Making US Ready!

Posted on 2014/05/22 by Shawn Thomas

In Psalm 10:17 David writes, “O LORD, You have heard the desire of the humble; You will strengthen their heart, You will incline Your ear.” Near the end of a Psalm in which he has been entreating God for answers to prayer, he indicates that God HAS indeed heard the prayer of the humble, and will do something about it. But it is interesting to see part of what this entails:

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The Key to Fearlessness

Posted on 2014/05/21 by Shawn Thomas

In I Kings 17:1 the prophet Elijah first appears on the scene in Israel, and his first message to the king of Israel is of a drought in the land. But notice what Elijah says: “As YHWH, the God of Israel lives, BEFORE WHOM I STAND …”
The key to Elijah’s courageous ministry is that he knew that he stood before God.

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Put It To Death

Posted on 2014/05/20 by Shawn Thomas

In Colossians 3:5 the Apostle Paul uses striking language to address how followers of Christ should deal with certain sins. He says, “Put to death the members (things) which are upon the earth: immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry.” The Lord undoubtedly has Paul employ such strident language because these sins are insidious. Continue reading →

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From Bad To Worse

Posted on 2014/05/19 by Shawn Thomas

In I Kings 16 we see a picture of how wickedness compounds. It never remains as it is, but left unchecked will always go from bad to worse:

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Think About Things Above

Posted on 2014/05/16 by Shawn Thomas

Colossians 3:2 commands us: “Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on the earth.” “Set your mind” here is the Greek word “phroneo”, which refers to “the inward parts around the heart” (Thayer) and refers to our thinking. It is a command to God’s people to think about the things above. But how can we fulfill this command to think about those things?

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Does God Not See?

Posted on 2014/05/15 by Shawn Thomas

Psalm 10:11 describes the wicked: “He says to himself, ‘God has forgotten; He has hidden His face; He will never see it.'” One of the qualities of the unrighteous, this passage tells us, is that they do not believe that God sees their ungodly action, or that He will ever do anything about it. But is it possible that many of God’s people feel the same way?

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“Positive Confession” or Wicked Boasting?

Posted on 2014/05/14 by Shawn Thomas

In Psalm 10:6 the Bible says of the wicked: “He says to himself, ‘I will not be moved; throughout all generations I will not be in adversity.’” Did we we not have the context of these words, they might be taken by some as models of “positive confession” and “healthy self-confidence”! But we DO have the context of the rest of Psalm 10. Verses 2 & 3 both make it clear that these are the words of the “wicked”!

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The Growth Which Is From God

Posted on 2014/05/13 by Shawn Thomas

In Colossians 2:19 Paul writes of those who are “not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God.” THIS is what we should seek in our churches: “the growth which is from God.”

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Right God/Wrong Worship

Posted on 2014/05/12 by Shawn Thomas

In I Kings 12 the Bible says that King Jeroboam “made two golden calves, and he said to (the people), ‘It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem; behold your gods, O Israel, that brought you up from the land of Egypt.'” What is instructive about this passage is that Jeroboam was not leading Israel to worship the “wrong” God, but rather to worship the “right” God in the WRONG way!

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You’re Not God!

Posted on 2014/05/09 by Shawn Thomas

Psalm 9 ends with this prayer from David: “Put them in fear, O LORD; let the nations know that they are but men.” His request may seem like a curious one at first, but it is actually very insightful regarding human nature and our response to difficult circumstances:

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