Daily Thoughts From God's Word

“The tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things.  How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire!  And the tongue is a fire” (3:5-6) and, so, it is able to do so much damage.  A good reminder always to watch what we say.  Words once spoken cannot be retracted.  And isn’t it so that harsh and ugly words are so often said from jealousy and selfishness, which James warns against:  “For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and ever

We talk a great deal about salvation being entirely of grace and rightly so.  If not for Christ dying for us, the Holy Spirit working in our hearts, turning us, and drawing us by faith, we would be lost.  As the prophet Jonah exclaimed, when he sought to be saved from the belly of the whale, “Salvation is of the Lord” (Jonah 2:9).  That statement can also be applied to our salvation from sin and death unto life and a full righteousness in Christ.  And here’s the thing, that s

The use of three-fold things is common, the numeral 3 often signifying completeness or used for emphasis.  How about some examples?  What about Isaiah 6 and the prophet’s vision of God?  “Holy, holy, holy!”   I once had a student whose attention I really needed to get.  In class, I called out, “Harley, Harley, Harley!”  I once needed quickly to stop Donna from doing something (I can’t remember what.  Maybe she was about to press a wrong button or something.), and I cried out,

It seems as if, when people come to the epistle of James, that the focus is always placed on his instructions about faith and works, partiality, and the tongue.  Within the passage on showing partiality, there is this:  “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.  For he who said, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ also said, ‘Do not murder.  If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.  So sp

James begins his letter with “Count it all joy, my brothers when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.  And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (1:2-4).  He adds, “Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial” (1:12).  James surely is writing about the suffering Christians face as they live faithfully in a fallen world.  Satan is against us. Th

What wonderful concluding instructions on how to live in this world!  Toward fellow believers = brotherly love.  Toward strangers = show hospitality.  Regarding those in prison = remember them.  About marriage = honor it.  Concerning money = keep free from the love of money and be content with what we have for the Lord has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (13:5). Remember leaders, especially in the church and follow their good examples.  About the future = Be s

By his blood, we have a “new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh” (10:19), and now we can “draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water” (10:22).    “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (11:1).  So begins chapter 11.  Abel and Enoch and Noah and Abraham, and all those others, we

The writer of Hebrews just cannot stop writing about priestly matters and Jesus.  And so, I suppose, we should also spend a bit more time with him.  His opening words of chapter 8 inform us that, though he has already written on these things, he has more to say, and he wishes that we clearly understand:  “Now the point in what we are saying is this . . .” (8:1).  It’s almost, “OK, let’s do this one more time.”  What’s the old preaching adage about repetition in preaching?  Fo

The writer continues his theme of the priesthood and its ministry and writes about “Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God” (7:1).  In his priesthood, he is one “resembling the Son of God he continues a priest forever” (7:3).  There is here mention not only of Melchizedek but Abraham and Levi and the laying down of a principle, i.e., that “the inferior is blessed by the superior” (7:7).  As great as Melchizedek was, there is One greater.  God is perfect.  We

Last evening, at Baxter, I taught a lesson from 1 John.  In chapter 2, John tells of the last days when false voices will arise and lead many astray.  But he also encourages believers by reminding us of the Spirit of God who abides in us and enables us to abide in Christ.  He ends the chapter, “Abide in him.”  The writer of Hebrews is also concerned about the need to persevere through hard and even dangerous times.  He warns us about leaving the full teaching about Christ and

Even as those who understand that salvation is fully of grace, we tend to fall back into a legalistic sort of thinking, e.g., “I have done well, today.  God’s love toward me must be great.  On the other hand, yesterday, I was not nearly as faithful.  God’s love toward me surely was weakened.”  We still struggle with the thought that, by our own works, we must gain God’s favor.  It’s this sort of thinking that the writer of Hebrews addresses when he warns that we must not be “

The writer of Hebrews, in describing a human high priest, notes that “he can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness” (5:3).  We often talk about walking in others’ shoes.  You know:  “Until you’ve walked in his shoes, you just cannot understand.”  Of course, that’s true to an extent but only to an extent.  But there is a sense in which we can deeply empathize with others who are experiencing the same things we have experienced.  A m

I don’t know if it’s reality or just sort of a psychological response but, looking at the news day by day, it seems as if just about all we discover is bad news.  It is good to turn some of this stuff off and spend time in God’s Word, which is sort of like a slipping out of the storm into calm.  The writer of the epistle to the Hebrews begins, “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his

Philemon is a very short epistle from Paul to a fellow worker for Christ.  Paul begins by thanking Philemon for his love and ministry for Jesus and the saints.  Paul’s primary intention, though, is to plead on behalf of Onesimus, a slave who had run away from Philemon.  Paul writes, “For this perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever, no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, as a beloved brother” (vss. 15,16).  Sort of a pictu

To Titus, Paul primarily gives instruction about life in the congregation:  elders, relationships between spouses, elderly and younger, masters and servants.  He also touches on our relationship to secular governments and such.  Sort of by way of summary, I think:  “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for