What time is it anyway? Typical question, right? But there’s the problem. Just what are we talking about when we use the word ‘time’?

There are two Greek words for time in the Bible. One is chronos, man’s time, and the other is kairos, God’s time. The first demands a clock, a calendar and a written schedule. The second demands belief, trust and faith. They are quite different. The importance of the two is to ask which one takes precedence in our daily life. If we say chronos then we…

I love it when a song and the Bible come together.

Willy Nelson had a great song called “On the Road Again.” When I was thinking about the road to Emmaus in Luke 24 and started writing about it the words to that song popped into my mind. But before I quote them let’s look at that two man experience of the risen Jesus, making three trips on one road.

The First Trip---

Two men had gone to Jerusalem from Emmaus. We assumed they lived there since they were headed there to…

If ever there was a reason for being more pro-Jesus our present news headlines should be sufficient. The question is why, how and where?

OK, why did Jesus become man when He could have stayed in the comfort of just being God? Answer: He saw the people He loved focused on the world, on things they couldn’t change, on things that weren’t personal, on things that only brought death. They lost touch with Him, their Creator.

OK, how do we solve it?

Answer: By staying focused…

“I Wish You Were Dead”

Those were the words sent to me in the comment section of Facebook after I wrote that I supported Chic-Fil-A’s belief about marriage. It wasn’t but a matter of seconds before several hostile replies came. It was as though there were vultures hovering ready to pounce. One was very extreme. Because I was old (seeing my picture I guess) he wished for my quick death. That started me thinking about the words we use and the spirit behind them.

Do any of us…

Light. When John uses this word to describe the Jesus, the Word, what is He saying? A few years back Debbie Boone recorded a love song that became tops on pop charts, “You Light Up My Life.” It was quickly sung by many Christians to refer to the way Jesus lights up our life. But that idea of personal lighting is a common experience. Think about how we talk about people we know who ‘light up the room’ when they walk in. Or think about the times when we go to a fireworks display or watch…

The Word 10

When Julie Andrews played Eliza Dolittle in My Fair Lady one of her songs vented her frustration with suitors, "Words, words, words, words---if you're in love show me!" If you think about those words for a bit you find they carry an awful lot of meaning. They are deeply relational and when you say "I love you" you’re hoping they hit the heart. The actual words may be little and contain only eight letters but think of the impact they have. You are laying your heart out in…

When a rifle is fired there is a kick against your shoulder, a loud noise and a bullet launched. When John wrote “In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God and the Word was God” he fired a rifle shot into the heart of every invented thought and religious system of his time. He fired it to jar the individual reading it, make a loud noise in the culture and to penetrate the heart of every person. What he wrote was a challenge to every world authority. Group pressure, economic…

The Word 8

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God (Mt.4:4).’”

As we have said already, when God speaks, whether it is a single word or many, there is more than a written symbol or spoken sound coming through. Be it the creation of night and day, the universe and people or a language, each segment carries the full impact of God’s character, intention and attitude. When John said Jesus was the Word He…

The Word 7

As mentioned before when we look at John 1:1-5 we see a totally different approach to how Jesus is introduced as Lord and Savior. In these verses we see Him as the Word, a divine message from a divine mind given in a divine mode. It carries a threefold impress to touch our being a threefold image of God. Most people usually hear this and move on quickly taking for granted that it was understood.

But there is more. If you read John 1:1-5 carefully you will ask just…

But What About When You Doubt?

I was recently asked by a friend to explain Luke 7:23 which says, “Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.”

The key to this verse is the context in which it appears. The context starts in Ch.6 with Jesus having preached a ‘mini’ Sermon on the Mount. He ends by declaring that He and His words are foundational to living. So Ch. 7 naturally follows built on one theme, faith in Jesus. Luke starts with the faith of a high ranking…

Word 6

In vs.3 John expands on vs.1-2.

By establishing Jesus as the Word John delivered a sword thrust into the mindset of his age. Existence was no longer an imperfect copy of a perfect idea from some kind of perfect intellectual atmosphere or the result of some kind of impersonal force or mysterious mind at work. It was Creation created by a creative person, an identifiable person, a spiritual person, a person who preexisted time. God was now more than a vague concept somewhere…

The Word 5

The Gospel of John? It’s magnetic. I find every word draws me inexorably to ask why. John is a spiritual eye opener. Its first words are its context which is why I try to glean as much as I can from the first two verses, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.” If I can let the thoughts about these two verses flow then the rest of the Gospel falls into a deeper place and lifts me higher every time I…

Why does John begin His Gospel, “In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God and the Word was God?” It certainly is different than the way the other three Gospels start. Again I would beg your patience as I attempt an explanation.

I have a friend who when we go out for lunch or dinner has a way of moving the conversation to center around the person of Jesus. It is not that he doesn’t engage in casual talk. It’s that he has a fascination with how Jesus works in his life and…

WORD!

That’s right, Word. Word is the basic tool of communication. It carries everything we are, our identity, our meaning, our purpose and actually reflects the image of God in us. Please bear with me as I make my plea for the importance of this word.

The spoken word is more than a sound wave that hits our ear. If you really think about it every word has a cause in its use. It’s conveying something intentional. The one using a word is sending a message from the inner self. As…