Thoughts on Christ and His Word

God takes Joy seriously! He takes it so seriously he commands us live in it - "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!"   Phil 4:4 The phrase "Rejoice in the Lord" appears twelve times in the Bible and 4 of those appear as commands. God wants to help us obey this command, so He gave us His Spirit who strengthens us to live for God in all areas.  But if we look at the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5 we notice that the second characteristic that the Spirit produces in us (right after "love") is "Joy". But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy , peace, patience... Galatians 5:22 Why does God want to live in Joy? For at least two reasons. One, God is the most Joy-filled being in the universe.  God is not this grumpy old man looking down waiting for someone to get out of line in order to zap him.  He is filled with Joy. When we are filled with Joy we become more like God. Two, God's Joy in us makes sin l

The tribes of Israel east of the Jordan River wanted to expand their territory so they picked a fight with the Hagrites and some other peoples.  They has trained for such battles for the Bible says: "The Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh had 44,760 men ready for military service—able-bodied men who could handle shield and sword, who could use a bow, and who were trained for battle." 1  Chronicles 5:18 They had done their part, now God was about to do His... "They were helped in fighting them, and God handed the Hagrites and all their allies over to them, because they cried out to him during the battle. He answered their prayers, because they trusted in him." 1 Chronicles 5:20 Are you trusting in God to help you win your battles today?

Every Christian would undoubtedly say that we should serve God with all we got - give him 100% of us. "He gave it all for us, so we should give our all for Him." However when it comes to the practical act of actually giving to Him real dollars in this real world many are not that enthusiastic.  Giving God 10% through the local church seems too much, too hard, or too legalistic - "that was Old Testament law; now we are under grace."  But prior to the law Abraham established the tithe (10%) as the standard for giving to God.  After rescuing his nephew (Lot) from the armies that took him captive, and having defeated them and taken their stuff (booty) he offered to God 10% (Gen. 14:20) How do we know that this marked a standard to be followed by God's people for all time? His grandson Jacob promised to give God 10% of all the wealth he would accumulate in Haran (Gen. 28:22) 10% was made part of the law of Moses (Lev. 27:30) Jesus Christ reaffirmed the ti