Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it enlightens and educates the person.  When we question, examine, and probe, we mine truth that is lying just beneath the surface of understanding. A casual reading of scripture may produce a smattering of “head knowledge” of Biblical content, but probing the Scripture yields truth that can change our lives.

Dig Deeper into God’s Word

In last Wednesday’s blog, I shared with you 7 Practices to Help You Meditate on Scripture.  Today, I want to share an effective probing tool I learned from my pastor during my teen years, Jimmy Corbitt.  Jimmy is now the pastor of Bethany Baptist Church in Bolingbroke, Georgia and continues to lead believers to grow in their faith.

Probe Scripture SPECK-tacularly

One effective way to probe a Scripture passage involves using the letters of the word “speck” to ask five questions about what we read.  A Bible passage may answer one, two, or any number of these questions, though very seldom would you find an answer to 4 or all 5 of them.  Consider these 5 SPECK questions as you read your study passage.

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The name New York Yankees is one of the most recognized sports franchises in history.  Even those who are not baseball fans probably know the team of Mickey Mantle, Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, and Yogi Berra.  The famous Yankee pin stripe uniform has not changed much since 1912.  It remains one of the most recognizable uniforms in the sports world.  There is another feature to the uniform you may have never noticed, and this feature has a spiritual significance for our lives.

While the Yankees were the first team to place numbers on the back of jerseys, they have never put the players names on the back of the jerseys like other teams have.  Some speculate that the reason they refused to put names on the back of the jerseys was to encourage the fans to buy a game program so they can identify the players by their numbers.  This was probably true when other teams began the practice of putting names on the jerseys, but the continued tradition points to an even more compelling reason – to emphasize that the Yankees are a team.

For the Jesus-follower, the Yankee jersey can teach us a few things about our Christian walk. 

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I enjoy a tasty meal.  In fact, I think I may enjoy tasty meals too much.  God wonderfully designed our bodies to break down and use the nutrients in the food we eat to sustain our bodies and give us energy.  Before our bodies can use that tasty meal, we have to chew it up and digest it; then our digestive system distributes the nutrients throughout our bodies.  When we meditate on the Bible passages we read, we carry out the spiritual equivalent of our body’s digestive process.

Meditate on God’s Word

I owe much of what I share with you today to my friend, pastor of Highlands Baptist Church in Ocala, Florida, founder of FishForMen.Net and blogger Chris Gilliam.  You can find his links at the end of this article.

Seven Ways to Meditate On Scripture.

Taking the time to digest the meaning and application of Scripture is not that difficult if you are willing to take a little time, give the passage some intentional attention, and meditate on it.  Here are seven practices that help you meditate on a passage of Scripture. Read More

Today we celebrate what we call Memorial Day. This is the day we set aside to remember the most heroic of men and women – those who sacrificed their lives in the defense of and spread of the freedoms that all to often we take for granted. We do well to pause and reflect on the cost at which our liberty was won and is maintained. Life is precious, and life is the currency used to purchase our freedom.

Remembering the Ultimate Sacrifice

As Christians, we also can use this day to remember the One who sacrificed His life to gain our most precious freedom: the freedom from sin. Jesus’ death on the cross makes all other freedoms worthwhile. What good does it do us to have freedom of religion if that religion cannot free us from the eternal chains of sin and death? But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

When Jesus celebrated his final Passover with His disciples, He gave the Seder a new meaning. As broke the bread, He taught them to remember His body which would be broken – beaten beyond recognition – to appease the wrath of God on the sin of mankind. As He passed the cup, He taught them to remember that His blood would be drained from His body; His life would be given, as the substitute atoning sacrifice for our sin to pay our debt to sin. Jesus encouraged His followers to commemorate the meal often.

Three Truths to Remember

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New book from Dr. Thom Rainer

Who Moved My Pulpit is the latest offering from Thom Rainer, President and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources.  This book follows the same practical and easily read format as Dr. Rainer’s last four books to churches – Autopsy of a Deceased Church, I Am a Church Member, and I Will.

Motivated by an email he received from a frustrated pastor asking for help in learning how to lead his church through some much-needed change, Dr. Rainer tackles the issue by offering church leaders a pathway of hope through the necessary changes needed in most churches.

Dr. Rainer’s approach, as he readily admits, is not a “plug-and-play” program that a church leader can use that will guarantee results, but rather a Biblically based process that is at once theological, ecclesiological, and foremost practical.  The title emerges from an event in the ministry of a midwestern pastor who, in trying to make the church more relevant to a growing millennial presence, replaced the pulpit which had stood on the platform of his church for decades and replaced it with a smaller, more modern version.  The move, thought insignificant by the pastor, turned out to be more than the church was prepared to handle.

In consultation with the pastor, Dr. Rainer and his team developed an eight-step “roadmap” that will enable a church leader to better navigate through the dangerous journey of necessary church change.  Read More

Continual updates are the big story on the blog.  Earlier this week, I transferred the blog to a new host that will allow me more flexibility to give you more information and inspiration to help you in your walk with the Lord.

The blog design is still a bit of a work in progress with each day bringing slight updates that make navigation easier.  Here are a few of the updates that you will see beginning next week.

• The posting schedule will change from 5 days to 3 – Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. 

• Sermons will no longer post on the main page on Monday, but will have their own page with a link to the sermon page in the menu at the top of the main page.  Sermons will now post a little later in the week, probably Tuesday or Wednesday on most weeks.

• Wednesday will still future the “How to Study Your Bible” series at least for the next several weeks.  Monday and Friday posts will be various devotional thoughts and ideas like Tuesday and Thursday blogs were in the previous format.

I always welcome your comments for ideas about the way this blog can serve you and help you grow in faith, knowledge, and life, so feel free to share comments on the various pages. Your comments will influence future updates and your ideas will help make the site more useful for all.

I would also like to ask you to subscribe to the blog by using the Subscribe box in the upper right hand of the main page.  As a free gift for your subscription, I will send you a link to a resource that I believe will help you as you study God’s Word, my short e-book Top Ten Resources for Bible Study. 

I look forward to continuing serving you and helping you along in your journey with the Lord.

If you are like me, you encounter a lot of hurting people – people ready to give up, give in, or give out. Life has a way of sucking the wind right out of the sails that navigate us through the sea of life.

In Matthew 12:15-20, Matthew – under Holy Spirit inspiration – applies prophecies from Isaiah to Jesus. In once such prophecy from Isaiah 42:3, Matthew (12:20) says if Jesus,

“A bruised reed He will not break, and a smoldering wick He will not quench.”
– Matthew 12:20

He will not finished off the bruised and He will not extinguished the burned out. Bruised and burned out. Every felt that way? I have.

The good news is that if you feel bruised and burned out, Jesus has not forsaken you. He will not trim you away or douse the last ounce of flickering flame left in your soul. He will set things right again. His work may not be completed until the Last Day, but rest assured, weary pilgrim, that work WILL be complete. (Philippians 1:6) So what can you do in the meantime?

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