Breakfast with Great Benefits!

I’m taking a break from commenting on God’s word to share something about God’s blessings.  I was so blessed this morning to have breakfast with 10 other guys from Buffalo Valley Church of the Brethren.  We had a great breakfast, cooked by Sam Beiler and then Jim Brubaker led us in a devotion.  It was such a meaningful time.  I mean no disrespect to women by saying this, but there is something special about a group of men gathering around and talking about the word of God, being transparent about their experiences and how they understand God’s word.  We spent […]

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Have You “Exercised” Today?

No, this is not a post about the benefits of exercise.  Though I am “all in” regarding the benefits of physical exercise I am even more “all in” regarding the benefits of spiritual exercise…and by that I do not mean raising your Bible up and down 10 times with each arm.  Nor do I mean dashing quickly to the pot luck food table at the church social.  And I am not alone in my feelings toward spiritual exercise.  The apostle Paul feels the way I do…well, I guess it’s more correct to say that I feel that way he felt. […]

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We Need a Mediator, Whether We Know it or Not

What does a mediator do?  A mediator helps settle disputes between two people or two groups of people.  Mediators are used in contract disputes and marital disputes.  One thing that is true about mediators…if you don’t have a conflict or dispute, you don’t need one.  Look at what Paul writes to Timothy in chapter 2 of 1 Timothy:  5 For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time,  Jesus is a Mediator between God and men.  But I don’t think that a lot of people […]

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Why Did God Give the Law?

Why do we have laws?  We have laws to maintain public order.  We have laws which serve as a discouragement to wrong behavior.  We all understand why we have laws…though at times we might not like them and from time to time we don’t obey them (think speed limit there).  But we can get into trouble if we think that God gave His law for the same reason.  God did not give the “law” primarily to enforce a standard of behavior upon people; yet that is what most people think.  I believe that many people think that the purpose of […]

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Maintaining Convictions in Times of Crisis

I just love the book of Daniel!  I find it to be inspiring in so many ways.  In chapter 6 we see Daniel maintaining his convictions in a time of crisis.  Because of God’s blessing Daniel has risen to the top of the government.  This led to the other government officials  becoming jealous of Daniel and they sought to remove him.  Unlike most modern day politicians, Daniel was “squeaky clean”.  In verse 5 we here these jealous officials say, “We shall not find any charge against this Daniel unless we find it against him concerning the law of his God.” […]

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Facing the Music….Seeing Jesus Face to Face

The book of Daniel is such an awesome book as we see the power of God on display and we see how powerful the obedience of God’s people is also.  In Daniel chapter 3 we see Daniel’s three friends, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego take the stage.  The king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, had set up an image of himself and made a decree that whenever the music played, all the people of Babylon had to bow down to that image.  Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego (we’ll call them SM&A)knew that they could not do that for it would be idolatry; so when […]

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Thriving on an “Obedience” Diet

A quick internet search reveals the names of many, many kinds of diets that people have used.  I found the Acai berry diet, the cabbage soup diet, the Mayo Clinic diet, the HCG diet, the Negative calorie diet, the Hollywood diet, the apple cider vinegar diet, the sacred heart diet, the Beverly Hills diet, etc…. The list goes on and on.  However, one diet I did not find was the “obedience diet”; yet this diet served the prophet Daniel well many, many years ago.  I’ve begun reading Daniel in my Bible reading and thought I’d talk about Daniel’s “obedience diet”. […]

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How to Run the “Race”

I am not a runner.  At times in my life I have thought that I would try to be a runner but I have never been able to consistently get out there and well….run.  But though I am not a runner on the road or the track; I am, and so are you, a runner in the race of life.  In Hebrews 12, near the end of a masterful argument about the superiority of Jesus Christ, the writer of Hebrews talks about this race of life and an important role that Jesus has in our race.  Here is what is […]

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Can’t Measure Internal Faith by External Results

How can we measure faith?  One way in which some attempt to measure faith is by looking at the results.  They say that if a sick person is not healed, then they don’t have enough faith.  Or, if someone is praying for something that they are not receiving, they are not receiving it because they don’t have enough faith.  I’m pretty sure that the people who say or teach things like this don’t read the entire Bible, just bits and pieces of it.  I’m convinced that we can’t really “measure” faith.  Whatever measuring of faith needs to be done is […]

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Faith is Foundational to Life with God

“Faith…the final frontier”…no, wait a minute, that’s “Space..the final frontier” and then cue the music from Star Trek.  That would be Star Trek the original one not Star Trek the Next Generation or Star Trek Galaxy 5 or whatever other iterations they have come up with.  But I digress…. Faith is not the final frontier.  Faith is the beginning, the foundation to all of our lives.  In Hebrews chapter 11, we read about faith.  Here are the first six verses of chapter 11:  Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 2 For by it […]

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