Showing results by author "James Thomas" in All Categories

In the first part of the fourth chapter of the epistle of James, the author wrote about the unanswered selfish prayers of those who primarily pray for what they want. The obvious conclusion is that truly godly people should always pray for what the Lord wants of them rather than for what they might hope to get for themselves from Him. In the second part of the fourth chapter, he wrote about the importance of putting the Lord first in all things. The reasons for doing that are many. It is important to live a holy life. It is important for the saints of God to hold up each other. It is ...

The five individual chapter commentaries on the Epistle of James that I have written have been incorporated into one text of the entire epistle. The first two chapter commentaries were written in 1998 and have been greatly modified for this text. An effort has also been made to convert previously used first person language with more formal third person language. That having been said and in looking at the first chapter of the Epistle of James, it considers authorship, the date that the epistle was written, and the basis for its acceptance into the biblical canon. With a strong focus on the ...

This detailed outline for the end-time prophecies has been divided into thirteen chapters. It should probably be suitable for a diligent student of the Bible who wants to look through the prophecies in an outline format. It will also be good for anyone who wants an easier way to study the prophecies. Each chapter will begin with a focus for the entire chapter. Then a list of usually five questions will follow which are intended to guide the reader through the most important parts of the chapter. The structure of each chapter is in a somewhat loose outline format. That should make it easier ...

This book has taken three fairly short books that are very similar to each other and combined them into one book. The three books are God Was in Control of Abraham's Circumstances, God Was in Control of Job's Circumstances, and God Was in Control of Joseph's Circumstances. One can learn different lessons from each saint. So it just makes sense to combine the three short books into one still fairly short book. There is one note, however, to be made with respect to the organization of this text before concluding this Introduction. Something that the reader might find useful is boxes ...

When this book was begun in late November 2013, the intent was to write a commentary on chapter five of Paul's letter to the church at Ephesus. But about fifty pages into that endeavor, it became clear that the book was not going in that direction. For one thing, his letter to that church had not even been mentioned in those pages. For another, the focus up to that point had been on Paul's missionary journeys. The reason for those problems was that the original intent had been to put his letter to the church into the context of his journeys. But there was so much to say about the journeys ...

In the first part of the third chapter of the epistle of James, the author warned spiritual leaders within the church about being God-called and about being God-prepared for their respective ministries. That warning applies to anyone who is in a position to lead others to Christ and to also show them how to live according to biblical principles and standards. So the clear teaching is that one does not actually choose his or her own ministry. Instead the Holy Spirit places saved men and women into those positions where He would have them work for Him. Once they are in those areas of ministry...

Some people might think that Easter is about family get-togethers and the Easter Bunny. It is not. Therefore, this text, while focusing primarily on the prophecies of the Prophet Isaiah and especially on those that explain why Jesus was crucified, also discusses prophecies written by other Old Testament prophets. In the first three parts of this text, nine passages from the book of Isaiah will be examined leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus. Those passages are Isaiah 1:18, Isaiah 64:6-7, Isaiah 7:14, Isaiah 9:6-7, Isaiah 42:1-7, Isaiah 41:27-29, Isaiah 61:1-3, Isaiah 50:4-9, and Isaiah ...

The Bible is an honest Book. So it does not try to protect the guilty or sugarcoat their story. The Bible also does not try to distort or exaggerate the truth to advance the Lord's agenda. Therefore, a person can critically examine Bible characters, trust what he or she is reading, and then learn very much about the Lord, His Word, and His principles for living. For convenience and ease of use, the titles of all of the devotions in this book begin with the Bible character's name. That means that a reader can look up his or her favorite Bible character by name under Message Titles in the ...

This book has been written about Joseph, the son of Jacob. He had had two dreams about his family members bowing to him, and those dreams had made them very angry with him. In fact, they hated him so much that they actually tried to get rid of him. They sold him to some merchants going to Egypt. Then, an Egyptian captain bought him out of the local slave market and brought him into his household. Because the Lord was with him, Joseph excelled everywhere he went and in everything that he did. But that did not keep him from getting into a lot of trouble. He ended up in prison when the ...

When most people think about a true love story, they naturally envision a couple jumping into a bed and making mad passionate love to each other. If the scene is from a movie or from a television show, then they would probably see the two going into a bedroom together and then waking up the next day lying next to each other. However, while that in many cases might be an example of true love, it pales in comparison to the true love that God the Father had showed to human beings when He had offered His only begotten Son on the cross of Calvary. John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world, ...

This book will attempt to discuss and defend perhaps the most difficult and most challenging parts of the scriptures by looking at the Rapture of the Church, at the Great Tribulation, and at the Second Coming of Jesus. Those are items of interest to almost every person alive. But there are also probably just as many viewpoints about those events as there are people. So this book will begin at the beginning by suggesting that the literal approach for interpreting those future events is probably superior to trying to interpret them figuratively or in some other non-literal fashion. The ...

The seven churches to whom the seven letters of Revelation chapters two and three were written are shown in the below diagram. They are from top to bottom Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Smyrna, Philadelphia, Ephesus, and Laodicea. The Apostle John was exiled to the isle of Patmos because of his stand for Christ. So on the Lord's Day, Jesus came to him and told him to write the words that appear in the book of Revelation. Revelation 1:10-11 says, "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice…Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest...

In this second part of this study of the Minor Prophets, the writings of Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, and Habakkuk are examined. With Obadiah, one can see the land of Edom and why the Edomites had thought that they were safe from outside attackers. Their land was very mountainous and easy to defend. Nevertheless, in about 583 BC, they did fall to the Babylonians. With Jonah, one can see the viciousness of the Assyrians in the Eighth Century BC. Everyone was afraid of them because of their brutality against their enemies. Nevertheless, at the preaching of Jonah, they had repented, and the ...

In December 1967, my life was in more trouble than I could realistically handle. While in the midst of those struggles, I asked the Lord to forgive me for all the wrong that I had done and to put my life on a path that would lead me out of my difficulties. More than fifty years later, I can now say that He was faithful to do exactly that. He changed me from the inside out. Then He changed the dreadful circumstances of my entire life. Since that night in 1967, I have experienced the joy of knowing the God of the universe and the one and only Creator of everything. Through the years, I have ...

This book is the second daily devotion book that I have written for regular daily use on Facebook. As such, it is very similar to the first devotion book that I wrote for Facebook. The main difference, however, is that many of the devotions in this book are based on some of the other books that I have also written. For example, some of the devotions are based on the characters that were identified in my book entitled "A Guide for Life Is God for Life." Some are based on the book "Twenty-one Steps to Living One's Best Life." Some are based on the book "The Apostate Church Will Soon Be Here."...

Over the past forty-plus years, I have served as an Adult Sunday School Teacher at four different Baptist churches during four different periods of time. In addition to that, I also attended Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary from 1995 until 2001 where I completed work on my Master of Arts degree in Religion and Pastoral Counseling. During my time at Liberty University, I studied ten Religion courses and five Pastoral Counseling courses as part of my Graduate Studies Program. After Graduation, I completed six more Religion classes and one more Counseling class. So because of my past ...

This book has been written to examine the seven statements that Jesus had made while He was on the cross. When someone is about to pass away, their final words are often worth remembering, and that is definitely true of the Lord. In the first five chapters of this text, many of the events that had led to His crucifixion will be discussed. The Old Testament prophecies about His coming, His mission while on earth, and His Incarnation will be considered. A conversation that He had had with Nicodemus will be examined to see why He had had to be crucified as opposed to experiencing some other ...

Twenty-seven times in the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible the phrase "be not afraid" appears. Therefore, each of those cases will be discussed in this text. To better analyze them, they have been broken into eight categories. The first category, which is to "be not afraid" of the Lord, will be examined in chapters one, two, and three of this text. Those chapters will look closely at the ruler of the synagogue whose daughter had just died and also at the disciples when they had seen Jesus walking to them on the water. The second category, which is to "be not afraid" of the unexpected, ...

This text has been entitled "Nine Different Ways to Praise the Lord" because nine different Hebrew words in the Old Testament have been translated as "praise" in the scriptures. They are yadah, hilluwl, tehillah, barak, halal, zamar, towdah, shabach, and mahalal. Among those nine, five are verbs and four are nouns. Each of those words will be discussed in this text. In addition, though, because verbs in Hebrew can have different meanings based upon the use of stems, a separate chapter has been devoted to the discussion of Hebrew stem types. Single chapters have also been written to discuss ...

This text has been written to show the clear parallels between the children of Israel having been delivered from Egyptian bondage during the offering of the first Passover lamb and the possibility for deliverance from sin and the penalty of sin by the offering of the Passover Lamb, who is Jesus. It begins in the first two chapters by explaining how the children of Israel had become slaves in Egypt. It then shares the birth of Moses, a little bit about him and his life, and how the Lord had used him to bring the children of Israel out of their bondage. Starting in chapter five of this text, ...