Today we begin to look at the second fruit that the Holy Spirit produces in our lives which is Joy. Joy is a feeling of gladness, happiness, and delight; it is expressed with rejoicing, and is the opposite of gloom and depression! In the natural Joy requires favorable circumstances to be operative; but let’s face […]
As we continue our journey into God’s orchard in Galatians 5:22-23, the first fruit we come to is Love. Love is very characteristic of the Christian life; it is the quality of which Jesus said to His disciples, “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” […]
“For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given…” Isaiah 9:6. To both the nation of Israel through whom the side of his natural linage came, and also to the Gentiles, thus to the entire human race, as the Scripture says in Luke 2:32 “A light to bring revelation to the […]
As we look at love through the pages of the New Testament we find that in all except three occasions the word is translated from two Greek words, “Agape” and “Agapao” which convey to us the message of love, affection, benevolence, and loving in a social or moral sense. From these are revealed to us […]
“Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift” 2 Corinthians 9:15. When we are given a gift of extraordinary value we return the appropriate action and give sincere thanks to the donor. The fact is that God has given us the greatest gift we mankind could ever wish for or receive when “He gave […]
Philippians 4:4 says “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!” The Greek word here for rejoice according to the original Greek is to be filled with cheerfulness and happiness. And the word “always” means just that, being defined as “every when” or “at all times”; the importance of this in the Christian’s […]
Once again Jesus draws from agriculture to teach kingdom truth, Luke 8:4-15. The picture is that of a farmer sowing seed in his field apparently the old fashioned way scattering it by hand. The seed is the word of God so it is very good seed of which God says it “shall not return […]
Weather you view the story in Luke 16:19-31 as a parable or an actual event the “bottom line” remains the same. Material wealth in itself should not be viewed as a sign of God’s favor and blessing, neither should the lack thereof, in itself, be viewed as a sign of His disfavor or judgment! God […]
In Matthew 22:1-14 Jesus in this story likens the kingdom of heaven to a king whose son was to be married and many were invited to the reception, but those invited took it lightly and refused to come putting their own interests ahead of the kings invitation, even treating the messengers who brought the invitation […]
In Luke 15:8-10 Jesus uses the scenario of a woman that has lost a valuable silver coin. The message in this parable is exactly the same as that of the preceding one about the lost sheep, but using a different picture, the “or” in verse 8 clearly indicating this. Such coins were “often worn in […]