TIME EPHESIANS 5:16 "Redeeming the time, because the days are evil" COLOSSIANS 4:5 "Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time" REDEEMING The Greek verb is ( exagorazō ), 1805, built from (ex),“out of” and (agorazō), “to buy,” which comes from (agora), “the marketplace.” The literal sense is “to buy out of” or “to buy up." It is a present middle participle, meaning, “buying up for yourselves,” as a continuous habit rather than a one-time act. TIME The nou

OXEN PROVERBS 14:4 "Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean, but abundant crops come by the strength of the ox." CRYING & LAUGHING There is the expression: "The things you cry about today, you'll laugh about tomorrow." This is, of course, a very broad generalization, but the point is that often the things the devil throws at you to 'break you,' God turns around and uses to 'make you' the strong, confident, warrior, that you are on the inside. ROMANS 8:28 says, "...we kno

Someone once said, and it has been repeated multiple times, that 'success is a journey, not a destination'. It is the process we go through, achieving some measure of fulfillment, on the road to what we call "success". JOSHUA 1:8 provides the scriptural formula for success, stating: "THIS BOOK OF THE LAW [the scriptures], SHALL NOT DEPART OUT OF YOUR MOUTH [where the word depart means to leave it's proper place, emphasizing that the 'proper place' for God's word is to be sp

COURTROOM ROMANS 8:31-34 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Shall God that justifies? Who is he that condemns? Shall Christ, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us? COURTROOM The language of

PROVERBS 15:8 "The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD, but the prayer of the upright is His delight." ABOMINATION Something that is an 'abomination' is disgusting or repulsive. The language is cultic when referring to bringing a sacrificial animal, to atone for some sin, or asking for some blessing on a person's life. However, this very public display is disgusting to God when the motivation or intent is to manipulate Him, or simply to appear outwardly to b

ROARING LION ILLUSTRATION Many people have received, or seen someone, accidentally hit their thumb or finger with a hammer. The pain is an instant reminder that the nail, and not one of our appendages, is the proper target for the hammer to strike. Additionally, all of us have perhaps personally seen, or experienced, a sibling putting their hand on a hot stove. The reaction is immediate: hot stoves are for heating food, boiling water, or cooking something edible, but placing

LIGHT DARK ROOM If you have ever gone into a dark room and not known where the light switch is, you tend to stumble around until you eventually find the switch. Instantly, you know where you are and can see clearly to find what you are looking for. Interestingly enough, when you turn on the light, there is no battle between the dark and the light for dominance; as soon as the light comes on, the darkness is gone. PSALM 119:105"Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto

UNION EPHESIANS 2:5-6 "Even when we were dead in sins, 'hath quickened us together with' Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) and 'hath raised us up together', and 'made us sit together' in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (KJV). THREE-FOLD There are a three-fold "together with" (syn-) compounds. This is built on three Greek verbs, each with the prefix syn- ("with/together"): (synezōopoiēsen), 4806, 'made alive together', (synēgeiren), 4891, 'raised up together' (synekathisen), 4

MASTERPIECE EPHESIANS 2:10 "For we are his workmanship (ποίημα), created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." GREEK WORD: ποίημα (poiēma), 4161 This is the noun from ποιέω ("to make/do") — the root of our English word "poem." It means "a thing made," "a work," "a product," "a masterpiece." It appears only twice in the NT: ROMANS 1:20 — "the things that have been made" (τοῖς ποιήμασιν), [referring to creation itself as ev

WORSHIP GENERAL OBSERVATIONS When interpreting scripture, the passage often becomes the best commentary on itself, helping us understand what is being communicated and how to apply it practically to our lives. The following scriptures demonstrate that fact: PSALM 99:5 "Exalt ye the Lord our God, and worship at His footstool; for He is holy" (KJV). FOOTSTOOL In the ancient Near East, a king's footstool was literal: kings sat enthroned with their feet resting on a stool, often

DRIVING LEARNING to DRIVE When you're first learning to drive a vehicle there is a tendency to overcompensate, resulting in steering too far to the right, and then over-steering, jerking the vehicle back to the left. Once you've mastered that aspect of driving, the other challenge requiring conscious effort to adapt to is your direction of sight. You are driving along, looking to the right, and without thinking, you automatically begin to move in the direction where you're fo

AUTHORITY NOT EARNED It's often a sad characteristic, that second and third generation millionaires—those who inherited their wealth rather than built it—do not value or appreciate the money, wealth, power, and influence, that they have inherited. Historically, these heirs or heiresses often squander or waste the wealth, because they don't truly possess that internal discipline, and their behavior and attitude reflect that lack of basic guidance. However, they still possess t

POWER TL OSBORN TL Osborn, the great missionary statesman, and apostle of love, has been quoted as saying, "There are only two things that are important in your Christianity: What you believe, and what you do about it". What you believe affects your behavior, which strengthens or weakens your relationship with the Lord. In addition, what is preached/announced from the pulpit is the gospel that the congregation will experience. MATTHEW 15:6 says, [referring to not honoring a p

WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW There is the proverbial expression, "What you don't know, won't hurt you", but that is an extreme fallacy, even as scripture states, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge..." (Hos.4:6). Obviously, a lack of information, or the wrong information, can be detrimental to a person or persons. ACTS 14:7 says, "...and there they preached the gospel". PREACHED the GOSPEL This is all one word in the Greek, (euangelizo), 2097, which literally means "to anno

SEEING EYES WEEDS in the GARDEN Like 'growing' weeds, it takes absolutely no effort to develop a "weed" garden, and it takes no effort to fail in life; just don't do anything productive. Weeds grow on their own, and the person tending the garden has the constant effort of removing the weeds, once they have planted the good seed, so that the weeds don't choke out what the gardener wants to grow and thrive in the garden. To continue the analogy, not only do weeds need to be ext

ROSES DESIRING THE DRAMATIC Depending on a person's individual experience, believers often want some type of 'Word' from God or a dramatic pronouncement from a prophetic voice. All of those have merit, but experience has shown, that every revelation we receive is also accompanied by attacks from the enemy intended to make the individual let go of that revelation and not 'endure' to victory. What is even more evident, is that the more dramatic the revelatory experience [e.g. a

PROVERBS 17:3 says, "The fining pot (is) for silver, and the furnace for gold: but the LORD trieth the hearts" (KJV). 1 PETER 4:12 says, "Beloved, think it not strange concerning the firey trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you". FIERY TRIAL The words translated "fiery trial" are (púrōsis) or (pyrosis), [the basis of the English word 'pyromania', a compulsive disorder to start fires], a feminine noun from (puróō) (4448), 'to burn', or (púr) (4

POVERTY One of life's saddest commentaries involves the tragic stories of people who lived in abject poverty, heirs to a huge fortune they never knew about, dying without ever enjoying the wealth that was rightfully theirs. EPHESIANS 2:5 says, "Even when we were dead in sins, has quickened us together with Christ, (by grace you are saved)..." COLOSSIANS 2:13 says, "And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, has He quickened together with Him, havin

MAKE THE CHANGE EPHESIANS 4:23 says, "...be renewed in the spirit of your mind" (KJV). JOB 33:24 contains the only other use of the word, in all of scriptures. The word 'renewed' appears only once in the New Testament, and is found only once in the OT [Old Testament], in the LXX [Greek translation of the OT scriptures], in Job 33:24, where the text reads, "...He shall hold (him) to not fall into death, and he shall renew his body as (new) plaster upon a wall...". The idea con

POSITIVE WORDS PROVERBS 6:2 says, "You are snared with the words of your mouth, you are taken with the words of your mouth" "Have been snared with sayings of your mouth, Have been captured with sayings of your mouth" (Youngs Literal). "Hast snared thyself by thine own lips [words of thy mouth, (Hebrew)], Trapped thyself by the words of thy mouth" (Toy). "For a man's own lips become a strong snare to him, and he is caught with the lips of his own mouth" (Breton, LXX). "For a m