“Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed.” (ESV)
Have you ever wasted money and you knew it? That’s a frustrating feeling. Maybe it isn’t at the time (or else you probably wouldn’t have done it!), but eventually that little nagging sense of regret develops and you have to decide you’ll ignore it or else find a way to make amends. Read the rest…
“For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw–each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.” (ESV – Read the chapter)
What kind of work are you doing? If you are a follower of Jesus, you have a role to play in the advancement of His kingdom into the lives of the people around you. As Paul has described in the previous few verses, different people have different roles to play in the process. Read the rest…
“But the princes of the Ammonites said to Hanun, ‘Do you think, because David has sent comforters to you, that he his honoring your father? Have not his servants come to you to search and to overthrow and to spy out the land?'” (ESV – Read the chapter)
According to the wisdom of the world, the best way for a new leader to establish himself in his position and among his peers is with displays of power and strength. Hanun was convinced by his counselors that in order to show the world that he was a king not to be trifled with, he needed to respond to David’s offer of sympathy after the death of his father by treating the servants sent to bring the message poorly and humiliating them. The message was: This is what will happen to your whole kingdom if you mess with me. His counselors apparently didn’t know much about David. Read the rest…
“Go and tell my servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord: It is not you who will build me a house to dwell in.'” (ESV – Read the chapter)
Sometimes the thing we most want to do for God He doesn’t have planned for us to do. This is never an easy place to be. We have a vision for something that we are convinced will be honoring of God and we are even committed to it for His sake, not the advancement of our own ego. But every time we start to move toward making it a reality, something happens that sets us off course. It’s almost like God’s the one derailing our efforts. Read the rest…
“What I mean is that each one of you says, ‘I follow Paul,’ or ‘I follow Apollos,’ or ‘I follow Cephas,’ or ‘I follow Christ.’ Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?” (ESV – Read the chapter)
Unity is a hard thing to establish in the church. The reason is fairly simple: Sin causes divisions. One of the fundamental consequences of sin is that it divides us from one another. This was the case right from the start. When Adam and Eve ate the fruit, the first thing they did was to hide from one another. Division. Read the rest…
The Nexus 