Joseph Pauls

Don’t be naive. There are difficult times ahead. As the end approaches, people are going to be self-absorbed, money-hungry, self-promoting, stuck-up, profane, contemptuous of parents, crude, coarse, dog-eat-dog, unbending, slanderers, impulsively wild, savage, cynical, treacherous, ruthless, bloated windbags, addicted to lust, and allergic to God. They’ll make a show of religion, but behind the scenes […]

And He called the people to him and said to them, “Hear and understand:  it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.”  Then the disciples came and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?” He

God, my shepherd!     I don’t need a thing. You have bedded me down in lush meadows,     you find me quiet pools to drink from. True to your word,     you let me catch my breath     and send me in the right direction. Psalms 23:1-3 MSG Cool streams within forests of green and the serene quiet of

You have heard; now see all this;     and will you not declare it? From this time forth I announce to you new things,     hidden things that you have not known. Isaiah 48:6 New things. They can be exciting and they can be frustrating. Doing new things after being in a pattern or habit for a long

Greet also the church in their house. Greet my beloved Epaenetus, who was the first convert to Christ in Asia. Romans 16:5 Oh how the stories of the early church fire my soul! Christians didn’t have church buildings like we do now, they went ‘house to house’ and most often the “church” meetings were in

And He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of

My son, if your heart is wise,     my heart too will be glad.  My inmost being will exult     when your lips speak what is right. Let not your heart envy sinners,     but continue in the fear of the Lord all the day. Surely there is a future,     and your hope will not be cut off.

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. Psalms 139:13 When you look up this verse in the Hebrew for the words ‘inward parts’, it has several meanings, first it means the ‘kidneys’ (the organ) or figuratively the seat of the emotions and affections which is essentially the soul.

I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought