Pastor Brad’s Notebook

01 Jun

Posted at 09:22h in Devotionals, Uncategorized
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"For as the body without the spirit is dead..." James 2:26 Can anybody give a definition of death? Does the Bible tell us exactly what it is? Yes. In fact, in the words before us we have what is surely the simplest, shortest, most straight forward definition of death to be found anywhere.  James tells us that death is the body without the spirit. What a wonderful explanation. James doesn't say that death means that the life of the body is extinguished, not at all.  It is simply that the life is absent - it's away. The body is without the spirit. This verse doesn't tell us that to die means that the spirit is without a body.  Or, to put it another way, that the spirit without the body is dead. Absolutely not.  The spirit can not die. It doesn't matter if it is on the inside or the outside of the body.

30 May

Posted at 10:52h in Devotionals
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"Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind. . ."  1 Peter 4:1 The context is considerable.  These words were spoken in the middle of a military empire.  They were delivered to a people who were disciplined in the use of weapons as a way of life.  It must have been startling then to hear these words from Peter.  It was the promise of a new kind of armor; a new type of defense.  It must have caught them off guard and left them flatfooted.  Then they must have laughed.  There was nothing tangible to it.  It wasn't tall and skinny, short and fat, lightweight or heavy.  It couldn't cause the first wound on the most elementary enemy.  It was, in fact, a wound itself.

19 May

Posted at 12:31h in Southern Baptist Convention
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In recent months there has been renewed discussion over what exactly constitutes a “Southern Baptist” church, and despite suggestions by some to the contrary, this issue is relevant because of its relationship to the increasing discord and waning cooperation we are experiencing within our convention. In fact, so much of the chaos and confusion we see these days can be traced back to this very point, that it should be THE key consideration in such decisions about:

18 May

Posted at 14:12h in Devotionals
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"Then they began to plead with Him to depart from their region." Mark 5:17 This must be the most unusual prayer found in the Bible. In fact, you could say that this is the most unusual prayer ever prayed.  You see, we know about the prayerfulness of the godly, and we are all too familiar with the prayerlessness of the ungodly.  But to think that prayer could actually be used as an ungodly instrument is a startling thought indeed.