When the Hand of the Lord is on You

Ezra 7:6 (NIV) This Ezra came up from Babylon. He was a teacher well versed in the Law of Moses, which the Lord, the God of Israel, had given. The king had granted him everything he asked, for the hand of the Lord his God was on him.

Ezra was a priest and a teacher who was a descendant of Aaron, the first high priest of the Israelites. He, along with the people of Judah, had been exiled to Babylon. After a while, the Persians overcame the Babylonians and became the supreme

The Overflow of Lordship

Luke 6:46 (NIV) “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?”

Most people who become Christians have no problems receiving Jesus as their Savior but do have a problem either consciously or sub-consciously receiving Him as Lord. But Jesus didn’t die on a cross just to save you from the penalty of your sin, but He did it so that you would be free from the power of sin in your life that ultimately will destroy you. In order for that to happen, you need to make

Facing Trials With Singing

Matthew 26:30 (NIV) When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

Jesus and the disciples had gathered together for what would be their last supper together. The disciples didn’t know it at the time, but Jesus was about to get arrested, tried and crucified just a few short hours later. It was at this same supper that Judas got up to go to betray Jesus by leading the mob that was going to arrest Him. Before they went out into the night after supper, Jesus

The Fearless and Worriless Tree

Jeremiah 17:7-8 (NIV) “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”

After having moved from a bustling inner city to the beautiful state of Maryland, I learned a thing or two about trees that I didn’t know (Maryland has a lot o

Prayers That Reach Heaven

2 Chronicles 30:27 (NIV) The priests and the Levites stood to bless the people, and God heard them, for their prayer reached heaven, his holy dwelling place.

When King Hezekiah began to reign, he immediately began to restore order in the land as far as obeying and honoring God, unlike what his evil father had done. In the very first month of his kingship, he opened the doors of the temple and repaired them. Then he gathered the priests and the Levites and urged them to con

When Jesus Asks a Question

John 6:5-6 (NIV) When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.

As human beings, we ask all kinds of questions. There are questions that we ask to obtain information that we want or need, questions that are asked sarcastically as a joke or an insult, questions that are asked rhetorically, which is a questi

What You Do Know

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John 9:25 (NIV) He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!”

The Pharisees were always very upset with Jesus. They weren’t upset because He was hurting people or taking advantage of them. No, on the contrary, He was helping people in incredible and miraculous ways. One day He came across a man that had been blind from birth. This man had never

When God Protects You From Yourself

2 Chronicles 18:31-32 (NIV) When the chariot commanders saw Jehoshaphat, they thought, “This is the king of Israel.” So they turned to attack him, but Jehoshaphat cried out, and the Lord helped him. God drew them away from him, for when the chariot commanders saw that he was not the king of Israel, they stopped pursuing him.

King Jehoshaphat was one of the few good kings that Judah had, but even he did some foolish things. His first mistake was making an alliance with the

Occasional Victory

2 Chronicles 13:18 (NIV) The Israelites were subdued on that occasion, and the people of Judah were victorious because they relied on the Lord, the God of their ancestors.

The people of God faced many enemies in their time in the Promised Land and sometimes, they even fought against each other. Because of Solomon’s sin in turning to other gods, the Lord said that the kingdom would be divided during his son’s, King Rehoboam’s reign. Jeroboam rebelled against Rehoboam and to

The Missing Key

Luke 11:52 (NIV) “Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering.”

Jesus was constantly rebuking and correcting the Pharisees, who were the priests and religious teachers who taught the people the Law of God. Jesus spoke seven woes to these religious leaders and the one above is the first of them. Jesus here accuses them of taking away the key to knowledge from

Enabled to Understand

1 Chronicles 28:19 (NIV) “All this,” David said, “I have in writing as a result of the Lord’s hand on me, and he enabled me to understand all the details of the plan.”

When I buy something that needs to be assembled, I cringe a little as I take a look at the instructions. Sometimes, the instructions are so detailed that my eyes glaze over for a couple of minutes until I am able to talk myself into thinking that I can get it done. I can just imagine what David must have bee

Holy in Every Way

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 (NLT) Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again. God will make this happen, for he who calls you is faithful.

There are a lot of things that Jesus said and things that are written for us in the scriptures through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that are hard for us to understand fully. For example, the concept of you and I being holy i

What is Not Bread

Isaiah 55:2 (NIV) Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare.

Once, when Jesus was warning the disciples to be on their guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, they thought that He was saying that because they forgot to bring bread (Matthew 16:6-7). They totally missed the point. Jesus was speaking about the teaching of the Pharisees and not about f

Pray Often

Luke 5:16 (NIV) But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.

Do you pray every day and if you do, how many times a day do you pray? Unfortunately, a poll showed that only two percent of Christians are satisfied with their prayer life. That means that many are not praying regularly. When you don't pray regularly, the quality of your Christian life suffers. Because of our sinful nature, we are in desperate need of more of God in our lives. Without His daily help and

Know Who Jesus Is

Luke 8:24-25 (NIV) The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we’re going to drown!” He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm. “Where is your faith?” he asked his disciples. In fear and amazement they asked one another, “Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him."

It’s amazing to me that the disciples continued to be astonished at the things that Jesus did. Don’t get me wrong, t