I believe I might qualify for this club, and if you ask my kids, I definitely qualify for it. However, I don’t see it as a negative thing. In fact, I’m kind of intrigued by some of the things presented in this short video about the club. I think I’m going to have to do some more research into this.
Memorize Scripture: Psalm 119:89-92
Hiding God’s Word In Our Hearts
While most of Psalm 119 doesn’t flow like a daily spiritual account of the author, some portions of it feel very personal. For instance, the twelfth stanza seems to be a personal cry out to God. Take a look at the first half in Psalm 119:89-92:
With this stanza, we move past two points, the lowest, most despairing portion of the psalm, which we studied in the last three stanzas. We also move past the halfway point of this psalm. The preceding stanzas also seemed very personal, a glimpse into the suffering and affliction the psalmist had experienced.
In this passage, we begin to see that God came through, just as expected and as promised, and the tone of the psalm begins to pick up. In fact, from this point onward, Psalm 119 will continue to move upward, and in this passage, we see that the basis for that encouragement is the Word of God itself.
The first three verses here seem to almost state the same thing, that God’s Word is everlasting, and that it is something that we can depend upon, and build our lives on. God’s Word is everlasting, just like his faithfulness, and the laws he enacted.
Chosen People by Robert Whitlow
A Book Review for The Randleman Review
I am a big Tom Clancy and John Grisham fan. I enjoy the legal aspects the Grisham brings, and the action and political thrillers that Clancy writes are spellbinding. So when I was first introduced to Robert Whitlow, I compared him to a mixture of those two authors. After reading several of his novels, I still think that’s the case to a large degree.
Whitlow definitely has his own writing style, even though it may be reminiscent of other authors. And because of that I have thoroughly enjoyed every novel I have had the chance to read by Whitlow. And the more I read, the more I enjoy his work.
That’s the case with the latest novel to come from his pen, Chosen People. Whitlow takes a look at the Jewish/Arab cohabitation that exists in Jerusalem, with the threat of antagonistic neighbors in the surrounding nations, and creates a storyline that is compelling and captivating. His main character is a young Arab women who is an attorney in the US, who takes on a civil case representing a family that suffered during a terrorist attack. As she researches the claim, along with the help of a Jewish American lawyer, they get wrapped up in the underground world of terror and espionage, unsure of who they can trust.
May your 2019 be filled with God’s blessings as you seek to serve him more!
Merry Christmas from our family to yours! May your holiday be blessed as you celebrate the birth of our Savior!
Light thoughts of sin breed light thoughts of the Saviour.
C. H. Spurgeon
Does The Bible Have A Central Theme?
Finding The Threads That Run Through The Bible
Reading the Bible daily has long been a habit of mine, and as a minister, I spend a lot of time in deeper study as well. Over the years, I have picked up several threads that seem to run through the Bible consistently. But is there one single grand central theme? I think there is.
I have posed this question to several different people over the last several months, and have come up with a variety of answers. Some have suggested that each book of the Bible has a distinct and independent theme. I can’t argue with that, although I feel that it is an incomplete answer. Others have been more vague, and said that the theme that runs through the entire Bible is simply Jesus. That, too, is correct, although it is overly simplistic, in my opinion.
So is there a central theme? And if there is, what is it?
The Bible is a very interesting and complex piece of literature. Comprised of sixty-six different books, and more than forty different authors, it has been compiled over a time span of centuries, from the earliest books written until the final pieces were completed shortly after the lives of Jesus, the apostles, and their contemporaries. With such a span of time and people, how can there possibly be a consistent theme?
The answer to that is simple. While the involvement of several human components stretched over time, the inspiration of it all was one source: the Holy Spirit. God was intimately involved in the writing of Scripture, so much so that one could say that, ultimately, the author of all Scripture is God himself.