Posted by Ray Pritchard on 8.14.11 in Devotional
This afternoon I saw my first brown leaf.In a month or two the ground will be covered with withered, dead leaves. Today’s leaf was the first of many to come. In the Bible the withered leaf pictures both our sinfulness and our human frailty. “Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall, and our sins sweep us away like the wind.” (Is…
Posted by Ray Pritchard on 8.12.11 in Bible Study, Devotional
This question comes from a strange incident in Exodus 4:24-26.At a lodging place on the way, the LORD met Moses and was about to kill him. But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses’ feet with it. “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me,” she said. So the LORD let him alone. (At that ti…
Posted by Ray Pritchard on 7.13.11 in Devotional
Recently I chatted with a friend who spends his days working in hospice care. Every day he helps families confront end-of-life issues. He listens a lot, answers questions, and in whatever way he can, tries to bring the love of Christ into those last few days of life. While we were talking, he matter-of-factly added this statement:"The way you…
Posted by Ray Pritchard on 6.15.11 in Devotional
“I have seen these people,” the LORD said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people” (Exodus 32:9).Stiff-necked people.That’s not a compliment. Here are some synonyms: obstinate, stubborn, willful, pig-headed. When Stephen preached in Acts 7, he called the Jewish leaders “stiff=necked, uncircumcised in h…
Posted by Ray Pritchard on 6.13.11 in Devotional
Here is the most obvious lesson from the Anthony Weiner debacle:Don’t do that!Simple and clear.The Bible tells us to “flee youthful lusts” (2 Timothy 2:22). If you want an example of what that means, check out what the congressman did, and then flee from that. He was stupid, sinful, foolish, arrogant, and filled with wrong de…
Posted by Ray Pritchard on 6.7.11 in Devotional
Here’s a fragment from a sermon I preached a few years ago. When I happened to run across it today, I decided to pass it along. Perhaps God will use it to awaken some who trust in their religion but not in Christ. Let me ask you, where do you stand with the Lord? Are you on the outside or the inside? Perhaps it is now clear to you that you ne…
Posted by Ray Pritchard on 5.30.11 in Devotional
“Then God gave me the gift of desperation.” That’s what the man said on Friday night during the first service at America’s Keswick.I noted three facts about him: 1) He is a bit older than some of the men in the Colony of Mercy, the outreach to men with various addictions (alcohol, drugs, gambling, porn, etc) that has formed …
Posted by Ray Pritchard on 5.20.11 in Devotional, Second Coming
I write this on the eve of Judgment Day, the one predicted by Harold Camping and his followers. The prediction relies on a complex set of assumptions and mathematical calculations regarding Bible chronology that the rest of us recognize for what it is. Nonsense.No one knows the day or the hour. No one knows for certain how close the return of Chris…
Posted by Ray Pritchard on 5.17.11 in Devotional
This morning while reading Deuteronomy 17, I came across a paragraph about how to deal with idolators in the midst of the people of God. Because God ordered that they must be stoned to death (v. 5), he also ordered a key safeguard put in place:On the testimony of two or three witnesses a person is to be put to death, but no one is to be put to deat…
Posted by Ray Pritchard on 5.13.11 in Devotional
This morning when I cleaned off my desk I found a piece of lined yellow paper on which I had scribbled some notes. It appears to be a page of notes for a talk I gave somewhere, but in looking at it I can’t recall the occasion. I did notice that halfway down the page, I jotted down a prayer that I vaguely remember having seen somewhere:”…
« Previous 1 … 13 14 15 16 17 … 49 Next »