Showing results by author "JAMES THOMAS" in All Categories

In his gospel, the Apostle John had recorded eight occasions when Jesus had made metaphorical statements about Himself. In chapter one of this text however, the evidence to show that he had actually written the gospel by his name will first be presented. One should note from that discussion that this gospel has not always had his name associated with it. So there had initially been some room for doubt. One should also understand that not everyone agrees about when this gospel was written. So that will also be a matter for discussion. Finally, chapter one will also consider some of the very ...

This third edition of my heaven book explains the reasons for Satan, Adam, Eve, and the rest of human existence as it has been known for the past six thousand-plus years. It presents logical certainties about heaven and what people will do once they are there. In fact, one gets a good understanding of what the saints of God can expect on the other side of the grave just from looking at things like the seven days of Creation. This book does not do an exhaustive study of that. But it does use instances where the Lord had said that He was pleased for determining what heaven will be like. So if...

The title of this text is "The Life and Ministry of Jesus." But it is not just a story about Jesus' life. It is first of all a harmony of the gospels so that the reader can get a complete picture of His life. It is also a commentary on the gospel of John. What that means is that the twenty-one chapters of John's gospel are discussed. But in between those chapters are mixed in the different accounts by Matthew, Mark, and Luke. So with all of that, one gets a good chronological sequence of events of the life of Jesus. Also because John focused on showing the deity of Christ, one gets his ...

This book is my 50th anniversary gift to Linda. We could not renew our vows this year and have the celebration that we would have liked because of the pandemic that has swept the world. So this book is something that I hope will remind her of all the good years that we have had together. The years have flown by. But we have been abundantly blessed from the very beginning. I hope that the pages of this book will accurately describe the very full life that she and I have shared together. For sure, it is a testimony of what the Lord can do with lives that are surrendered to Him.

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 ...

It might be unrealistic to try to write a book about what the Bible really says about tithing. But that is exactly what I have tried to do. The reason is because for several months I have felt like this is a book that the Lord has wanted me to write. However, I have resisted until now. Invariably I know that many people will disagree with some of the things that I have written. But in the pages that follow, every verse in the Old Testament and in the New Testament which says anything about tithing or about giving has been discussed. The honest intent has been to express what I believe the ...

What I am about to say might sound confusing. But it is not meant to be. First, this book is about me. But second, this book is not about me. In the pages that follow, I will share thirteen times from my life when the Lord spoken directly to me, non-audibly, in my heart. For the first three, I did not know exactly what was happening. For the last ten occasions plus one, I was fully aware of what was happening. So in that sense, this book is about me. It will share fourteen personal experiences from my life. But this book is not really about me because the purpose is to show how anyone can ...

Playing off the themes in the Caldecott Medal-winning children's book Where the Wild Things Are, this informative, practical, and encouraging guide will help parents guide boys down the path to healthy and authentic manhood. Wild Things addresses the physical, emotional, and spiritual parts of a boy, written by two therapists who are currently engaged in clinical work with boys and their parents and who are also fathers raising five sons.

Many people may find this text offensive. But my desire for many years has been to understand why so many people who regularly attend church do not get more involved in the church's ministries. While not everyone will agree with my general conclusion, it is that most of those individuals are probably not really saved. I do not want to be a judge or sound judgmental. But the simple fact is that the Bible teaches throughout that the Christian is a life of ministry and service for the Lord by the true followers of Christ. So as will be discussed in the following pages, one of my conclusions is...

Bedtime Chapel helps families draw nearer to Jesus by gathering for nightly prayer and deepening their understanding of the Gospel. We release a nightly 5-min prayer service and a weekly companion episode that discusses the gospel readings for the upcoming week of nighttime prayer. Powered by Firstory Hosting

The main purpose of this text is to explain how this world has become an apostate world during the past one hundred years and how the local church is now becoming the apostate church. There are four parts to show how all of this has been happening. Part I starts with Satan's rebellion against the Lord in heaven. It follows his path to the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. It shows his demonic activity with Cain, the wicked generation that led to the Great Flood, the Tower of Babel, and the cross at Calvary. After that, it shows how he tried to destroy the local church from without by ...

This text was written to do a detailed study of the kings of Israel from the first king, named Saul, to the last king, named Zedekiah. After Solomon, the nation of Israel divided into two separate kingdoms. The southern kingdom was the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. The northern kingdom was the other nine tribes, which had included Manasseh and Ephraim because of the double portion inheritance that was given to Joseph. The Levites were not included with either kingdom because they did not own any property. But as will be seen in this text, they were mostly in the southern kingdom and with ...

The fourth edition of this book has been written to clean up some of the poorly worded text in the first three editions and to show important Bible verses rather than just refer to them. An effort has also been made to convert previously used first person speech with more formal third person speech. In looking at the first chapter of the epistle of James, this book 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 Greek language, the goal has also been to perform good exegesis on the original ...

To date, I have written four complete daily devotion books. The first one was a general topic devotion book that contains a single devotion for each class that I took at Liberty University when pursuing a Graduate degree in Bible and Pastoral Counseling. The second devotion book contains a daily devotion for many of the people who are talked about in the Bible. So it is a Bible character devotion book. The third devotion book is a daily devotion for every verse in the book of Proverbs. The fascinating thing about that book is that the numerical dates in the devotion book match up with the ...

In this third and final part of the study of the Minor Prophets, the writings of the Prophets Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi are examined. With Zephaniah, one can examine the prophecies against and the warnings to Philistia, Moab, Ammon, Ethiopia, Assyria, and Judah. With Haggai, one can read about the people who had returned to Jerusalem from Babylon being caught up in their own interests and priorities rather than in the things of the Lord. For one thing, they had built themselves nice homes. But they had not rebuilt the temple that had been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 ...

The book of Revelation is a very interesting book. With its various symbols, characters, and colorful language, it is also a very complicated book. But it is well worth studying to try to understand the future events of this world. In the pages that follow, the four main approaches that scholars have used for understanding the book of Revelation will be identified. They are the Preterist view, the Historical view, the Allegorical view, and the Futurist view. This text uses the Futurist view, which attempts to apply a literal interpretation whenever possible. This text will also identify ...

In the following pages of this text, many ideas will be presented that can help a person better know what the Lord wants him or her to do. Most of those ideas for effectively serving Him will be based upon verses like Jeremiah 29:12-13, John 3:16, II Peter 3:9, Luke 19:10, and Romans 5:6-8. So when a person can build his or her understanding around those kinds of teachings, then he or she will be well on the way to knowing what the Lord wants him or her to do. In chapter one of this text, it will be expressed that true biblical salvation should be better based on words like seek, commit, ...

This book is a fictional account of what it might be like to live through the Great Tribulation. In the first part of the book, eighteen different characters are introduced and then followed through the events of the Tribulation. This book accepts a basically literal interpretation of the various events. So it tries to give realistic scenarios for each situation. When reading the book of Revelation, one will read about seven seal judgments, seven trumpet judgments, and seven vial judgments. One will also read many seemingly unrelated events that are also happening. The way to understand the...

In summary, what was Jesus saying to those people in this first part of His sermon? First, He was telling them to be poor in spirit, which meant that they should have a heart and a mind that would be open to His instructions. Second, He had made some specific promises to those who are poor in spirit, mourning over their spiritual condition, meek, hungering and thirsting after righteousness, merciful, pure in heart, and makers of peace. He had spoken to those who would be persecuted for His name's sake. He spoke to those who have a responsibility to be salt and light. Third, He shared His ...

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 ...