Many people spend their lives trying to get God to “owe” them salvation, or blessing, or answered prayer, etc. But in Job 41:11 we find God stating an important principle: He doesn’t owe anyone anything!
“Who has given to Me, that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is Mine.” Continue reading
(Preached at FBC Pauls Valley 2-15-15)
Although I have run for exercise for much of my adult life, I have never been very fast. When we lived in Tulsa back in the 1990’s (when I was in my 30’s) I was probably in the best shape of my life and I had still never broken a 6:00 mile, though I had hovered just above it. Our running club was participating in a road race in Tulsa called The Cherry Street Mile, which had the added advantage of having a long downhill stretch to the finish line, so I was hoping to break 6:00 and set a new personal record. As the run progressed towards the finish line, I could see that the clock up ahead at the finish line was still in the 5:00’s, and I did not have that much farther to go. I looked over at the crowd of people who lined the last few hundred yards to the finish line and I saw an older gentleman who was part of our club, but who wasn’t running that day. I looked up at the clock, then I looked over at him, and I raised my arms and hollered triumphantly: “I’m gonna break 6 minutes!” He pointed ahead and shouted back: “Keep your eyes on the finish line!” (Cheryl always tells me I can’t leave you hanging; I did get my eyes back on the finish line, and I finished with a 5:45 mile, a new personal record, and barring a miracle in my old age, will end up being the fastest mile I ever ran.)
The author of Hebrews 12 is doing for us as Christians what that senior gentleman did for me on the run that day. The Book of Hebrews was written to a group of confessing Christians who were tempted to ditch their faith in Jesus due to persecution, and return to the relatively safe haven of traditional Judaism. So throughout the book, the author proclaims the superiority of Jesus, in His Person and Work. Chapter 11, the one preceding this one, comprises “The Hall of Faith” of those who walked with God by faith through various trials. It is in that context, then, that the author encourages all of us who are following Jesus:
“Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of faith …”. Continue reading
Job 41:1-10 contains an interesting but somewhat enigmatic description of “Leviathan” in God’s response to Job. Some have taken pains to understand the details regarding this “Leviathan”, but :10 sheds light on the real point of the passage: Continue reading
Psalm 25:6 says: “Remember, O LORD, Your compassion and Your lovingkindnesses, for they have been from of old.” The Hebrew word for “compassion” here can mean “feelings of love, loving sensation, mercy, compassion.” “Lovingkindness” is the almost undefinable word “chesed”; His grace, steadfast love, covenant love, etc. What is significant is that this verse teaches us that these manifestations of God’s love are forever! Continue reading
Job 40:7 is one of those places where we see that God has a sense of humor. When He finally addresses Job out of the whirlwind, He says to him, “I will ask you, and you instruct Me.” If this is not humorous, it is full of sarcastic irony to say the least! God tells a man: “You instruct Me” — like we could teach God anything! Yet is it not true that many of us are indeed guilty of attempting that very thing? Continue reading
Last weekend, Cheryl, Michael & I drove to Morganton, North Carolina, where I was called to serve as Senior Pastor at Pleasant Ridge Baptist Church. It was a very emotional time for us, as it ended a three-year odyssey through a valley of suffering and disappointment. God had once again “lifted my head” as Psalm 3:3, the verse I had stood on for the past several years, affirmed. But that is not say that there were not some “lighter” moments this weekend as well … Continue reading
Psalm 25:4 shows us several important things about seeking God’s will for our lives: “Make me know Your ways, O Lord; teach me Your paths.”
— First, it teaches us that our prayers are not to be that God would just bless the way or path that we have already chosen. This is where a certain brand of so- called “Christianity” goes awry. They put the focus on asking God to bless THEIR vision, dream or path. But this would actually reverse the proper roles of man and God! Continue reading
You have to be careful when you are quoting Job’s friends! Just because their words are recorded in scripture does not mean that what they said is good, or correct. But in Job 32:9 the younger “friend” Elihu made a good point after his older friends had finished speaking: “The abundant in years may not be wise.” Continue reading
Rarely does even a heretic get everything wrong. Usually the problem with a false teacher is that they have mixed SOME truth together with error. Elihu, the 4th and youngest of Job’s “friends”, is an example of this: Continue reading
(Preached at First Baptist, Pauls Valley, OK 2-01-15 a.m.)
The pastor at our home church, Trinity Baptist in Norman, Bro. Ronnie Rogers, has just published a new book; one which I would highly recommend to anyone who is interested in the church. It is entitled The Equipping Church. The basic thesis of the book is that there is a tension in many churches and across American Christianity today, between those who are seeking to be “contemporary” and those who are seeking to be “traditional” in their approaches to church ministry. Pastor Rogers writes, and I think pretty fairly, about some of the strengths and weaknesses of each approach. But his main conclusion is that BOTH of these approaches have really missed the point. The goal of the church should not be to be either “contemporary”, or “traditional”, but BIBLICAL! We are to be like the church that God commands us to be in His word. But what kind of church is that, and how can we become like that church? We find the answers to those questions in the first chapters of the Book of Acts. Continue reading
I'm a retired Southern Baptist pastor of almost 40 years. My wife Cheryl & I moved to Norman, OK in March of 2025. I share a weekly overview for Sunday School teachers of the weekly Lifeway "Explore the Bible" lesson, as well as texts of my sermons and other articles.
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