Proverbs 20:1 (KJV) Wine and Strong Drink

Proverbs 20:1 (KJV)
Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.

In such a day as ours, when there is a simultaneous resurgence of the use of alcoholic drink and (not so coincidentally) Reformation Calvinism, it seems increasingly important to take note of those very many passages of the Bible that condemn drinking the stuff. I heard a preacher just last week, while teaching his church why drinking is unwise, purposefully and plainly say that to do so is not sin.

It is so. It is more than unwise and unhealthy. It is the imbibing of a spirit other than God’s.

• It is the cause of many a man and woman’s downfall. 
• It is the cause of hundreds of deaths in traffic accidents each year. 
• It is the cause of abusive relationships. 
• It is the cause of the break up of countless homes

It is pure and plain sin.

Some of those who would agree with me concerning strong drink would make exception with wine (and many of them would also except beer). This proverb makes no exception. It classifies wine right next to strong drink. Biblical forms of wine were not always alcoholic. Those forms that are alcoholic are always equally condemned with other types of strong drink.

• Don’t entertain drinking it
• Don’t engage in drinking it and
• Don’t encourage others to drink it

To my readers:
I would love to hear from you. Leave comments below.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others

Proverbs 20:1 (KJV) Wine and Strong Drink

Please consider helping our church’s teen department by signing up for cash back shopping at Bible Baptist Church Fundraiser. This program has three levels of participation, the first being completely free.

Proverbs 18:20-21 (KJV) The Arts of Writing and Speaking

Proverbs 18:20-21 (KJV)
A man’s belly shall be satisfied with the fruit of his mouth; and with the increase of his lips shall he be filled.Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.

It is a truth that those who earn their keep with their words always earn a better keep than those who do the same with their hands.

Washington, Jefferson and Madison all claimed to be first and foremost, farmers, but they made their marks in the world not through the crops they raised but by the ideas they put forth. Abraham Lincoln was raised to greatness not through his ability to split a log but by his practiced use of the spoken word. One of the most important things a man can do is learn to speak well.

The tongue has more value however than just the raising of wealth and greatness but also of eternal matters. Better than the satisfaction of earning a good living or doing our generation good is to make a mark for eternity. That’s done best with our tongues.

So my appeal is for people to be more:

• Conscious
• Determined and 
• Practiced 

in the arts of writing and speaking.

To my readers:
I would love to hear from you. Leave comments below.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others

Proverbs 18:20-21 (KJV) The Arts of Writing and Speaking

Please consider helping our church’s teen department by signing up for cash back shopping at Bible Baptist Church Fundraiser. This program has three levels of participation, the first being completely free.

Luke 10:1 (KJV) Jesus Is Coming Too

Luke 10:1 (KJV)
After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come.

The Lord appointed these seventy that they would go witness to cities He Himself would come to. They, in effect, prepared his way. It was a ministry similar to that of John the Baptist.

It reminds me of the work we do as believers and as witnesses for Jesus Christ. Our job is to go where Jesus is already going. We are not the answer to anyone’s needs. Our ministry, our care, our compassion – though needful, is temporary if not practically pointless except for this one fact, Jesus is coming too. Ours is to point people to look for the Saviour.

• His ministry
• His care
• His compassion

Is what they need and is truly the answer.

Where He sends us then we can know that He is coming too.

Matthew 28:20b (KJV
… and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

To my readers:
I would love to hear from you. Leave comments below.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others

Luke 10:1 (KJV) Jesus Is Coming Too

Please consider helping our church’s teen department by signing up for cash back shopping at Bible Baptist Church Fundraiser. This program has three levels of participation, the first being completely free.

Proverbs 16:2 (KJV) Outward Appearances

Proverbs 16:2 (KJV)
All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the LORD weigheth the spirits.

It is here that I am reminded of another verse,

1 Samuel 16:7
But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.

Men justify themselves by their ways. We look at the ways of certain people and we either regard or reject them. We hold up our own ways, the outward appearance of things and present ourselves as good and right and clean. Because others agree with us we believe ourselves to be in safe stead for eternity.

But God tells us that it is not our ways that He looks at. This is not to say our ways are unimportant but that they are not all important. The Lord looks at the heart and weighs the spirits. God sees not the actions of men but what motivates the action.

When it comes down to it the only ways that truly project cleanliness are those ways of Christ living in us. As we die to self so that the life we now live is “Christ liveth in me” our ways are clean before God. God looks for the heart of Christ in us.

He weighs our spirits whether they have been quickened.

Everything else is only outward appearance.

To my readers:
I would love to hear from you. Leave comments below.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others

Proverbs 16:2 (KJV) Outward Appearances

Please consider helping our church’s teen department by signing up for cash back shopping at Bible Baptist Church Fundraiser. This program has three levels of participation, the first being completely free.

Luke 9:6 (KJV) That – Is The Gospel

Luke 9:6 (KJV)
And they departed, and went through the towns, preaching the gospel, and healing every where.

People speak of a the several gospels in the Bible, i.e.:

• The gospel of the kingdom 
• The everlasting gospel 
• Etc.

Paul told the Corinthians he had declared to them the gospel, which he preached and went on to speak of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. This has led us to claim the death burial and resurrection is the gospel. That could not have been what the disciples preached here in Luke 9 as the historical event of the cross had not yet happened.

I recently heard a definition of the gospel that I believe wraps all of the gospels people speak of into one piece of good news. The definition is, “an appeal (or invitation) to be reconciled to God through Christ.”

This definition finds its culmination in the death, burial and resurrection. It holds the promise of inheritance of the kingdom and it contains an everlasting hope. It is what the gospel is meant to accomplish. It’s only weakness as I can see, is that Calvinistic brethren tend to dislike the concept of earnest appeals and invitations. I would counter that the concept of preaching is an appeal or invitation; the rest is public speaking and teaching.

Preaching has at its heart, the appeal to be reconciled to God through Christ.

That – is the gospel.

To my readers:
I would love to hear from you. Leave comments below.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others

Luke 9:6 (KJV) That – Is The Gospel

Please consider helping our church’s teen department by signing up for cash back shopping at Bible Baptist Church Fundraiser. This program has three levels of participation, the first being completely free.

Luke 8:8-11 (KJV) Wait For It

Luke 8:8-11 (KJV)
And other fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bare fruit an hundredfold. And when he had said these things, he cried, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.And his disciples asked him, saying, What might this parable be?And he said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand.Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. 

Here is the truth of God’s Word; it is discernible only to disciples and then only to those who hear it again (and again).

The Bible, though not all parable, is spiritually discerned. We learn it not so much by study (though that is involved) but by asking the Lord to reveal it to us.

Believers, true disciples, those who have ears to hear, will ask the Lord and wait to hear His response. Others will move along with disinterest. Not getting what they want immediately, they leave frustrated and maybe even agitated. They seek something surface level, easy to hold on to quickly; something that won’t disrupt their own plans.

True believers wait not for what they want to hear but for what God wants to say. It is only they who hear the message of the Word.

To my readers:
I would love to hear from you. Leave comments below.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others

Luke 8:8-11 (KJV) Wait For It

Please consider helping our church’s teen department by signing up for cash back shopping at Bible Baptist Church Fundraiser. This program has three levels of participation, the first being completely free.

Proverbs 15:7 (KJV) The Wise and the Foolish

Proverbs 15:7 (KJV)
The lips of the wise disperse knowledge: but the heart of the foolish doeth not so.

Proverbs 15:14 (KJV)
The heart of him that hath understanding seeketh knowledge: but the mouth of fools feedeth on foolishness.

Proverbs 15:28 (KJV)
The heart of the righteous studieth to answer: but the mouth of the wicked poureth out evil things.

Jesus said, Matthew 15:18-19
But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man.For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:

The connection between the mouth and the heart is unmistakable. It is from our affections that we speak. It is also from the heart, from those things that matter to us most, that we seek what we feed our hearts. We feed it what we like most.

The wise choose carefully upon that which they put in their hearts.Proverbs 15:14

They seek knowledge. They look for things that will grow and build them. They look for what is profitable and helpful.

The wise think carefully about what they speakProverbs 15:28

Drawing from that well of carefully placed knowledge, they consider what it is they will dispense at any given moment.

The wise disperse finally that which is knowledgeProverbs 15:7

Because they have knowledge from which to draw and they have studied before they disperse it, what they speak is generally knowledgeable.

It is not so with the foolish.

• They have not guarded what is placed in their hearts
• They do not think before they disperse what is in their hearts and so
• They have no knowledge to give from their hearts.

To my readers:
I would love to hear from you. Leave comments below.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others

Proverbs 15:7 (KJV) The Wise and the Foolish

Please consider helping our church’s teen department by signing up for cash back shopping at Bible Baptist Church Fundraiser. This program has three levels of participation, the first being completely free.

Proverbs 13:6 (KJV) Righteousness Keeps Him

Proverbs 13:6 (KJV)
Righteousness keepeth him that is upright in the way: but wickedness overthroweth the sinner.

There are four characters in this verse:

• Righteousness 
• Him the is upright in the way
• Wickedness 
• The sinner

The character “righteousness” keeps the character known as “him the is upright in the way.” 

The character “wickedness” overthrows the character known as “the sinner.”

The most earthly reading of the passage would lead us to conclude that when we act in a upright way our righteousness keeps us and that when we act sinfully our own wickedness overthrows us. But the Bible is a supernatural book and there is a supernatural element to the passage.

Every Christian knows that our righteousness is not our own but that we have been made the righteousness of God in Him. We also know that the lost man is taken captive by the devil at his will. In other words, righteousness is Christ and wickedness is the devil.

As the Christian behaves in an upright way, his righteousness, which is Christ, keeps and protects him. When the lost person behaves in a sinful manner his wickedness; which is of the devil, overthrows him.

It is not our own righteousness that keeps us. It is the righteousness of Christ. Our security is not in our behavior but in our Saviour. A Christian may backslide and be chastened because of it, but he can never be overthrown because Christ, which is his righteousness, keeps him.

To my readers:
I would love to hear from you. Leave comments below.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others

Proverbs 13:6 (KJV) Righteousness Keeps Him

Please consider helping our church’s teen department by signing up for cash back shopping at Bible Baptist Church Fundraiser. This program has three levels of participation, the first being completely free.

Proverbs 11:4 (KJV) Dedicated to Righteousness

Proverbs 11:4 (KJV)
Riches profit not in the day of wrath: but righteousness delivereth from death.

It is assumed that there will be a day of wrath. The Bible, and every thinking person, understands that such a day is coming. We do not know when but

• we have experienced many precursor days, 
• we have the prophecies of the Bible 
• we have the witness of the conscience and 
• we have the scientific data of diminishing world resources 

to verify in the heart that such a day will come.

There is, for every human being, our own day of wrath.[1]

As true as this coming day of wrath is, the rest of the verse is equally true; “Riches profit not … But righteousness deliverereth from death.” When this day comes no one will be glad they devoted themselves to gain. Everyone who has dedicated himself to righteousness will be very glad they did.

[1] Hebrews 9:27 (KJV)
And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:

To my readers:
I would love to hear from you. Leave comments below.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others

Proverbs 11:4 (KJV) Dedicated to Righteousness

Please consider helping our church’s teen department by signing up for cash back shopping at Bible Baptist Church Fundraiser. This program has three levels of participation, the first being completely free.

Proverbs 9:6 (KJV) Forsake Foolishness

Proverbs 9:6 (KJV)
Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding.

There are two ways of interpreting the instruction of this verse:

• Forsake foolish persons 
• Forsake personal foolishness 

It seems to me that both are equally sound and worthy of adherence.

Foolish people will only lead us into personal foolishness.

As difficult as it is for some to forsake anyone, even if that one is a bad influence, there is no question that wisdom associates itself with those who do. This does not mean we shun those who could potentially be a negative influence. We want to reach out to people of all sorts so that we might be the best influence upon them. It does mean that we identify foolish persons for who they are and refuse to be drawn too closely in with them.

Personal foolishness has at least two negative qualities:
First, it is foolishness.It will do us no good.

Second, it limits our being influenced by wisdom and wise people.Wisdom will see us for who we are, mark us as having the potential of negative influence upon them and avoid deep relationships with us. If we want to be influenced by wisdom we must forsake more and more that which is foolish.

To my readers:
I would love to hear from you. Leave comments below.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others

Proverbs 9:6 (KJV) Forsake Foolishness

Please consider helping our church’s teen department by signing up for cash back shopping at Bible Baptist Church Fundraiser. This program has three levels of participation, the first being completely free.

Proverbs 8:4 (KJV) The Character of Wisdom

Proverbs 8:4 (KJV)
Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of man.

There is a maybe not so subtle contrast between the strange woman of chapter seven and wisdom in this chapter. We liken wisdom to Christ but the likeness can’t be stretched too far, for this wisdom is brought forth and nothing of the like can be said of Christ. The chapter then gives us:

The character of wisdomVs 6-9

The value of wisdomVs 10-11

The qualities of wisdomVs 12-14

The fruit of wisdomVs 15-19

The work of wisdomVs 20-21

The origin of wisdomVs 22-31

The call to be wiseVs 32-36

Wisdom is attainable because it comes from God. Since we have access to the Father we have access to true wisdom.

To my readers:
I would love to hear from you. Leave comments below.

For this and more than 3000 earlier Daily Visits with God visit Marvin McKenzie’s blogger page. There you will find daily visits going back to 2006.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others

Proverbs 8:4 (KJV) The Character of Wisdom

Please consider helping our church’s teen department by signing up for cash back shopping at Bible Baptist Church Fundraiser. This program has three levels of participation, the first being completely free.

Luke 4:1 (KJV) Full of the Holy Ghost

Luke 4:1 (KJV)
And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,

This passage states both the obvious and the absurd. Jesus is the fullness of the Godhead bodily. He could be nothing but full of the Holy Ghost.

On the other hand, why would the fullness of the Godhead bodily need fullness of the Holy Ghost? It can only be in association with his humanity.

His fullness is sandwiched between two vital events:

• His baptism and 
• His temptation 

His baptism was an expression of submission. His temptation was an expression of dependence.

The fullness of the Holy Ghost, His total control of us is the product of absolute submission to God and full dependence upon God as expressed in His Word.

To my readers:
I would love to hear from you. Leave comments below.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others

Luke 4:1 (KJV) Full of the Holy Ghost

Please consider helping our church’s teen department by signing up for cash back shopping at Bible Baptist Church Fundraiser. This program has three levels of participation, the first being completely free.

Proverbs 3:3 (KJV) Contend for Grace

Proverbs 3:3 (KJV)
Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart:

Here is an interesting phrase. Mercy and truth are animated. They are said to be proactive, choosing to forsake a soul for some reason.

The son, in this text, is urged to take measures to ensure he is not forsaken by mercy and truth. He is to bind them about his neck and write them on the table of his heart. Mind you, it’s not speaking about wearing some sort of necklace or tattooing them on his chest. This is a spiritual action and not a physical one. People have many things tattooed upon their bodies that no longer have any meaning to them.

The point is this; mercy and truth are easily abandoned. Though salvation, once attained, is never lost, the graces of the Christian life must be contended for or else they may be lost to error and the fleshly leanings of men.

To my readers:
I would love to hear from you. Leave comments below.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others

Proverbs 3:3 (KJV) Contend for Grace

Please consider helping our church’s teen department by signing up for cash back shopping at Bible Baptist Church Fundraiser. This program has three levels of participation, the first being completely free.

Proverbs 2:1-5 (KJV) If and Then

Proverbs 2:1-5 (KJV)
My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee;So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding;Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding;If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures;Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.

I am struck today with the words, “if” and “then.” There is no question that there is a “cause and effect” situation set up here

• If the son will do such and such
• Then the result will be thus

It reminds me of Romans 10:13
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. 

The verse sets two actions beside one another and provides two responsible parties for these actions.

• The responsibility of the man is to call on the name of the Lord
• The responsibility of the Lord is to save.

The reformed theologian’s main complaint, it seems to me, is that without the doctrine of election, as they define it, God appears to have failed in His desire to save the lost. If in fact the Lord would have all men to be saved unless all men eventually are saved, in their view, God has failed. That isn’t the case at all:

• God would have all men to be saved 
• Christ died so that all men may be saved and
• Whosoever shall then call upon the name of the Lord is saved without fail

Salvation is completely purely and only the work of God. He saves without fail whosoever,

• Hears the gospel message, 
• Sees it as the answer for their enmity against God and 
• Calls upon the Lord to apply the good news to their case.

To my readers:
I would love to hear from you. Leave comments below.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others

Proverbs 2:1-5 (KJV) If and Then

Please consider helping our church’s teen department by signing up for cash back shopping at Bible Baptist Church Fundraiser. This program has three levels of participation, the first being completely free.

Luke 1:8-11 (KJV) God Will Meet You On Your Lot

Luke 1:8-11 (KJV)
And it came to pass, that while he executed the priest’s office before God in the order of his course,According to the custom of the priest’s office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord.And the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense.And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense.

Our culture would attach a fairly negative connotation to the term “lot.” C-3PO made this negative connotation famous in the iconic scene from Starwars when he complained that suffering is his “lot in life.”[1]

I doubt that was the mood of Zacharias. It was his lot as a priest to burn incense. He was not the high priest whose lot it was to go yearly into the holy of holies. His lot was not to sacrifice the animals and offer them at the brazen altar. His lot was to burn incense. It was not very public nor was it very exciting. But it was exactly where he was called to serve and just where the angel of the Lord met him.

Your “lot” may not seem very glamorous, exciting or cutting edge but if it is God’s lot for you it is just where you can best meet Him.

[1] http://youtu.be/2nuSnE6GNdo

To my readers:
I would love to hear from you. Leave comments below.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others

Luke 1:8-11 (KJV) God Will Meet You On Your Lot

Please consider helping our church’s teen department by signing up for cash back shopping at Bible Baptist Church Fundraiser. This program has three levels of participation, the first being completely free.

Mark 16:11 (KJV) They Didn’t Believe At First

Mark 16:11 (KJV)
And they, when they had heard that he was alive, and had been seen of her, believed not.

It is a bit of an irony that the very men commissioned to tell the world that Jesus was risen did not believe it when at first they heard. That one should rise from the dead is such a fantastic idea that it is not naturally believed. Faith has to come to work.

Their own disbelief serves as a precursor to the reception of their own ministries. Though they would “turn the world upside down” the greatest numbers of people have not believed.

How then does a man or woman find the strength to go and tell a message that even they did not believe at first? It is because the message of the witnesses is followed up with the convicting power of God. He reinforces the message in our hearts so that we are open to it. At first we may disbelieve but then some form of rebuke enters our understanding. God’s Holy Spirit illuminates our mind and convicts our heart so that we we know the Word to be true.

We can tell the message to someone who might at first not believe because we know we at first did not believe.

To my readers:
I would love to hear from you. Leave comments below.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others

Mark 16:11 (KJV) They Didn’t Believe At First

Please consider helping our church’s teen department by signing up for cash back shopping at Bible Baptist Church Fundraiser. This program has three levels of participation, the first being completely free.

Psalms 145:4 (KJV) What Our Children Need to Know

Psalms 145:4 (KJV)
One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts.

Here is a principle found throughout the Word of God; every generation of believers are to pass down, to the coming generation, what God has done.

Included in this, I am sure is our personal testimony. It is vital that our own relationship with God is of such a nature that we have a testimony to share:

• What salvation has meant to us
• What difference the faith has made
• What miracles God has worked out in our own behalf. 

Our kids need to know that we have witnessed a living God in our own walk with Him.

But the mighty acts that the next generation most clearly needs to know are those acts relating to the Gospel:

• The incarnation of God in Christ 
• The fulfillment of the righteous law by Christ
• The substitution of Christ of the cross for us
• The resurrection of Christ from the grave
• The ascension of Christ into glory 
• The power of Christ to save and
• The promised coming of Christ for His own

To my readers:
I would love to hear from you. Leave comments below.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others

Psalms 145:4 (KJV) What Our Children Need to Know

Please consider helping our church’s teen department by signing up for cash back shopping at Bible Baptist Church Fundraiser. This program has three levels of participation, the first being completely free.

Psalms 143:7 (KJV) The Sense of His Presence

Psalms 143:7 (KJV)
Hear me speedily, O LORD: my spirit faileth: hide not thy face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit.

The Psalmist never said he would go into the pit but that he would be like those who do.

The difference between the saved and the lost is their relationship with the Lord.Whether one goes to heaven or hell is entirely determined by that relationship.

The difference between the hopeful and the fearful is that same relationship.A saved person may feel just like the lost person when their fellowship with the Lord is not what it ought to be.

Gill writes, “…in the favour of God is life, his absence is as death: or the pit of hell, the pit of destruction; that is, be in such horror and despair, and under such apprehensions of divine wrath, as the damned feel.” Note that he does not say to be damned but to be as the damned feel.

The difference is all in the sense of the Lord’s presence, which is maintained primarily through prayer and the ministry of God’s Word in us.

To my readers:
I would love to hear from you. Leave comments below.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others

Psalms 143:7 (KJV) The Sense of His Presence

Please consider helping our church’s teen department by signing up for cash back shopping at Bible Baptist Church Fundraiser. This program has three levels of participation, the first being completely free.

Mark 14:1 (KJV) That’s Just Crafty

Mark 14:1 (KJV)
After two days was the feast of the passover, and of unleavened bread: and the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take him by craft, and put him to death.

I am interested in the word “craft.” Just a little bit of research with my concordance revealed that the Greek word used in this text means trickery. That is in contrast to a passage such as the one that says Paul’s craft was tent making. But it seems telling that Webster’s 1828 dictionary gives the two definitions:

• A skill and
• A trick

as different but with little distinction. Perhaps the two are related, at least in perception. I have a craft. I am a journeyman ironworker by trade and a certified welder by craft. These are skills I trained for. They did not come quickly or easily. I had to work to become skilled at them.

I am reminded of a preacher friend who also has a craft. He has trained to become a skilled illusionist. His craft is slight of hand. He has learned how to trick an audience into thinking they have seen a thing they have not.

This is exactly the skill the chief priests and scribes had developed. They had learned how to trick people into believing a thing to be true when in fact it was not. They guided, through skillful deception, the mind of Judas to betray Jesus and the minds of the crowd to cry out “Crucify Him!”

The craft of the illusionist is such that, unless you are let in on his secret, you cannot tell where the truth ends and the trick begins. The same is true with the craft of religion. Those plying their trade are skilled to the place you cannot see where the deception begins. But all is not lost. God has given to us the only two tools needed to see through the trickery, if we will but use them.

• The one is the Bible, the record of all that is true. 
• The other is the Holy Spirit, Who illuminates that Word for the careful student. 

To my readers:
I would love to hear from you. Leave comments below.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others

Mark 14:1 (KJV) That’s Just Crafty

Please consider helping our church’s teen department by signing up for cash back shopping at Bible Baptist Church Fundraiser. This program has three levels of participation, the first being completely free.

Mark 13:37 (KJV) Relevant to All Generations

Mark 13:37 (KJV)
And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch. 

I understand that there Bible must be understood first as it was understood by the original audience. It is one of the first things a student of the Bible is taught to do; ask the questions:

• Who is the writer?
• What are the circumstances under which he writes?
• Who is the audience?
• How would they have understood this passage? 

It is an honest mistake when a student gets the questions wrong.Most of the differences between Christians I think happens because we come up with different answers to these important questions. God has seen fit to leave the answers outside of the preserved Word of God.

It is in innocence and naivety that the less mature Christian reads the Bible without knowing to ask these questionsWe certainly do not have to wait until we become more mature to read and study the Bible. I would suggest that most people, though babes in Christ, have learned through other medium to at least subconsciously ask these questions.

It is not so honest when a person refuses to acknowledge the questions.A real problem exists whenever a person, through lack of rudimentary education and social development, refuses to accept that such rules as asking these fundamental questions is essential to proper understanding.

Differences happen whenever honest students of the Bible come to varying conclusions in their studies. Those differences can be of such a nature that, I believe, division is called for. This sort of division is not equal to enmity. Heresies happen whenever no answers to these questions and no reconciliation with those answers and the current application is attempted. The differences resulting from this most certainly call for separation and generally also justify an aggressive approach to resist this false teaching.

Having said all of that, it is equally wrong to see the Bible as being written to only one audience at one point in history and having no application for the current reader. Rightly dividing the Word of truth is the discipline of drawing out that application that is accurate with the text and relevant to all generations.

To my readers:
I would love to hear from you. Leave comments below.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others

Mark 13:37 (KJV) Relevant to All Generations

Please consider helping our church’s teen department by signing up for cash back shopping at Bible Baptist Church Fundraiser. This program has three levels of participation, the first being completely free.