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THE ENGRAFTED WORD

"Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity [excess] of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls." (James 1:21).     A neighbor who lives behind me has an amazing apple tree.   It is enormous, and has been there for a very long time.   It provides a lot of shade to them in the summer time, and an ample amount of fruit in the fall.   The amazing thing about this tree, though, is not its size, or age, or even the amount of apples that it bears; no, the amazing thing is that it bears five different varieties of apple!   Someone years ago took the time to graft the branches of other apple trees into the branches of this existing tree.   Now, that which was not possible for this tree to bear on its own has not only become possible, but a reality.   The Bible teaches us that the Word of God can be grafted into the lives of believers.   It is an operation that is, unfortunately, ve...
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DAVID AND SAUL: THE OLD MAN AND THE NEW

As we rapidly approach another election cycle, and people in America are considering their options for the next candidates to lead the nation, my thoughts go to the Old Testament story of Samuel and Israel’s desire for a king. For centuries the Israelites were under the oversight of judges who offered guidance to the nation in matters of military engagement.  They also resolved disputes between the people and upheld the civil laws of Israel.  These were men (and women, in the case of Deborah) who were chosen by God and anointed to resist the oppression of their neighbor kingdoms and lead their people in the right ways of the LORD.  Samuel the Prophet was the transition between the time of the judges and the time of the prophets and kings.  He was the last judge of Israel and the first of a string of major prophets of the Lord who gave spiritual guidance to Israel.  It was Samuel, too, who God sent to anoint Israel's first king.  He also was tr...
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JONATHAN AND HIS ARMOR BEARER

“And the Philistines gathered themselves together to fight with Israel, thirty thousand chariots, and six thousand horsemen, and people as the sand which is on the sea shore in multitude: and they came up, and pitched in Michmash, eastward from Bethaven.   When the men of Israel saw that they were in a strait, (for the people were distressed,) then the people did hide themselves in caves, and in thickets, and in rocks, and in high places, and in pits.  And some of the Hebrews went over Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead.  As for Saul [the King of Israel], he was yet in Gilgal, and all the people followed him trembling.” (1 Samuel 13:5-7).   King Saul found himself in difficult straits.   An innumerable host of Philistines had gathered their forces at a place called Michmash in the highlands north of Jerusalem.   Much of Saul’s army was frightened because of the overwhelming odds and went to hide themselves in the caves, hills and pits around the...
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