Marching Forth!

I am grateful to be part of the Body of Christ, the church.  1 Corinthians 12:12-14 says, " For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body--whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free--and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. 14 For in fact the body is not one member but many ."  The world beckons all to celebrate diversity in the vacuum of individualism.  The contrasting beauty of God's design of the church is our celebration of the unity of diverse individuals in Christ.  It is not our differences or unique talents which make us useful, but Jesus Christ who unites us.  It is the Holy Spirit who leads and empowers us as one. I have found free weights to be the most useful and thus my favourite type of training.  Over the years I have experienced a few injuries, and the vast majority of injuries were ...

" Most men will proclaim each his own goodness, but who can find a faithful man ?" Proverbs 20:6 This Proverb of Solomon is proved true to this day.  Most people measure themselves selectively against others.  It is easy to find faults in others (perhaps since the sins of others appear more heinous than our own) and therefore most people claim to basically be a "good" person.  Unfortunately the world has dumbed-down the biblical definition of "good" to a ridiculously low level.  Jesus brought this to light when He was addressed as, "good teacher" in Mark 10:17-18 :  " Now as He was going out on the road, one came running, knelt before Him, and asked Him, "Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?" 18 So Jesus said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God ."   Jesus in essence said to the man and the world:  I am either good and God or I am not good at all, for th...

The Bible is beyond profound, packed with eternal significance.  Even historical events are means God utilises to give us a picture of the Christ's power and reality for all who trust in Him today.  Those who approach God in faith find food for their souls in the scriptures.  Last night as a family this truth was confirmed in a passage from 2 Kings 25:27-30 :  " Now it came to pass in the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, that Evil-Merodach king of Babylon, in the year that he began to reign, released Jehoiachin king of Judah from prison. 28 He spoke kindly to him, and gave him a more prominent seat than those of the kings who were with him in Babylon. 29 So Jehoiachin changed from his prison garments, and he ate bread regularly before the king all the days of his life. 30 And as for his provisions, there was a regular ration given him by the king, a portion f...

Near my house there many acres of pasture where cows, horses, and sheep continually graze.  The recent summer rains have made the grass grow green and lush.  Large catchments of water are filled to capacity, and God has supplied enough rain in the last days to ensure well-watered grazing for a month!  As I drove by the property yesterday, it struck me:  I have sped by the sheep in those fields hundreds of times, yet to my knowledge not once have I ever seen them laying down.  Mixed in with the cows and horses, the sheep seem to perpetually stand.  It reminded me of a passage in Phillip Keller's classic, A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23 .  Keller writes: The strange things about sheep is that because of their very make-up it is almost impossible for them to be made to lie down unless four requirements are met.  Owing to their timidity they refuse to lie down unless they are free of all fear.  Because of the social behavior within a flock sheep w...