conscience (1 Corinthians 6:11). The difficulty with our conscience is that it cannot be trusted. Paul says it this way: “My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me” (1 Corinthians 4:4). There are several reasons for the conscience not working properly. • It has adjusted to the culture. “Everyone does it” or these are the “laws of the land.” • It has deliberately, willfully, not conformed to the Scripture. • It has been “seared as by a hot iron” (1 Timothy 4...