Be With Me: 7 Minutes of Biblical Wonder

Join us for 7 minutes as we look for some good examples.  We'll hear from Teddy Roosevelt, Booker T. Washington and my mother Corinne.  All have something to reinforce from Paul's charge to the Thessalonians about working hard, minding your own affairs, and living a quiet life.   All of these areas affect the view that outsiders have of us. This perspective is not unimportant.  In fact,...

How's your love life?  Paul addresses the topic with the new church at Thessalonia.  He notes that it is to be characterized by GROWTH. How's your love life? Is it characterized by withdrawal, not engaging, not risking, not serving, weariness, disappointment, abandonment, holding at arms length, and perhaps a bit of decay? Paul encourages here; admonishes a bit. Love for the brotherhood...

I was encouraged this morning reading about how God cares deeply about our sex lives.  I am reminded that He invented it, that He is good, and wants what is truly good for us.  We might be a bit confused about what is truly good, so He reminds us here.   He's interested in our thriving in our sex life.  To wonder what that means, let's go back to our designer and creator to hear the boun...

God is thrilled with sex.  He invented it and has a great plan for it.  There is a right way and a wrong way to enjoy this amazing creation. Of concern, is that there are expectations He has for us.  Of concern is the  agency and the  accountability He has blessed us with. The first key to good sex is to avoid BAD SEX, that is sexual immorality. The second key to good sex is to keep your eye on yo...

Get ready for a whole list of encouragement from Paul. In every way possible, he articulates with his hopes, prayers, mouth and actions his passion for the people of Thessalonia.  He is shooting for the goal of an established and holy people who abound for love for 1 another. Join me for a seven minute blast of encouragement to an afflicted people.  If you might feel a bit afflicted today, then ho...

We thought yesterday that fellowship was so important that even Satan understands it and tries to thwart it. Today we see Paul  voluntarily  giving up his fellowship with his A-team missionaries, Tim and Silas, so as to see the Thessalonians walk in a manner worthy. Paul describes the leaving of Timothy as an AFFLICTION.  That's right, the affliction of aloneness.  And this is from a guy that...

What if the content of this encouragement are completely understood by Satan? What if he has send an intergalactic evil force to thwart you in it? What if powers from another world are here to hinder you in our topic today? All those things are  true. Therefore, our topic of FELLOWSHIP must be pretty important. Or more: even CRITICAL to the Christian walk.  Just ask Satan, he knows. We live a a lo...

Everybody has a job.   The preacher is to SPEAK the Word. The Lord is CALLING into His Kingdom; Revealing Himself; Making the Word Reachable and HELPING on the difficulty day of Salvation. The listener is to HEAR, BELIEVE, ACCEPT and be SAVED. This is the Word at Work in Believers and at the time of belief. Join me for 7 minutes in a little mini-gospel in the book of 1st Thessalonians.  You will h...

The big call is to walk in a manner worthy of God.  Paul first qualifies himself by describing the heart of a pastor: I Have a gentle heart like that of a nursing mother (yesterday's podcast). I have the right motivation (being affectionately desirous of you); I have the right hands (ones that labor and toil because no work=no witness, or at least not a very good one); I have the right behavi...

Men in our passage today describe themselves as WOMEN. Exposed women. Nursing mothers. Gentle with their months-old infants.  No better picture illustrates love, dedication, intimacy, immediacy, need and sacrifice. This is exactly how the men want us to know what LEADERSHIP for the new Thessalonian church is like.  Leadership is like being a nursing mother to the infant church.  It is tender, it i...

Other than being hunted by a Mob, Paul has a lot of good things to say about the people of Thessalonia: they are in the right place: they are loved and chosen by God Himself they have chosen the right examples: Paul, Timothy and Sivanus they have started well: believe, listening, receiving and starting to change they have the right circumstances: AFFLICTION they have the right attitude: joy they h...

You are at a great place to start listening to this podcast.  It is day #1 in the book of 1st Thessalonians.  We are following the early church.  Paul is on his second missionary journey having just visited the city of Thessalonica.  Unfortunately, there was a riot there and a mob compelled his departure. But he saw that God was at work in his 3 weeks there.  So, from Corinth, he first sends the y...

Best of. Conclusions. Summary. Highlights.  What a blast. Join me for 7 minutes of ALL of the book of James.  Look for a Highlight/heartlight.  Yes I made that up. Have a trial? Then James is for you. Expect it. Welcome it. He says to trial, "You complete me." What is that pesky thing between my KNOWLEDGE and my ACTION? That is, when I know something, do I actually do something about it?...

You have spiritual problems.  Everybody does.  You'd love to access the POWER to fix them. (The prayer of a righteous person has GREAT POWER as it is working!)That is exactly what today's passage talks about. But hold on just a second. Before we get to the power, let's see the context of its' distribution. It is administered in a particular PLACE: the church. It is administered...

We should have an inclination to prayer. Everybody. The sick, the suffering, the cheerful, the leaders, the followers, the sinner, the prophet, those who are out of gas, and those who have some gas in the tank. What struck me today was the sense of community that this prayer is born out of. There is a community that is engaging in the ONE ANOTHER's of scripture.  There are about 60 of them in...

But what KIND of patience does James call us to? A passive, weak patience? Nope. He turns to the farmer first. Farmers work hard, have spiritual-callouses, know the principle that what happens in August depends on what happens in April.  They know that August is WORTH it and is precious. There is patience in every day, a lot of "not yet today" in farming. And look to the prophets.  They...

Welcome to a real day coming when money talks, riches rot, garments are eaten, inert metals corrode and there is flesh-eating-treasure.  It the dystopian, upside-down, Alice-in-Wonderland day  that all of us will actually see. It is the ARMIES-OUT day of the Lord's judgment. If your money could talk, what would it say about you ?  In our passage it says the temporary owner committed fraud, in...

Every person you see today is an eternal creature. But, as far as the here and now is concerned, they are MISTS.  Frankly, they just may not be here in the morning.  We MUST view ourselves as MISTS.  It helps us with a humble posture towards God regarding TIME. So SHOULD a mist be making plans?  Sure, but with a humility of vision towards time.  Should a mist be planning travel and engaging in bus...

If you have every had the joy of playing "Hide and Seek" with a child, there is a point to the game:  it is not TO BE HIDDEN, but rather TO BE FOUND.  The joy is to be found . The joy is to find.  Similarly, with God, we " draw near to God, and He will draw near to us ." Or, " go find God and He'll go find us ." Or, to our Hide and Seek picture, " Go find Hi...

God could not be sweeter in our passage today.  Please listen.  You will hear the heart of God in His relationship to a people who are not the shiniest.  Here is the prize:  He gives grace and then MORE grace (especially to the humble) He will exalt (though we have no business participating in this) He opposes pride (of course He does, it gets in the way of everything spiritual and good) He draws...

In a marriage relationship, both parties are to be fighting for the relationship; each giving all they've got and making the whole a priority.  Violating that commitment is known as adultery. Similarly, we find that we are already "in a relationship" with God.  He's already started the marriage by indwelling His Spirit. And, He says that He continues to fight for our relationsh...

James is all about wisdom. It doesn't get to us by magic.  We must make a space for it.  We make mental and spiritual 'room' for it.  We must give preference to it.  This is the meekness of wisdom.   Into this same space will charge jealousy and selfish-ambition.  We get to lean on either wisdom or jealousy.  We give preference to wisdom or ambition. The consequences are definitive....

Your tongue is supposed to be used to speak blessing upon the Lord (worship) and to speak blessing upon His people (encouragement). It is small part of the body, but it packs a big punch.  In fact, it is the biggest punch of all.  This little rudder controls a whole lot of ship.   If you think about why people have crashed their ship-of-life, you can be SURE that at least a part of it has been bec...

Thank you for making this podcast a 7 minute part of your day.  I hope you are blessed today, and that you'll come back for all the tomorrows that the Lord may give. There is an appropriate, sobering warning given that NOT MANY OF YOU SHOULD BECOME TEACHERS. But, if teaching God's Word is an honored position and profession, why the caution? We are asking teachers to do one of the hardest...

Salvation is not the result of works, but works are the result of salvation. Salvation is not a result of work, but works are the result of faith. Salvation is not the result of works, but works accompany faith. James goes so far as to rock the 5 solas by saying: "Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is DEAD.  That is, it does not exist.  There is no such thing. Because it is my podcas...