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Key Verse: James 4:7, 8a “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” Years ago the American comedian Flip Wilson used to get lots of laughs when he would look innocently into the camera and explain some fictional bad […]

Matthew 5  The Pure in Heart v.8 – Part 2 Long before Jesus, the Psalms expressed the genius of the pure in heart: “Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not trust in an idol […]

  Recently my wife and I celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary. We’re a bit in shock. How does this happen? We feel like it’s been around 20 years. 50 means we’re really old no? But the clock won’t be stopped. The only comfort is that we’re all aging, and at the same rate! At a […]

Key Verse: James 3:2 “For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body.” If, indeed, the writer of this letter was Jesus’ half-brother, then it should comfort us to hear him say, “We all stumble in many things”. […]

Key Verse: James 2:18 “But someone will say, ‘You have faith, and I have works.’ Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” One of the great statements from the letter of James is, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: […]

Key Verse: James 1:22 “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” I like the way the NIV puts it, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” There are three subjects for discussion here: 1. listening to the word, 2. self-deception, and 3. […]

Key Verse: Hebrews 13:8 “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever ” (NIV). Chapter 13 is sort of a postscript to the letter. The conclusion of the writer’s thought on the subject of Jesus’ superiority over the Law is “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be […]

Key Verse: Hebrews 12:22-24 “But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, who names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, […]

Matthew 5 The Pure in Heart v. 8 – Part 1 I was raised on the Canadian prairies, son of a preacher who pastored small town churches. His congregants were subsistence farmers, all poor and semi-literate. My view of church “buildings” was limited. Most of them weren’t even purpose-built houses of worship. They were converted […]

Key Verse: Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” If we were to poll your local church and its members for definitions of faith, we might get as many definitions as people giving them. We’d hear everything from, “faith is religion” to “faith is a […]

Key Verse: Hebrews 10:10 “And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (NIV). Let’s follow the writer’s reasoning in the first part of this chapter. The Mosaic Law, and the animal sacrifices it requires for sin, are only a “shadow” of the […]

Key Verse: Hebrews 9:14, 15 “How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who […]