Beginning 2015 with An Excuse

What a horrible way to begin a New Year!  I am speaking of beginning this year with an excuse.  However, this may not be so much of an excuse as an explanation.  As the year faded from spring to summer and then to fall and finally to the winter, I began to have inquiries as to why I had stopped blogging.  In fact the last post I had put on the Barnabas Blog was way back in April when I was in the midst of the series on spiritual warfare from Kay Arthur’s study guide, Lord, Is It Warfare?  So the questions that came my way were reasonable as to why I had “gone dark” on the Barnabas Blog.  This is why I had nothing to post. . .

Book Recommendation -- A Commentary on Judges and Ruth -- Robert B. Chisholm Jr.

Several years ago, my plan for preaching started making a marked change in its direction.  I started working with the process of expository preaching.  To this date, I have completed several long passages of Scripture in this manner.  When I started this journey, I realized that my study habits would have to change and also my reading tools would have to change also.  Expository preaching means that you will have to use commentaries and language helps to accomplish the task of preaching God’s Word.  So I started the process of purchasing good reference books that would serve more as tools to go back to more than once.  Last year it was my good fortune to become a book reviewer for Kregel Publications.  They have an arm called the Academic division that supplies some very good reference material for an expositor.  This volume on Judges and Ruth was sent to me by Kregel.    

The most recent commentary is written by Robert B. Chisholm Jr., A Commentary on Judges and Ruth.  Kregel sent me this book several months ago while I was just beginning to do an expository series on Psalms.  I judged this book by Chisholm and liked it so well that I ended up purchasing Kregel’s volumes on Psalms by Allen P. Ross (the last volume is not available yet which will cover Psalms 90-150).  The Ross volumes are also very good and worth the investment. 

Lord, Is It Warfare? Week 4, Day 3

This is Week 4, Day 3 from the devotional Lord, Is It Warfare?  There is something that you will find as you develop a disciplined approach to a daily time in the Word.  Your mind and spirit will be stretched by the Scripture and you will also find a rhythm that as time passes in your devotions that you refuse to allow a rushed attitude to consume your time with the Lord.  (Although today’s entry is relatively short compared to some of the other ones.)  Busyness and hurry are great liabilities to us as we read through the Bible.  The soul is greatly fed as you work slowly through these assignments because overcoming the rush and hurry of devotion moves your thoughts into places that you would not normally be able to go.  That is why I know that the messages that I preach weekly make their most impact when they are “crock-pot” fare versus quick, grab it as you can “microwave” pabulum.

-We all come from Adam no matter what evolutionists and scientists might imply.  We were also created in the image of God. 

Lord, Is It Warfare? Week 4, Day 2

If you have not purchased your own copy of this devotional, Lord, Is It Warfare?, I want to encourage you to do so (Used books on Amazon start @ 0.42).  Not only is there an opportunity to interact in a personal journal with your own notes but the guide is designed in such a way as to encourage you to mark up your Bible.  Today’s entry is a little shorter than usual simply by the nature of the assignment that was given.  Following are my own reflections.

-This world was not always in the condition that it is in now.  It once was a perfect paradise that hosted God and His creation of Adam and Eve and the host of things that filled the world.  In a single moment, the unity of God and His creation was shattered by the wily snares of the serpent.  He tempted Eve and she fell to an unimaginable state. 

Lord, Is It Warfare? Week 4, Day 1

I would like to offer a bit of explanation for my two-week layoff from writing.  On early Tuesday, April 15, my mother-in-law passed on to her eternal reward.  I have literally known her my entire life as my parents moved to Dothan when I was two and we started going to church here in Dothan.  My father-in-law had started the church a little over a year prior to our arrival.  In that little home missions setting the Lord was at work but also His grace was at work in my own life too.  I married Teresa, the Patterson’s oldest daughter, in August ’86 and my life was entwined even more in the Patterson family.  My mother-in-law was diagnosed with cancer about four years ago and despite surgery it came back with a vengeance in January 2013.  A little over two weeks ago, her condition rapidly deteriorated and she required around the clock care.  I preached her funeral this past Friday and it was one of the most challenging ones that I have had to do.  However, it has made heaven all the more real to me and her illness caused me to dig into the Word and really look at what it has to say about heaven and where saints go when they pass from this life.  I would tell you this, I have done a great disservice to myself and to our church for not preaching more about heaven and the resurrection.  I specifically did something special when I realized that her condition was not going to improve outside of a miracle, I got a leather-bound journal and started writing in it massive amounts of Scripture on what heaven was to be like.  There are old hymns that have fallen out of our worship services that I wrote in that journal.  Furthermore, I read sermons from the old masters of the past and found that they preached about heaven from a whole different angle than what is preached today.  Suffice it to say this. . . you must make it to heaven!!!!!  No matter the cost, it has to be a priority in your life. 

Lord, Is It Warfare? Week 3, Day 5

I want to pick up with the Week 3, Day 5 portion before moving to Week 4, Day 1 for tomorrow.  I got behind a bit last week but I really did not want to omit Day 5 because of some of the content that I ran across as I was journaling through it.  I will not add Day 6 or Day 7 because it is primarily the summary of the previous material in the week with a host of Scriptures that are designed to bring out various descriptions of the devil.  The following is pretty much the exact content of my ramblings in my journal. . . with a fountain pen J.  Specifically a TWSBI 580 medium nib loaded with Pelikan 4001 Turquoise ink J.

-Note that the people who are involved in the spiritual war are saints.  The devil has no need to attack those who are already in his kingdom.  If you sometimes have a tendency to think that evil-doers have an easier path, the Bible very clearly articulates this in Psalm 37 and 73.  Those psalms both have the same theme. . . the prosperity of the wicked.  On the other hand, never think for a moment that they are never without troubles, difficulties, and huge battles with their conscience.   

Lord, Is It Warfare? Week 3, Day 4

Starting out with a great apology, I had fully intended to work through this segment last week.  I know that some of you are following along with your own copy of Lord, Is It Warfare? and your journal and you have been reading some of my thoughts in addition to what you are doing.  I apologize for not getting on with this last week but I had some time pressures that sort of knocked me off of my routine.  The next thing that I thought about doing was moving on to the next week in this series but there were some things in Week 3 that I felt like would be important and I did not want to omit them from the series.  I will certainly do my best to get back on track in the next few days. 

Beginning with Week 3, Day 4 there are a lot of recommendations concerning working through your Bible with a fair amount of passages.  As I worked through some of those passages, I was troubled by them and that is the reason that I did not just skip to Week 4 because I wanted to address my own troubles in a Scriptural and honest way in the way that we often view God.  Job 2 has a tendency to rattle some of our Americanized ideas about the identity of God and how He may operate in our lives.  Again what follows are the exact notes that I have in my own personal journal.