Walking with Jesus

Father God gave me a special insight today through part of a Sunday school lesson on Hearing God  and in something sad my wife encountered this morning.   As Olivia and I were talking about it tonight, she encouraged me to write this blog in order to share this revelation gift  with you as well. The key verse is Psalm 18:11:   "He made darkness His hiding place, dark storm clouds His canopy around Him."   It's an admittedly strange verse when you first encounter it. It seems to indicate, at the very least, that God is somehow present in the dark and sad things of life, at the very moment when He seems most distant. It does. But, it says even more than that. This verse is God's heart crying out to us in those moments: (as presented in the class) " I am here !" God is telling His children He has a secret place in the midst of the darkness, and He is inviting us not to miss finding Him there. Our Father, God, som...

  Psalm 8 (HCSB)   1  Yahweh, our Lord, how magnificent is Your name throughout the earth!   You have covered the heavens with Your majesty. 2  Because of Your adversaries, You have established a stronghold from the mouths of children and nursing infants to silence the enemy and the avenger.   3  When I observe Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You set in place, 4  what is man that You remember him, the son of man that You look after him? 5  You made him little less than God and crowned him with glory and honor. 6  You made him lord over the works of Your hands; You put everything under his feet: 7  all the sheep and oxen, as well as the animals in the wild, 8  the birds of the sky, and the fish of the sea that pass through the currents of the seas.   9  Yahweh, our Lord, how magnificent is Your name throughout the earth!

Today's Reflection come from Matthew 7 J esus taught with authority. And, what did he teach? "Enter by the narrow gate." This seems to me to be the thesis statement for chapter 7. The way of the narrow gate does not judge (v.1); it does not condemn, though it is discerning (v.15). The way of the narrow gate addresses itself first (v.5) and then tries to help others. The way of the narrow gate looks to God for a provision of grace (v.7), and also provides grace to others (v.12). The way of the narrow gate looks to knowing Jesus (v.23) for salvation, but also heeds the warning that we will be known by the fruit produced by God through that relationship (v.20).   In its broader context, this chapter is part of the Sermon begun in chapter 5. Therefore, the way of the narrow gate includes those admonitions and warnings found in chapters 6 and 7 as well.   Together, these chapters (and perhaps the central concept of THE WAY OF THE NARROW GATE) provide us with an introduction (m...

  Read Matthew 6 I remember I was surprised to notice the word assumptions come into my mind as I was reading this chapter, but that is exactly what happened. Jesus assumed some things about us, things that we do not always assume about ourselves. That is, as Jesus taught and talked to his disciples, he took some things for granted. I think it's appropriate to consider his assumptions and ask ourselves whether or not they are true of our lives as his followers. v.1 - Jesus assumes we will practice our righteousness. Of course, we are quick to remind ourselves that we have no righteousness apart from the grace of God (except perhaps a little SELF-righteousness). Yet, Jesus seems to believe that as his followers, we not only have righteousness, but we will  practice righteousness. He doesn't say, "By the way, you should go do righteous things." He assumes we will do righteous things and warns us against doing those righteous things with improper motives. v.2-...

This is a video of Dr. Jeff Iorg, President of Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary where I am a student pursuing my PhD in Old Testament. It is a bold and honest message in response to our culture's celebration of America's sexual immorality and a challenge to our faith as Christians as we attempt to tell people the Good News about Jesus through our lives, our words, and our love. (You may wish to click on the HD to turn it off for easier uploading.)   Ministry in the New Marriage Culture from Golden Gate Baptist on Vimeo .     1 Therefore, since Christ suffered in the flesh, equip yourselves also with the same resolve—because the one who suffered in the flesh has finished with sin— 2  in order to live the remaining time in the flesh, no longer for human desires, but for God’s will. 3  For there has already been enough time spent in doing what the pagans choose to do: carrying on in unrestrained behavior, evil desires, drunkenness, orgies, carous...

  This is a video of the sermon I preached and posted yesterday. 

 This morning we are going to continue the sermon we began last week related to why marriage is sometimes hard. If you will recall, we were reading in the first chapters of Genesis, and even before the Fall we made some observations that helped shed some light on the difficulties of relationships in general and in particular male/female relationships like marriage.   Our goal is to look at some of the foundational reasons marriage takes so much work. In doing so we are trying to build a foundation upon which to investigate all the particular issues and questions which arise in our relationships and make marriage what it is. We aren’t going to address everything about why our marriages can be difficult, simply start down a path to understanding what causes some of the dynamics we often find so confusing, even frustrating, in a particular member of the opposite sex.   Beginning in Genesis One , we talked about GOD and how we are both created equally and perhaps compositely in ...