Rambling Through Scripture

 Jesus Sends Demons To The Pigs Matthew 8:28 - 34; Mark 5:1 - 20; Luke 8:26 - 39 The above passages tell the story of Jesus healing a demon possessed man and sending the demons into pigs that were near by.  If there was a time in scripture to dig deeper than the surface it is in reading these three accounts of the event.  For if we remain on the surface we could begin to question the Bible concerning not being contradictory.  There are times we need to look deeper to bring understanding and remove or at the very least reduce confusion. When reading scripture we often stay on the surface and fail to fully pray for understanding as we read scripture.  Sometimes it pays to go mining for deeper nuggets of truth and chew on the meat of the Word.  Often this will require more research and study than many of us want to do.  We will often either stay on the surface and stay with the milk of the Word or we will become frustrated and  throw the Bible away i...

Raven Genesis 8:7 I have three different Bible studies that I lead each week.  What I have enjoyed most about these Bible studies is being challenged by the participants to dig deeper.  Being a third generation minister and having been saved since I was five there is much that I simply take for granted.  The Bible said it that settles it.  There are other things I don't always see as significant as others.  So as we are going through the studies the participants point out things that I have not really considered.    In one of the studies we were reading in Genesis chapter 8 concerning when Noah released the birds to see how far the flood waters had gone down.  The first bird he released was the raven.  I was asked why did he release the raven first?  I will admit it never occurred to me to ask that question in my life.  I did not have an immediate answer.  I did a quick search but the quick answer I found was not satisfactory t...

     I have been marinating on this thought quite a bit lately.  The thought is the concept of love.  Some would say it is February the month for love it would be natural to think about the concept of love.  There are some that will put this aside as just the musing of an individual for the month of February with Valentine's Day.  Yet you have to understand it is not the month of February that has sparked this for it has been upon my mind for some time.  It is merely a coincidence that I am choosing to put thoughts down a week prior to Valentine's Day for this is not about that romantic love, it is about love in general.  It has simply come to a point that I feel compelled to place my thoughts down.      I believe that in the world today both with Christians and with non-Christians we have lost the concept and the understanding of what it means to love.  The word in itself has become a tired over used wo...

      Have you ever set out to do something that was seemingly impossible?  Have you been criticized, and looked down upon because you took a challenging step and yet seemingly failed while others stayed safely within their comfort zone?  A story in the Christian scriptures speaks of someone who did just this.  The man that I speak of was Peter.  He took a risk and a chance and it seemingly ended in failure.  Though there was not any criticism of Peter at the time, I have heard much criticism of Peter since.      The story goes like this; Jesus sent his disciples across the sea and instructed them that he would catch up with them.   Though odd, because if they have the boat how is Jesus going to catch up to them, the disciples climbed in a boat and set sail for the other side of the sea.   A short way into their travels a storm hits and they are being tossed about in the boat.   Jesus comes along in...

When we last looked at chapter 14 the Israelites had listened to the spies who said that they could not take the Promise Land.   For that God said they would not be allowed into the Promise Land and would wander until everyone 20 years old and older was dead. Hearing this the Israelites decided to take it upon themselves to go into the Promise Land.   So they got up early to go into the Promise Land on their own.   The figured that beings they sinned they should make up for it and go against what God had said.   Trading one wrong for another wrong.   Moses warned them not to go.   That if they went they would be defeated because God was not with them.   They ignored him and went to the promise land.   We see at the end of the chapter they were soundly beaten back by the enemy. Application There are doors that are open that we must be willing to step through when they are open.   For many reasons we don’t act on what God has asked us to do...

Numbers 13 and 14 tells the story of the spies going into the land God had promised Israel and the results of the report that the spies brought back.   In this story we find the reason why the Israelites wandered the desert for 40 years.   In chapter 13 Moses sends out the spies.   They spent 40 days exploring the land.   The fact is it had been just over 2 years sense they left Egypt.   They had been in the desert longer then was intended already for their disobedience.   The Israelites were just outside the area that God had promised them. This is evident by the fact that they sent spies in.   Today in the Army we call them scouts.   They look at the terrain and the enemy and send information back to the command so the command can make a decision on how to assault.   Such was the purpose of these spies. We see in Chapter 13 that the reports start off being pretty positive.   It is a land that flows with milk and honey and they even br...