Words from a Branch

  There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death. Proverbs 14:12 ESV             Any way may seem like the right one to anyone of us. There are a number of factors which may affect our judgement. This is a fact worth remembering, and carefully considering as the results of misjudging can be quite disastrous. We need to check our course carefully.             The great enemy in this endeavor is time. We feel so much constrained by time we often settle for a sense of rightness rather than a surety of rightness. This thinking is flawed, and it is flawed in that it forgets who establishes rightness. God establishes what is right, He lays out the right path which alone leads to life. As this is so we may have good hope of knowing right as we know God in Christ through the Spirit. Firstly, let us recognize that our Father in Heaven wants us to kno...

  Then one of the twelve, whose name was Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?” And they paid him thirty pieces of silver. And from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray him. Matthew 26:14-16 ESV             In the most profound undervaluation of history the God-man is sold for thirty pieces of silver. Infinite worth proclaimed by those who should have best appreciated it as worthless. Even by one who had followed the Lord the deal is acceptable. There is no sense in it.             Another wonder, if we read up to this point in the gospels, we learn that Jesus saw the moment coming, and if we read on from here, we find that even after the deal is struck Judas is still allowed access. The Lord gave to the betrayer of betrayers the same as the faithful, He washed those feet, but Judas did no...

  Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. James 1:13-18 ESV                 Each one of us is born into sin, we have innate desires that draw us away from God by promising us good and delivering only evil. We are unnaturally naturally bent to be enticed and lured by desires into sin which leads not to the life we sought but into death. ...