flynn034

  Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him--Proverbs 30:5   I am a weak, frail, fragile human being--so are you. There will come into all of our lives those moments of time in which our hearts will be will deeply troubled causing our souls to cry out in anguish for deliverance. Mark chapter 4, the Lord gives to us a powerful example of his divine power when he rebuked the wind and raging sea bringing about a great calm (vs 39). Surely we understand that just as the Lord can still the fierce wind and raging water of a mighty ocean, he can calm the most raging storm that besets us in this life. Just as surely as the Lord had the divine power to calm that raging storm in Mark 4, he can deliver us from whatever adversity of this life that troubles our soul.   We do not serve a God who is powerless, we serve a God who is able. O that we all would have the faith of Shadrach, Meshach an Abednego (Daniel 3:17). As a faithful child of God, hi...

And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's bonds were unfastened. 27 When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul cried with a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.” 29 And the jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas. 30 Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 31 And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” 32 And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. 33 And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. 34 Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God. Acts 16:26-34 In any conversion, Jesus wants si...

Singing Believers     Sinclair Ferguson is a member of the Presbyterian Church but he wrote an interesting book called Devoted to God: Blueprints for Sanctification . In one chapter, he focuses on the teaching of Colossians 3. What struck me was his comments on how Christians are to dress and in one section, he writes that Christians should have Christ’s word dwelling in them. He draws that point from 3:16: “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”     Despite the fact that we have brethren who try to say that this passage and/or Ephesians 5:19 do not refer to corporate worship , most if not all commentators I have read do understand it so, as does Ferguson. He writes that “sanctified praise will have a manward part as well as a Godward dimension” (136). The psalms, comments...

Holy Desperation Psalm 79     The churches of Christ today are being attacked from forces on the outside, from our contemporary society, and from forces within. Some Christians have decided that rather than leave the church for a denomination that suits their tastes, they will stay within the church and change it within.     How do we respond to this “invasion” of false teaching and false practices within God’s people? The question is not new. The song leader and preacher, Asaph in Psalm 79, dealt with the same question as he felt a “holy desperation” at what was happening to his people. THE UTTER DESTRUCTION OF GOD’S PEOPLE - 79:1-7:     Verse 1 - The nations have invaded God’s inheritance.     Verse 2 - Israelites have been killed and their corpses have been used to feed the birds of the heavens.     Verse 3 - The Israelites’ blood has been poured out like water ...

How Long is Love?   When Frederick Douglass was young, he and his mother were separated because of slavery.  As Douglass wrote in the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass:   “It is a common custom, in the part of Maryland from which I ran away, to part children from their mothers at a very early age.  Frequently, before the child has reached its twelfth month, its mother is taken from it, and hired out on some farm a considerable distance off, and the child is placed under the care of an old woman, too old for field labor.  For what this separation is done, I do not know, unless it be to hinder the development of the child’s affection toward its mother, and to blunt and destroy the natural affection of the mother for the child.  This is the inevitable result.”   But Frederick’s mother refused to disconnect from her son.  She found out where he had been taken.  Whenever she could, after working hard in the fields...

To Save Their Lives Santino and Giovanni Demasi are twins. They were born prematurely and were soon diagnosed with chronic granulomatous disease (CGD). CGD is a rare immunodeficiency disease that increases the body's susceptibility to infections. One of the treatments for CGD is a bone marrow transplant. Could a donor be found? Yes. The donor match was discovered to be the twins' four-year-old brother, Michael. When his parents asked him if he would be willing to help - which would entail a long needle being stuck into his back to extract the marrow - Michael bravely agreed. "I want to help them," he said. "I'm not scared." "He's just like, 'I'm a real-life superhero,'" mother, Robin Pownall, told the news outlet. "He says, 'I'm going to save my baby brothers.'. He could have said 'No Mommy, I'm too scared, and I don't want to,' but he's ready to go and he's our real life superhero,...