In “It’s Time to Get Real 6” there was a general idea presented. That is, letting Scripture open the door to ultimate reality, spiritual reality, which then in turn reorders how we appraise who we are, why we are here and where we are headed. What we are presented with there is choice, choice to either live by what works forever or by whatever gets us through the next moment. When you boil it…

It’s hard to resist truth when it gets you right where you live. That is the nature, direction and purpose of Scripture. It’s loaded with those kinds of principles, ideas and insights that cut through and across history and speak to us right where we are. No person is outside its message. It is a directive from God to the mind and heart of…

“But still others received the seed that fell on good soil. They are those who hear the message and understand it. They produce a crop 100, 60 or 30 times more than the farmer planted (Mt.13:23 NIRV).”

“Faith is a…

I remember seeing a TV show years ago about a plane flying through clouds that seemed never-ending only to emerge from them and the earth below being totally unfamiliar territory. What had been highways and cities was now only forest and jungle. The whole environment in the sky and on the ground had completely changed. Where were they? Where were they going? Was there a landing field somewhere? With limited fuel and no response to repeated requests for location what…

Time to Get Real 2

Right now I’m going to ask us to take a walk through the field of meaning. Our minds are always at work anyway, every step actively on the path of interpretation, to clarify what is taking place before us. We stroll the pastures of speculation looking for what is true and false, right and wrong, trustworthy and

untrustworthy. We climb the hills…

Let’s get right down to it. Everyone needs salvation. Salvation is the process of restoration. If restoration is a process then the question must be, what are we being restored from and to what? The immediate answer is obviously from sin and to God. But what is sin and what has sin done? We have to get

real and face honestly the condition of human nature in each of us. This can only be done when we have a common authority to…

There is no end to what Scripture can do when it comes to speaking to the moment. Every moment is

a spiritual moment and created to be a God-moment in which we can experience what makes everything run. Scripture is a treasure of constant heart-moving inspiration for every next moment. That is, if you are open to its message for the moment, open to the Holy Spirit, the Spirit behind and in its words. Just as the Spirit was hovering as described in…

Hebrews 2-3

Chapter 1 establishes the superiority of Jesus as Lord and the One through whom Creation came into being. He is God the Son, the exact representation of His being. The place of

angels is summed up in vs.14. They are

ministering spirits to those who will inherit salvation. Further in 2:2 they are ministering

servants. They carry the message, the

Word of God, they were present with Moses at the giving of the Law…

When the word ‘priest’ flashes across a page or a TV screen the immediate thought is a collared black suit from one of the liturgical denominations. For a moment cancel those images, close your eyes and imagine yourself just cresting a hill while walking through a green meadow in old Galilee and running across a group of people sitting, intently listening to a bearded young man teaching. As you come closer there is a sense of

inclusion.…

Hebrews, Why It Such An Important Epistle To Study

I thought I was

Abandoned, bereft, a cast-off

By You, My…

That’s the snide remark you get sometimes when objecting to surrounding obscene language and crude humor. It’s not comfortable and you stand to be ridiculed. But look at that question again. Are you holy or something? Well everybody is ‘something’ but are you holy? That is the question and hopefully you have an answer. It depends first on your attitude, the way you take a remark, secondly, pausing to think what it really…

When You Get Right Down To It

“Stick with what you learned and believed, sure of the integrity of your teachers—why, you took in the sacred Scriptures with your mother's milk! There's nothing like the written Word of God for showing you the

way to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Every part of…