This song really hits home with me. I don’t know where I would be without “My Love”. God gave me my wife, Jami, just at the right time. I count my blessings daily! God gave me her!

In high school it would have been very easy for me to fall into the same thinking that many of my classmates feel into. I am not worthy enough, or maybe I am not doing enough to fit in. The ones that had this negative outlook about themselves ended up going down a dark and lonely road. I stayed true to my God, and lived a life that would honor him. I didn’t let Satan rule my mind!

In 2 Corinthians 10: 4-5 the Bible talks about the weapons we use in this battle of the brain. “The weapons I fight with are not the weapons the world uses. In fact, it is just the opposite. My weapons have the power of God to destroy the camps of the enemy. I destroy every claim and every reason that keeps people from knowing God. I keep every thought under control in order to make it obey Christ.” Listen we can not win this war by ourselves. I do not have enough muscles in my body to move Satan one inch, however, when we throw these Godly weapons in the arena it is a new ballgame. Paul is telling us to use the weapons that God has given us to handcuff the ploys of the devil. So let us fall on our knees and wage war. For our minds were given to us by God, we should not hand it over to the evil one!

A seminary professor was vacationing with his wife in Gatlinburg, TN. One morning, they were eating breakfast at little restaurant, hoping to enjoy a quiet, family meal. While they were waiting for their food, they noticed a distinguished looking, white-haired man moving from table to table, visiting with the guests. The professor leaned over and whispered to his wife, “I hope he doesn’t come over here.” But sure enough, the man did come over to their table.

“Where are you folks from?” he asked in a friendly voice. Oklahoma,” they answered.“Great to have you here in Tennessee,” the stranger said. “What do you do for a living?” “I teach at a seminary,” he replied.“Oh, so you teach preachers how to preach, do you? Well, I’ve got a really great story for you.” And with that, the gentleman pulled up a chair and sat down at the table with the couple. The professor groaned and thought to himself, “Great… Just what I need… another preacher story!” The man started, “See that mountain over there? (pointing out the restaurant window). Not far from the base of that mountain, there was a boy born to an unwed mother. He had a hard time growing up, because every place he went, he was always asked the same question, ‘Hey boy, Who’s your daddy?’ Whether he was at school, in the grocery store or drug store, people would ask the same question, ‘Who’s your daddy?’ He would hide at recess and lunchtime from other students. He would avoid going in to stores because that question hurt him so bad.

When he was about 12 years old, a new preacher came to his church. He would always go in late and slip out early to avoid hearing the question, ‘Who’s your daddy?’ But one day, the new preacher said the benediction so fast he got caught and had to walk out with the crowd. Just about the time he got to the back door, the new preacher, not knowing anything about him, put his hand on his shoulder and asked him, Son, who’s your daddy? The whole church got deathly quiet. He could feel every eye in the church looking at him. Now everyone would finally know the answer to the question, ‘Who’s your daddy?’. This new preacher, though, sensed the situation around him & using discernment that only the Holy Spirit could give, said the following to that scared little boy…” Wait a minute!’ he said. ‘I know who you are. I see the family resemblance now. You are a child of God.’ With that he patted the boy on his shoulder and said, Boy, you’ve got a great inheritance. Go and claim it. With that, the boy smiled for the first time in a long time and walked out the door a changed person. He was never the same again. When ever anybody asked him, ‘Who’s your Daddy?’ he’d just tell them, ‘I’m a Child of God’.”

The distinguished gentleman got up from the table and said, “Isn’t That a great story?” The professor responded that it really was a great story! As the man turned to leave, he said, “You know, if that new preacher hadn’t told me that I was one of God’s children, I probably never would have amounted to anything!” And he walked away.

1. Egypt’s Great Pyramids

2. Taj Mahal

3. Grand Canyon

4. Panama Canal

5. Empire State Building

6. St. Peter’s Basilica

7. China’s Great Wall

While gathering the votes, the teacher noted that one student had not finished her paper yet. So she asked the girl if she was having trouble with her list. The girl replied, “Yes, a little. I couldn’t quite make up my mind because there were so many.” The teacher said, “Well, tell us what you have, and maybe we can help.” The girl hesitated, then read, “I think the ‘Seven Wonders of the World’ are:

1. To See

2. To Hear

3. To Touch

4. To Taste

5. To Feel

6. To Laugh

7. And to Love.”

The room was so quiet you could have heard a pin drop. The things we overlook as simple and ordinary and that we take for granted are truly wondrous! A gentle reminder — that the most precious things in life cannot be built by hand or bought by man.

A clergyman was walking down the street when he came upon a group of about a dozen boys, all of them between 10 and 12 years of age. The group surrounded a dog. Concerned lest the boys were hurting the dog, he went over and asked “What are you doing with that dog?” One of the boys replied, “This dog is just an old neighborhood stray. We all want him, but only one of us can take him home. So we’ve decided that whichever one of us can tell the biggest lie will get to keep the dog.” Of course, the reverend was taken aback. “You boys shouldn’t be having a contest telling lies!” he exclaimed. He then launched into a ten minute sermon against lying, beginning, “Don’t you boys know it’s a sin to lie,” and ending with, “Why, when I was your age, I never told a lie.” There was dead silence for about a minute. Just as the reverend was beginning to think he’d gotten through to them, the smallest boy gave a deep sigh and said, “All right, give him the dog.”

Why do they call it Bible Study? I don’t know about you, but I hated to study when I was in school. Long hours of repeating things over and over again until you got it memorized. That is not very appealing to me, and I am sure it is not for you either. The Bible is not meant to be studied like you are studying for a history exam. It is something that should be discovered every time you open the Bible. So instead of Bible Study, let’s call it Bible Exploration!

Now both of my babies went through the bottle stage, Calvin is on the tail end of it, and they eventually learned how to feed themselves. In Hebrews that’s what it says we should do when exploring the Bible. Don’t be ashamed that you don’t know all the books of the Bible. You will eventually learn where each book is, and before you know it you will be flying all over the Bible. You grow in God’s word, just as you grow physically!

There are several ways to explore the Bible. I am going to give you a few to get started. The first, and my favorite way to study the Bible is by picking a topic. Love, sex, fear, healing, etc… Whatever you want to study, look it up and get after it. The internet makes this very easy! I use crosswalk.com quite abit when looking up topics. All you have to do is enter in a subject and it will shoot out a bunch of verses. The next way to study your Bible is like a book report. I am currently doing this with the book of Psalms. Ask yourself questions as you read through the book. What is going on? Who are the main characters? Who wrote this book? Alittle more research will go into this style, however, it can be pretty interesting getting lost in the stories of the Bible. The final bible exploration tactic that I am going to talk about is character studies. When I was youth pastor, I would find myself doing these types of explorations quite often. It can be like reading an autobiography about a famous person. The people of the Bible can teach us many lessons. Moses and Paul are two of my favorites. If you were going to start exploring characters, starting with either of these two individuals would be a splash hit.

I hope I have sparked your interest in exploring the Bible! The main thing is to start today. Don’t worry about being an expert. Just remember every baby starts out with a bottle, then they go to their hands, and finally they eat with silverware. You will be a baby Bible explorer at first, but before you know it you will be climbing the biggest mountains in the Bible!