Bible Chart of Life

• Beatitudes and fulfilling the law

  Some of you have encouraged me to record more of the Bible, so I am presently working on the Sermon on the Mount.

  The Beatitudes are in line with the keynote of this website: "Truth comes when it is needed." Similarly, the Beatitudes describe conditions of thought that are receptive to blessing. It is as if Jesus were setting the prerequisite - if any of these Beatitudes apply to you, you will benefit from my teaching.

• How to speak so that it counts for something

  We have all felt the hurt of insensitive talk - and hopefully we have felt the pain of our own insensitivity in saying something that put a stone on another's heart - I say hopefully, because it takes a hardened heart to be oblivious to the impact of one's own words.

• Living it instead of believing in it

  This morning I opened to Paul's letter to the Colossians chapter 2. If this is not a warning of church organization, I don't know what is! This is what I get:

  "As you have received the Christ, Truth, use it.

• Nothing new in the human condition

  The Book of Job is apparently the oldest book in the Bible - thousands of years old.

  It tells of a good man, very successful and wealthy, very devout. But his children were spoiled brats, and rather than deal with it, he prayed to God to protect them despite their selfish, "carnal" ways.

• Respecting person a sin?

  Reading James (Bible) this morning - after he describes the rich, well-dressed man getting the royal treatment, while the poor man in shabby clothes is treated as a second-class citizen: "if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors."

• Should we be able to sense the approach of danger?

  As children, we are taught to be careful around a stove, to look both ways before crossing a street, to be cautious with the approach of strangers, etc. But generally, we are not taught to avoid respecting persons, even though the Bible warns that respecting persons is a sin. Instead, it is customary to trust the well-dressed, educated-looking person, but to be wary of the badly dressed, ill-educated one. A smooth-talker often gets a pass while others are under scrutiny. 

• The precious example of Hannah

  {jumi [playerLink.php] [I Samuel - Hannah and Samuel.mp3] [The Bible story of Hannah and Samuel][share]}

  Hannah was not able to have a child, which was a tragic state of affairs in those days. When she had reached the very depths of despair, she prayed earnestly - made a covenant with God - that if she were blessed with a child, she would give up him to serve in the temple. This prayer was strictly between her and her God - no witnesses.

• What is it that gets cut off?

  {jumi [playerLink.php] [Psalms/Psalm 37.mp3] [I opened to Psalm 37 this morning,]}

  and noticed in several places that the wicked shall be "cut off." Cut off from what I asked? From spiritual sense, came the answer. What does this mean? 

• Where is thy God?

  {jumi [playerLink.php] [Psalms/Psalm 42.mp3] [This Psalm 42 speaks about those who mock "Where is thy God?"]}

• Who is born of God and cannot sin?

  We have heard so much about being "born again." What's up with that? It is thought that once you profess that Jesus is Lord, or something like that, you are in! Then this morning (from audio selection below) I read that those born of God cannot sin. I'd like to meet that person. (btw - Elsewhere in the same book it says anyone who claims he is without sin is a liar!)