For those of you who regularly read Directions, you know that at the beginning of 2019 I had a series of articles encouraging people to fast throughout the year. Some were fasts that came out of the Scripture that Jesus probably had participated in, and there were some fasts that maybe were updated to help [...]
Mark 4:35-5:43 To “restore” means to set in order, to re-establish, to cure, to return. In our study this week, Jesus displays His power over creation, demons, disease and death. His brand new disciples are getting the Gospel of Mark version of a crash course in what it means to follow Jesus, the One Who [...]
Ecclesiastes 2:18-23; 3:9-13 A key word in this week’s lesson is “work.” Is it a four-letter dirty word? The lesson title tries to identify “The Problem with Work.” What does “WORK” mean? Just to be totally honest with you, the reader, I don’t intend to define the word work. I do want, in various parts [...]
Each day it’s as though each of us is handed a pile of 86,400 seconds. You never see them, but if you live through the day, they’re a part of your life. Seconds, small little pieces of time, and they pass by so quickly. They pass with blazing speed never to be touched again. The [...]
Mark 3:23-35 When “immediately” is the favorite word, the author is excited, passionate about the message and ready to get the story told so that readers can be about the business of getting in line to live it out. Mark connects the Old Testament with the New Testament and then he is off and running. [...]
Ecclesiastes 2:12-17; 7:23-29 The point of this Bible Study lesson is “Wisdom is grounded in trust in God.” “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction,” Proverbs 1:7 (KJV). Solomon wrote, “I realized that there is an advantage to wisdom over folly, like the advantage of light [...]
1. DEVOTIONS At the conclusion of 2018 and leading into this new year, I presented to our readers opportunities to participate in fasting. I know biblical fasting is not something about which we think a lot and probably have sadly overlooked as a spiritual exercise in which Jesus Himself participated and presented to His followers. [...]
Mark 1:21-3:6 With His four newly-deployed, recommissioned fishermen in tow, Jesus enters the synagogue in Capernaum and begins to teach. In the next several verses, we will see three different Greek words that are translated “amazement.” Those who listen to Jesus teach are openly astonished at the obvious authority displayed by Him. His teaching made [...]
Ecclesiastes 2:1-11 The verses between last week’s text and this week’s focal passage include this passage where Solomon wrote: “I communed with mine heart, saying, Lo, I am come to great estate, and have gotten more wisdom than all they that have been before me in Jerusalem: yea my heart had great experience of wisdom [...]
It was early one morning before sunrise. I was on the way to a meeting over a hundred miles away. It was dark. It was raining. There was heavy fog and I was on one of Mississippi’s country roads when I saw something ahead. A second later that something went thump under my car and [...]
