The White Stone Zone

  True confession time: Jesus blasts the Pharisees in Matthew 23. There, he lays out the characteristics of a Pharisee. Let's look at three of them. Trait 1 (verses 1-4)- We do not practice what we preach. If we are honest, we admit that it is so much easier to walk the walk than to talk the talk. I have done this my entire life with a "grace to me, law to you mentality. More recently I've done this to my children countless times; I've demanded things from them that I am incapable of doing. I chastised my daughters for being interested in boys stating, "God 's love should be enough for you. You should be willing to wait to date and don't look to others to meet your needs for love acceptance and forgiveness--look only to God. Meanwhile, for most of my life I've looked to everything on the planet besides God to meet my needs, and as a 55 year old man, I still fall into the trap of looking to other things to meet my needs.       Trait 2 of a Pharisee -...

            I was born a Pharisee; even though my family was not religious, I was born a Pharisee. The reason is because every human being is born a Pharisee. Atheists are Pharisees; a fact which will be proven within the pages of this blog. My parents and their parents were Pharisees. I come from a long tradition of Pharisees and have been surrounded by them my whole life. I have carried the banner quite faithfully. Even when I learned the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, I became a grace Pharisee. I think you get the picture. It all began on May 18, 1962 in Hoboken, NJ. This day still holds the title for the record high heat for that day in history. It was a wicked 98* which was far above the norm for a day in May for NJ. My mom reports is was 103* in the hospital. Nevertheless, they wrapped me in a little Pharisee robe and handed me to my Pharisee mom. I was born into the world of sin and death with two ways to cope on my own. One way to cope was to ...

There is a lot of teaching about faith these days that has little to do with Biblical Faith. One such teaching is that the increase in faith will bring you health and prosperity whereas the lack of faith is the cause for all of your ills.  For the child of God who has placed his/her faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, nothing could be further from the truth.  The truth of the gospel is that not matter what happens in your life, you are an 'heir of God and a joint-heir with Christ." (Romans 8). With that said, there is only one passage, as far as I know up to this point in my studies, where the Apostles of Jesus asked God to increase their faith, and it was tied into Christ's teachings on forgiving others:   “If your brother or sister   sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them. 4  Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying ‘I repent,’ you must forgive them.” 5  The apostles said to the...

“19  My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to  listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20  because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. 21  Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you."       Paul tells us in Ephesians, "In your anger, do not sin." He does not say, "don't get angry," because anger is a God-given emotion.  Sin involves hate and letting that anger turn to hate.  Our flesh rails against our Spirit every day, and when we are in conflict, it will rear its ugly head every time.  James provides a playbook for dealing with anger.  1.      Quick to Listen means when you are angry, you have to listen to God speak to you about 3 things: a. Identity b. Needs C. Circumstance. You need to hear that you are a New Creation, God’s special child...

Straight Talk About Homosexuality Lord, I seek to love others the way you have loved me—completely and unconditionally my entire life.  There is a lot of hurt and hatred in our land; I can’t say I totally know your mind in this situation, but I believe what you told us; You Are Love, and You so loved the world that you died for us, and whosoever believes can come and find love that will take an eternity to fathom.  May you use this writing to bring healing. 1.       Nothing Gay About It   I dug out an old dictionary and looked up the word gay, and it said, “a merry, gleeful mood.” I then logged onto dictionary.com, and the first definition was, “ pertaining to, or exhibiting sexual desire or behavior directed toward a person or persons of one's own sex; homosexual .”   How the word evolved from “donning our gay apparel at Christmas” to “fighting for gay rights and gay marriage,” is not important, but I do remember a friend ...

     The terms Apocalypse, Armageddon, End Times, End of the World, etc. have become household words in our day, and due to movies and TV shows like The Walking Dead , Supernatural , End of Day s, etc., it seems like the idea of the end of life as we know it is intriguing to many folks.  I took some time to watch some of these shows and found that they have little to do with Biblical truth although they are interesting and entertaining. The Book of Revelation is mentioned and images from it are mentioned, but Jesus Christ and His return are missing from the script. That is OK; entertainment is entertainment. And the current crisis in Syria has certainly pushed End Times thinking to the forefront.   Likewise, from a Biblical point of view, there are many books, websites, shows, etc. dedicated to End Time Prophecy.   Many of the books are concerned with preparing the Saints for the End Times while evangelizing the lost. There is a lot of focus on the Rapt...

" Husbands, love your wives like Christ loves the Church.." (Ephesian 5:22) There are some passages that I call the Pearls of the Gospel because their deep truths are often seen when you consider the Scripture from a different angle.  For example, husbands are commanded to love their wives like Christ loves the church.  When we consider the Scriptures from a law-based premise, we look at this as a command and do our best to fulfill it. Basically, the surface truth is men must die to themselves in order to truly love their wives.  We know that love is an action word here and not a feeling; however, I do not believe we are commanded to love our wives in a cold, distant, stoic manner which is the way many view God’s love for us.  Moreover, I do not believe God is telling us to love our wives based on their performance or their ability to meet our expectations.  We may say, “Of course not,” and yet, if we are not really convinced, aware and “tapped-in” to th...