June 28, 2019
July 4th Hymn
On the 4th of July, do you want to sing and pray for the USA? Try my Dad’s lyrics, inspired by the old spiritual “There Is a Balm in Gilead.”
Exploring God's Colossal Promises
On the 4th of July, do you want to sing and pray for the USA? Try my Dad’s lyrics, inspired by the old spiritual “There Is a Balm in Gilead.”
In a play a foreshadowed character is mentioned in Act 1 but does not appear until the last Act. When he finally arrives, he powerfully impacts the outcome of the drama. In the Bible, the major foreshadowed character is Jesus, the Messiah. But then Jesus foreshadows the coming of another major character, someone so important that he is one of the 10 building blocks of life in Christ. Who is he? The short video explains.
Collision Course. John 3 is a collision of ideas expressed by Jesus and Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish High Council. Reading the Bible is exciting as we detect the building blocks of life in Christ and allow them to collide with any false beliefs that are stunting our growth in Christ. www.philbickel.com/bb-john3/
Like musical notes that have forgotten how to sing in harmony, we bellow discord and shout one another down. While we easily hear the din produced by others, we are often deaf to our own. If a singer of music appeared on the scene, would we welcome his songs — or silence him? That is the premise of Jubal Lee in Notingham. Read Chapter 1 – The Cloud.
In John 2, by means of a wedding, a whip, and the promise of a whopper miracle Jesus models how to live life to the max. Will we stretch our faith to accept God’s colossal blessings, or will we shrink His promises to the size of our tiny faith? Fullness or fraction?
At lift off, a space shuttle spews a lot of fire and fury. To us whose knowledge of rocket science is limited to 4th of July fireworks, it seems as though the craft is rising very slowly. Our search in the Gospel of John for the 10 building blocks of life in Christ has a similar gradual-but-steady beginning. Read how the voyage begins in John 1.
You are invited to be a passenger on a spaceship called Fullness or Fraction in the Gospel of John. Are we headed for outer space? No, we’ll explore inner space, what Psalm 103:1 calls our soul, our inmost being. Inner space is where human beings do business with the Creator of all things. Every sunrise launches us into a new day of trusting God and loving the people we encounter. Lift off is hard to attain when our inner space is weighed down by faulty thoughts, attitudes, and actions. The 10 building blocks of life in Christ which repeatedly appear in John will lift us up and propel us into daily adventures with God.
Has a Bible verse ever hit you like a ton of feathers? The Holy Spirit loves to do that. Although as heavy as a ton of bricks, His words do not crush us. They heal and comfort, empower and embolden us.
Fullness or Fraction is a Bible-based dialog exploring this question: Will I walk with God in the fullness of His promises, or will I settle for a fraction of what His colossal promises offer?
Our lives are filled with din. Like musical notes that have forgotten how to sing in harmony, we bellow discord and shout one another down. While we easily hear and take offense at the din produced by others, we are often deaf to our own. If someone appeared who had the ability to sing, would we welcome his music — or silence him? That is the premise of an imaginative short story entitled Jubal Lee in Notingham.