James 5:2-3 Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days. (Read James 5:1-6 in the read-through-the-Bible plan today.) Dr. Kim Riddlebarger, in a sermon series on … More What are you trusting…wealth or grace?
What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because … More James’ point: God gives grace to sinners!
Kim Riddlebarger comments in a sermon on James 1:1-18, in our reading plan today. James makes very critical two points in these verses. The first is that God does indeed allow trials to come our way. The second is that sin arises in us (because we have a sinful nature), not because God somehow tempts … More Trials and temptations
Pastor Kim Riddlebarger on James 1 as we embark on reading James over the next two weeks: Joy is simply the knowledge that it is well with our souls, despite our present circumstances. It may not be well with our bodies. It may not be well with our job, or with our particular circumstances. But … More Even in trials, it is well with my soul
And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” —Mark 9:35, part of our reading plan today. Pastor Kim Riddlebarger, at the Riddleblog: From these sayings of Jesus, three important themes emerge. First, membership in the kingdom of God is bestowed upon us, we don’t earn it. … More As he denied himself, so must we.
Kim Riddlebarger concludes a sermon on the life of Samson, on Judges 16 (our Bible reading passage for today) As for application for us today, there is much to learn from the life of Samson. No question, his allegiance is to YHWH. No question, his sin–especially his dalliances with Philistine women–was his undoing. Like Israel … More God uses us, his sinful people, for his purposes.
Judges 10-12 is our Bible reading passage for today. In Judges 10:10-16 we read: And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord, saying, “We have sinned against you, because we have forsaken our God and have served the Baals.” And the Lord said to the people of Israel, “Did I not save you … More Divine exasperation
Thus God returned the evil of Abimelech, which he committed against his father in killing his seventy brothers. And God also made all the evil of the men of Shechem return on their heads, and upon them came the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal. —Judges 9:56-57 Pastor Kim Riddlebarger comments on Judges 9, our … More When we look at the life of a man like Abimelech we see not Christ, but his opposite
Pastor Kim Riddlebarger on Judges 8, today’s reading: In 1 Timothy 6, the apostle Paul warns us of many of the same things that Gideon brought upon Israel. He speaks of men who “teach a different doctrine[which]does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness.” Ironically, Gideon … More Beware whose example you follow
As we read Judges 1-3 today, a little help from Kim Riddlebarger’s sermon series on Judges: And then there are the judges themselves–men whom God raises up to rescue Israel from some military or political crisis, but who can do nothing about the nation’s spiritual condition. Remember that Israel’s judges are not jurists presiding over … More Broken People-Faithful God
