By Mike Peek

My spirit is broken, my days are extinguished, The grave is ready for me. ~Job 17:1  Job was a man who was in total anguish and he longed for the grave because the grave might provide some relief from his anguish. Not only had he lost his children, his possessions, and his health but friends did not understand his anguish and mocked him as a sinner deserving the suffering that he was going through. These men did not know but assumed that God brought all of this calamity on Job because of some wickedness on the part of Job. They could not believe nor perceive that God would allow evil to overtake the righteous. However, God does allow evil to overtake the righteous. God allows evil to overtake the righteous for his glory and our good. The best man that ever lived was the Son of God whose name is Jesus. Jesus came from Nazareth, a city in Galilee, a northern region of Judea. It was an area that many Jews lived in, north of Jerusalem in the midst of gentiles. Gentiles were what the Je...

Psalms 25:10 All the paths of the LORD are lovingkindness and truth To those who keep His covenant and His testimonies. Is it true? Can it possibly be so simple, that the paths of the Lord are lovingkindness and truth to those who keep His covenant and His testimonies? But what covenant? The Lord did not make a covenant with my fathers, for I am not of the blood line of Abraham, Isaac or Jacob. However, there was a promise that through Abraham the Lord would bless all the families of the earth. This promise has been fulfilled in the person of Jesus the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus said in Matthew 5:17, “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.” Jesus is the fulfillment of the covenant the Lord made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Jesus is the fulfillment of the covenant that the Lord made with the sons of Israel in the desert. Jesus is the fulfillment of the covenant that the Lord made with David, that one of his descendants...

Judges 21:25 In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes. This phrase is stated four times in the last five chapters of Judges. Moses commanded the sons of Israel to not do what is right in their own eyes when they cross the Jordan to possess the land of Canaan (Dt. 12:8) but to do observe all that the Lord God commands. Jesus summarized the Law in  Matthew 5:48: “ Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Moral perfection in thought, word and deed is what God expects from his sons. Throughout the history of Israel, the sons of Israel proved themselves to not be sons of God but sons of Adam. The history of Israel can be summed up in this saying: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Rom. 3:23) However, God is compassionate and gracious; therefore, He did not leave all to die in their sin but provided a way for all to be justified; the way is the redemption which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. ...

Dear Neighbor, Is the God of Israel your God and is the Son of God your Lord? God created all things, He is Almighty and there is no other besides Him. Jesus Christ is his only begotten Son our Lord. Jesus lived a righteous life pleasing to God. God said of him, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.” There is no other man who has ever walked on the earth in whom God was well pleased. Jacob referred to God Almighty, the creator of heaven and earth as the God of Abraham and Isaac. God appeared to Jacob when he fled from his brother Esau and God prospered him during his sojourning, but it was not until he returned that Jacob called God Almighty my God. When Jacob was converted to God, God renamed him Israel, for he had striven with men and with God and had prevailed. Jesus referred to God Almighty as My Father and God referred to Jesus as My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased. All authority has been given to Jesus Christ, in heaven and on earth. Is the Father of Jesus Ch...

Dear Neighbor, Do you have the mind of Christ? The mind of Christ is the Spirit of God. All the things of God are revealed to us through the Spirit. Jesus said that after his departure, the Father will send the Holy Spirit in his name. The disciples knew Jesus as teacher and Lord but he told them that the Holy Spirit would now be their teacher. “He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.” (Jn. 14:26) The human mind is forgetful but the mind of God (the Holy Spirit) is not forgetful. Who can instruct God? (2 Cor 2:16) Men teach things kind of strange. One thing that men teach is something called the Ordo Salutis. It is a latin term that means “Order of salvation.” The Ordo Salutis is a technical term intended to designate the consecutive steps in the work of the Holy Spirit in the salvation of a human being. The way that our minds work, we think in time; therefore our thought pattern is linear. When we study something like the salvation of a huma...

Dear Neighbor, I created and printed a gospel tract. I say created in the since that I took the things that God created and formed them into a message. The truth is that I cannot create anything, only God can create from nothing; we however, can take the things that God has made and form them. The tract that I formed is from God’s material and it is two sided just like the revelation of God. On one side is a picture and on the other side are words. Each side is a representation of God’s revelation. The picture represents the natural revelation, the created world that we live in and walk on. The words represent the special revelation, that is the Word of God.  The picture was taken by my wife when we were visiting Hawaii. It depicts earth, vegetation, mountains, light, sky, water and a rainbow. I chose this picture because it so vividly depicts natural revelation.  When I look at this picture, much less the actual scene, I know that there is a powerful creator who made these th...

Dear Neighbor, In the beginning, God created all things. I was created in the image of God; therefore, I ought to be perfect as my heavenly Father is perfect. But I am not perfect, I have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God. I know that the wages of sin is death, but I trust that the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.  I believe that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. God said of him, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.” (Mt. 3:17) Jesus came preaching the gospel of God and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel.” (Mk. 1:15) Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and he was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day according to the Scriptures. I know that salvation from sin and death is already not yet. I trust that I will be saved from sin and death but this has not yet occurred. The apostle Paul Wrote in Ephesi...

Dear Neighbor, What were you doing 20 years ago today when two aircraft hit the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City? I remember the day very well. I was working in the Cardiovascular ICU at Mother Frances Hospital in Tyler, Texas. I had driven to work on gas fumes. The gas take of my car was nearly empty but I did not stop because I would be late to work if I did. As things began to unfold on the T.V. screen, there were news reports of long lines at the gas stations, as people bought up all of the gas. Many people were in a panic, afraid that the country was at war. I became afraid that I might not make it home that evening because I knew that I needed to get gasoline to make it home. When I left the hospital that evening, I had to go to several gas stations before I found one with fuel. It was not the Lord’s will that I should be stranded but made it home to my wife and children safe and sound.  My wife and I had just moved to the Tyler, Texas area in July of th...

Dear Neighbor, Yesterday I stood among a group of ICU nurses feeling the burden of the present situation within our hospital. About two weeks ago I wrote a letter to the elders of my congregation about the situation within our hospital, my concerns for the congregation and my concerns for our community. The nurses feel as though we are living in an episode of the Twilight Zone. A tragedy is occurring in our community but the community is living as if nothing is wrong. People are disappearing but no one notices. Within the hospital that I work for there are 200 persons admitted with Covid-Pnuemonia; this is 200 persons above the normal admissions in the hospital.  A person is not admitted to the hospital because they have Covid but when they are not able to oxygenate there bodies by normal means. Of the 200 persons admitted into the hospital with Covid-Pneumonia, about 100 persons are on a ventilator. It seems that when a person is placed on a ventilator with Covid-Pneumonia they do...

Dear Neighbor, Do you believe that the Lord your God is sovereign overall? Job’s friends believed that God gives good things to good people and bad things to wicked people, but Job understood that this is not the way of the Lord. God tears down, and what God tears down cannot be rebuilt. When God imprisons a man, he cannot be released by anyone but the Lord. When God decides that it will not rain everything drys up but when God decides that it will rain no man can stop it. God created both the misled and the one who does the misleading; they are both in the hands of the Lord. God makes the rich poor and make fools out of councilors. God allows one man to rule and takes away the rule of another. God causes men to walk barefoot and overthrows those who thought that they had security. God takes away the discernment of the elders and keeps the mouth of trusted ones closed. God can pour contempt on the noble man and bind up the strong. Whatever a man hides the Lord can bring to light. Throu...

Dear Neighbor, I truly love mornings and my favorite of the week is Sunday morning. Daily I send time in prayer, I read the word, and I write a letter to you my neighbor, but on Sunday morning I send time in fellowship of the word with others. First, we enjoy a time of Bible study and then a time of corporate worship. Call to worship at Sylvania Church usually begins with a reading of one of the Psalms, followed by a set of worship songs. There is an interlude and prayer. During prayer, the pastor will either adapt one of the Psalms as a prayer or he will read a historical prayer from the Valley of Vision. After the interlude more worship songs are song by the congregation, then the pastor preaches expositorily from a text of Scripture, picking up where he left off the week before.  When I say that I enjoy Sunday morning, I must confess that I really enjoy everything that I have mentioned except for the singing of worship songs. Sunday morning Bible study, the call to worship, publ...

Dear neighbor, It is my daily plan and habit to write a letter to God. It is the way the I pray to my heavenly Father first thing each morning. After which I read the letter that he wrote to us in the Scriptures. I try to take what he has spoken to me and write a letter to you my neighbor. However, this morning I ran out of time I was not able to write to you my neighbor from the text of scripture that I read this morning. Now I am at work taking care two of my neighbors very ill in the intensive care unit. Therefore, I want to write to you at this time tell you I love you. I may have never met you but I do have love for you because you were created in the image of God. Michael Peek The Nurse Theologian Your Servant for Jesus’ Sake

It is recorded in Genesis 22 that God tested the faith of Abraham. God said to him, “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.” (Gen. 22:2) I find this of great interest because God through Moses said that he considers it an abdominal act which he hates; to burn ones sons and daughters in the fire as an offering to the gods of the land. This was one of the primary reasons that the Lord used Israel to dispossess the nations from the land of Canaan. (Deut. 12:29-31) However, the Lord had no intention of Abraham actually burning Isaac as an offering but it was a test. Did Abraham so fear the Lord that he would obey the Lord’s commandment and offer up his son as a burnt offering to the Lord, his only son born of his wife Sarah, the son whom he loved? The answer is yes, Abraham was on the cusp of completing the Lord’s commandment when the Angel of the Lord st...

I would like to say something about dedicated service. The apostle Paul wrote in Romans 12:1 (NASB): “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.” Paul spent eleven chapters explaining that justification is not by works, but by faith; faith is given by the grace of God. No man chooses God, it is God who choses to be gracious. Romans 9:15-16 (NASB): “For He says to Moses, “I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION.” (Ex. 33:19) So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.” In chapter 12 there is a transition. Paul begins to exhort the believer to work. I think that pastors have a very skewed view of what this work ought to look like. Their work is confined to the church building and to the members of the local church that they are pastoring, so many pastors think ...

Jesus said to his disciples, Matthew 13:16-17 (NASB): “But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. For truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.” What is your greatest desire? My greatest desire is to see the blessed Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ and hear his his voice when he speaks. I do see him and I do hear him. Not with my eyes or with my ears made of flesh but with my heart I hear him and in my mind I see him. The best part of everyday is beginning the day reading the Scriptures. During the week days I read the Old Testament: Law, history, psalms, poetry, and prophets, but on the weekend I read the New Testament. On Sunday I read the New Testament letters written by the apostles to the churches and on Saturday I read the gospels. It is through the testimony of the Holy Spirit and the apostles that I see and hear Jesus Christ. Readin...

I was reading in Isaiah 24 about God’s judgment on the earth. That a curse devours the earth, and those who live in it are held guilty. (Isa. 24:6)  Isaiah 24:5 says that the the inhabitants of the earth broke the everlasting covenant. What is the everlasting covenant? It seems based on this passage that it is a covenant that God has made with all the people on the earth, so where and when was this covenant made?  It was not made in the garden of eden but was made after the flood. The first mention of the everlasting covenant is in Genesis 9:16, “When the bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it, to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” God destroyed every living creature on the earth with a flood but he saved Noah’s family, his three sons, and two of every kind of creature on the earth. God promised to never destroy the earth again with a flood of water and gave the rainbow as a sign for the everlastin...

The hospital that I work for is offering a small incentive to employees that receive the covid-19 vaccine. I received the vaccine in January of this year, so I was asking one of the other nurses on the unit if I needed to do anything at all to receive the incentive. She informed me that I did not because I received the vaccine at the hospital, it is the nurses who received the vaccine somewhere else who need to upload there vaccine record into the hospitals health at work system. By my asking this question she must have felt that she had reason to express her anger regarding persons in our community that refuse to take the vaccine. Before I tell you what she said, I should tell you that what she said comes from a person who feels overwhelmed. In our facility there are over 200 hundred patients with covid pneumonia, with about 50% of those persons on ventilators. It is a horrible horrible situation to say the least.  She said two things expressed in anger: 1) If you refuse the vacci...

Sometimes I wonder if the Lord has forgotten me. Is he hiding his face from me, and if so, how long will he hide his face? What is the Lord doing? What is the Lord waiting for? I have sorrow in my heart all the day. Sorrow over my own sin past and present. Sorrow over the state of the world around me. Sorrow over the patients that are put in my care. Sorrow over my children and their way of life. I feel like David when he was surround by his enemies on every side. My enemies are within and without. My enemies are the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life. My enemies are the dark forces of this world. My enemies are sickness and death. I cannot take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart forever.  All the day long I call to God in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to enlighten my eyes and show me the way that I should go. I pray for the return of the Lord Jesus Christ to make all things new. Did he not promise to return and sit down on his gl...