Imagine if you will, you are a slave in a hot, dry and dusty country. It’s dirty all the time. You’re dirty all the time. You arise at 5 a.m. to begin a long hot day, making and stacking bricks all day long. You don’t have a choice. Decisions are made for you. You work long hours making and stacking bricks with few or no breaks until dark. And there is the whip, always present if you do not meet someone else’s expectations. It is painful if you are the object of its wrath. There is bleeding, pain, and possible infection to abide with. This is your life day after day after day with no end in sight. You are captured; you are a slave. There is no possibility of another life, even though you dream of it to get through the heat, the pain, and the misery. Your fellow slaves grumble and complain and are equally as miserable, but their attitudes contribute to the misery and pain of everyone else. This is the life of a slave. HIs life is not his own. Nothing is his own, not even his children or his wife. They are slaves too and can be treated any way the owner wishes. It is a dreary life, one with out hope of any future.
Continue readingBelieving is a Decision
On Meditation…
One of my favorite bible teachers on faith is Charles Capps, (cappsministries.com). Even though Charles has passed on, his podcasts and teaching materials are still available. He made a statement on a podcast I heard recently (but probably not for the first time) that caught my attention. The statement was, “If you don’t meditate on the word of God, you won’t do it.”
The Holy Spirit has a way of getting your attention, and that statement caught my attention. Now I already know that meditating on, and speaking the word of God is important. But the way he said it, connecting doing the word with meditating on it, caused me to want to dig deeper. I did a search and was amazed at what Google’s AI gave me about the word meditation. These were things I already knew for the most part, but to see Google actually say it was a bit of a surprise, and the AI gave a more descriptive definition of the word meditation than I was aware of, especially from the Hebrew language. I am finding that English translations are just not as rich or descriptive as the original languages.
Continue readingDogtags and Pearls #8 is Published
Dogtags and Pearls book #8 is now published. A collection of 23 mini bible lessons just like what is published here at the website available in book form with pages for your notes. Can be ordered at Amazon.com.
How it All Started…His Story of the Planet, Part 3
In Genesis Chapter 11, we see all of the descendants of Noah attempting to stay together in one place and build a monument to themselves that would reach into the heavens. After the flood, sin started showing itself again. This plan was in defiance of the instructions that were given to Noah, to fill the earth and subdue it. God knew that their unity would create a condition where they could do anything their hearts’ desired, a one world government, so to speak. This was not what He plan was, so he confused their speech, creating all the different languages so that they could no longer communicate with each other. The unity they attempted to create was not for good as it went against God’s directions to populate the whole earth and subdue it.
Genesis 11:5-8 “But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. And the LORD said, ‘Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.’ So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city.”
Continue readingOur Romantic God, Part 2
Picking up where I left off last time in the chapter titled, “Our Romantic God“, the Bride goes on to say to her Beloved in the book of the Song of Solomon 4:16–5:1 in The Passion Translation
“Then may your awakening breath blow upon my life until I am fully yours. Breathe upon me with your Spirit wind. Stir up the sweet spice of your life within me. Spare nothing as you make me your fruitful garden. Hold nothing back until I release your fragrance.” Jesus’s life within us is the sweet spice and we can become His fruitful garden and release His fragrance into the earth.
Is this not the longing heart of those who are His Bride, who want to give themselves fully to Him? In these verses, the Bride pursues her Bridegroom God, desiring to please Him in all things. This does not speak entirely of a natural love…these words are spiritual, spoken by the Bride of Christ to her King Jesus. Then she says to Him,..
Continue readingRescued to Rule – Study on Colossians 1:13
The New International bible version interprets Colossians 1:13 in this manner, “For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves.”
The word “dominion” in English is from a Latin word meaning “lord” or “master”. That would mean in this verse that darkness rules; it is master or lord over mankind. The scripture in 2 Corinthians 4:3-4 says the god of this world (note the little “g”) has blinded the minds of men. Darkness has dominion or rule over them. That is not the original purpose of God. He gave dominion to Mankind, but it was not so they could be subservient to a renegade spirit. In the Greek language of the New Testament, the word translated as dominion here is exesti which means “it is lawful, it is permitted, it is possible.”
Continue readingHow it All Started…His Story of The Planet, Part 2
In Genesis 1:5, God began to create, first calling for light, which He divided from the darkness. “So the evening and the morning were the first day.” Then God split the waters, some above the firmament and some below. And God called the firmament Heaven. Then He gathered the waters under the heavens and called for dry land to appear from it and he called it Earth. Then He called for Earth to bring forth grass, herbs and fruit trees, with fruit and seeds in them; this would feed His creation. Everything had seeds so it could reproduce itself. Then He made the sun and moon, to rule the day and rule the night. He made stars also. He was getting the Earth ready for His most important creation: man. Then He called for the waters to abound with living creatures, and told the creatures to fill the waters. He created the birds and told them to multiply on the Earth. Then He called for the Earth, the dry land, to bring forth animals and beasts. He did all of this by SPEAKING what he wanted.
Continue readingHow it All Started…His Story of The Planet, Part 1
The Bible admonishes the human race to “get wisdom” and understanding. Are you a seeker of wisdom? You ought to be. It’s important…and God has plenty He wishes to impart to you. But we must study His word, the bible, to get that wisdom.
Proverbs 4:7 says“Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding.” Love wisdom and she will keep you. That means having wisdom will guard and protect you. It will give you understanding. It will light the path you are meant to walk on, the path God has for you.
Continue readingThinking Like God Thinks
If the word of God is the absolute truth regarding all things (and it is), it behooves us to fervently study, to be assured, and wholeheartedly comprehend the things the Bible tells us. Because the word of God promises to fulfill itself, we are instructed to keep it “in our mouth” in order to have good success. That’s what Joshua was told in Joshua 1:8 before he went to war to get his Promised Land inheritance. But what does that really mean?
I believe it means that when God declares something to us, He desires that we agree with it. When He says we can do something, we should agree with it. When He says we are something, we agree with it, rather than how we “feel” at any given moment. Essentially, we give our consent to what He says. God is always right!
Continue readingBringing All Things Into Order
Creator of the Universe and creator of my life and my purpose,…You are God.
Look up and ponder…can the One who put the stars in place, the One Who called for unchangeable, dependable seasons, days and nights, not put your life in order? Can not the One who created your body to heal itself and to function in the many myriad of processes that make the human body do what it does, give you understanding for what you need to know? See how orderly the universe is. He has placed you here in this orderly cosmos for a purpose. You are not a random thing. Your life is not unplanned or casual to our Creator God.
His word declares that His plan is to “sum up all things in Christ.” Ephesians 1:10 ”…that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He (God) might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him. (NKJV)
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Dogtags and Pearls...the plain and the precious 