Where there is no vision, the people perish. Opposition to the work of the LORD increases as the success of the LORD’s work increases. This was the case as Nehemiah and the Jews were successful at rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. The enemies of the Jews, such as Sanballat, began to mock the Jews. They sought to discredit them and destroy the work. They mocked both the Jews and the LORD. They told them the task was impossible. Often, the mocking of those who oppose the work of the LORD mock in ...
Feb 16, 2017
The world that Christ was born into was a world of darkness. The message of Christmas is that God came to give illumination and hope. A people in darkness were given a great light. It was a fulfillment of a promise to bring restoration and life. What we see in the Christmas message is the fulfillment of the promise. In our time we can only cling to having hope in God Almighty. There is no other hope today. Christ in us is alone the hope of glory. We must believe that God can and will do what He ...
Feb 13, 2017
God is the God of all comfort. He is the Father of mercies. He cares and encourages, consoles, and gives us the grace to persevere. It does not mean that we avoid suffering, but He gives us strength to go through the suffering. God comforts us in our tribulation so we could comfort those in trouble. God wants to comfort us and then He wants us to comfort others. We will all go through trials and suffering. But when we go through suffering we must remember that God is with us. Through trials we a...
Feb 07, 2017
Nehemiah was a cupbearer for Artaxerxes I of Persia. He was an officer of high rank and was held in high esteem by the most powerful person on the face of the earth. But here he is sad in the presence of Artaxerxes. Nehemiah was merely showing on his face the much deeper anguish and sorrow of his heart. The sadness of Nehemiah began when he heard about the state of the Jews and the city of Jerusalem. Nehemiah was concerned about the LORD and the honor of His name. Nehemiah was grieved because he...
Jan 31, 2017
The Scriptures have been given to us so we can continue to have the LORD prepare us for the life to come. Life creates a longing to depart and see what Christ has prepared for us. We should desire to see eternity. As we draw nearer to the LORD and walk closer and closer to Him we will not be consumed with the cares and worries of this life. All will pass away. We must not be too focused on building up our own kingdom. We are to lay aside every weight, anything that will keep us from the crown of...
Jan 24, 2017
God sees the human population in rebellion against Him. All have turned away from the LORD. The sin of the first Adam has spread to all. It has caused a deep scarlet stain. It is our sin that God has a problem with. All sin deserves the wrath of God. Reason is supposed to come by divine light and revelation from the LORD. God wants us to reason with Him. Mankind must see his miserable and lost estate. The majority of humanity has been unable to reason what is the will of God our Creator. Sin has...
Jan 17, 2017
Jesus was seen as a threat to the religious kingdom of the Jews. Therefore, He is accused of blasphemy and condemned to death. But then the same group of people refuses to enter into the Praetorium of Pilate because they were afraid that they would become defiled. The same group of people who had just spit in the face of Christ, beat Him, and struck Him with the palms of their hands! They were afraid they would be defiled, while the whole time they ignored the defilement in their own hearts. The...
Jan 10, 2017
The only hope for mankind is repentance and to live with God as their goal. There are so many who seek to distract the people of God from their focus on Him. God is longsuffering because His mercy and because He wills for all to come to repentance. We must enter in to what God has called us to. We must see the goodness and mercy of God working. We must have a new mindset and vision. We must be wise and purposeful with our time. God is not slack concerning His promises. He is purposeful in His me...
Jan 03, 2017
We are to surrender entirely to God and obey His teaching. Christ spoke directly by the authority of the Father, His ways and thoughts were of Him who sent Him. The conflict is to know the doctrine; man must be willing to know the doctrine of God. There must be obedient submission. Every faithful believer will see the truth of Christ’s words, everyone who is of the truth will hear His voice. Every believer can know what God teaches when they come to the Truth. It comes from the LORD and not from...
Dec 28, 2016
What is recorded in this passage is true worship. True worship exalts God for who He is and exalts the work that God has done. True worship focuses on the LORD and praises Him for what He has done. God has done this work to deliver the Israelites out of Egypt. He alone deserves all the praise and all the glory. The children of Israel simply had to stand still by faith and see the salvation of the LORD. They were told to hold their peace and remain silent. The LORD works on behalf and within indi...
Dec 12, 2016
Hezekiah had become king after the death of his wicked father King Ahaz. The Kingdom of Judah had come to a very low place. Hezekiah was not willing to follow the ways of his father. His first step was not to build up his own kingdom. Instead, he sets out to do is undo what his father had done. His desire was for reformation. He had zeal for God and for the house of the LORD. He had a desire to undo all the wickedness that had been done. Before he could establish religious reforms he realized th...
Dec 05, 2016
There is a banquet and you have all been invited, but one must open the door. God gave Christ that all who comes to Him may be saved. None will be turned away who come to Him. God calls sinners to repentance so they could be saved. We must step out of self and into faith in Christ. God’s purpose and desire is for all to come into His house. To be unwilling is to put self before God. God is not willing that any should perish. It is an invitation that we must accept. Only through faith in Christ c...
Nov 28, 2016
The spies and the people of Israel had lost sight of God and His promises. They had become focused on themselves and their own inability to enter the Promised Land. And they rebelled against the LORD. They complained in their tents. They came to false theological conclusions about who God is and about trials. They focused on their own inability to overcome. They listened to those who discouraged their hearts. And they focused on their difficulties and ignored the LORD. Complaining is often motiv...
Nov 21, 2016
There is nothing that shows our devotion to God more than being poured out. The life of the Christian is to be a life that is poured out and broken for others. It is God working through us; it is not something we do. God is longing for lives to be given to Him; our calling is to be given entirely to Him. We are to pursue being filled to the uttermost. We are to come into unity with one another. We are to be unified with Christ and one another. Do not fall into self-seeking, but focus on others. ...
Nov 14, 2016
The life of Christ is to be duplicated by every believer. All will live a life of persecution and trial but will not be forsaken. Although the grace of God has been given to all, not all will come to faith. We must obey. Believers must not go back to willful sin. We must renounce the hidden things of shame. It is the light of God that shines on us and transforms us. The treasure is the Gospel. We find it in the face of Jesus Christ. We are earthen vessels and are easily broken. But we are to gro...
Oct 31, 2016
The hour had come. Christ knew what was to come, and yet He is gripped by this fervent desire even in the midst of the realization of His coming suffering. He did not fervently desire the suffering. He fervently desires the kingdom. But He knows that He must suffer for the kingdom of God to come. It was the love of Christ that overwhelmed Him with this fervent desire. Christ speaks of the kingdom of God twice and it is clear that the focus of His desire is upon the kingdom and not the suffering....
Oct 24, 2016
There is a challenge in these verses. It is not about the sentimentality of these words. This is about Christians. Love is the greatest goal of the Christian life. We are to give our lives as a sacrifice for others. Through our death, life will come to others. Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies it will abide alone. We are to be nothing. This is the example of the bondservant from Scripture. There is no greater fruit of the sanctified life. Paul is not speaking of perfection in ...
Oct 17, 2016
Correct thinking requires a correct heart. The heart stores all the mind allows to be stored there. Out of the heart proceeds all sin, what we say results from what is stored in the heart. As we think in our hearts, so we are. We are responsible for what we think about. It doesn’t matter what we say, it matters what we do. We must allow God to take control of our thoughts. God places His peace in our hearts. We must enforce the truths that we believe. The proving process takes place every time w...
Oct 10, 2016
Abraham is called to leave his country, his family, and his father’s house to go to a place that God will show him. But God had not shown him yet; this was so he would walk by faith and not by sight. Each part of the command corresponded to a promise that was dependent upon Abraham’s obedience. Abraham would lose much in exile but he will gain in the end. The blessings upon Abraham would not merely be for himself, but he would be a medium of blessing to others. God promises His providential prot...
Oct 03, 2016
This is a challenge for the body of Christ to be united and for each one to take their part in the work of the Lord. We must consecrate ourselves to this work together and He will bring the increase. Now is the time and season to take up the work of God. We are to carry out this calling to build the Kingdom of God. God desires our commitment, He is jealous for our devotion, but are we zealous for God in the same way? God has a purpose for the Church to magnify His Name on the earth. God is looki...
Sep 29, 2016
In the court of the prison, as the armies of the Chaldeans are beginning to surround Jerusalem, Jeremiah receives a word from the Lord. The Lord tells Jeremiah to buy the field of his cousin according to the regulations of the Levitical Law. Jeremiah makes a very public decision to buy the field. This is a decision that Jeremiah was making by faith, he made it public, he signed it, he sealed it, and he made sure that everyone around him knew it. He is making a bold declaration of faith before al...
Sep 25, 2016
The people of Israel at this time had forgotten the vision that God had called them to. They had settled into a comfortable life. They worked to provide for their family and build up their houses. But they had lost the vision. They were called to rebuild the Temple, but their zeal and excitement has been replaced by apathy. Those around them and the situation they were in had frustrated their efforts. We must build even when we do not see clearly. We must have faith in the vision that God has gi...
Sep 22, 2016
One of the main themes of the book of Ephesians is Church unity. Paul wrote Ephesians to a mixed Church of both Jewish and Greek Christians and is calling for unity within the Church of Ephesus. Paul emphasized that both Jews and Gentiles are saved in the same way that they are to walk in unity. Paul exhorts the Ephesians to walk worthy of their calling. Walk means to live suitably as those who have been called into the Kingdom of God. How can one who considers all that God has done for them by ...
Sep 18, 2016
Jonathan was the son of Saul and he was going to be made king. In many ways he is an example of what it means to be a Christian in these three characteristics: piety, humility, and selflessness. Jonathan was not perfect but he was loyal, trustworthy, and dependable. Jonathan loved God as David did and they had a kindred spirit. They sought God alone for strength. They worshipped God in their hearts and lives. They were both men after God’s own heart. They lived by faith in God and knew when they...
Sep 15, 2016
These visions of John are a reminder that the dismal condition of the existing world must be seen in relation to the promise of the condition in which it will be when God’s redemptive work is finished. In this passage we come to the climax of the visions given to John as the Book of Revelation. The new heavens and the new earth are a complete reversal of the whole history of sin. A new beginning is made, which corresponds with the new creation of the resurrected life of the Christian believer. I...
Sep 11, 2016
Do not refuse Him who speaks. We must not remain comfortable. A shaking must take place in us, as a great shaking is taking place all around us in our society and in the world. We need an awakening, a revival, that we may be the hands and feet of Christ. The people of the world are dry bones. There is desolation and despair. We need to speak life. Let us remember God and not accept what we see in the world as the new reality. Let us not ignore the means of grace such as prayer and the study of t...
Sep 08, 2016
Elijah had just come through many trials and he had done many great miracles. But even after all this Elijah was taken by his fears and doubts. Elijah was brought to a place of quiet to hear God’s voice. Not only doing works out of religious zeal. The Northern Kingdom all around him was prospering economically, but it was declining spiritually. Elijah in the midst of this maintained an attitude of worship and testimony. He still heard the still small voice of God. Like Elijah, Nicodemus was doin...
Sep 04, 2016
Isaiah is drawing his prophecy to a close and in these closing chapters he describes a very different destiny for two very different groups of people. Isaiah speaks during a time of imminent judgment and for many it is a time of confusion because people do not understand why events are taking place around them. Others wonder why He does not work and move in their midst in the same way that he had in the past. The answer to why God is restrained and why He is holding His peace is because of wicke...
Aug 27, 2016
There is a need to discern the signs of het times. God calls His people in every generation to take a stand. We must be fit, ready, and have confidence. We must not live careless lives like the rest of society. We must remain alert, awake, and ready to respond. Be assured that perilous times will come. Do not think it strange. Our society has become increasingly wicked over time, men and women become more selfish over time. Generation after generation moves further and further from the truth. Ho...
Aug 22, 2016
The effort of the natural man to overcome in their own flesh has led to their utter ruin. Most think the more they get the more secure they will become. Our life cannot be based on ambitions and desires! Personal happiness and enjoyment must not be placed first in our lives; it will lead us away from God. God desires people to come to Him and become one with Him. All who go on by faith will become like Him. Do not fall into the trap of living for self and loving the world. King Solomon fell into...
Aug 17, 2016
