“Afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord God of Israel: Let My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness.’ And Pharaoh said, ‘Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go’” (Exodus 5:1-2 NKJV). Moses was told by God to go and tell Pharaoh to let God’s people, the children of Israel, go from their slavery and bondage. After many excuses and missteps on the part of Moses, Moses and his older brother Aaron (ages 80 and 83) did as God commanded. However, Pharaoh did not let the Israelites go. In fact, Pharaoh asked a very contemporary question, “Who is God?” This is an old question, and it has been asked by lesser and greater men and women, even in recent history. In the late 1800’s, Friedrich Nietzsche proclaimed that God is dead. On April 8, 1966 the cover of Time magazine asked the question, “Is God dead?” The debate over the existence of God has been ongoing, and it is still going in many forms. You may remember when Ken Ham of the Creation Museum fame and Bill Nye, “The Science Guy,” debated the existence of God and the age of the earth. A couple of years ago Kyle Butt debated Dr. Bart Ehrman, a debate entitled, “The Pain and Suffering in the World Indicate that the Christian God Does Not Exist.”

Are you a procrastinator? Many are addicted to the “last minute.” According to effectivetimemanagementstratiges.com, in 1978, 5% of Americans were chronic procrastinators. Today that number is 26%. Procrastination seems to be strangling Americans and maybe even a few Christians living in America. The justification for procrastination varies: Avoidance – avoiding not only the topic or task but places and associated people; Distraction – surfing; Trivialization – not important enough; Laziness; Denial – pretending. Forty percent of people who have experienced financial loss found that it was due to procrastination. Procrastination can be deadly. Many put off tests and checkups only to hear the phrase, “If we could have just caught it sooner.” Many, we know, put off stopping bad behaviors with the idea of, “I’ll quit tomorrow.” Procrastination can have eternal consequences too. In Acts 24, Paul, arrested in Jerusalem, was sent to the governor of the region, Felix, in Caesarea. Because of his influence with the emperor Nero, Felix had obtained the appointment as Governor of Judea. He was a corrupt ruler, and a few years after Paul was sent to him, Felix was replaced with Festus. Felix wanted to hear what Paul had to say, and the governor was not totally ignorant about the teachings of Jesus. The great New Testament preacher Phillip lived in Caesarea. So, in verses 10-21, Felix allowed Paul to speak, and Paul gave a wonderful defense for himself and God. Notice two famous parts of Paul’s speech: “I have hope in God, which they themselves also accept, that there will be a

When I last checked the US Debt Clock (usdebtclock.org), individual consumer debt for US citizens was over $16 trillion! Let’s break this down. Everyone knows what a second is: 60 seconds is one minute; 1 trillion seconds is 31,546 years; 16 trillion seconds is 507,020 years! Why are Americans in such a mess? The top answer is covetousness. We have got a fight on our hands. As Christians, we must win the fight between covetousness and contentment. For a long time and by many people, covetousness has been called the Mother of all sins; why? Well, because covetousness will lead to adultery, to lying, to stealing and to hoarding. Covetousness starts in the heart. It is the seed from which comes many other sins. It’s a real battle! In this corner, covetousness is condemned by God. Covetousness is not daydreaming about something you want or need; covetousness is a very strong desire for something that you do not have and someone else does have. It is a form of idolatry, which if covetousness is the mother, then, idolatry is the father of sin. From the very beginning, man has wanted something that he cannot have. In Genesis 3, tempted by the serpent, Eve succumbed to the sin of covetousness. The children of Israel were commanded not to covet. “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is

Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, “Let me remove the speck from your eye”; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces. (Matthew 7:1-6 NKJV) We live in a “Don’t judge me” world, with many who war cry, “I do what I want!” I hope people judge me by the book. It is judging to look at someone’s life and examine if that one is a legitimate follower of Christ, but understand, as Jesus teaches, if I use God’s standards to judge who the dogs and swine and wolves and bad trees are, then I am judging correctly. It’s only when I judge with my standards that I’m in danger. If I judge you by God’s Word, and approach you in a godly way because I am concerned about your soul and because you are my friend, my family member or someone about whom I care, and

“Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.” Do you like tongue twisters? I’ve made tongue twisters out of my thoughts from one of the most enduring and endearing stories in the Bible – Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. I thought and thought about why God tells us this brief story from the life of Solomon in 1 Kings 10:1-13. Out of the 31,103 verses in the Bible, why is this story here? What can the Queen of Sheba teach the Christian today? Her name may have been Makada, which is a variation of the Sabeian name for queen. I’m going to call her Sheba. She ruled the Kingdom of Saba, which today is much of Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and across the Red Sea to Ethiopia. Her kingdom was a southern neighbor to the Kingdom of Israel. In the New Testament she is called the Queen of the South (Matthew 12:42 and Luke 11:31). Sheba was a seeker. What was she seeking? Read the 1 Kings text and enjoy some major tongue twisters to go along with your reading: Sheba Sought Solomon’s Soundness (vs. 1-3); Sheba Saw Solomon’s Success (vs. 4-9) and Sheba Secured Solomon’s Solidarity (vs. 10-13). Seekers, like Sheba, are everywhere. We as Christians, like Solomon, must be prepared to give them that for which they are looking. There are approximately 168,000 copies of the Bible sold or given away every day. It’s very likely that we’ll run into someone who has just read the Bible, is reading the Bible or is about