Chris R. Quinlan

Our culture’s view of cussing is obvious from observing TV and movies. Everyone cusses, even children and religious people. It’s the “grown-up” and “cool” thing to do. It’s fun, it makes people laugh, and makes you feel more powerful and popular. The clear message that is caught is: cussing is normal and expected, therefore there’s nothing wrong with it. It’s just words. As vulgarity becomes more and more accepted in our culture, the media that most people consume becomes more and more filled with it. The question to be asked by the Christian should be: What does the bible say about this subject?   The bible does not give a list of cuss words to abstain from using. The bible wasn’t written in English, and we’re not interested in legalism anyway. In the bible we find several passages that give us principles to apply to this matter. It is my belief that anyone who calls him or herself a Christian should completely abstain from using any word that is, or even sounds like a c...

  2 Peter 1:16-18 16 For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. 17 For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory, "This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased"-- 18 and we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain. Peter has just been saying that his martyrdom was imminent and that his goal was to remind Christians of the things he thought were important. From what I can tell, Peter thought that it was important to live in a manner worthy of Christ. The other item, that was very important to all the original apostles, was the preservation of the true gospel message as given by Jesus. The passage today begins the emphasis on this subject that carries through as the main theme of this entire book. In today's passage Pet...

2 Peter 1:10b-15 "For if you do these things, you will never fall, 11 and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 12 So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have. 13 I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, 14 because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. 15 And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these thing s This verse needs to be understood with care. If one isn't careful, a conclusion could be drawn that would be in opposition to the truth that the verse is proclaiming. Verse 11 is key, but I included the end of verse 10 so that the entire thought could be seen. The reason this is so critical to understand is because what we see here in verse 10-11 is what, at first glance, looks like ...

2 Peter 1:9-10 9For he who lacks these qualities ( moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love) is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins. 10Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble; I included the qualities from verses 5-7 to remind you of the most important qualities that a Christian can strive to make a part of their lives. Moral excellence - Striving to live a life free from sin. Knowledge - Placing a priority on reading and studying the Scriptures. Self-control - Disciplining yourself to say "No" to temping desires, even when no one is looking. Perseverance - A determination to stay true to your faith, no matter what the circumstances. Godliness -  A desire to learn what God is like and adopt those characteristics into your own...

2 Peter 1:5-8 5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. If I've learned one thing about what it means to be a follower of Christ, it's that there is a reason that I am still here and not in heaven right now. One thing is very clear to me, and that is it would be cruel of God to "save" me from my sins and then leave me in a fallen world, full of suffering and evil, for no reason except to wait for a natural death. What is that reason? The bible is clear that Christians have a mission. Let me describe what that mission is NOT . It is not to accept as true, that ...

I'm posting the missing parts of my series on 2 Peter in four parts. So if you enjoy these you can go back and finish the rest . It is my hope that you will benefit from this study I wrote years ago. Enjoy!  2 Peter, Verses 1-4 1 Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ:   Welcome to my devotional study of 2 Peter. Hopefully those that read this devotional will be blessed as we open up God's word. I will attempt to explain the text when I feel like that is required, but I will also make comments, offer commentary, and give insight as I do my own personal study on this book. I fully understand that I may make errors as I go through, and I welcome discussions and correction if needed. Here we go. As we read this letter, we should be aware of the context. Peter is most likely writing this from a Roma...

‎"True Christians delight to read the Scriptures, because they tell them about their beloved Savior." ~ J.C. Ryle

Proverbs 3:1 "My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments," In this verse we find two very simple appeals from a Father to his son that at first read seem quite straight forward, and they are, but there are three words that I believe, give this verse special meaning. Those words are "let your heart."  The psalmist could have simply wrote, "keep my commandments," but we see the wisdom of God as he instructs us to not simply obey commands for the sake of blind obedience, but to "let our hearts" be at the center of the action. Our "heart" is simply the true us. The us that other people may not be able to see, but God surely does. Out heart is not an outward emotional display, but reflects the sum-total of our true inner physical and spiritual desires. If we're honest, most of us, including me, have a divided "heart" to some degree or another. We find ourself with conflicting desires. Thi...

I have learned as an adult, that very few of the warnings we give to children are simply embraced as truth. Children always want to find out for themselves. You tell a child, “That’s hot…don’t touch it or you’ll get burned.” What’s the first thing they want to do? Reach out and touch that thing to see for themselves. We are all very stubborn when it comes to listening to the wisdom of others. As we grow into adulthood, we can’t understand why young people won’t listen to us and heed the warnings we give. As adults, we forget that when we are young, we have very little appreciation for the wisdom that comes from age and experience. Once we get to the age of about 13, we think we must be as smart as any other human being on the planet, and at least in my case, thought I could handle just about any situation that came my way without any help. Of course, in my own life this describes my 6 year old perfectly. So, is it worth pouring wisdom into the life of a young person, knowing ...

As I observe humanity, I see that most people by their mid 20's have made up their mind about certain spiritual things and political things. So, my point in this short blog post is not to try and change your mind about anything, but just to mention some things I've observed and hopefully spark some thought. I've been thinking a lot lately about what makes people believe what they believe. I know that much of what we believe (our worldview) comes from our experiences in life. Specifically, the people that we've grown to trust. Our parents, our church, and our friends. So, the question... what causes perfectly reasonable and rational people to believe so differently about things? I've been thinking about politics and how divided our country seems to be.  I've been trying to figure out the core differences between the various political parties. I'm not talking about the current issues, so much as I mean the deeper differences. The issue that has me most...

The Devil is Alive and Raising Hell by J.C. Ryle   The Devil is Alive and Raising Hell Posted: 04 Apr 2011 12:00 AM PDT Does anyone foolishly suppose that the devil is asleep, or dead, or less mischievous now than in the past? Nothing of the kind! He is still "walking about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour." He is still "going to and fro in the earth, and walking up and down in it" (1 Peter 5:8; Job 1:7). It is he who goes among heathen nations and persuades them to shed oceans of blood in the worship of idols or murderous wars. It is he who goes to and fro among fallen Churches, persuading them to throw aside­ the Bible, and satisfy people with 'formal worship' or groveling superstitions. It is he who walks up and down in Protestant countries, and stirs up party spirit and bitter political strife, setting class against class, and subjects against rulers, in order to distract people's minds from better ...

Let us learn the high authority of the Bible, and the immense value of a knowledge of its contents. Let us read it, search into it, pray over it, diligently, perseveringly, unweariedly. Let us strive to be so thoroughly acquainted with its pages, that its text may abide in our memories, and stand ready at our right hand in the day of need. Let us be able to appeal from every perversion and false interpretation of its meaning, to those thousand plain passages, which are written as it were with a sunbeam. The Bible is indeed a sword, but we must take heed that we know it well, if we would use it with effect. ~ J.C. Ryle

Proverbs 2:12-15 ESV Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, from men whose words are perverse, who leave the straight paths to walk in dark ways, who delight in doing wrong and rejoice in the perverseness of evil, whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways. There are two main ideas presented here. One is that there are wicked men . The other is that they have bad ways that we need to be saved from. Wisdom , in these proverbs, is the personification of God. But more specifically, I would say that wisdom is a person's conscience that has been filled up with the truth of God, so that when temptations come along, decisions can be made that will keep us from falling into the traps of Satan. Since wicked men are often the tools Satan uses to try to tempt us, these verses tell us how to identify these men. Of course, this doesn't exclude women. In this post, I'm just going to take a close look at the first bit of advice we ...

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Let the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible, be the rule of our faith and practice. Holding this principle we travel upon the king’s highway. The road may sometimes seem narrow, and our faith may be severely tried, but we shall not be allowed greatly to err. Departing from this principle we enter on a pathless wilderness. There is no telling what we may be led to believe or do. Forever let us bear this in mind. Here let us cast anchor. Here let us abide. ~ J.C. Ryle

It has been somewhat challenging for me to decide how divide up the proverbs into short passages for study. The other challenge is working through the context of wisdom styled literature. My interpretive tendencies push me to accept the words of scripture as literal. However, I know that the proverbs are written in a style that should not always be interpreted in a literal fashion. This may trouble some readers, but the nature of wisdom literature requires the reader to accept that the truths in the proverbs are not necessarily literal promises, but truisms or generalized truth statements. Understanding this can greatly help the reader understand the wisdom of the proverbs and keep them from becoming unnecessarily frustrated. This is especially when we look around at our circumstances and wonder why a certain proverb doesn't seem to be accurate or truthful. For example, the proverb that immediately comes to mind is Prov. 22:6, which states, "Train up a child in the way he ...

PROVERBS 2: 1-5 (NIV) 1 My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, 2 turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, 3 and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, 4 and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, 5 then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. Lets examine the elements of this proverbial equation: Personally choose to embrace and internalize the commands of the proverbs (v.1) + Exhibit behavior and make choices that reflect an embrace of Godly wisdom (v.2) + Plead with God and actively seek out His wisdom (v.3) + Understand the value of wisdom and seek it out as if it's the most precious thing there is (v.4) = You will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. It occurred to me as I was thinking about what it means to "understand the fear of the LORD", that this might be talking about how we ...

...that the sum of all of God’s wisdom were personified as a human. She would most likely be standing out in a public place, pleading with people as they passed by… shouting at them, begging them to listen to her. She’d be saying… “You foolish people! How long are you going stay shallow minded? You just love to laugh and mock at everything. You can’t stand to learn about what is true. Please, please, you need to listen to what I have to say. I so desire to impart to you all that I know. I have called out to you so many times and you just won’t stop and listen. You just continually reject any and all correction.” She would continue… “You know what? If your life comes crashing down around you, I’m just going to shrug my shoulders and chuckle. I might even throw in a sarcastic joke to rub it in.” And when you start crying out for help, you won’t be able to get my attention. For why should I help now when you rejected my advice all this time?” She’d say, “So, now that you’re in tro...

My child, if sinners entice you,
turn your back on them! 
They may say, “Come and join us.
 … Think of the great things we’ll get!
… Come, throw in your lot with us”;
… My child, don’t go along with them!
Stay far away from their paths. 
They rush to commit evil deeds. 
They hurry to commit murder. 
If a bird sees a trap being set, 
it knows to stay away. 
But these people set an ambush for themselves; 
they are trying to get themselves killed. 
Such is the fate of all who are greedy for money; 
it robs them of life. So, to summarize: Stay away from people who entice you into sin; stay away from places they go, and specifically, if someone asks you to join him or her in sin, reject their offer and walk away. I think the most important line in the section is,  “Stay far from their paths.”  In other words, “don’t even get close to the places where these types of people hang around!” The wisdom here is that if you stay away from the places that sinful people go, you wo...

I haven't written in a while even though I certainly enjoy it. In some part, I've been waiting until I've felt like I had a subject that I could enjoy and something that would be interesting and beneficial for anyone who might find this and read it.  My intention is to go through selected proverbs, explore their meaning, and simply pass along my own personal study, while trying not to sound "teachy" or condescending. My hope is that this journey through proverbs, will help me live a life pleasing to God, and remind me of the things that God would want me to teach my children. Here we go. Chapter 1:1-7   ( NLT) These are the proverbs of Solomon, David’s son, king of Israel. Their purpose is to teach people wisdom and discipline,
to help them understand the insights of the wise.
 Their purpose is to teach people to live disciplined and successful lives, to help them do what is  right, just, and fair. These proverbs will give insight to the simple...