Ironworks

       We often speak of how important it is to study God’s Word. New Testament Christians must remember some basic rules of Bible study to help us to, “handle aright the Word of truth. (cf. 2 Tim 2:15). Who Is the Speaker?      A fundamental rule to Bible study is to consider who is speaking. Could you imagine what would happen if we did not consider the speaker? Take for instance Job 2:9. “Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still hold fast thine integrity? Renounce God, and die. “  The speaker is certainly important wouldn’t you say? Who Is It Given To?      We would all agree that certain imperatives and instructions in the Word of God were given to specific people at a specific time. If I were to apply Genesis 6 to myself and start searching for Gophar wood to make an ark, someone would clearly say that this passage is not applicable to you. Let's remember to apply that same reasonable logic to other passages.  What Is The Context?      We must look at how the passage fits

“For Ezra had set his heart to seek the law of Jehovah, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and ordinances.” Ezra 7:10 Ezra was one of many individuals that we find in Scripture who truly sought to be intentional in their service to the Lord. Ezra made a conscious effort to set his heart to seek the law, to do it, and to teach it. What a fantastic example!  One of the best ways that we can be intentional in training our children is to follow the example of Ezra. Fathers, as the spiritual leaders of your households, are you in your own time seeking the law of the Lord (the perfect law of liberty (Jam. 1:25)? Is your personal study intentional? Do you have a plan? Parents, are you doing the perfect law of Christ? When you do something with intention you know exactly why you have done it. When you seek the Law of Christ, it will be seen in the actions you carry out in your life. When we do the will of God, others will take notice. The examples of doing the will of God puts lasti

One of my least favorite things I had to do in my former line of work was inventory. I worked for several restaurants that had to do monthly inventories which would fall on days like December 24th the day before the entire company was closed and that was not fun. I worked for one company where inventory was done once a year but it took until 4:30 in the morning. I worked for another company where we did inventory every Monday where I had to get up to count at 5:00 in the morning. Needless to say, I got tired of counting and I certainly do not miss counting, weighing, tagging, and all the things that went along with it. Yet, counting is still part of my life and it is part of the lives of every New Testament Christian.  Counting not his life dear unto himself   “But I hold not my life of any account as dear unto myself, so that I may accomplish my course, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.” Acts 20:24  Could we count our lif

          It has been so cold the latter part of this week. I do not doubt that all of you have paid attention to having the proper clothing with which to cover up. What do you think of when you hear cover up? We think of political scandals or something of that nature. We also can consider a more simple example that is much closer to our own lives. Have you ever tried to cover up something that you did? I think we all have at some point in our lives. We do this because we do not want to face the consequences for what we have done. We do things in secret; we hide them away and hope that someone will not find out. However, covering sins is not always wrong. There are actually two ways to cover sins. There is a wrong way and there is a right way. First, let’s examine the wrong way. Inadequate Covering “He that covereth his transgressions shall not prosper: But whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall obtain mercy.” Proverbs 28:13       The wrong way to cover sins was first seen in the Ga