Tuesday, December 31, 2024

• Don’t mistake God’s patience for His approval.
  • (2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.)
  • (Ecclesiastes 8:11 Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed quickly, therefore the hearts of the sons of men among them are given fully to do evil.)
  • (Romans 2:5 But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,)

Monday, December 30, 2024

The honor of marriage…leads to…the glory of family.

Sunday, December 29, 2024

• The two bookends of the church age are the Visitation and the Revelation – with the Proclamation falling in between. The kingdom of God has prevailed ever since…and always will.
• Let me break that down. The two bookends of the church age are what can be called “The Visitation” (i.e. Jesus’ earthly life including His resurrection from the dead and ascension into heaven) and “The Revelation” (i.e. the Second Coming of Christ, which revealed Him to be God) – with “The Proclamation” (i.e. the preaching and teaching done by the apostles as described in the book of Acts) falling in between. The kingdom of God (which is the kingdom of Jesus Christ) has prevailed over the entire universe ever since…and always will.

Saturday, December 28, 2024

God has made a name for Himself…and that name is Jesus Christ.

Friday, December 27, 2024

• “In my work with the defendants (at the Nuremberg Trials of Nazis after World War II) I was searching for the nature of evil and I now think I have come close to defining it. A lack of empathy. It’s the one characteristic that connects all the defendants, a genuine incapacity to feel with their fellow men. Evil, I think, is the absence of empathy.” – Captain G. M. Gilbert, US Army psychologist, Author of Nuremberg Diary
• The quote above helps me understand why it is so alarming when I see a man hear the story of an innocent and generous man being crucified as a criminal and yet expresses no curiosity about why such an awful thing happened. But then I remember that I was just such a man…until someone provoked me to investigate the matter. We can be a hard-hearted race, we humans.

Thursday, December 26, 2024

All God asks of us is repentance. Is that too much to ask?

Wednesday, December 25, 2024

Another of the many signs of God’s patience was His willingness to come thirty years before the show really began. (Luke 3:23)

Tuesday, December 24, 2024

Who speaks for Christianity? First and foremost, Jesus. Who speaks for Jesus? First and foremost, His apostles. That’s why we read the New Testament first every day – to make sure we’re hearing from Jesus.

Monday, December 23, 2024

A sculpture is a work of art in which the sculptor starts with a block of, say, marble, and then hammers and chisels away all that he does not want to see. Is He still working on you? If nothing has been chiseled or chipped away lately, maybe you’ve moved.

Sunday, December 22, 2024

Jesus Christ came to earth in order to demonstrate how willing God is to forgive us. The Bible tells us He loves us…but His life and death showed it.

Saturday, December 21, 2024

One of these – pop culture or the Bible – is going to shape our character more than the other one will.

Friday, December 20, 2024

The Bible is less a book than an anthology – rather, two anthologies. Both are ancient, though one is more ancient than the other. The less ancient anthology – the one closer to our times – helps us better understand the more ancient one.

Thursday, December 19, 2024

If there wasn’t order, we wouldn’t know what disorder is. If there wasn’t a God, we wouldn’t know what atheism is.

Wednesday, December 18, 2024

A faith based on history (what happened) is unshakable because history (what happened) is unchangeable. God either can’t or won’t undo what’s done, because if He could or would, we would never know for sure if anything was done.

Tuesday, December 17, 2024

We should all periodically remind ourselves: “Just because someone doesn’t do something my way doesn’t necessarily mean they’re doing it the wrong way.”

Monday, December 16, 2024

Have you ever experienced what it’s like to have someone refuse to trust you when there’s every reason they should trust you? (This is God’s daily experience.)

Sunday, December 15, 2024

I’ve noticed that the word “history” is used in two senses: 1) what happened (e.g. Washington crossed the Delaware River on Christmas night,1776), or 2) the record of what happened (e.g. that fact about Washington’s crossing recorded in history books and biographies about him). Both uses of this word are valid, and we sometimes go back and forth between those uses without having to explain ourselves. But to speak about the difference between the two uses for a moment, the record of what happened (meaning 2) can be changed but what actually happened (meaning 1) cannot. God rooted our salvation in the first meaning of history (what happened) because nothing else could be more unchangeable.

Saturday, December 14, 2024

Is it true, as atheists say, that it’s only religious people who are keeping the idea of God alive…or is it the other way around?

Friday, December 13, 2024

In the 2nd century, a man named Tatian combined the four Gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John – into a single harmonized Gospel. It was called “The Diatessaron” – which meant “through four” in Greek.  This unified story was welcomed and read in many Christian churches but only for a while because people eventually realized that something was lost in the combination – specifically, the four distinct voices. Harmonies of the gospels are still produced today, but when people buy a Bible, they want to see Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in the table of contents. “EVERY FACT IS TO BE CONFIRMED BY THE TESTIMONY OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES” say the Scriptures…and it seems the Lord wanted us to have four – as if to make a point – when it came to His earthly life.

Thursday, December 12, 2024

I wrote in this space yesterday about the obsolescence of the modern church, but also about how its good deeds (such as feeding the poor) should continue. This can be accomplished by defined-purpose organizations – what are sometimes called “parachurch” organizations. They can be big or small. To provoke your thinking further, consider what this writer says about Alexis de Tocqueville’s observations of a young America. Modern church consumes the time and money donated to it from its members to first and foremost preserve itself. I ought to know – I used to be a pastor and saw first hand how impossible it was for the church as an institution to be selfless.

Wednesday, December 11, 2024

• The kingdom of God > church. 
• The church chronicled in the New Testament knew this and that’s why they laid down their lives for the kingdom of God.
• The church that exists today senses this is true but either claims it itself is the kingdom of God or else that the kingdom of God is yet to come – all because they do not want to lay down their lives.
• The purpose of the NT church was to prepare for the kingdom; now that the kingdom has come, the church is no longer needed. But, some will protest, churches at least sometimes do good deeds! Indeed, this is true, but those good deeds can continue through individuals working in designated-purpose groups without having to maintain the institution of church – that is, without having to serve the needs of church instead of the needs of people.

Tuesday, December 10, 2024

• Psalm 99:2 The LORD is great in Zion, / And He is exalted above all the peoples.
• When this Old Testament verse was originally written, Zion was on earth. Zion was another name for the city of Jerusalem, the capital of ancient Israel. Today, however, this verse refers to the Zion in heaven – that is, the city of God where human beings go after this life to live forever nearer to God. This change in location and orientation was an outcome of God’s messianic mission to save us – “us” being the human race created through Adam and Eve.
• Just how near we get to God in Zion – that is, what part of the heavenly city we ultimately reside in – will be an outcome of God’s judgment of how well or how poorly we conducted ourselves on earth.

Monday, December 9, 2024

• Doubter’s Disease is a plague to be avoided.
• James 1:6-8 …the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind…a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

Sunday, December 8, 2024

• Q: Why should I pay any attention to Isaiah 55:6? A: Luke 24:25.
• Isaiah 55:6 Seek the LORD while He may be found; / Call upon Him while He is near.
• Luke 24:25 And [Jesus] said to them, “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!”
• More broadly, the New Testament tells us how to understand the Old Testament.

Saturday, December 7, 2024

• Everything in the Bible ties back to Jesus.
• Google’s AI says “ties back to” means that something is connected to or originates from a previous point, idea, or event, essentially indicating a link or relationship between two things where one can be traced back to the other.

Friday, December 6, 2024

As the world had treated Jesus, so it treated the apostles He sent. The apostles knew what they were getting themselves into. I don’t know which staggers me more: that they were willing to go or that He was willing to send them.

Thursday, December 5, 2024

“If you were left only with what you thanked God for, what would you have?” – a bright college student

Wednesday, December 4, 2024

• Psalm 99:1 The LORD reigns, let the peoples tremble;
  He is enthroned above the cherubim, let the earth shake!
• Cherubim are angels. (In Hebrew, adding “im” to the end of a word makes it plural. Here’s what Merriam-Webster has to say about where cherubim fall in the celestial hierarchy: The “celestial hierarchy” is “a traditional hierarchy of angels ranked from lowest to highest into the following nine orders: angels, archangels, principalities, powers, virtues, dominions, thrones, cherubim, and seraphim.”
• I make the point above because we need to have a sense of majesty and power when we see cherub or cherubim in the Bible. What a shame that the English adjective “cherubic” – primarily because of some misguided painters who lived centuries ago – has come to be defined by Merriam-Webster as like “a: a beautiful usually winged child in painting and sculpture” or “b: an innocent-looking usually chubby and rosy person.”

Tuesday, December 3, 2024

Are we fearing the Lord…or are we walking around with dulled senses? (There is no third option.)

Monday, December 2, 2024

Everyone has faith. The question is: Where do we place it? Atheists, for example, place their faith in themselves and/or in each other.

Sunday, December 1, 2024

• Just as no one saw Jesus in the instant He was raised from the dead, no one saw Jesus in the instant He came again. It was seeing Him after He rose from the dead that persuaded the apostles, and it has been in understanding Him after He came again that has brought salvation to our souls. This is the way of God.
• The way of God is not our way. That we keep wishing God would do things the way we would do them is a sign of our spiritual immaturity.

Saturday, November 30, 2024

The people of God, beginning with Abraham: They were originally a people of the promise, who became a people of the land, and even a people of the temple, but who ultimately became a people of the book.

Friday, November 29, 2024

• 1 Peter 3:15 …sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts…
• Jesus is the King of hearts! (He’s more than that, but He’s also that.)

Thursday, November 28, 2024
Thanksgiving Day

How important are the apostles? We only know the words Jesus spoke on earth through His apostles’ words. Think where we’d be without those words.

Wednesday, November 27, 2024

A Perfect Life. That’s what Jesus lived, and that’s why we study it incessantly.

Tuesday, November 26, 2024

Eric Hoffer, an American philosopher and social critic, said, “Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket”. This adage certainly applies to the church. That’s why we have to keep reminding ourselves that the “great cause” is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He never deteriorates.

Monday, November 25, 2024

Less is never more. It’s sometimes better, but never more. With that in mind, we need to speak fewer words and think fewer thoughts. For this to improve life, we only need to make sure we are choosing the best words and best thoughts as the ones to retain.

Sunday, November 24, 2024

The apostles were a one-generation phenomenon. (I always wince inside when I hear someone today calling himself an apostle.) We’ve yet to fully realize just how great the apostles were. We wish we knew more about them, but they spoke far more about Jesus than about themselves.

Saturday, November 23, 2024

By converting women from being men’s helpers to being their competitors, feminism has foisted on men a double whammy: 1) they lose the help God promised them, and 2) the competitive environment becomes even more intense. Meanwhile, if feminism is good for women, why are they increasingly unhappy?

Friday, November 22, 2024

We’re not told much about Jesus’ childhood in the gospels, and Jesus didn’t start His ministry until He was about thirty. What was He doing all that time? Well, for one thing, He was observing the world and the people in it. No one could have told the parables He told and given the examples of human behavior He gave without having spent a lot of time observing how the world works and how people behave. He was, as James would put it, “quick to hear” and “slow to speak.”

Thursday, November 21, 2024

The Lord Jesus Christ is all about the redemption of human conscience. Otherwise, we’re just all doing what’s right in our own eyes. The chief means by which the Lord accomplishes this purpose is the Holy Spirit, which includes the Bible (which is a product of the Holy Spirit having worked through men).

Wednesday, November 20, 2024

We do live in an age of mendacity, a time when lies abound – big ones and small ones.

• The biggest lie told against the Old Testament in this age is evolution.
• The biggest lie told against the New Testament in this age is that we don’t know for sure who actually wrote most of the 27 books.

Tuesday, November 19, 2024

Think of those women and Joseph of Arimathea who showed respect for the remains of Jesus, how they were rewarded even though they weren’t expecting Him to rise three days later. Even when we don’t understand Him, we can still reverence Him. And we will be glad we did.

Monday, November 18, 2024

The Lord calls us to be among those who are seeking to normalize and routinize righteousness. How well – or how poorly – are we doing?

Sunday, November 17, 2024

Immanuel (God is with us) was always true – not just when Jesus was on the earth. It’s just that Jesus coming to earth was “God with us” in a whole new way – a better way. And since His resurrection from the dead, ascension into heaven, and coming again in glory, it’s now the best way of all…and forever, to boot!

Saturday, November 16, 2024

When we find ourselves wishing God did things differently, that’s the equivalent of thinking He’s the one who ought to repent.

Friday, November 15, 2024

• America began, not just as a Christian nation, but, to be more precise about it, a Protestant Christian nation. You can dislike this fact, but it’s historically undeniable. To say otherwise is to be unreasonable. Whether or not a return to that condition is desirable or even possible is a separate discussion. History is history.
• For anyone who’s interested in the holiday movie It’s a Wonderful Life with Jimmy Stewart (1946), here’s a recent article relating it to Protestantism: “George Bailey Is the Protestant Elite We Need.”

Thursday, November 14, 2024

• “Christianity is a knowledge tradition. It’s a set of claims about reality that are either true or false.” – Wintery Knight, blogger
• If true, Christianity demands radical change in an individual’s thought life. If false, no change of any kind is required of the individual. What’s really strange is the vast number of people who claim Christianity is true but don’t change.

Wednesday, November 13, 2024

• You don’t have to be a preacher to be a man of God – you just have to be a man…who is devoted to God and not himself.
• May your children remember you as a man who was not afraid to read the Bible.
• If you do not succeed in fully obeying God, may you die trying.

Tuesday, November 12, 2024

“What’s in it for Him?” is a question we ought to be asking ourselves whenever we’re planning a new endeavor or facing a difficult decision. (It’s just another way of saying, “Not my will, but Thine be done.”)

Monday, November 11, 2024

In 2006, Barack Obama said, “We are no longer a Christian nation…” The problem wasn’t so much that he said this, but that he said it like that was okay.

Sunday, November 10, 2024

What do women lose when feminism reigns? Righteousness, peace, and joy. Isn’t that obvious from observing them?

Saturday, November 9, 2024

Jesus Christ arose to restore communications between God and man.

Friday, November 8, 2024

Crucifixion was the price God paid to get the world’s attention.

Thursday, November 7, 2024

Google AI says that the idiom “loose lips sink ships” originated as a slogan during World War II to warn citizens and soldiers about the dangers of careless talk. I like the expression because it helps me reflect on the importance of “everyone must be quick to hear” (James 1:19).

Wednesday, November 6, 2024

Never shy away from the historicity of the miracles of Jesus. They were intended to call attention to Him.

Tuesday, November 5, 2024

Ps 41:1 How blessed is he who considers the helpless;
The LORD will deliver him in a day of trouble.

(Feminism has rendered many married men helpless – that is, such men did not have to become divorced to be deprived of a helper. Let us pray for our society.)

Monday, November 4, 2024

These days, so many people are “raising awareness” of this or that cause. I hope to raise awareness of Jesus Christ. He is the cause worthy of everyone’s support!

Sunday, November 3, 2024

Feminism has taken men’s helpers – who have this role by God’s design – and turned them into men’s competitors. In this way, Satan is succeeding at taking the wind out of men’s sails. Tragically, then, things only get worse from that point on because no woman wants to stay on a ship that is not going anywhere.

Saturday, November 2, 2024

The sexual revolution is rebellion against the Lord. It will not stand.

Friday, November 1, 2024

When we say “Thine is the kingdom” in the Lord’s prayer, we should be sure to think of what “Thine” implies – that “this is His world and we’re all just living in it.”

Thursday, October 31, 2024

Because Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of reality, we should make Him the cornerstone of our consciousness. This can’t be achieved without loving Him above all else.

Wednesday, October 30, 2024

Last week, a political pundit declared that, depending on the outcome of the presidential election, we could be seeing violence, divorce, and “the greatest mental health crisis in the history of the country.” If that’s the case, mental illness is already widespread and the election outcome will only provoke a highly visible symptom of it. How can we not be already living in a time of the greatest mental health crisis in the history of the country when men think they can become women and women want to kill their babies?

Tuesday, October 29, 2024

Someone recently said, “I think this is a country that needs religion. It’s like the glue that holds it together, and we don’t … have that.” So true – and very sadly so! The first right of every American is found in the First Amendment to the Constitution – and it is not the freedom of speech, it is the freedom of religion. Go back and reread it if you are at all unsure about this. Yet we no longer have the freedom of religion in America, for if we did, we wouldn’t know who Jack Phillips the cake baker and Barronelle Stutzman the florist were. And the loss of this foremost right to freedom of religion is the reason America is coming unglued.

Monday, October 28, 2024

In John 5:44, Jesus makes reference to “the one and only God.” In John 3:16, Jesus referred to Himself as “the only begotten Son of God.” The NASB translators’ notes on the Greek word “monogenes” that was translated into “only begotten” reads “Or unique, only one of His kind.” Thus as there was “the one and only God” there was also “the one and only Son of God.”

Sunday, October 27, 2024

There can be no doubt that the events of Jesus’ life on earth were newsworthy. And they are still worthy of historical attention today because His life stands out as supremely unique among all other human lives that have ever been lived. But the very important additional point that the apostles kept making over and over as they announced these events to the world was that everything that occurred with respect to Jesus was according to promises (prophecies) God had made in the Hebrew Scriptures – what we today call the Old Testament. (See Acts 13:23; Rom 1:1-3; Titus 1:1-3; and elsewhere.) That is, God said everything He was going to do, and had the plan documented, long before He executed it. The shot Babe Ruth called was nothing compared to this!

Saturday, October 26, 2024

Contrast the quality of the leadership team that Jesus put together (the apostles) with the leadership team of Israel that condemned Him (the Sanhedrin). The latter were men of the world, but the former were “men of whom the world was not worthy.”

Friday, October 25, 2024

• The duty of every man is to become a student of Jesus Christ, leading the members of his family to do the same. (If you want elaboration on that point, read this book.)
  • (Yes, for those of you who are wondering, I am using “student” as a synonym for disciple.)

Thursday, October 24, 2024

• Everyone is going to heaven because long before we were born, God decided we were “Wanted: Dead or Alive.” 
  • Rom 14:9 For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.
  • 1 Cor 15:22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.

Wednesday, October 23, 2024

• The expression “born again” appears four times in the Bible – twice from the mouth of Jesus and twice from Peter. In all four cases, the expression could also be translated “born from above.” Both meanings apply because when we are born the first time it is of a woman on earth, but when we are born again it is of God in heaven.
  • John 3:3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
  • John 3:7 “Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’
  • 1 Pet 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
  • 1 Pet 1:23 for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God.

Tuesday, October 22, 2024

• Dwayne Johnson* used to say – and may still say, for all I know – “Know your role!” It’s an admonition we all ought to take to heart no matter who says it. If you don’t know your role, then you won’t know what to do when it’s time for you to do something. This is part of why Satan has inspired transgenderism – so a human being will be confused about his or her role and therefore not know for sure what to do when it’s time to do something. It is a manifestation of one of Satan’s most fundamental schemes, which is to replace order with chaos in order to destabilize human relations.
• (*I know this man refers to himself as “The Rock,” but anyone who reads the Bible knows that name has already been taken.)

Monday, October 21, 2024

The New Testament is either the greatest story ever told or the greatest lie ever sold. There can be no in between. Every copy of it deserves to either be read voraciously or burned vigorously.

Sunday, October 20, 2024

• Ps 35:27 Let them shout for joy and rejoice, who favor my vindication; and let them say continually, “The LORD be magnified, who delights in the prosperity of His servant.”
• (We should always let the New Testament interpret the Old Testament for us. In other words, we should always let the apostles interpret the prophets. That is why I have paired the verse above with the verse below. We should interpret the verse above in the light of the verse below. In this regard, I call your attention to the word “prosperity” or “prosper” in both verses. We should let the apostle John tell us how we should think about what the prophet David wrote. Thus we will see that the well-being that the Lord desires for us is multi-faceted, and that well-being of the soul is the facet that comes first before financial wealth and physical health. Thus if we focus first on the well-being of our souls then we have reason to believe we’ll do just as well in the other two arenas. Consistent with this, Jesus said, “seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” in Matthew 6:33.)
• 3 John 1:2 Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers.

Saturday, October 19, 2024

The apostle Paul seems to suggest in Romans 14:1 that someone who is weak in faith is strong in opinions. As if to confirm the point, 1 Kings 18:21 suggests that the presence of doubt suppressed faith in that situation and led to plural opinions – resulting in zero faith and multiple opinions. It’s not that opinions are necessarily bad, for even the apostle Paul had opinions (1 Cor 7:25, 40), and they’ve always been helpful to his readers. Let us just beware of letting opinions crowd faith out of our hearts. Opinions come from our minds (and, again, are not necessarily wrong), but faith comes from hearing the word of the Lord (Rom 10:17). Therefore, let us seek not to be opinionated, but rather to be faithful (that is, full of faith).

Friday, October 18, 2024

• The Times Change:
  • Ancient Israelites (15th century BC to 1 century AD) were a people of the tabernacle and then of the temple.
  • Ancient Christians (1st century AD) were a people of the gathering.
  • Modern Christians (16th century to 21st century AD) are a people of the book.

Thursday, October 17, 2024

Reading the Bible day after day is like reading a mystery novel or watching a television detective drama – it’s constantly being on the lookout for clues…to more truth.

Wednesday, October 16, 2024

“Jesus is the man!” – a man’s man.

Tuesday, October 15, 2024

Today’s most-read Christian authors can become wealthy through book royalties. Nothing necessarily wrong with that, but, by contrast, the apostles neither sought nor received royalties. Rather, they paid with their lives for the privilege of writing about Him whom they loved. Which group are you wiser trusting for spiritual guidance?

Monday, October 14, 2024

“The sexes are pushed together earlier than ever,
[while] marriage is pushed back later than ever.”

I came across this and thought it was a point well taken. I remember noticing in the early 2000’s that parents, especially mothers, had become obsessed with their children going to high school prom. This had become a primal rite of passage, celebrated and photographed as if it was a wedding. By contrast, when I was in high school in the 1960’s, our parents barely knew we were going to prom – much less were they pushing us to invite all our friends and their dates over to our houses for picture-taking sessions. Concurrent with increasing parental interest and involvement in their teenagers’ romantic lives, such parents began to think of marriage as something for thirty-somethings rather than for twenty-somethings. This is madness – trying to get young people to pair off sooner but marry later. The age of pairing up and marrying off ought to have been kept closer together. Otherwise, society will get what our society has gotten…which is an epidemic of premarital sex and unwanted pregnancies. Teenage social relationships should be in groups for as long as possible. Dating should be postponed to be as close as possible to the age of the ability to marry. “Going steady” or “getting pinned” or whatever it’s called these days should be banned. Such pairings turn over frequently and this turnover does a better job of preparing teenagers for divorce than for marriage. The best way to prepare your children for marriage is to teach them how to be good decision-makers. For if they can form a habit of making wise decisions, then they’ll choose wisely whom to marry. Nothing has more impact on the quality of a marriage than choosing a quality spouse…and, in return,  being a quality spouse. No baked product can be better than the ingredients used to make it…and every marriage experiences the oven.

Sunday, October 13, 2024

• Politics is about groups; religion is about individuals. Organized religion is the politicizing of religion. This is why the Pharisees acted more like politicians than like saints. Pure religion is how you think and act in the sight of God.
• Politics is for man-made organizations. All human organizations are man-made – except for the family. God designed the family and He’s never had a need to change its structure. The man and the woman each have a choice to make in the launch of a family, but its organizational structure is of God. The man leads and the woman follows, with the children honoring both parents.

Saturday, October 12, 2024

During an interview published last week, Tucker Carlson asked Elon Musk about his thoughts on a Creator. Musk didn’t think there was much definitive that could be said. Though this part of their conversation went on for several minutes, neither man mentioned Jesus of Nazareth and the definitive things he had to say on the subject. Sad to say, therefore, these two highly intelligent men wasted their time (and ours) discussing the issue philosophically instead of historically. One of the main reasons God became a man was to shift discussions about God from the arena of philosophy to the arena of history – where it’s much easier to find out what is true and what is not. The Jew named Jesus either knew what he was talking about or he didn’t. If he did, let us sit at his feet and let him teach us about God. If not, we’re going to continue talking in circles about the most important questions of life.

Friday, October 11, 2024

• Psalm 34:9 O fear the LORD, you His saints; for to those who fear Him there is no want.
• Psalm 23:1 The LORD is my shepherd,I shall not want.
• In the juxtaposition of two Bible verses that have something in common – in this case, “no want” – one verse helps explain the other. That is, to “fear” the Lord tells us something about what it means to let Him “shepherd” us…and vice versa. Thus can “Scripture interpret Scripture,” which is a lot better than us being left entirely on our own to interpret it. This phrase – “let Scripture interpret Scripture” – was something the old-timers taught me when I first came to the faith…and I’ve seen their wisdom vindicated time and again in the decades since.

Thursday, October 10, 2024

The gospel of Jesus Christ is the most important PSA of all time.

Wednesday, October 9, 2024

If we can think of Christianity as a ship, it has accumulated so many barnacles that most observers of it just see a blob of barnacles and can barely see the ship itself – if at all.

Tuesday, October 8, 2024

An immediate high Christology and the preexistence of Christ were preached from the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:36). The statement I just wrote will only have meaning for those familiar with Martin Hengel’s (1926-2009) conception of a new “history of religion school” as rightly displacing Wilhelm Bousset’s (1865-1920) “history of religion school.” (The term is rendered “Religionsgeschichtliche Schule” in German, Hengel and Bousset both being German.) For people not familiar with these schools of thought, just know that historical research has concluded and confirmed that the worship – not just admiration – of Jesus was part and parcel of the apostles’ teaching once He rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. That is, the deity of Jesus was not just an idea that only crept in after Christianity ceased to be a Jewish sect and began to take root in Gentile soil, but was present from the very first day the apostles presented the gospel to their fellow Jews.

Monday, October 7, 2024

Let us love animals, but let us love people more. When a human being cares more about his suffering pet than about his suffering neighbor, something is amiss in his soul. Animals perish, but humans live forever. Animals are creatures of instinct, but human beings are creatures of conscience and made in the image of God. For thousands of years, animals were sacrificed to God by humans and for humans with the blessing, and even by the instructions through Moses, by God. However, God only ever allowed the sacrifice of a human in the case of Himself.

Sunday, October 6, 2024

Luke writes in Acts 2:42 that the 3,000 people who responded positively to Peter’s first public announcement about the resurrection of Jesus were, in the days that followed, “continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” How wonderful and fitting that we as families can still do the same today!

Saturday, October 5, 2024

• Jesus is a reputation changer!
• There’s a difference between joining Christ and joining Christians.
• Judaism and Churchianity have a lot in common.

Friday, October 4, 2024

• Why does a woman who says “My body, my choice” think that right should exist only for her and not for any bodies temporarily residing in her body?
• Why do people who speak of “a woman’s right to choose” always seem to be referring to the act of abortion instead of the act of procreation? If the right choice is made regarding the act of procreation, then the question of abortion never arises.

Thursday, October 3, 2024

Pete Rose died on Monday. It probably didn’t take him long to realize that all the time he spent on earth trying to convince people that he should have been put in the baseball hall of fame in spite of his gambling was wasted effort. There’s a different sort of hall of fame where he lives now. And he has to live with knowing that he probably could have made that one even after the gambling, just as Paul made it after his pogrom of Jesus-believing Jews. Paul lived the rest of his earthly life for Christ, while Pete just continued living for himself. Pete will have to be content with learning in heaven what his fellow batsman C. T. Studd was able to learn on earth:

Only one life, ’twill soon be past,
Only what’s done for Christ will last.

Charles Thomas Studd (1860 – 1931), legendary English cricketer and missionary

Wednesday, October 2, 2024

Scroll down to September 25 and look for the heading “Gender Gap.” Beneath that heading, you’ll see that I’ve added some links that reflect reactions to, and the growing awareness of, the gap between men and women – especially young men and young women – when it comes to their views on religion and politics (two topics that are becoming increasingly inseparable).

Tuesday, October 1, 2024

If there’s no such thing as being “half pregnant,” then there should be no question about which trimesters are suitable for an abortion. (I’m not suggesting that this is currently a viable political position in America; I’m only saying it is the only logical position.)

Monday, September 30, 2024

Whenever I hear anyone talking about “the forgotten man,” Jesus of Nazareth comes to my mind. Why? Because He’s the most forgotten man of all (Eccl 9:13-17). Of course, hardly anyone these days who speaks about “the forgotten man” is referring to Jesus…but that just proves my point, doesn’t it?

Sunday, September 29, 2024

When I was the pastor of a small church, I assumed God wanted it to grow. I came to realize, however, that He wanted it to shrink. That is, He wanted me to focus on my family and not on a church. That wasn’t just His will for me – that is His will for the advancement of the kingdom of God!

Saturday, September 28, 2024

Jesus living on earth in the 1st century AD wasn’t the closest to us God has ever come. Rather, Jesus was the sign of just how close to us God has always been. That’s the main truth we should draw from the word “Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7:14; 8:8-10; Matthew 1:23)

Friday, September 27, 2024

• Both Ecclesiastes 8:5 (OT) and James 2:8 (NT) speak of “royal” direction for our lives. The word “royal” should remind us of Jesus because He is now “king” over all creation. Obeying Him means ceasing to be a part of the problem and beginning to be a part of the solution.
• We do face in this early part of the 21st century a potentially-calamitous climate crisis. It is no exaggeration to call it an existential threat. I am not speaking, however, of the physical climate, but rather of the spiritual climate. That is, the carbon dioxide of secularism is threatening to snuff out the oxygen of faith in Christ. That is way more important than something that may or may not be an actual problem we can do something about in the physical environment.

Thursday, September 26, 2024

There are hundreds of proverbs in the book of Proverbs – with total counts being in the 800-900 range. It’s hard to be exact because it’s often a judgment call as to when one proverb ends and another starts. Remember that chapter and verse numbers weren’t added to the Bible until over 2,000 years after the book of Proverbs was written. (The Chapter and Verse Divisions Post-Date the Authors by Over a Thousand Years)

Wednesday, September 25, 2024

To WORSHIP is to BE ENTHRALLED WITH.

Gender Gap

• Recent commentary on the current and rising male-female distinctions in religion and politics (which, before the sexual revolution, used to be two different subjects):
  • “For the first time in modern American history, young men are now more religious than their female peers…‘We’ve never seen it before,’ Ryan Burge, an associate professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University, said of the flip. Among Generation Z Christians, this dynamic is playing out in a stark way: The men are staying in church, while the women are leaving at a remarkable clip…The men and women of Gen Z are also on divergent trajectories in almost every facet of their lives, including education, sexuality and spirituality.” [emphasis added] – New York Times, September 23, 2024 (The article is titled In a First Among Christians, Young Men Are More Religious Than Young Women; linked in “Signs of the Times” of “Daily Help” for September 24, 2024.)
  • Generation Z religiosity gives evidence of gender norms, Washington Examiner, September 25, 2024.
  • For the first time, young men are more religious than young women, Wintery Knight, September 25, 2024. Quotes the Financial Times of London and emphasizes the global scope of the current trend.
  • The Religion of America’s Young Adults…And how the gender gap could be the story going forward, September 26, 2024, by Ryan Burge, the data analyst on religion and politics quoted in the NY Times article above.
  • Brad Wilcox on Twitter references related material by Ryan Burge (linked just above), Ross Douthat, and Axios (linked just below).
  • “America’s youngest voters turn right” by Noah Bressner of Axios. Cites a recent Harvard Youth, measuring political but not religious attitudes. The shift is nascent and is contained in the 18-24 range; the youth cohort overall (18-29) still leans decidedly left.
  • Aaron Renn’s commentary on the NY Times article and the Ross Douthat response to it. October 1, 2024.

Tuesday, September 24, 2024

Nabeel Qureshi (1983-2017) famously said, “If Jesus really did rise from the dead, that changes…everything.” Indeed, it does.

Monday, September 23, 2024

• Little did we know when we were laughing at Baghdad Bob broadcasting from Iraq in the 1990’s that thirty years later we’d be encountering information sources like him on every mainstream news channel in America. Truth was in short supply in the 1990’s; it’s even more scarce these days. By contrast, the Bible never stops telling us the truth.
• “People get saved by believing [the] gospel [of Jesus Christ], and by no other means.” – Jerry Falwell ***** 1 Corinthians 1:21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. ***** Romans 10:17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.

Sunday, September 22, 2024

Pope Francis recently said, “every religion is a way to arrive at God.” If that were true, Jesus would not have been crucified.

Saturday, September 21, 2024

Should a US government agency be funding sex change operations and LGBT activism in foreign countries? How long should God be expected to continue supporting and protecting a nation that exports such things?

Friday, September 20, 2024

“I am beginning something new. Reading the Bible aloud and recording it. Hopefully you will enjoy this new series.” – a Substack writer. (I hope this become a trend with Substack writers!)

Thursday, September 19, 2024

• When is the last time 28% of one political party’s voters said the country would be better off if the presidential candidate of the opposing party were killed? (Source) Whatever we’re going through these days is not just “the same ole same ole.”
• When the news media says “Crime is down,” it only means that crime statistics are down. We have to learn how to live in a society that lies with ever-increasing frequency.

Wednesday, September 18, 2024

Isaiah famously said of himself and his contemporaries, “Woe is me, for I am ruined because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips…” You and I live in an age like his. That is, we are liars and we live among liars. Just as Paul said, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” so we can similarly say, “All have lied and fallen short of the truth of God.” This is a terrible situation to be in, but like Isaiah and Paul, we can repent. We do not have to continue lying and we shouldn’t. We should turn away from every form of deceit. As Soviet dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn said, we should “live not by lies.” This takes constant consciousness and intentionality – even a lifelong dedication to repentance. We really don’t understand how much falsehood is in our individual hearts until we become zealous about removing it. Isaiah and Paul removed lying from their hearts. Let us do the same lest we be swept away in the judgments against lying that are coming our nation’s way.

Tuesday, September 17, 2024

• Whenever I hear them warn me about a threat to “our democracy,” I get the feeling that “our” is a lot more important to them than whatever they mean by “democracy.” I also get the feeling that I’m not included in their definition of “our.”
• As for “democracy,” it’s supposed to mean government of the people – and, more specifically, rule by the will of a majority of a country’s citizens. But where and when were the votes taken on gay “marriage,” “transgender” rights, or open borders? And these are just a few of the issues about which this question could be asked.

Monday, September 16, 2024

• Between digital censorship and self-censorship, it’s the latter that’s more powerful. That is, when and as people become aware of speech that will get them stigmatized, ostracized, or otherwise penalized, they tend to censor themselves. For this reason, digital censorship has an effect even on non-digital conversations.
• The thickening and reinforcing of the digital iron curtain that has descended over social media in the last decade is, for the most part, taking place well behind the scenes. Even when there is public disclosure about forms of increasing censorship, they are disguised with euphemisms like digital literacy, societal resilience, misinformation, disinformation, mal-information, and so on.
• My childhood and adolescence took place in the 1950’s and 1960’s. We were taught that news in the Soviet Union was controlled and disseminated by the government news agency TASS, the communist party newspaper Pravda (a Russian word meaning “truth”) and Supreme Soviet newspaper Izvestia (Russian for “news”). We felt sorry for the Russian people because they were regularly being lied to. Now I know firsthand how they felt, and I did not have to move to Russia to find out.
• At least our Bibles haven’t been confiscated…yet.

Sunday, September 15, 2024

Living for self comes naturally; living for Christ requires sustained self-discipline. This is why narcissists outnumber mensches.

Saturday, September 14, 2024

I read the Bible and I understand parts of it. As long as the parts keep growing over time, that’s enough for me. I can’t imagine anyone besides Jesus understanding all of it. And it doesn’t matter if I understand more or less than the next fellow, because God is not measuring us based on how much we understand but rather on how well each of us is obeying the parts we each understand.

Friday, September 13, 2024

It says something profound that God chose to be known by the cross even more than by the creation. The latter is something He did for us. The former is something we did to Him in spite of what He did for us – and He wanted us to know He loved us anyway.

Thursday, September 12, 2024

The modern church has no more to do with the church of the Bible than modern Israel has to do with the Israel of the Bible. We live in the kingdom of God…in which the king of ancient Israel and head of the ancient church rules over the whole world. In other words, Jesus Christ is Lord over every single human being whether that human being acknowledges this fact or not.

Wednesday, September 11, 2024

• Pat Buchanan famously said “The culture war is at root a religious war.” I would add that it is a war that culture launched against religion. Thus religion’s response to culture has only been to defend itself. Yet culture has stigmatized religion’s self-defense by asking the rhetorical and accusatory question, “Why are you engaging in culture wars?” as if religion had been the aggressor. Thus the best status religion has been able to achieve in the public mind is a moral equivalency with culture. The worst status, which is the case far more often, is that religion has been considered the culture has been the innocent victim of religion. All this is turning the truth on its head. The family structure culture has been unraveling is the structure established and supported by religion.
• For a more precise understanding of what’s going on, substitute “Christianity” for “religion” throughout the paragraph above.

Tuesday, September 10, 2024

Transhumanism

• As if transgenderism wasn’t evil enough, there is now transhumanism. Google AI defines it as “a philosophical and scientific movement that aims to improve the human condition through the use of technology.” It goes on to say, “Transhumanists believe that technology can help people overcome biological limitations and achieve a better quality of life.”
  • In a recent Substack essay, Rod Dreher quotes from a New York Times article (which sits behind a paywall) about IVG, which seeks to pick up where IVF leaves off. Here are two excerpts Dreher pulls from the article:
    • Consider in vitro gametogenesis, or I.V.G., a technology under development that would allow the creation of eggs or sperm from ordinary body tissue, like skin cells. Men could become genetic mothers, women could be fathers, and people could be the offspring of one, three, four or any number of parents.
    • The first baby born via I.V.G. is most likely still a ways off — one researcher predicts it will be five to 10 years until the first fertilization attempt, although timelines for new biotech are often optimistic. But the bioethicist Henry Greely, noting the benefits of allowing same-sex couples to have genetic offspring and I.V.F. parents to pick the most genetically desirable of dozens or even hundreds of embryos, predicts that eventually a vast majority of pregnancies in the United States may arise from this kind of technology. Debora L. Spar, writing about I.V.G. for Times Opinion in 2020, echoes the view that such advances seem inevitable: “We fret about designer babies or the possibility of some madman hatching Frankenstein in his backyard. Then we discover that it’s just the nice couple next door.”
  • Religion has been kept out of politics for far too long. Transgenderism and tranhumanism are brands of insanity that are unfolding under the ostensibly watchful eye of secular “ethicists.” Who has more domain expertise on ethics than Jesus Christ?

Monday, September 9, 2024

• I’m always encouraged when I see someone speak out against transgenderism for children, but I also always wonder what makes it okay for adults. Should the medical industry agree to amputate healthy adult body parts? Similarly, when I hear that someone is against transgenderism for children without parental approval or notification. Should the medical industry agree to amputate the healthy body parts of children as long as the parents approve or are at least notified?
• Transgenderism is a futile and macabre attempt to play God. People who attempt it should be pitied and helped – not encouraged as if they were in their right minds.

Sunday, September 8, 2024

• According to the American Psychiatric Association, “The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is the handbook used by health care professionals in the United States and much of the world as the authoritative guide to the diagnosis of mental disorders.” In 1973, homosexuality was removed from the DSM. Similarly, in 2013, “gender identity disorder” was replaced by “gender dysphoria,” while the term “cross-sex” was replaced with “gender affirming.” If this trend continues, practically all mental disorders will be cured by updates to the DSM.
• This same approach – with similar success – is being applied to crime in the United States. We are apparently well on our way to a world free from both mental illness and crime!

Saturday, September 7, 2024

That Jesus is “the Son of God” speaks about His relationship with God; that Jesus is “Lord” speaks about His relationship with us.

Friday, September 6, 2024

In Colossians 1, the apostle Paul calls Jesus “the firstborn of all creation” (Col 1:15). Paul also calls Him “the firstborn from the dead” (Col 1:18). Think about that. It makes Jesus the firstborn of creation and redemption. He was the first step in making something wonderful…and He was the first step in fixing it when it was broken. Jesus could not be more central or important to life than that!

Thursday, September 5, 2024

The fatherlessness we now see as epidemic in society is a consequence of society first rejecting or neglecting the fatherhood of God.

Wednesday, September 4, 2024

The words save, salvation, and savior go together in the same way as the words deliver, deliverance, and deliverer. Moreover, save and deliver are synonyms, as are the words salvation and deliverance…and the words savior and deliver. In addition to all that, the words rescue (verb), rescue (noun), and rescuer follow suit. God is a Savior, meaning He is a Deliverer, meaning He is a Rescuer.

Tuesday, September 3, 2024

That God is called “Savior” implies that there is something from which we need to be saved. Noah and his family were saved from the flood that destroyed the world. Lot and his family were saved from the destruction visited upon the city of Sodom. The Israelites were saved from the plagues that tormented the Egyptians. Being saved by God is never a breeze. In fact, it can be a struggle. But that’s nothing compared to the alternative.

Monday, September 2, 2024

• So much of the work God does for us is invisible, or barely visible, that it’s easy for us to assume He’s doing nothing for us even when He’s doing the most.
• That God judges the world in righteousness (Psalm 9:8; 96:13; 98:9; Acts 17:31) means that it behooves us to study the book of righteousness – the Bible – so that His judgment works for us instead of against us. We read the Bible daily to learn about righteousness. It’s a course of study that takes a lifetime – or more – to master.

Sunday, September 1, 2024

The same side of the political spectrum that defended the submersion of a crucifix of Christ into a jar of urine in the 1980’s as art condemns the defacing of Pride or BLM crosswalks in the 2020’s as a crime. When they are weak, they claim to be against censorship; but when they are strong, they want to censor everything that is not to their liking.

Saturday, August 31, 2024

Some revolutions are good, others are bad. Each revolution must be judged on its own merits. The American Revolution birthed a good and great nation. The Sexual Revolution killed it.

Friday, August 30, 2024

Why is abortion so popular in America these days? There are many reasons. One of them is that half the voters are women, and the other half are afraid of women.

Thursday, August 29, 2024

Colossians 1:17 …in [Jesus Christ] all things hold together. – This explains why things are falling apart in America these days: too few things are willing to be in Jesus Christ.

Wednesday, August 28, 2024

We can’t love the Lord without hating evil.

Tuesday, August 27, 2024

Drag queens can teach in public libraries, teachers can explain LGBTetc in public schools, and corporations can teach DEI in the workplace…but no one can teach Jesus or the Bible in any of those places. Who decided this was the way things would be? When and how did they decide it? If we were still a democracy, or even a republic, we would know.

Monday, August 26, 2024

• John 19:24 So they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it, to decide whose it will be.” This was to fulfill the Scripture, “THEY DIVIDED MY OUTER CLOTHING AMONG THEM, AND FOR MY CLOTHING THEY CAST LOTS.” [Ps 22:18] God wasn’t merely willing to die for us – He was willing to be humiliated and tortured to death for us!
• “The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this” (Isaiah 9:7). If the Lord is zealous for us, should we be any the less zealous for Him?
• “Thy kingdom [has] come. [Therefore, we have all the more reason to make sure that] Thy will be done…” (Matt 6:10). (Jesus Christ Has Already Come Again)

Sunday, August 25, 2024

1. I remember being told in 1978 that I should “accept Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior.” At first, I resisted the idea, but after a few weeks of reading the Bible, especially the New Testament, I wholeheartedly embraced the idea. Over the years, however, I came to see that words “my personal,” though perhaps well-intended, were unnecessary and distracting. The truth was and is that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior of the world. That is, He is everyone’s Lord and Savior. As Voddie Baucham says, “You don’t make Jesus Lord – He’s already Lord.”
2. To speak of Jesus being “my personal Lord and Savior” is akin to speaking of “my truth” as Oprah does. Even though she is rich, however, she still cannot afford her own truth. No one can, because “personal truth” is not a thing. Only “truth” is a thing. Therefore, just as truth can’t be true for me unless it is true for everyone, so Jesus can’t be Lord and Savior of me without being Lord and Savior for everyone.
3. None of what I’ve said above should be taken to deemphasize the importance of a personal relationship with the Lord, which is the inheritance of every single human being. If only we’ll all claim that inheritance!

Saturday, August 24, 2024

Jesus said to Pontius Pilate, “You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above” (John 19:11), and Paul said, “[T]here is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God” (Romans 13:1), yet many if not most of America’s leaders today act as if their authority comes from somewhere else.

Friday, August 23, 2024

As many of you know, I have a YouTube channel where I publish teaching videos. This morning as I was recording, I saw this at the top of the control page (unaccessible by the public) which YouTube gives me to manage the videos I publish: “Help us promote fairness and ensure YouTube works for everyone by voluntarily telling us about yourself. We’ll keep responses confidential.” I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Thursday, August 22, 2024

The most profoundly important thing that Jesus Christ proved is this: God speaks.

Wednesday, August 21, 2024

• One of our most common stumbling blocks in relating to God is getting offended because He doesn’t do things the way we would. But there’s no good reason for this. If there’s a difference between the way God does something and the way I would do it, shouldn’t I be assuming that His way is better?
• Love is the fullness of righteousness.

Tuesday, August 20, 2024

• A Sign of the Times: “It’s Embarrassing to Be a Stay-at-Home Mom” is the title of a recent Substack article. Its subtitle reveals its thesis: “Addressing the Actual Cause of Collapsing Fertility: Status.” Reminds me of something I heard a stay-at-home mother say more than 40 years ago: “There is no glory in wiping applesauce off my baby’s high chair.” Thus the loss in status reported by this article has been a trend for a long time. It coincides with the decline in the fear of God in America, for with the loss of the fear of God comes the loss of many other good and wonderful things.
• When, at the end of the 1962 western movie The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, the identity of said man was revealed, the newspaperman present declined to print the truth, declaring, “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” Today’s journalists, if we can call them that, have applied that motto to the fullest extent possible – not even requiring a legend. Any lie deemed politically expedient for them is preferred to the truth. Let truth-loving men – also known as God-fearing men – beware.

Monday, August 19, 2024

The apostle Peter preached, “Be saved from this perverse generation!” (Acts 2:40). If his generation was perverse, what do we call ours?

Sunday, August 18, 2024

• Bible readers know that we don’t need to be concerned about which of the 200 holy grails is authentic. Rather, we need to keep the commandments of Jesus. Those commandments do not include searching for the physical cup from which He drank at the Last Supper. CNN finds a way to get off track no matter what the subject matter.
• Why are people today so afraid of the word “theocracy”? Being “one nation under God,” as we say we are every time we recite the Pledge of Allegiance, would seem to be a declaration that we are at least some form of a theocracy. I could understand people saying they don’t want us to be this or that kind of theocracy, but to say we don’t want to be any kind of theocracy would seem to require that we revoke the Pledge of Allegiance – and get “In God We Trust” off our money, too.

Saturday, August 17, 2024

Why do 12-step programs work? Because Jesus Christ supports them. Specifically, the central principles of such programs, the foremost such program being Alcoholics Anonymous, are consistent with biblical principles. For example, according to AA’s twelve steps, the alcoholic acknowledges 1) a supreme being, 2) a personal dependence on that same being, 3) the need for moral living, 4) repentance for wrongdoing, 5) an ongoing practice of prayer, and more. Jesus does not require the penitent to mention Him explicitly by name…because He’s not petty. Loving parents don’t wait for the infant to be able to say “Momma” or “Daddy” before administering care. Correspondingly, a twelve-step program should not be considered the college of the moral life but rather the elementary school.

Friday, August 16, 2024

• To seek the Lord is to seek an authority over yourself. To not seek the Lord is to be autonomous. Have you noticed how autonomy destroys people?
• The heavier the darkness, the brighter your little light shines.
• The Lord emanates light; we only reflect it.
• Jesus Christ and the Bible are the irreducible minimum of Christianity and of righteousness.
• What have we done with what the previous generation gave us? We will either add to it or subtract from it. So far, my generation – the Baby Boomers – have subtracted from what we were given. Shame on us.
• It is amazing that an oak tree is so much bigger than an acorn. But it is even more amazing that, even apart from size, an oak tree looks nothing like an acorn. An acorn looks like other acorns, and an oak tree looks like other oak trees, but no acorn looks like, or is nearly as big as, an oak tree. God is a creative Creator.
• Wise men know that it helps to have friends in high places. What then about having your best friend in the highest place? Abraham was the friend of God (2 Chronicles 20:7; Isaiah 41:8; James 2:23) and “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.”

Thursday, August 15, 2024

In New Testament times, the body of Christ was the church. Since the Second Coming, which concluded New Testament times, the body of Christ is the human race.

Tuesday, August 13, 2024

• The late 18th century was early-stage America. The early 21st century is late-stage America. As for what’s next, we shall have to wait and see.
• America currently consists of three classes: the ruling class, the dependent class, and the independent class. The ruling class is using the dependent class to keep the independent class in check. The ruling class would completely eliminate the independent class if they could. The ruling class is like Haman and the independent class is like Mordecai.
• The red letters of the Bible are certainly key, but we need the rest of the Bible for context. In other words, the red letters alone are not enough. The Bible’s black letters there are to help us understand the red ones.
• Psalm 49:20 Man in his pomp, yet without understanding, is like the beasts that perish. – Pride makes us no better than animals.
• Without the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ, human life itself is dark. Only in our first grasp of the gospel do we begin to find out why we are here.

Monday, August 12, 2024

People sometimes try to use the Bible to justify socialism, but the coercion required by socialism is incompatible with the generosity required by the Bible. Generosity is impossible without free will; socialism is impossible with it.

Saturday, August 10, 2024

• Does God care when we suffer? God is well aware of our sufferings. In His plan to live a human life, He made sure to include sufferings so that He would truly be walking in our shoes.
  • Luke 24:26 “Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?”
  • Heb 2:10 For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings.
  • Heb 5:8 Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.

Friday, August 9, 2024

• Know Jesus first as a man. Then you can come to know Him as Lord. Then you will realize He is God. And, finally, you will recognize Him as Father.
• Jesus – God and man in one figure! Proof positive that God and man are compatible!
• We’re hearing more and more concern these days about “religious extremists.” Who’s voicing them? Secular extremists.
• People are used to thinking of God as Creator. That’s fine…but it’s incomplete. Given all that Jesus has done it’s more apt to think of God as Creator-Redeemer. He salvaged a lost creation.

Thursday, August 8, 2024

This is a 30-second clip of Josh Thompson (pastor of Legacy City Church in Studio City, CA) lamenting that the men in his church don’t read the Bible every day. If you want to hear the context for this clip, go here where Josh is interviewing one of his associate pastors on their church’s podcast. (Both men previously were on Greg Laurie’s staff at Harvest in Riverside, CA.) These are successful and respected pastors; unwittingly, they are simultaneously testifying to the potency of Bible reading and the futility of churchgoing.

Wednesday, August 7, 2024

• Pursue righteousness – not an identity. Identity religion is as bad as identity politics. People treat religions as college freshmen pursue fraternities or sororities. Don’t look for a group to join – look for God. (Hint: Jesus is the only way to Him, and Jesus is found most readily in the Bible.)
• “Cosa Nostra” is an Italian expression meaning “our thing.” (“The term was first revealed by Italian American mafioso Joseph Valachi during the Valachi hearings in 1963, when he testified that American mafiosi used the phrase to refer to their organization.” – Google AI.) The status quo is “cosa nostra” to the elites – their thing. It’s that which they control. And they’re not about to give it up.

Tuesday, August 6, 2024

• If you want to hear a call for repentance to American men written by an American man other than me, here’s something you can read: “America’s Sins Lay At The Feet of the Men” by J. J. Carrell. My comment on what he wrote: Amen.
• If you think there are still “good” churches out there, there’s a new book detailing how corrupted even evangelical churches have become. Here’s a review of Shepherds for Sale: How Evangelical Leaders Traded the Truth for a Leftist Agenda by Megan Basham. (H/T Wintery Knight)
• Further to the dismal state of evangelicalism, demographer George Barna’s latest survey, released today, is headlined, “New Research Reveals the Limitations of Christian Evangelicalism in American Society.”
• What’s the solution to three bullets above? Men leading their families in daily Bible study for the purpose of biblical living – which is being a follower of Jesus Christ. I’ll help you. Go to Daily Help for Bible-Reading Families.

Sunday, August 4, 2024

• Islam is false because Muhammad exalts himself above Jesus. No one is above Jesus.
• It does not require intensive study to find out if a religion is true or false – just find out what it says about Jesus.
• Jesus died a tortuous death on a cross to save humanity from our sins and give us eternal life – rising from the dead in celebration of His accomplishment. Two thousand years of history since then has proven that an impossible act to follow. Muhammad, Joseph Smith, L. Ron Hubbard, and many others all bear witness to this…unintentionally, but convincingly.

Saturday, August 3, 2024

Today’s best-selling Christian authors make a lot of money. In stark contrast, the very first “best-selling” Christian authors – that is, the apostles appointed by Jesus – did not become rich from their writings. On the contrary, they had to pay with their blood to get their message out. I do not begrudge modern Christian authors compensation for their work; after all, Jesus said “The laborers are worthy of their wages.” But whenever there’s a difference between what modern Christian teachers write and what the apostles wrote, I’m going to trust the ones who paid to write over the ones who get paid to write. To say the same thing in a different way, I’m going to trust the ones Jesus sent to speak in His name (the apostles and the prophets) over the ones who speak in their own names (well-meaning Christian leaders).

Friday, August 2, 2024

Satan and all his minions (which includes a lot of human beings these days) are against the study of human history. If they can’t stop it, they want to censor it or re-write it. This is because Satan knows that studying history from reliable sources leads sooner or later to the discovery of Jesus of Nazareth and the Bible. Satan’s minions don’t always know that’s the reason they’re against history…but he does.

Thursday, August 1, 2024

• There are only three organizations on earth that God Himself designed – all the rest, He left up to human beings. Of the three that He Himself designed, two have been obsolete for a long time. They are Old Testament Israel and the New Testament church – which is to say, Old Testament Israel and New Testament Israel. The one organization God still maintains is the nuclear family. No human being has any right to monkey with it. Father, mother, children. K.I.S.S. (“Keep it simple, Stupid!”)
• We’ve entered an age safe only for strong men. Weak men will not do well. The Lord knows how to strengthen men.

Wednesday, July 31, 2024

It cannot be that the New Testament is false testimony – either as to its table of contents, or as to the contents of its individual texts. There were just too many witnesses – far more than we usually have when it comes to knowing the identity of book authors. Your local public library is full of books whose authors you – with good reason – accept as valid. There’s no good reason to be more skeptical of the Bible’s authors than you are the authors of other books. As for whether the Bible’s authors are telling the truth about the things they wrote, you can make that judgment once you’ve read it.

Tuesday, July 30, 2024

“Chronological snobbery” is a term coined by philosopher Owen Barfield (1898-1997) and popularized by writer C. S. Lewis (1898-1963). According to Lewis, it is “the uncritical acceptance of the intellectual climate of our own age and the assumption that whatever has gone out of date is on that count discredited.” In simpler terms, it’s the assumption that prior generations were dumber than us – so much so, that we can afford to ignore history. On this basis, people put their faith in ideas like envisioning “what can be, unburdened by what has been.”

Monday, July 29, 2024

• Another strike against the trinity concept: God could not possibly be a committee; it’s too grotesque a thought.
• Make every day a red-letter day – by reading some red letters. (You do know where to find some, don’t you?)
• How bad is doubt for your soul? Avoid it as you would pornography.

Sunday, July 28, 2024

More on the Son of Man: Jesus told Nicodemus (John 3:3-8) that we must be “born again.” (This expression can also be translated as “born from above” – both translations are valid.) Peter also uses this expression (1 Pet 1:3, 23). As the prototypical “son of man,” Jesus was the first person ever born again. This happened when He was raised from the dead. It happens for us when we accept His death as our own and begin living as our new selves, devoted fully to living for Him instead of for ourselves (Gal 2:20; Eph 4:20-24; Col 3:9-11). The old self lives in narcissism; the new self lives in love with Christ. It is, sad to say, commonplace for people who are born again to lapse back into their old selves. But Jesus never lapses back to death!

Saturday, July 27, 2024

The Son of Man: The expression “son of man” is enigmatic, mainly because it is used in a variety of ways in the Bible. For one thing, it is often used as a poetic synonym for “man.” For another, it is Jesus’ preferred way of speaking of Himself in the third person. Given its use in Daniel 7:14, an important messianic prophecy, we should realize that its most important meaning is “a resurrected man.” Think of it this way: a man is born of a woman, but then he eventually dies. When he is raised (born) from the dead, he becomes “a son of man” because there is no woman involved. That is, God causes him to be born of himself. Jesus was the firstborn of the dead (Col 1:18; Rev 1:5) and the firstborn of many brethren (Rom 8:29). Therefore, He was the original and prototypical son of man.

Friday, July 26, 2024

The apostles’ zero-tolerance policy towards fear (key words italicized):

• Paul: Philippians 4:6 – Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer…
• Peter: 1 Peter 3:6 – …do what is right without being frightened by any fear.
• Peter: 1 Peter 5:7 – casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.
• John: 1 John 4:18 – There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear…

Thursday, July 25, 2024

• It used to be that we Americans got into trouble with the government for doing evil; nowadays we get into trouble with the government for doing good.
• It is sad, but true, to say that over the course of our lifetimes, “America the Beautiful” has become “America the Ugly.” We cannot blame God for this; we can only blame ourselves.
• In Mark 6:14, it says of Jesus, “His name had become well known.” Over the course of our lifetimes, it has become less known – much to our shame.
• Some people say that the Bible teaches capitalism. I don’t argue with that, but I do think it’s more straightforward and productive to say that it supports private property. In other words, the Bible does not support socialism. Even when it supports sacrificing for the common good, it does so based on individual free will – not group coercion

Wednesday, July 24, 2024

• Some people reject the past; others want to return to it. The wisest course is to learn from the past…because the future’s not here to teach us.
• God is transcendent – that is, He transcends us. For this reason He descended as Jesus and then ascended to be God again…so that through that process we might be able to understand Him better.
• As adultery is in the physical world, so idolatry is in the spiritual world. That is, as adultery is unfaithfulness to your spouse, so idolatry is unfaithfulness to your Lord.

Tuesday, July 23, 2024

• Are you keeping your heart quiet enough to hear God?
• We must make room for the word of God in our lives.
• The New Testament cries, “Jesus is the Messiah!” And we who believe it cry, “And the Messiah is God!”

Monday, July 22, 2024

• Post Tenebras Lux – all three of the explanations below are fairly good. Since we seem to be headed for darkness these days, let “Post Tenebras Lux” be our hope!
  • Merriam-Webster: “after darkness, light” – motto of the Protestant Reformation.
  • Wikipedia: Post tenebras lux is a Latin phrase translated as Light After Darkness.
  • Google AI: Post tenebras lux is a Latin phrase that translates to “light after darkness”. It was a rallying cry for Protestant Reformers in the 16th century and became the motto of the Protestant Reformation. The phrase refers to the rediscovery of biblical truth during a time of spiritual darkness, and the idea that the church should always be seeking to rediscover the light. It was also used to illustrate God’s revelation of the true Gospel after centuries of corruption.
• What will be the darkness that follows the light of Western Civilization? Probably either secularism or Islam or a war between the two.
• David’s heart overflowed with thanksgiving to, and praise of, his God. Out of that overflow comes the 150 psalms we have in the Bible.

Sunday, July 21, 2024

• In the New Testament, we see the apostles exhorting believers to love one another. In the kingdom of God, we should see fathers exhorting their families in the same way.
• When Jesus ascended into heaven and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God, it was the sitting down that was the big thing. Jesus had been in that place before He descended to earth to become one of us – but He hadn’t been sitting down. He had been serving as God’s right hand man. His sitting down upon His return was an indication of his greatest mission having been completed. And He would, at the Second Coming which would occur in a generation, receive His inheritance of the nations.
• I tend to think of Judas as a type of Satan.

Saturday, July 20, 2024

• God wants to be believed. Is that too much to ask?
• The potter in Jeremiah 11 illustrates how God does not give up on damaged goods, but refashions them into something useful.
• When I read the news every day, I can’t help thinking, “Somebody’s lyin.”
• Moses institutionalized the religion of Abraham…on behalf of God. Abraham led a family; Moses led a nation. About half a millennium elapsed between the two men. God is patient, and He wisely apportioned the various roles and tasks necessary to complete His mission.
• Connecting the Dots: Acts 1:11; Ecclesiastes 11:4 – The angels might have well have quoted Eccl 11:4 to them. (There was roughly a thousand years between the writing of Ecclesiastes and the Acts of the Apostles.)
• We should seek daily to be learning the ways of God, which includes learning how to work with God – how to be co-laborers with Him. Otherwise, we remain, at best, dead weight for Him to carry, or, at worst, enemies of His work.
• Better to know a little about God and be sure of it than to know a lot about God and be unsure of it.
• The second biggest problem with trying to control everything is that we’re wasting our time. The biggest problem is that it distracts us and thereby keeps us from controlling the things we can control – which really could make life better.

Friday, July 19, 2024

• The authorities in Jerusalem mistreated Jesus (Luke 23 and elsewhere) as the Sodomites sought to mistreat Lot’s guests (Genesis 19). Jesus had the power to protect Himself from harm but did not use it so that He could save us.
• When called to account in John 18:4-9, Jesus said, “I am.” When called to account in John 18:17, Peter said, “I am not.” Peter would have us learn from his failing. Forewarned is forearmed.
• Current Events: When good things happen politically, be thankful for them – but do not put your hope in them. Our hope is forever in Christ alone! He is the source of all good things.
• Jesus heals what are called “father wounds” (google the term, if necessary). If you haven’t yet begun to experience this healing, keep seeking Him. In Christ, you will find the father of all fathers.

Thursday, July 18, 2024

• Musings on Age: How can I be considered elderly while still thinking so immaturely? Still, it’s better to think like a humble child than be a senior know-it-all. In Matthew 21:15-16, the Lord shows that the young are capable of great wisdom. And in Mark 10:14 (paralleled in Luke 18:16), the Lord opens His doors wide to children – whom all of us are called to imitate (Matthew 18:1-4).
• Connecting the Dots: In Acts 28:28, Paul spoke of “this salvation of God,” and in Hebrews 2:3 he called it “so great a salvation” that we should have no expectation of escape apart from it. Of course, that salvation is in, through, and of Jesus Christ our Lord. It is our way of life in this world. It is a life of righteousness…which begins in faith.

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Undated

No book rewards rereading like the Bible.

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The two great pillars of evil in the modern world are secularism and false religion. Secularism is the primary nemesis of the West, and Islam is the primary nemesis of the East. True Christianity is the salvation for both. True Christianity is based on Christ and not Christians. Christianity based on Christians is Churchianity. Christianity based on the Trinity is Trinitarianism, not Christianity.

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When the Scriptures say “This Jesus” (John 6:42; Acts 1:11; 2:32, 36; 9:22; 17:3) which Jesus are they talking about? Always the historical one. That’s the one that counts!

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If you want to find out what is wrong with today’s America, all you have to do is read its founding documents and compare the difference. Same thing if you want to find out what’s wrong with today’s Christianity.

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Once a nation finds itself routinely condemning the innocent (John the Baptist, Jesus, Stephen) while rewarding (Judas Iscariot) and protecting (Barabbas) the guilty, it is a sign that the days of that nation are numbered.

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God did not leave salvation in our hands – only the knowledge of it. 

Teach your children so that the next generation won’t be as ignorant of salvation as this one has been.

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Satan has succeeded in demoralizing America – affecting practically all the people with whom we come in contact. Break down the word demoralize: de-moral-ize. That is, Satan drives the “morals” (the morality) out of person, and he does so by substituting lusts in their place. This is the process by which a godly society becomes an ungodly one. Therefore, let us be on guard against anything that de-moral-izes us. The best fortification against such depression are vitamins of wisdom from the Bible. Plus, we can speak them to each other by the Holy Spirit.

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Jesus is the only known cure for human narcissism. Everything else is just whitewashing a facade.

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Do You Need a Good Cardiologist?

Luke 5:31 And Jesus answered and said to them, “It is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick.
Luke 5:32 “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

Jer 17:9 “The heart is more deceitful than all else
And is desperately sick;
Who can understand it?
Jer 17:10 “I, the LORD, search the heart,
I test the mind,
Even to give to each man according to his ways,
According to the results of his deeds.

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I saw a plaque that read: “I would rather be alone with Jesus than in a crowd without Him.” This point is similarly made with the statement: “Christ-ianity versus Christian-ity.” Way too many people today consider Christianity to be the latter rather than the former. True Christianity is walking with Christ, not walking with Christians.

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We can only get so far trying to understand God by simply observing creation. That is, we need Him to explain His judgments and His ways – not just demonstrate them. And that’s why He’s given us the Bible.

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The name of the Lord is Jesus Christ – not Allah, and not Trinity.

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Life is, among other things, a test to see how much we love righteousness – including how much we are willing to endure in order to learn what it is and achieve it.

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In biblical times, God chose a subset of the human race to be His people – starting with Abraham, then Isaac, then Jacob, then all Jacob’s descendants (which was ancient Israel), then all spiritual descendants of ancient Israel (which was the New Testament church, consisting of Jews and Gentiles)…so that in post-biblical times, God’s people would be…people. In other words, God only chose some people temporarily for the purpose of reclaiming all people eternally. 

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The quantity and quality of miracles Jesus performed were – in terms of recorded human history – unprecedented in their time and unsurpassed ever since. The purpose of the miracles, beyond the compassion they bestowed on the recipients, was to draw attention to Him and to His teaching. That’s why skeptics in our day want to discredit the miracles recorded in the Bible – the devil is motivating them to distract others from Jesus and His teaching.

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Probably all of us can remember a time when we sold our soul for “a large sum of money” (Matt 28:12) or “thirty pieces of silver” (Matt 26:15) or even just “bread and lentil stew” (Gen 25:34). That temptation is always lurking in this world. But Christ forgives and washes us clean so that we can flee such temptation in the future. Let us never again let go of the word of God for “the deceitfulness of riches” (Mark 4:18-19).

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The primary purpose of a privilege is to enable a person to fulfill a responsibility. We are, sad to say, living in a society of adults who were never taught this as children.

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It seems Luke wrote Acts before Paul or Peter died. Nor are their deaths recorded elsewhere in the New Testament. Other historical records indicate that both men were likely executed as martyrs in Rome during the persecution under Emperor Nero in the mid-60s AD. Thus Luke probably completed Acts in the early 60s at the very latest. And, given Luke’s comments to Theophilus in Luke 1:1-4 and in Acts 1, this means the Gospel of Luke was completed before that. Recall that Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection was around 33 AD. Therefore, these events all occurred well before the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 AD.

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Paul in Acts 27 was like Noah in Genesis 6-9. Both were like Jesus in the New Testament – where the ark was the church. In all three cases, the vessel was no longer needed once the people had been saved. 

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The greatness of a bargain is determined by how much more something is worth than what it costs. Never in the history of the world has there been a bargain greater than Jesus. Sure, the costs of a close relationship with Him are high, but the benefits He brings in return are beyond measure.

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Jesus said faith was like a seed (Matt 13:31-32). If faith is a seed, then, no matter how small it is, it’s going to grow something…as long as it is planted. If Satan can discourage us from planting, he doesn’t even have to sow tares (Matt 13:24-30).

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