Christmas and Joseph

One of the great things that comes with writing a blog is that I can choose what I wish to write about. The other side of that is obviously that if you the reader do not like what I write then you will not have to read it. Needless to …

The End and then the Beginning

On Thursday evening I announced to my wife that I had finished reading the Bible. She laughingly said, “so now what?” A rhetorical question of course as she knows that simply means I read through God’s Word and now I would be starting over. The reality was, I had already …

The Most Popular Bible Verse

I was looking at some news headlines this morning, and mixed into the usual political news, world news, and weather-related stories was a headline that caught my eye. The headline stated that the Bible App had released the most popular verse for 2019. I began to try and guess, and …

Christ the Hope

Don’t we all like to think about hope, talk about hope, and life in the hope that is only found in Jesus Christ? Yesterday we lit the first candle on the advent wreath at church and I spoke for a moment about hope, and Romans 15:12-13 was read. Christmas time …

With All Our Might

As I sit in my office at the church this morning my thoughts keep going in the direction of worshipping the Lord. My sermon this week is about worship, so I suppose that is part of the reason. But as I sit and listen to the sounds of worship in …

Built Up in Christ

This past week I have been spending my time studying the letter of Paul to the Colossians. In particular, Colossians 2 has been the chapter that has drawn me to write this morning. It is a cold Saturday and while I catch up on some things here at the church …

Reflection

I have been working through Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians this past week. As I do my personal study I highlight and make notes in my Bible margin and when I complete a chapter, I write my thoughts based on my reading and meditation on the text. I often …

Acts Unhindered

I completed my personal studying through the Acts of the Apostles this morning. It is one of the times when I completed a section of Scripture that I sat back, and really just marveled at God. Now, do not get me wrong, I marvel at God often, and how wonderful …

A Millstone

At our Bible study this week, we studied the first ten verses of Luke 17. As it seems I have said very often through our study of Luke, “Tonight we will once again hear some very hard teachings of Jesus.” As I reflect back on those “hard teachings,” I find …

No Despair Here

I was reading and studying the Book of Galatians this week and spent a lot of time looking at 5:22-23. In particular Paul addresses one of the fruits of “self-control.” Of course, we know that immediately following his mention of self-control he completes his thought with the statement, “against such …