Water for the Thirsty

In my morning email of devotions, I received this from out of the Spurgeon Library...
"I will pour water upon him that is thirsty." Isaiah 44:3

The rule of establishing “context” compels me to read surrounding text, passages, and/or the entire chapter (at least). This is what verses 1-6 say...

Why Did Jesus Come

In Luke 4:18-19 reading from the NKJV, it says, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”

And in verse 21 He said, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”


Jesus doesn’t just proclaim the message—He brings the deliverance.

Paul, the WORST of Sinners… What?

1 Timothy 1:16 says, However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life.

Is there any misunderstanding as to what this verse says? “For this reason” Paul obtained mercy... Right? I will address “for what reason” in a moment, but for now, the verse is saying that Paul obtained mercy because he was a sinner so that Jesus Christ might show forth His patience AS A PATTERN to those who are “going to” believe on Him for everlasting life. Can anyone understand this verse differently? Absolutely some do because they won’t let go of their religion. But this verse is more complicated because Paul says IN ME FIRST (protos).

The Glory of the Redeemer

John 1:10-14 says, He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own (that which belongs to Himself) and His own people (fellow countrymen) did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the power (authority) to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

How Many Gospels?

"Strong objection is offered by Covenant theologians to a distinction between the gospel of the kingdom as preached by John the Baptist, Christ, and the other disciples and the gospel of the grace of God. One of them states that to make such a distinction is “unfortunate” and “dangerous.” He with others contends that the kingdom gospel is identical with the gospel of divine grace. Here nevertheless will arise an absurdity which does not deter this type of theologian, namely, that men could preach the grace gospel based as it is on the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ when they did not believe Christ would die or be raised again (cf. Luke 18:31-34)." ~Lewis Sperry Chafer, founder and first president of Dallas Theological Seminary 

This Do In Remembrance of Me

In 1 Cor. 11, the Apostle to the Gentiles writes to the Corinthian assembly. I say that purposely to draw attention to Paul because He was the only one ordained by the risen Lord Himself to go specifically out from the Jews directly to the Gentiles, even though his ministry would include everybody and anybody. A point I believe very much missed by Christendom today. Catholicism, for example, may as well be a pharisaical religion under Law. And although Protestantism tried to break away, it hasn’t gone very far. The mysteries of the “Body of Christ” were revealed to only Paul. And, as Peter writes in his letter, they are HARD to understand. Wrong perspective.

Many scholars believe this letter to be the first written description of the Lord’s Supper since this letter from Paul is dated earlier than most of the Gospels. This is very edifying to contemplate since Paul was NOT at the “Last Supper.”

GRAMMAR IN THE BIBLE

Verbs, nouns, direct objects, adjectives, aorist Greek, present perfect tense, future progressive, ad nauseam. No, I am not going into any English grammar dissertation. But I do want to express a point with regard to our understanding.

If you are an uneducated person, as I am, (a relative thing, no offense intended), reading the Bible in the Greek language would be a hilarious exercise in futility. I appreciate the English language is difficult enough to understand, in any venue, but with regard to Bible reading, it is important to have a QUALITY translation (very important) that is easy to read (within reasonable consideration)… not JUST something that is easy to read. What do I mean by that? Suffice it to say that if you do not have a high enough standard of "quality" then you are probably "drinking in diluted milk"… if you're lucky.