A Visual Gospel Presentation

I’ve been going to the local pier to join several others for one-on-one evangelism. It’s a popular spot, especially on Friday evenings. 

Spinner used as an evangelistic tool

This group uses a carnival-like spinning wheel with a sign over it, “Spin For Free Candy” (not seen in photo). When they spin, the top pointer will point to a Bible-themed question. All these questions open them up to be engaged in spiritual subjects and the good news of Jesus Christ. They get a free candy or bottle of water with any reply.

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Is Our Faith Real?

James 2:20-26 uses the story of Abraham to help us see if our faith is biblical faith, or if it’s something else. 

God told Abraham to go and offer his son Isaac on the mountain. This is the same God who said that He would raise up descendants as innumerable as the sand through Abraham’s son. 

So Abraham thought that in order for God to fulfill His promise, He would have to raise Isaac from the dead. In Abraham’s mind, Isaac was as good as dead during the three days’ journey. (We get these details in Hebrews 11:17-19.) As Abraham was reaching for his knife, God stopped him. He had sufficiently proved his faith by his willingness to obey. 

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Meditation, James 1

The “testing of your faith produces endurance” (James 1:3). God is using situations around us to apply pressure to us and our faith. Some of us think we’ll grow spiritually by reading something and understanding it. But the fruit of the Spirit, the outcome of His work, perfects us by outward pressures brought to bear on our faith. 

The Spirit knows all of our weak points. He knows what pressures are necessary and where to apply them, like the sculptor applying the chisel where it will form the vision in his mind. If we bail out at the first signs of trouble, if we do not trust God through it, the fruit does not grow, the image of God is left unfinished. 

When we continue to trust the Lord in the midst of our struggles, then we partner with God for His fruit to develop. We believe what He says in spite of what we think and feel, and He works in the life. 

Persevering through difficulty doesn’t grow by reading books. Enduring our hardships comes from understanding what God is trying to create in us, and knowing how He brings it about. God explains all this in the Word. It means accepting the Lord’s way and timing, and trusting Him to bring it to a good end.

We won’t lay down our lives for Jesus merely by reading about it. We cannot by our ability love our neighbor to the depth God wants us to. With man this is impossible. God has to do it, and He forms our character in troubles. 

For instance, we don’t become patient instantly upon hearing about it. So God goes to work. We’ll go through trials and we’ll respond in ways we shouldn’t, and act rashly. Right there, the trial has exposed an enemy in our soul. We found an enemy that prevents us from being patient, something to repent of, to watch against. Perhaps some selfishness, hidden rebellion, a lack of love for the neighbor, or simply not believing God. 

If we learned our lesson, then we may weather the trial better next time. We will know what to believe God for next time because we continued in His Word, which led us to trust Him. 

We don’t directly walk into hardships; this broken world will stomp on us without our help. Nevertheless, we can volunteer for duties that get us out of our comfort zone. That work can force us to look to God alone. 

Wise parents can put pressures on their children by giving them reasonable commandments and duties. This will test them and help them see where they are weak and need to trust the Lord. 

In this sanctifying process, He turns the tables on our troubles. We thought they were against us. Instead, God uses them to train us. So James 1:2 tells us to “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials.” What used to leave a bad taste in our mouths now builds an anticipation for what the Lord is going to do to mold and shape us for His glory. 

What is the aim of all this testing of our faith with trials? Jesus summed up all the laws of God simply. It is to love the Lord with our whole being and love our neighbor as ourselves (Matthew 22:37-40). If we have tensions because of the people around us, let this word of Jesus sum up what is wrong with our faith. Our character of love to God and neighbor needs further formation. 

Let all hatred go. Let forgiveness reign. “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy” (Matthew 5:7). This is the kingdom of God lived out in the world. God is love, and in deeds of unselfishness by His Spirit we reflect our God to others in the midst of our hardships. This is the fruit the Spirit forms in us. It doesn’t come easily.

With experience in this kind of spiritual warfare, we discover first-hand God’s work in our lives, and find Him faithful. Over time, trials are not as troubling as before. 

This is why God needs to build an endurance based on trusting Him. Small troubles and large can distract us and stall our spiritual growth. These very trials are flipped and applied for His glory. Let us say with the Psalmist in difficult times, 

"Why are you in despair, O my soul? 
And why have you become disturbed within me? 
Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him 
For the help of His presence" (Psalm 42:5).  

Stay in the Word. Note the Christ-like traits the Spirit wants to create in you. Pay attention to what goes wrong when you are under pressure. Face the truth about yourself, and surrender afresh. 

Be watchful when you feel the pressure building, and switch to a full-on prayer assault. In all this, you are partnering with the Lord to become the person of God you aspire to be in your community and family. 

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A Father’s Gift

The Word of God is a declaration of the love of God the Father to His Son. 

God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three persons in one God, what the Christians call the Trinity. This is how God describes Himself in the Bible. 

For eternity, before the worlds were created, the members of the godhead operated in a relationship of perfect love, always. Always in perfect unity, each person playing His part. For eternity the Son has enjoyed perfect love from the other members. 

In love, the Father has planned the perfect gift to His Son. The love of millions of people who will love Him, worship Him, obey Him, honor, believe, trust, even give their lives to the Son. Going from a love from one heart to the love from billions, all directed to Jesus. The gift of many, as innumerable as the sand by the seashore, pouring out their love and worship to Him. 

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Meditation in Mark 8, A Deeper Healing

Some of the townsfolk brought a blind man to Jesus and urged Him to touch him (Mark 8:22-25). Here’s a blind man wondering, “Who is this stranger? What does He want? What is going on here?” Jesus, seeing the true need, chose a radically different path than they expected for a deeper healing.

Taking him by the hand, He carefully led him outside the village, guiding him with His voice. “There’s a rocky patch here, so step carefully.” He held his hand extra firmly over the rougher parts, murmuring encouragement. An inner miracle occurred. The farther the blind man’s steps drew from village, the closer his heart drew to this gentle Shepherd of the sheep. Though his eyes were blind, his heart saw that he could trust this man.

Jesus spit on his eyes and laid His hands on him, asking, “Do you see anything?” He saw men like trees walking. He felt ashamed. He did not want to disappoint this man. Will he give up on him like all the others had?

Jesus put His hands on his eyes again. The man made an effort to look more intently—and saw clearly. He saw through the hands of Jesus His care in leading him, a protective closeness, a patient spirit, a healing touch. He saw the people more clearly, that they needed something more than eyes that see.

Jesus sent him home, saying, “Do not even enter the village.”

Don’t go back. Leave your doubts behind. His walk gifted you with His presence. His hands gifted you with insight. Beautify your home with the treasures you gathered in your journey with Him. Once, they found no room for Him in the inn. Now He has found a home in your heart.

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Becoming a People of Faith

This is another article in the series that addresses how the Word of God changes us. We want to be people of God. How does the Bible get us there? Hebrews 11:1 gives us important traits about the biblical faith God wants to form in us: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (NASB). As we’ll see, faith is very important for those who desire to grow into godly people. What are those two traits?

A person with biblical faith: 1) Has certainty about what he is believing God for. 2) This faith has a hope; that is, an inner conviction of what’s to come, though the believer sees no evidence of it yet.

Hebrews is written to Jewish Christians who were withdrawing to the laws of Moses and traditions of the elders. The epistle shows us the superiority of Christ over all those things.

This chapter showcases people who had so much assurance that they endured despite any obstacles. Noah spent a hundred years building an ark. Moses led hundreds of thousands out of Egypt.

Their faith had a focal point: God’s promise backed by the Almighty Himself. God gave each of them a promise and they ran with it, even though they saw no evidence of its future fulfillment. They heard God promise them something. That was enough. The power of the Spirit accompanied their response of obedience.

God promised Abraham a son though he and his wife were past age for having kids. God promised Noah that He will send a flood to destroy every living thing on the earth. God told Moses to bring the children of Israel back to their land (which God promised Abraham He would do 400 years earlier).

Would you have the strength to believe God and spend the bulk of your life building an ark? Noah did. Would you get up and lead hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children to a new land? Moses did. Theirs was a faith that was shaped and formed by the Spirit of God.

Their shaky faith morphed into a firm conviction that kept them on the path toward fulfilling the promise. They were examples of what spiritual faith looks like, how far biblical faith can carry us. The Spirit enlarged their vision to see ahead, even to be assured of realities to come after death.

For instance, God promised to give Abraham descendants as innumerable as the sand; then he learned that the promise will be realized in the next life. His faith was expressed during his lifetime by his praising God as though the promise was already done (Romans 4:13-25). God said it; when they believed the promise, that settled it–in their own hearts.

If you are rejoicing in your resurrection body though you don’t feel it yet, then you have the faith of Abraham. Because God promised it to you.

Today, God speaks to us through His Word. Through ongoing application of His Word, He enlarges our understanding of our work, strengthens our expectations to extend faith into the next life, and helps keep our eyes focused on Him who is faithful.

God has a promise for you (actually, many of them). For example, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.” And what is the promise? “That the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

Do you believe God can equip you for the good work of being a spirit-filled leader? If you believe God will do so through “teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness,” will you not keep yourself immersed in them?

Do you believe that the Spirit can mold you into a person who has a faith to believe God to the end? Do you believe that you can be a spiritual example like Jesus if you believe to the end as the heroes did in Hebrews 11? If not, keep reading and studying the Word. These men are held out to us as examples of what the Lord is willing to do for those who believe and follow Him. This epistle is written to those who were drifting from Christ. They, and we, need to be reminded of where our true strength lies.

Stay in the Word. God is still speaking to us today. Faith is an important trait of the man of God. Without faith, it’s impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6).

Faith comes by hearing God speak to you, and hearing God speak comes by the Word of God (Romans 10:17 paraphrased).

Faith finds its first cause, its origin, in the Word, not in our feelings, or reasoning and understanding, or strengths. The men were moved as God spoke, not because of personal ideas they thought of. Yes, we can get excited about our own ideas, but after a while we should learn the difference between those and the effect of hearing God speak to us in the Word, and adding conviction to it.

These men and women were heroes of enduring faith. Not heroes of the law, of animal sacrifices, of human potential, of following man-made rules, following their gut, or following the crowd.

Where we are looking at ourselves and our limited capacity, we will faint and fall in all spiritual matters. Do not be constantly checking your faith, for then you’ll take your eyes off of Christ. Instead of looking to yourself, Hebrews 12:2 tells us to be “looking unto Jesus.” Why Jesus? Because He is “the author and finisher of our faith.” Your goal in the Word of God is to hear Jesus, believe Jesus, and follow Jesus. Any man of God would do the same. All the heroes of Hebrews 11 did likewise.

An earlier article I wrote about how a layperson may study the Word using a chapter summary format can help you grow further than just reading random Bible verses. When we are studying it, mentally chewing on it, the Spirit sees that we have open, humble hearts to take the Word seriously, and opens our eyes to the meaning behind the words, and life surges in us. Then we say, “God spoke to me!”

When we hear the Spirit speak to is and open a new avenue of inquiry, hold the horses. Stop everything and start chewing on that thought to develop it. God is leading you to reveal more of Himself. If you neglect it by thinking of something else, it will fade away. We reap what we sow; we grow what we planted. Are you planting seeds of the world or the Word? As the twig is bent, so the tree’s inclined. In what direction are you growing? What is shaping your beliefs?

Through the Word God still speaks. Through the promises He inspires us, stretching our faith little by little to help us go the distance. By our constant application of the Word, God shapes our faith so that hope is born over time (Romans 5:1-5). This firm faith, this conviction, causes us to keep holding on to Him until this new creation in Christ grows into the person God is equipping us to be. Hope means we’ve developed the long view, so present setbacks don’t dismay us as much as they used to.

We need this chapter of Hebrews because we, like the Jewish readers, can slide away from Christ to familiar things. We can be discouraged because the way of transformation is long. We may not yet have seen how powerful the Bible can be in a believer’s life. The Hebrews 11 examples show us what is possible when our reliance is on God and not self and our things.

Keep the Word in mind and take it away with you to apply it; and like a seed, it will grow. Then, like Abraham, we will rejoice in what God has done though we don’t yet see it. That is what a Spirit-formed faith looks like. This is a faith that keeps us on the path to growing into the people God wants us to be.

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Why does God want Christians to reign with Him?

God made us with built-in impulses. Two of them are to be rewarded and honored. Reigning with Him by passing the test fairly satisfies both of these impulses. We want to be recognized. God offers that recognition by giving us ways to be faithful to Him (not by self-esteem classes).

Throughout Bible history, God has allowed sinful men and women to partner with Him in His work, as prophets and prophetesses, as kings reigning over His people, as pastors and other ministers in His house, and in many other Christian vocations. We don’t have to do it; we GET to do it. We get to partner with the Creator of the Universe. We get to work alongside Him who died for us, set us free from sin, and opened up a whole new way of living that culminates in God rewarding and blessing the faithful.

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Christian: Do you hesitate to observe Easter or Christmas?

I listened to a sermon on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It was preached to a congregation which met at 6am at the church outside on Easter morning. To them, the sunrise was a reminder of the dawn of Jesus’ resurrection of the body. I would be embarrassed to ask the members if they worshiped the sun god. I would cringe to think that they worshiped the Easter bunny. They came to the meeting specifically to hear the good news of Jesus’ resurrection and how it affects them. They came to be inspired and encouraged and fed with the Word of God.

Later on TV that morning, my wife and I watched “Leading the Way” Pastor Yousef give a Resurrection Day sermon based on “and Peter” in Mark 16:7. The main message was the difference in Peter’s life before the resurrection and after. Peter thought he was washed up because he had denied the Lord three times earlier. The Lord rose from the dead and went out to him. He was the God of second chances. It was an inspiring sermon and I’m sure many viewers who were holding back because of some failure were inspired to rededicate their lives to Jesus with hope.

In my nearly 40 years as a Christian, I have read hundreds of books, seen many Christian-themed movies, and read many internet articles. If the church is full of people who worship the sun god or the Easter bunny, I’ve never seen a presentation that fed that urge. They presented Jesus instead.

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How we benefit from the death of Jesus Christ

What purpose did the death of Jesus, the Son of God, serve? Hebrews 2:14-18 gives us insight into this aspect of His death, burial, and resurrection.

“Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,” (Heb. 2:14).

God formed man to be of flesh and blood. Man sinned and brought a pandemic of death and the curse upon all. Through Jesus, God intends to save as many as believe in Him. To do this, Jesus “likewise shared in the same” flesh and blood, God becoming man. Adam’s sin brought death into the world. By becoming a man Himself, Jesus could overcome death and the devil. How does He do this?

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Letter to a Pen Pal

I had a thought. (I get those now and then.) People say the Bible is a handbook of life. But not quite. It doesn’t tell us which college to enter, which person to marry, which career to go into, right? These are the things we want a handbook to tell us about. These are the kind of life issues we are concerned about.

Actually, the Bible is the handbook for thriving in the Kingdom of God. It tells us how to be a good citizen under the rule of Christ, the King of kings. If this is what you are using the Word of God for, then you’ll find it a precious treasure.

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Meditation: “Love one Another” (1 Corinthians 13)

First Corinthians 13:1-8 has been oft quoted at weddings simply because its topic is love. But Paul the apostle did not have marriage in mind when he wrote this. He had church gatherings in view. First Corinthians 13 is the middle of three chapters addressing this church’s lack of order in their gatherings.

We display this love to our brothers and sisters in the meetings when we all have a work to do, a contribution to make. This particular love to one another creates an orderly meeting. “Let all things be done decently and in order” is the summation of these three chapters (1 Cor. 14:40). Love promotes order.

The point of this love is to let every member of the church shine with the gift they brought in to build up the body. We are not to grab the ball and try to do everything ourselves to dunk it. Harmonious teamwork wins the game. By myself, I’m just dribbling around. Without the teamwork of love, we are nothing (1 Cor. 13:2).

Let’s look afresh at this passage with the aim of loving our fellow believers in the church.

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Politics and the Christian

The problem with political parties is not their individual takes on the nation’s issues. The problem is that they are filled with sinners, people who too frequently are without God’s level-headed wisdom and guidance.

The problem with the politicians in office is that they were all voted in by sinners.


God removes kings and sets up kings (Dan. 2:21). Whoever is in authority in the government has been set there by God (Rom. 13:1-7). Therefore Christians should be civil toward them, even if they do not like their policies. Nevertheless, we are free to impeach, recall, or vote in a replacement; to use any lawful means at hand to replace them or their laws if they usurp the commandments of God.


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“Why do we do that?”

John’s disciples came to Jesus with a question. They asked, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but Your disciples do not fast?” (Matthew 9:14-17). The implications of this question are relevant to us today.

First, I can imagine church-goers today asking similar questions. “Why do we wear suits while you dress casual?”

“Why do we we quote our denomination’s founder to make a point, but you don’t quote yours?”

“How come we pray to the saints for help, but you don’t?”

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The Unintuitive Gospel

Paul the apostle received the gospel as a revelation from God. No man taught him the Good News. The Spirit showed it to him (Galatians 1:11-12).

Therefore, it’s not intuitive that God so loved the world that He gave us His Son.
It’s not apparent that the Son of God gave up His life for us.
You can’t use logic to conclude that Jesus gave Himself to save the world.

The churches have many people who don’t know that God loved them with a self-sacrificial love. Let me put it in another way. Many of us don’t live our lives with this act of love in the forefront of our minds. Rather, our minds are often filled with the emptiness or foolishness of the world.

The gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel of the Kingdom of God, is not intuitive. It needs the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to bring it home to us.

It’s more intuitive that life is ugly, death and destruction is prevalent, and God must hate us. No one needs to explain these things to us. Anybody can conclude these things by looking around.

God reveals His love to us through the Good News of Jesus Christ. He uses the simple method of preaching to communicate His sacrificial love (1 Corinthians 1:21). Then the Holy Spirit directs the hearing heart to believe in Jesus for salvation from sin. Then His love is made plain. The eyes of the blind are opened to see Jesus.

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Your God is Too Small

I’ve been reading a book for the second time since I rediscovered it in the bargain bin: Your God Is Too Small, by J.B. Phillips. What he wrote about Christians and their small love applies to what I’ve been reading in the political news for months.

First, some background. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Who did God love so much? The world. But that’s not what I’ve been reading in the news. The verse has been twisted by Christians to say that God only loves the conservatives, not the liberals. The Republican party, not the Democratic party. And vice versa, for Christians are scattered across the spectrum of political ideology.

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The Incarnation of the Son of God

Before we can address the theme of the Son of God becoming flesh, we should remind ourselves of why he came to be born here in the first place.

In the Garden of Eden, Adam chose the way of disobedience and passed that sin on to all of us (Romans 5:12-14). All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We were slaves of sin and could neither restrain nor free ourselves.

When God chose to dwell among the children of Abraham in Israel, the Holy One set up a system of animal sacrifices to deal with sinners. When any sinned, breaking the commandments, he or she could bring a prescribed, blemish-free animal to put away the sin (Leviticus 1-7). Man was not blemish-free, so he could not die for another’s sin, not even his own.

We needed a blemish-free man to undo Adam’s sin nature. He needed to be sinless so he could die for the sins of others.

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Come Before His Presence with Thanksgiving

The first three verses of Psalm 95 call us to sing, give thanks, and worship the LORD, Yahweh, the Rock of salvation, the great God, the great King above all gods. This God is distinct among all the man-made gods of the earth. We call Him Jesus and acknowledge that no other god had the love for us than that shown by the Rock of salvation who died for our sins, was buried, and rose from the dead to take His rightful place by the Father over all creation.

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Overcoming Sin

Are you dealing with sin in your life? The angel told Joseph that he was to name the baby JESUS, “for He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).

So, are you dealing with sin? Are you increasingly getting the victory over your sins?

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NOTW

Now and then I see a sticker with “NOTW” in an unusual lettering style. It stands for “Not Of The World,” taken from the words of Jesus in John 17:14, “I have given them your word. The world hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.”

Jesus is not of this world. And because we are joined to Him, we share this trait with Him. What does this say about the world and our relationship to it?

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Last Days Timeline

Last Days Timeline

I created a last days timeline based on the 500+ page book, The Sign (3rd revised edition, 2000), by the late Robert Van Kampen. Take a quick look at it here, then tap on Home to return to this page.

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The End Times According to Daniel 9

The Bible gives us several timelines of key end-times events that transpire before Christ returns. We covered one such timeline in Daniel 7. In this article we will look at another timeline, this one from Daniel 9.

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About the Israel/UAE Peace Treaty, August 2020

This post is a follow-up to a popular page, Why does the Bible talk about Israel signing a peace treaty? This is my own research into the covenant with Israel, a peace treaty brokered in August 2020 by the Trump administration. Is it the end-times peace treaty Christians are expecting between Israel and the Antichrist? Here are the facts so you can judge yourself. The information on this page addresses and answers the question.

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Christ is Not Far Away

Christ is not far from us. “But the righteousness which is of faith says this, ‘Don’t say in your heart, “Who will ascend into heaven?” (that is, to bring Christ down); or, “Who will descend into the abyss?” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead.)’ But what does it say? ‘The word is near you, in your mouth, and in your heart;’ that is, the word of faith which we preach”(Rom. 10:6-8). He is as close as our mouth and heart. He is not way beyond our reach, not too far above or too deep below.

What is attractive about this Christ? In Him “all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden” (Col. 2:3). In Him is all wisdom and knowledge. All power and peace. All of salvation and life everlasting.

And where is this Christ to be found among His followers? In you. “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27). Yet we keep seeking wisdom and life and knowledge from many other sources. We weary ourselves seeking something God has already supplied in his Son.

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Letter to a pen pal, July 2020

Now as to prayer. You find great resistance to prayer from outside because Satan fears prayer. Through prayer and the teaching of the Spirit you take hold of all the resources of God to live a holy life that is well pleasing to Him. Your enemy doesn’t want this. “Be sober and self-controlled. Be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8).

You open your bible. You humble yourself to God, admitting you don’t understand it. These are expressions of faith in God and they open the heart and mind for the Spirit to teach you. ” ‘For my hand has made all these things, and so all these things came to be,’ says Yahweh: ‘but I will look to this man, even to he who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at my word’ ” (Isaiah 66:2).

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Author Reads on YouTube

I started a channel on YouTube where I read selected portions of my books. You can listen to my (terrible) voice in my channel found here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6UPOqg6J4Q&list=PLPQQ4ORCPeQA7tqGZal2VI0sJQVzuGGEc

I’ll be adding more Author Reads over the coming weeks until I’ve included most of my books. The first reads will be from my book, Doubt Busters. Each book will be in its own playlist.

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Father’s Day

As I was growing up, I didn’t know that I was supposed to feel an emotional love of a father. I was young and full of me, myself, and I. I was busy with different things, doing magic tricks, slot cars, stop-motion clay animation, martial arts, and never far from an open book.

My dad went from owning a Shell service station to being co-owner of a company that designed and built radio-controlled race cars. He designed nitro-powered cars in 1:8 scale, designed an RC engine that other engine manufacturers borrowed. He managed the race team, going around the world for the larger events, including World Championship events. He loved cars.

Me–not so much. We had few interests that overlapped. He liked giving Christmas presents. I liked receiving them.

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Meditation, “Full of Trouble”

Man, who is born of a woman,
is of few days, and full of trouble.
He grows up like a flower, and is cut down.
He also flees like a shadow, and doesn’t continue.

Job 14:1-2

Job’s pains go on and on, full of trouble as the good years are remembered no more.

This is the curse we experience because of the choice of the first man and woman. A woman heeded the smooth words of the fallen angel. God’s word was disobeyed and sin entered the world. Adam and Eve were thrust out of the Garden lest they eat of the fruit and live forever. So we are “of few days, and full of trouble.”

Then another woman entered the scene. She heard the glad tidings of the angel of God. She responded, “Behold, the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to Your word.” With her submission to God, a new era was ushered in.

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Weathering the Pandemic

One of the pieces of financial wisdom I’ve read again and again is that when you invest your money for retirement, you think long-term.

You don’t yank the money out every time the stock market appears to be sinking and reinvest when it appears to be rising. You ride out the ups and downs, knowing that historically the market has always corrected its course over the long haul.

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How Many Judgments of God Take Place in the End Times?

Regarding the end times, there are different scenarios and much disagreement. What follows is my understanding of what happens. I am using “judgment” in an elastic sense here, for they are happening whenever the Lord is making decisions that affect our future.

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Renewing your Strength

But those who wait on the LORD
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.

Isa. 40:31

How do you wait and renew your strength?

When we think of waiting, we think of an agonizing period of doing nothing. We feel it is a waste of time; there are better things to do than wait. Yet there are times of waiting patiently such as in a doctor’s waiting room or for a signal to turn green and let us go. The expectant mother has a long wait ahead of her while she bears this growing burden and longs for it to be over with.

So how do you wait in such a way to renew your strength?

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