• Bible Studies

    Joshua 5

    1. The people have crossed and it could not be better for them given the morale of the Canaanites. “Now when all the Amorite Kings west of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings along the seacoast heard how the Lord had dried up the Jordan before the Israelites until we had crossed over, their hearts sank and they no longer had the courage to face the Israelites.” Where have we read that before? Just earlier, when the two spies had gone into the land and stayed with Rahab she told them that “a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country…

  • Bible Studies

    Crossing The Jordan: Joshua 3-4

    1. Forty years ago, Moses sent spies into Canaan and you remember their report? “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large…The land we explored devours those living in it…We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.” Only two of those spies disagreed and are here alive today – Caleb and Joshua. The other ten died with the generation wandering in the desert. In fact, forty years after that first inspection Joshua sent two spies into the…

  • Bible Studies

    Joshua 1:1-18

    1.  Begin with reality. Max DePree, the former CEO of Herman Miller and author of “Leadership Is An Art” has said many times that a leader’s first responsibility is to define reality. He is right. Have you seen the picture of the bicycle that was left leaning against a tree in Washington State and, decades later, it had become part of the tree and was in the trunk seven feet off the ground. When problems are unaddressed or change is resisted organizations can become like that. We simply work around things over time. Most unreality starts with the leadership not accepting change. The auto industry is a good example. RIM/Blackberry…

  • Fred's Blog

    Keeping a Soft Heart in Hard Times

    I love the martial arts choreography in movies like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. I asked a black belt friend how he hardened his hands for real (not staged) competition. It seemed easy enough. Set up a five-gallon bucket of white rice and punch your hands in it 10-12 times in a row five times a day. When that no longer hurts use a five-gallon bucket of dry beans for several weeks and then graduate to five gallons of sand. While it takes time to become hardened it is a simple process. My martial arts friend cautioned me, “Be careful. The process is irreversible once the calluses are there…and you could really…

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  • Bible Studies

    Titus 2:9-3:15

    In the 1970’s, Dr. Francis Schaeffer, the founder of L’Abris, produced a ten part film series titled “How Should We Then Live?” If Paul picked a title for the lesson this morning it would be this question. For it is a recurring theme not only in these chapters but in the entire book of Titus. All through the letter to Titus is the counsel to focus his teaching and preaching on encouraging people not only to believe correctly but to live good lives. In fact, in one form or another he mentions this six times. “Live godly lives; be eager to do what is good; devote yourselves to doing good,…

  • Fred's Blog

    It’s Hard to Say It

    It’s Hard to Say It   Last week I was in Charleston, South Carolina, for the annual conference of The Philanthropy Roundtable. I was one of three speakers on a panel about “sunsetting,” the closing down of a private foundation. The audience was mostly family foundations working through whether or not to shutter their foundations and distribute the remaining assets after a period of time. Families choose to do this for any number of reasons but primarily out of concern that succeeding generations or future staff and trustees would not adhere to the founding donors’ intent. Of course, there are other considerations, but this is almost always what the discussion comes around to eventually. However, one of the questions was especially interesting to me as it was not…

  • Bible Studies

    Titus 2

    Last week we looked at what Paul wrote to Titus about the ever present threat of false teachers. We finished with concluding that while there are many defenses against false teaching the best antidote is true teaching. If all you do is react against their sometimes subtle and often blatant distortions of the truth you will find yourselves caught up in their nets. So, Paul begins this chapter with the best antidote possible to lies and that is “teach what is in accord with sound doctrine.” 1.  Sound means healthy and the word here is one we see often in Paul’s letter to Titus. Some have said that Timothy may…

  • Fred's Blog

    Forgetting the Little that Divides

    Two devoted friends and brilliant minds — John Adams and Thomas Jefferson — fell out with each other over politics, personal slights and both feeling betrayed by the other. The feud not only embittered both, causing them to abandon all correspondence and relationship of any kind for many years, but it troubled their closest companions who could not imagine these giants of the Revolution becoming estranged for the rest of their lives. In 1809 a mutual signer of the Declaration of Independence, Dr. Benjamin Rush, had a dream about the two former presidents, wrote it down, and sent it to both men. In the dream he saw the alienated statesmen…

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  • Bible Studies

    Titus 1:10-11 False Teachers

    1. Last week we looked at the personal qualities who disqualifies themselves from Christian leadership. Remember the list? Obstinate Angry Lack of self-control An abuser Greedy But, we also looked at the list of the personal qualities of one who is qualified for Christian leadership: Hospitable Loves the good in everything Prudent Respectful and Reverent Decent Self-mastery Able to correct another This morning we are looking at people who plagued Paul wherever he went and for his entire ministry as well as the ministries of those who followed after him. Paul and his disciples were not only persecuted by authorities and Jewish leaders in cities where he established churches. He…