You and I have an enemy of our souls. That enemy doesn’t rest, doesn’t take a vacation, and is (more…)

In my last blog posting I talked about the filling of the Spirit. The Spirit enables us to live as we ought. But what does that “ought” look like? Well, one thing is certain as we read the New Testament, that “ought” involves (more…)

The filling of the Spirit, which I talked about in my last posting, is not meant to be merely a personal work of God. It is personal in that it is an experience, an enabling, that a person has, but it is not meant to result in blessing only for that one person. The whole context of the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians shows the filling of the Spirit being mentioned in the middle of exhortations directed to the whole group of Christians and meant to help them relate properly together. As an example, look at how he begins the fourth chapter… (more…)

If we are talking about spiritual things and mention the word “devotion” our minds run quickly to practices which signify our devotion to God. We might think of getting time alone in prayer and in reading the Bible. As a matter of fact, in some circles, that is called “having your devotions.”

But I want to show you one verse in the Bible that uses the word “devotion” in a much different way. (more…)

Have you every met a Christian who seems to know the Bible real well, is not a stranger to the filling of the Holy Spirit, seems confident and unflinching in their faith, but leaves you with an ill-defined wariness as if something is wrong?  (more…)

There are some verses which yield their meaning to us when we “read” them backwards. By reading them backwards I mean looking at their phrases from back to front. Sometimes that unlocks for us the connection between words and unveils the meaning. Hebrews 3:13 is one of those verses:

“But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called ‘Today,’ so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” (more…)

I love to study the Bible, and I love it when I sense that God is helping me have a deeper understanding of His truths. I think that overall this is a good thing, but sometimes God has to correct me because I can spend more time on trying to understand instead of just doing something with what I do understand. Once I came to I Thessalonians 5:14: “And we urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone.” I got hung up on that phrase, “help the weak.” I kept thinking about it and wondering what it means. I got out all my Greek books and looked at the words “help” and “weak.” I found out that “help” means help, and guess what, “weak” means weak! God was saying, Cliff, wake up. That’s all it means. Now just go and do it! (more…)

Back in May 3, 2004 there was an article, “Nearer My God to Thee,” that appeared in the “U.S. News and World Report.” It is about evangelical Christians in American society. The subtitle, “Their Distinctive Faith Aside Evangelicals Are Acting More and More Like the Rest of Us,” gives us an idea of the gist of the article. Although we may bemoan whatever truth or accusation the article contains, and argue over how things have gotten either better or worse since then, we need to ask why we aren’t seen as different from the rest of the world. (more…)

In the first part of Ephesians chapter 4, we see that Jesus is our Mediator, our victorious One, and His gift is the Holy Spirit. However, that is not all Paul is showing us. In verse 8, Paul quotes Psalm 68 and says, “And He gave gifts to men…”. But this quote is different than Psalm 68 from which Paul quoted. In Psalm 68, the Psalmist uses the verb “received.” When Paul quotes the verse, he says, “…He gave gifts…”. The difference between the Psalm and what Paul quotes is the source of at least 4 or 5 extra pages in every commentary that is written on Ephesians! Let me try to explain. (more…)

Yesterday in the sermon I made a comment that generated some feedback. (more…)