David Young's Blog (378)

“Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.”

Our visit to Sychar was as amazing us as it was to the Samaritans. We had always been taught that they were unclean. And at least James and I had reason to fear them. I won't go into that now. But Jesus marched us…

Have you discovered the truth of this statement by Jesus in the Bible?

“Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again.” 

Whatever you are living for will not satisfy or fulfill. You may think, if you just had a faster car, a  nicer house and…

BUT IF YOU DO NOT FORGIVE

Most of us have been troubled at one time or another by these words of Jesus. 

“For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your…

Last week I wrote about coming to the light from John 3:21

“Whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

http://thinkinginthespirit.blogspot.com/2020/08/coming-to-light.html

I pointed out that this verse says…

“Whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God..”

John 3:21

Do you like people to…

IN HIS NAME

“But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”

John 1:12

I have always had some trouble understanding the phrase, “believing in His name.” What does it mean to believe in His name? Like many things in Scripture there are depths to this phrase that are beyond…

Do you ever find yourself praying, maybe even urgently, about things that really don't matter very much? Interestingly enough, we find some prayers like that in the Bible. In fact, Jesus began his supernatural ministry by answering a prayer for something that really didn't matter a great deal. In the second chapter of John Jesus…

Are you growing nearer to God in prayer?

We are familiar with John 15 that says our Lord is the vine and we are His branches. Jesus applies that wonderful picture in the verses that follow.

John…

John 1:16

It is important for us to understand something theologians have called, "Common Grace." God is not simply working in the lives of believers. He is at work in every human being. “We have all received grace upon grace.” Every throb of your heart muscle, every breath of…

As writers we deal with words, and most of us love them.

The biblical languages are filled with vivid metaphors to help us understand deep and crucial truths. Three…

I am astounded by the number of deep truths that rise to the surface of John chapter 1. Some of them are expressed by the reciprocating metaphors of the word and the light. Look with me at these verses.

John 1:1

John 1:4

John 1:9-14

WE ARE ALL GULLIBLE AT DIFFERENT POINTS

I have recently been enthralled by some of the writing of Rachel Held Evans. She has written some powerful…

One of the most courageous actions recorded in Scripture is found as Joseph of Arimathea going to ask for the body of Jesus. It does not take much imagination to understand what Joseph must have been thinking when he considered going to Pilate. He must have known he would lose his place on the Sanhedrin and in society by doing that. He had to have considered the fact that connecting himself to a condemned criminal might cost him his life as…

That is not true. A case in point is found in Matthew 16. When Simon Peter said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” Jesus did not just say Peter was right, He said flesh and blood had not shown Peter this. Our Lord’s Father in Heaven revealed it to Peter. Jesus had first asked His disciples who…

One of my favorite events in scripture is the night Jacob wrestled with God. I don't believe you find anything like this in any religious teaching other than the Bible. The God who created the universe humbles Himself to wrestle with a man. The story is in Genesis 32.



Jacob feared that he and his family would be attacked by his brother, Esau, and…

Any sin is serious. And God's people are not immune to the enemy’s temptations, although we are given armor against them. To some extent, it is not unusual for God’s people to be sucked into whatever sin dominates our culture. But those who desire to be godly will seek deliverance from the sin of the world around us.



The sin that is shaking our country is slander. It is prevalent on…

God has helped me a great deal with these four keys to memorizing Scripture. You too will find them helpful, especially if you are trying to commit large portions of Scripture to memory. They are to Slow Down, Calm Down, Focus, and Pray. God gave me these things in the struggle to…

I am writing especially to you who are pastors, but much of what I have to say will apply to any believer in Jesus Christ. I suspect that much of what is pressed upon us by the church growth movement and its widely accepted continuations are little more than superstition. Some of these things remind me of the labors of Jacob in the 30th chapter of…

While this quarantine is difficult for people all over the world, it is not quite as hard on writers. I do not simply mean that people need our reading material to fill the time. Writers need solitude to write. While many of us have had to learn to write in the midst of the hubbub, it always helps to be alone. This doesn't mean…