September 21, 2009

“And blessed is he who keeps from stumbling over Me.” Luke 7:23

In her Bible study, “Jesus the One and Only,” author Beth Moore has a chapter entitled, “A Bout With Doubt.” In it she says the following that has meant so much to me.

“Most of the time our doubts come from our heart, not our head. ‘We’ve got to know what we know even when we don’t feel what we want to feel.’” (p.88) She goes on to say that the Greek word for faith is pistis and means “a firm persuasion or conviction.” It is a head-faith biased on knowledge of the one in whom we have our trust. Many times I have had to go back to my Bible and claim the promises of God’s love, forgiveness and salvation when my heart tried to convince me otherwise. Like Paul, I must declare, “I know (have a firm conviction based on the truth found, proven and established in Scripture, not feeling with an inferior feeler that can change with the wind) in whom I have believed in and am persuaded (based on the truth of facts not feelings) that He is able to keep that which I have committed to Him against that day.” (2 Timothy 1:12) Is your pistis based on fact or feeling? When the storm hits and the bout with doubt broadsides you, only a firm conviction based in fact will bring you through. As Beth went on to say, “Believe it with your head even when you’re struggling with your heart.” (p.90)

Thought for the week: No one gossips about other people's secret virtues.
-- Bertrand Russell

Funny for the week: Running the Show

I am a deputy sheriff assigned to courthouse security. As part of my job, I explain court procedures to visitors. One day I was showing a group of ninth-graders around. Court was in recess and only the clerk and a young man in custody wearing handcuffs were in the courtroom. "This is where the judge sits," I began, pointing to the bench. "The lawyers sit at these tables. The court clerk sits over there. The court recorder, or stenographer, sits over here. Near the judge is the witness stand and over there is where the jury sits. As you can see," I finished, "there are a lot of people involved in making this system work."

At that point, the prisoner raised his cuffed hands and said, "Yeah, but I'm the one who makes it all happen."
-- Michael McPherson

Job security?........... Chaplain Barnes

Last week’s answer: Who said, “Come see a man which told me all things that ever I did”?

The woman Jesus met at the well (John 4:29)

This week’s question: Jesus said it was unforgivable to speak against or blaspheme what?