The Hungry Disciple

Calvary, as important as it is for believers, has become obsured by communion. However, because of a basic misunderstanding of one of Paul's teachings, communion has become about our sin rather than Calvary. I want to invite you to see Calvary as Jesus described it. "As the serpent was lifted up in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up," Jesus said. So let's move our eyes off of Golgotha for a minute and go back to the desert where God's people were being killed left, right and center by deadly snakes. God told Moses to get a pole, put one of the serpents on the top and raise it up over the people, commanding them to look upon the serpent on the pole. God's instruction was to "look and live!", and when they looked at the snake on the pole they were healed from the deadly poison. Can you imagine, you are writhing in the pain of certain death and suddenly you look up at a brass snake and you are instantly healed and whole? As they mo...

I have been in a discussion with some other Christians this morning about the Bible. Many have been confounded by The Word most of their life and won't voice their questions because of reactions they produce in church. Some just weary of asking questions because they get the same old canned responses and doctrinal understanding they have always gotten. Inerrancy is a word that has been misused for thousands of years in relation to The Bible. To believe in inerrancy the way it has been most often taught would be to believe that Moses killed an Egyptian with God's blessing, that eating shellfish was an abomination to God and that Jesus taught maiming yourself is better than sinning. So, instead of going that route denominations and individuals have set themselves up to decide and teach what is inerrant and to, well, mostly ignore the rest. I never bought the inerrancy doctrine. As a teen I recognized by The Spirit that disgusting method of control right off the bat becaus...

Did you know that God is joy? God is gladness?  Joy and gladness as we know them are cheap imitations of joy that is the character and substance of God. Everything about Him is joyful. He is nothing but glad about you! He is nothing but joyous concerning you! His joy is safety for us. When we grasp that God's face is always going to light up when we walk into a room, we can feel nothing but safe and protected.  Have you ever noticed how a young child reacts to a person who is joyful? They become joyful. Ridiculously joyful. As human beings we have to put a lid on it just to keep things from being knocked off the furniture or to keep them from spinning in circles till they get so giddy they fall and crack their little skulls. Unchecked they will just spin off into joy so deep it becomes exhausting and they collaspe into a heap.  There has to be an atmosphere of complete safety to engross oneself completely in joy. Joy of the Lord is our strength, right?...

Before the foundation of the world: God loved Jesus. God chose Jesus to ransom you.  Jesus was slain. God chose you to be in Christ, to be holy and without fault in His eyes. Names were written in Jesus' Book of Life.   God prepared a Kingdom for the blessed.    God did the work to prepare for you a rest.    God has kept secrets. All of these things occured before there was time, a universe, and us.  When we are searching to find God's Truth, these things are His eternal and unchanging Truths. When Jesus told the people that a wise man is one who comes to Him, hears Him and does what He tells them; He described that man as a man who builds his foundation for all else on a Rock that can't be shaken by time. Jesus was teaching about heavenly foundations, eternal foundations that cannot be moved.  Before Abraham, I Am, Jesus said.  Does something of eternity stir within you when you hear about ...

My husband and I recently refinanced our mortgage. The sheets of legal mumbo-jumbo produced was impressive. We read through every page of it diligently.....just kidding!  We didn't even contemplate doing that. We thought we understood what we were doing because we somewhat understood what the loan officers, bankers and other experts told us, but one thing we knew for sure. If we started to read those pages we would be hopelessly confused.  I just had a discussion with some believers who were hopelessly confused about the Ten Commandments and Grace. Even unbelievers revere the Ten Commandments, I mean Charlton Heston as Moses branded God giving  the commandments into our retinas, and preachers, teachers and parents have branded them into our minds and sometimes backsides over the years, so we all have issues with casting those sacred tablets aside. Most believers vacillate between Grace and Commandments. As one woman in the discussion said, "our society would c...

I love snow and living in Virginia's Southside means I don't see it very often. I flew to the windows this morning hoping for snow and, be still my heart, the sunlight was glittering off that pearly white stuff everywhere I looked! First thing I did was open all the curtains and pull up all the blinds in my house so I could see the brilliant winter beauty everywhere I went. Then I set about making me some hot tea and raisin toast. It didn't take long for me to notice that my clean kitchen wasn't really clean. My wood floor was covered with dust and specks of cracker crumbs and other debris of life. I am not a OCD kind of homemaker by any stretch of the imagination, but I could not stand looking at that floor and headed to the broom closet. As I waited for my toast to pop up I noticed my counters weren't all that clean either, but littered with toast crumbs and smudges, so while I could see I wiped down all the counters. As I took my tea and toa...

Jesus talked about treasure and riches, wealth and mammon. He didn't shy away from using the most valuable thing in our world as an object lesson in His teaching. One of His most personal teachings, found in Luke 6:45 gives us a profound way to know what is buried deep in our heart.  Jesus says, " a good person out of the good treasure in his heart produces good talk while an evil man out of the evil treasure in his heart produces evil talk."   Jesus says it's our heart that does our talking.. The word Jesus uses, treasure, can mean a jewelry box or a coffin. The Bible speaks specifically of treasure because the word implies something that is hidden or buried.. Jesus is painting a picture of our heart, our most valuable organ, the seat of our feelings and their origins, as both chests of buried treasure and coffins full of dead garbage. We have many ways to excuse the things that come out of our mouths. Often after saying something ugly, vile or unkin...