The Asbury Revival and Habakkuk 1

The President of the student body was interviewed recently by Fox News about what’s happening at Asbury College. She said that a scripture being shared among those attending is Habakkuk chapter 1, specifically Hab 1:5. Habakkuk 1:5The Lord’s Surprising Answer“Look at the nations and pay attention!You will be shocked and amazed!For I will do something …

The Parable of the Tares and Final Judgement – Part 2, God’s Love

The Scriptural Warning of Judgement Part 1 of this series set up an end times backdrop I think is needed to properly understand this parable. For this part, I shall attempt to answer the following question: How is final judgement of the unrepentant consistent with the Love of God? As a reminder, the Parable of …

My Focus for 2023

As 2022 closes out, its a good time to look back as well as figure out the direction for this blog over the next year. Part of that is a decision about either keeping things at status quo, making more of an investment, or taking the blog site down and saving money. It is expensive …

The Book of Ruth and the Birth of Christ – Part 3

The Reception Part 2 left off with the journey across the high country from Moab to Judea. Naomi had run out of options in Moab. She had lost her husband and her two sons and was too old to have any more children. The likelihood of finding another husband in Moab were slim. Besides, Moab …

The Book of Ruth and the Birth of Christ – Part 2

The Spiritual Environment in the Time of the Judges God’s people Israel, whom He delivered from bondage in Egypt and brought into the promised land, began a struggle with idolatry not long after the death of Joshua. Joshua was faithful to the Lord and without his leadership, Israel began to falter. Israel was surrounded by …

The Book of Ruth and the Birth of Christ – Part 1

Each year around Christmas, I reread the Book of Ruth. To me, it is part of the Christmas story, even though it predates the birth of the Messiah by about 1000 years. It takes place in the time of the Judges, before there was a king in Israel. How does a short, obscure story tucked …

The Parable of the Soils Part 4 – Thorny Soil

Every farmer knows that harvest is reduced by weeds which compete with the crop for sunlight, nutrition, and water. If there is no intervention, weeds can reduce yield by about 28% according to a brief internet search. Soil is well prepared by farmers for planting: its well tilled, fertilized, and has the right amount of …

The Parable of the Soils Part 2 – The Seed on the Path

Who Do You Seek? As I said in the last post, not many people came to Jesus to seek the meaning of the parable of the soils. To the crowds, Jesus probably sounded like a farmer, not understanding there was profound spiritual meaning behind an agricultural parable. But apparently, 15 people – disciples – came …

Kingdom against kingdom Part 4 – Final Observations

This is the final post about the Gadarene incident. My purpose here is to summarize some key points that I would recommend all believers internalize. Why? Because there is a resurgence of paganism throughout the world along with a suppression of the Word of God – just as prophesied thousands of years ago. The first …

Kingdom against kingdom Part 3 – The Confrontation

This is the third part of a series on what I call the Gadarene incident – the well known account in the gospels of the deliverance of a man from many demons by Jesus Christ. In this post, I focus on the deliverance itself, but there are some bigger picture things happening in this encounter. …