flesh

Understanding power and it’s source is important! When I was a young man, I did not understand how engines worked. When I came into shop class, my friends called me over and asked me to hold a wire while they pulled a rope. Dummy that I was, I did it. When they pulled that rope, it sent a rather awaking charge through that wire…

Scripture Read:  Judges 9:4-6 .  They gave him seventy pieces of silver from the house of Baal-berith with which Abimelech hired worthless and reckless fellows, and they followed him. Then he went to his father’s house at Ophrah and killed his brothers the sons of Jerubbaal, seventy men, on one stone. But Jotham the youngest son of Jerubbaal was left, for he hid himself. All the men of Shechem and all Beth-millo assembled together, and they went and made Abimelech king, by the oak of the pillar which was in Shechem.

Application: Abimelech has maneuvered himself into becoming King. Remember, we have no comments on what these 70 descendants of Gideon were thinking about concerning becoming king themselves. This was all in Abimelech's vain imagination. This is a common trait in those that plot evil. The very evil they...

Paul is showing us what love is NOT. Let’s look at the rest of his description.

1 Cor. 13:1-7 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. [2] And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. [3] And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. [4] Love is patient, love is kind, and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, [5] does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, [6] does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; [7] bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

“Unbecomingly” - ἀσχημονέω aschēmonéō; To behave in an ugly, indecent, unseemly or unbecoming manner

Love never...

Have you ever felt so anxious that you could describe your stomach as “being tied in Knots”? I want to talk about our heart and how it can be tied in “NOTS”.

Being that it is Valentines, let’s spend some time meditating on love. Let’s look at the opposite first, and then we will contemplate the positive.

1 Cor. 13:1-7 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. [2] And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. [3] And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. [4] Love is patient, love is kind, and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, [5] does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, [6] does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; [7] bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love has many looks...

Philippians 3:3-14

When I was younger…at one time I was younger!  I spent all my life basically landlocked, but now I had moved to Hawaii. One of the things that 

I learned to do that I loved was to body surf. The learning curve was difficult and often painful. Having only encountered very small waves and almost nonexistent undertow of the East Coast, Waimea Bay and Sandy Beach were rude awakenings! The key is to “KNOW” what you’re doing. This does not mean to have the knowledge of how to swim and what is water. It means to understand the fullness of what body surfing is…Becoming one with the water, conforming to its movement and speed. If you under shoot the wave you will miss it. If you out swim the wave…Depending where you are; if at Waimea the wave can hold on the bottom of the sea for quite some time; if at Sandy Beach you can literally freefall and face plant in the sand…And even break your neck.  Before we can really appreciate something we need to “know” it.

Christian can mean a lot of things to different people. The question is what does it mean to God? I believe through Paul we have...

☛ Probing Proverbs 6:12-13 What are worthless and wicked people like? They are constant liars, signaling their deceit with a wink of the eye, a nudge of the foot, or the wiggle of fingers.☚   

Isn’t it interesting how sin not only rules the thoughts of a fleshy person, but it even expresses itself in...

Scripture Read: Judges 5:1-31 Then Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam sang on that day, saying, “That the leaders led in Israel, That the people volunteered, Bless the LORD!  “Hear, O kings; give ear, O rulers! I—to the LORD, I will sing, I will sing praise to the LORD, the God of Israel. “LORD...

Scripture Read: Judges 3:1-8 Now these are the nations which the LORD left, to test Israel by them (that is, all who had not experienced any of the wars of Canaan; only in order that the generations of the sons of Israel might be taught war, those who had not experienced it formerly). These nations are: the five lords of the Philistines and all the Canaanites and the Sidonians and the Hivites who lived in Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal-hermon as far as Lebo-hamath. They were for testing Israel, to find out if they would obey the commandments of the LORD, which He had commanded their fathers through Moses. The sons of Israel lived among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; and they took their daughters for themselves as wives, and gave their own daughters to their sons, and served their gods. The sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and forgot the LORD their God and served the Baals and the Asheroth. Then the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, so that He sold them into the hands of Cushan-rishathaim king of Mesopotamia; and the sons of Israel served Cushan-rishathaim eight years.

Application: Trying to get our mind to comprehend the mind of God is something we always seem to try and do, and always will fail to do. One thing we need to remember is...

"But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed" (Isaiah 53:5).