Intro

Israel, the northern tribes, had never had a righteous king.  Not one who sought after God with all his heart.  Yet God continued to work with them. 

There are many women in the Bible whose words and details can be appreciated more because of the amount of scripture given to their account such as Deborah or Abigail. On the other hand, there are many lesser-known figures that are given cursory mentions in the Bible and it takes a little more digging to get their story. This study delves into such characters of the women working behind the scenes in the Gospel records who ministered unto Jesus and the Apostles.

Sanctification.  What do you think about when you hear that word?  It has the connotations of being washed and cleansed so that one may be pure, holy and blameless.  In some ways, to me, it is a very mysterious word.  Do you think of yourself as “holy” or one who is “sanctified”?  The world we live in, the culture that surrounds us, is constantly trying to equalize and make common, but our God has called us to be separate.  We fail but this is our calling.  Paul said to the Ephesians,

Sometimes when you have to do an exhortation, it is difficult to pick a subject.  It has to be meaningful, interesting and something that affects you.  That is not always easy.  Many times a spark of an idea will come at the most menial of daily tasks and other times it will flow from large world events.  Often, something will catch hold just by reading and reading.  For this exhortation, “nothing” came to me.  I have “nothing” to offer you in words of exhortation this morning.

In Romans 15:1 Paul says,

“We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.”

Who are the strong and who are the weak?  We might be in danger of misreading this verse by taking it out of context especially since there is a chapter break.  Identifying the “weak” and “strong” comes from the previous chapter (14) in verses 1-3,

Peace is elusive.  Peace in the world.  Peace among ourselves.  Peace in our hearts. 

There is a peace that the Bible talks about and then there is a peace that men strive after. 

Consider a man…

It may be of some surprise (it was to me) that the phrase “first principles” is used only once in scripture.

(Heb. 5:12)  "For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat."

A similar phrase starts the next chapter accompanied by a list of six foundation principles.

I am now 33-1/2 years old.  The same age when our Lord was crucified.  It's an interesting thing for me to ponder at this stage in my life.  It does not serve too much but to emphasize how great a difference there is between me and the stature of the fullness of Christ.  I had thought about it when I was thirty for that was the age when Jesus made himself known to the world.  The same feelings were evident back then and now here I am 3-1/2 years down the road.  I like to think I've gotten to know my Lord better but there is still that feeling of necessity to come closer to knowing the suffe

At work I had to have my annual "performance evaluation" done. I've had to go through this several times over the last eight years and in the past I've also had to give them. It's not an easy thing for either end of the table but it is very necessary thing for increasing the productivity and efficiency of the employee. Most companies have such a system showing it's wisdom in application.