The Sound Word

Ephesians 4:11-16 11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love . Hopefully, today’s devotional will truly challenge you. These words are not any easier to right then I know they...

John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Any relationship of any type at all is of no value whatsoever if it in fact it is not based on truth. Think about this for just a second. You ask someone, “will you feed my dog for me while I’m on vacation?” and they say yes. But they never feed your dog and your dog dies. Someone who is color blind asks you, “is that red or green? You respond, “it is red”, when you know it is green. Think of the implications at Stop Light intersections alone.  A judge asks a witness in a capital murder case, “is this the man you saw shooting the victim?” and you lie. Or this: “Do you love me?”, and you answer (or are answered…) untruthfully. Without truth, EVERYTHING fails. Every legal, moral and ethical standard is gone. Correction and punishment have no value, and even become unreasonable brutality. Every social norm, every acceptable moral standard – gone. Consider the though...

Matthew 7:5     "Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. "  As we look at this verse, we always seem to look at it as one man looking at another man, And why not, it is the proper context of course. Jesus at this moment speaking to the masses, and talking about improper judging of another. So let's address the judging issue first, as we all know this is going to come up in conversation. The word used here In the verses prior), most properly translated "do not judge" is a word that means not to judge right from wrong. In the application of today's post-modern view of mankind, this is most important. Jesus is saying fairly clearly that there is no such thing as 'situational ethics', where something is right (or wrong) for you, but not for me or someone else. He is saying that there is one right, and one right only. This is upheld all throughout scripture i...