Showing results by author "Thomas Lee" in All Categories

Are you a people pleaser? Do you feel guilty while saying no? Do you feel good when you say, "yes," to everyone for everything - even by sacrificing your priorities? If you somehow relate to the above, it means you are suffering from "being nice disease". If your life priorities have suffered badly, if you’ve taken a toll on your health by taking unnecessary stress due to every avoidable "yes", you need to be ready for becoming "not nice". You have to become more assertive in your life and work. Here is your practical blueprint.

What are positive affirmations? An affirmation is anything that you think or say. This means that even your negative thoughts and words are affirmations. People have become used to thinking negatively, thus resulting in negative experiences and situations. It is important to retrain the mind to think only of good and positive things, so that only positive would also come out of the mouth. This is how you will change your life.

The fourth edition of this book has been written to clean up some of the poorly worded text in the first three editions and to show important Bible verses rather than just refer to them. An effort has also been made to convert previously used first person speech with more formal third person speech. In looking at the first chapter of the epistle of James, this book considers authorship, the date that the epistle was written, and the basis for its acceptance into the biblical canon. With a strong focus on the Greek language, the goal has also been to perform good exegesis on the original ...

The five individual chapter commentaries on the Epistle of James that I have written have been incorporated into one text of the entire epistle. The first two chapter commentaries were written in 1998 and have been greatly modified for this text. An effort has also been made to convert previously used first person language with more formal third person language. That having been said and in looking at the first chapter of the Epistle of James, it considers authorship, the date that the epistle was written, and the basis for its acceptance into the biblical canon. With a strong focus on the ...

Exploring the initial stages of psychedelic study in Europe and America, Thomas Hatsis offers a full history of the psychedelic-fueled revolution in healing and consciousness expansion that blossomed in the 1950s - the first “golden age” of psychedelic research. Revealing LSD as a “wonder child” rather than Albert Hofmann’s infamous “problem child”, the author focuses on the extensive studies with LSD that took place in the ’50s.

What are positive affirmations? An affirmation is anything that you think or say. This means that even your negative thoughts and words are affirmations. People have become used to thinking negatively, thus resulting in negative experiences and situations. It is important to retrain the mind to think only of good and positive things, so that only positive would also come out of the mouth. This is how you will change your life.

Two of the books of the scriptures that should be studied daily are the book of Proverbs and the book of Psalms. The book of Proverbs will show one how to be biblically wise in the things of the Lord. That book is primarily for spiritual guidance in this existence. But even an ungodly person will prosper by studying and applying its principles. In the same sense, the book of Psalms will also benefit anyone who studies it on a regular basis. The reason that the psalms are so valuable is because they are experiential. One can read exactly how David had felt while he was running from a king ...

This text is a commentary on the gospel of John. Because John focused on showing the deity of Christ, one gets his unique slant on how the story of Jesus is told. He did not write about the birth of Jesus. He did not write about when Jesus, as a young boy, outwitted the religious leaders during one of His family's trips to Jerusalem. But with this text, one does get the eight "I am" statements made by Jesus. Jesus said that He is the bread of life. He said that He is the way, the truth, and the life. He said that He is the light of the world. He made those statements plus five more. John ...

For anyone who is currently going through some kind of difficulty, the chances are very high that at least one of Solomon's principles in the book of Proverbs has been violated. Solomon was the wisest person of his times. As will be seen in the first chapter of this text, he had asked the Lord for wisdom right after having become the king of Israel. Also as will be seen, the Lord answered his prayer. James 1:5 says, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him." The book of Proverbs is that answer. It is a ...

People sometimes have difficulty understanding the Trinity. But if that is the case with someone reading this Introduction, then he or she should not feel too bad. It took the scholars and theologians of the early Church about five hundred years after the Incarnation of Jesus to even begin to figure it out. The whole idea of one God is not too difficult to understand. But when the same scholars and theologians start talking about one God in three persons, then the whole matter becomes much more complicated. Is it biblically correct to say or think of three different persons of deity, daily ...

For anyone who is currently going through some kind of difficulty, the chances are very high that at least one of Solomon's principles in the book of Proverbs has been violated. Solomon was the wisest person of his times. As will be seen in the first chapter of this text, he had asked the Lord for wisdom right after having become the king of Israel. Also as will be seen, the Lord answered his prayer. James 1:5 says, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him." The book of Proverbs is that answer. It is a ...

In his gospel, the Apostle John had recorded eight occasions when Jesus had made metaphorical statements about Himself. In chapter one of this text however, the evidence to show that he had actually written the gospel by his name will first be presented. One should note from that discussion that this gospel has not always had his name associated with it. So there had initially been some room for doubt. One should also understand that not everyone agrees about when this gospel was written. So that will also be a matter for discussion. Finally, chapter one will also consider some of the very ...

The book of Revelation is a very interesting book. With its various symbols, characters, and colorful language, it is also a very complicated book. But it is well worth studying to try to understand the future events of this world. In the pages that follow, the four main approaches that scholars have used for understanding the book of Revelation will be identified. They are the Preterist view, the Historical view, the Allegorical view, and the Futurist view. This text uses the Futurist view, which attempts to apply a literal interpretation whenever possible. This text will also identify ...

In this second part of this study of the Minor Prophets, the writings of Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, and Habakkuk are examined. With Obadiah, one can see the land of Edom and why the Edomites had thought that they were safe from outside attackers. Their land was very mountainous and easy to defend. Nevertheless, in about 583 BC, they did fall to the Babylonians. With Jonah, one can see the viciousness of the Assyrians in the Eighth Century BC. Everyone was afraid of them because of their brutality against their enemies. Nevertheless, at the preaching of Jonah, they had repented, and the ...

For anyone who is currently going through some kind of difficulty, the chances are very high that at least one of Solomon's principles in the book of Proverbs has been violated. Solomon was the wisest person of his times. As will be seen in the first chapter of this text, he had asked the Lord for wisdom right after having become the king of Israel. Also as will be seen, the Lord answered his prayer. James 1:5 says, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him." The book of Proverbs is that answer. It is a ...

In this third and final part of the study of the Minor Prophets, the writings of the Prophets Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi are examined. With Zephaniah, one can examine the prophecies against and the warnings to Philistia, Moab, Ammon, Ethiopia, Assyria, and Judah. With Haggai, one can read about the people who had returned to Jerusalem from Babylon being caught up in their own interests and priorities rather than in the things of the Lord. For one thing, they had built themselves nice homes. But they had not rebuilt the temple that had been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 ...

This book discusses one of the most important set of verses in one of the most important chapters in one of the most important books of the Bible. The whole doctrine about being born again is based upon a conversation that Jesus had had with a Pharisee named Nicodemus. From that conversation, one can easily see the analogy between the brass serpent on a pole in the Old Testament and Jesus on the cross at Calvary. That analogy makes it clear that Jesus is the only way of salvation. People may try whatever they like. But John 14:6 says that no one comes to the Father except by the Son. All of...

This letter to the local churches in Galatia is probably Paul's second letter to some of the churches that he had established. His first letter was to the church at Thessalonica. To the Thessalonians, he was much more pleasant because he had just gotten a positive report from Timothy about their good spiritual progress. But in this letter to the Galatians, he was very much less positive because he had been told that they had returned to the Law of Moses and were telling the Gentile Christians that they had to be circumcised. So in dealing with the key issues of true biblical salvation, Paul...

Chapter one of this text provides a general introduction to the five points of Calvinism and for the acrostic, TULIP. The intent, whenever possible, has been to share direct quotes from Pastor John Calvin on each of the points as a way to let him speak for himself. When that was not possible, the intent was to find and present consensus on the given point by other professing Calvinists. Their comments were provided along with the Bible verses that they had used to defend their position. The main premise of Calvinism is that God chooses those who will be saved and those who will be lost. So ...

One cannot study the opening chapters of the book of Genesis without getting into some very weighty issues. There is, of course, the first chapter that talks about Creation. But there are also other issues as well. For example, who wrote the book of Genesis? Not everyone will agree that it was Moses. Plus, when, if he did write it, did he actually write it? As will be seen in that part of this text, the higher critics have argued against Moses for a reason that will be shared at that time. But other critics have also argued against Moses, as being the author of the first five books of the ...