Chronicles of a Watchman by Dr. James P. Norman Jr.

Hebrews 5:11-14 says, “Of Christ, we have many things to say and difficult to make clear to you, not because they are mysteries, but because you are slow to grasp the doctrines delivered you.   You are dull and slothful not willing to self-judge.   It is not true that it is so complicated.   The trouble is with men who take the wrong attitude due to their religious background.   One factor is that preachers and teachers today do not emphasize the gifts of the Spirit nor do they stir up the gifts.   People are not hungry for Holiness and Righteousness.   Many today are not keeping the principles and standards to continue to build on.   You have been professed Christians long enough to be examples, but because of your laziness and dullness in grasping truth, your desire to be liked has made it a must to be taught a second time the first simple doctrines of Christ.   You have not grown at all.   You have become of those who drawback, and have...

I have heard some believers say, “I am conscious of no fault,” but that does not in itself make certain, or sure that God's acquittal respects this particular charge.  This poses an interesting corollary relative to the positions of faith and justification.   The usage of the Epistle of James does not contradict this which states that we are justified only by such faith that makes us faithful and produces good works. 1 Corinthians 4:4 states "For I know of nothing against myself, yet I am not justified by this; but He who judges me is the Lord." James 2:21,23, and 24 asserts "was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness." And he was called the friend of God. You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only. Further and careful examination reveals that James is denouncing a dead faith,...

Acts 1:8 says “ But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” One of the most common excuses for not becoming a Christian is the fear of failure to live by faith in the Christian life.   Besides overlooking the fact that men cannot be saved on the basis of good works, this objection neglects the truth that God provides the power to live the faith life. Before Christ was crucified He promised the coming of the Holy Spirit to help believers.   The subsequent events of the Book of Acts supply ample evidence of the fulfillment of this prophecy. Let’s stop here for a moment. This is the exit point which every denomination grabs the power, makes it human, and not supernatural. They will use and rely on water baptism as the basis and not Holy Spirit power. It takes generations of developing and working with the power, and autho...

Faith in God makes you an asset not a liability.  You are not here to please the world or the flesh.  You are here to show the world an image of God.  You are showing God that his purpose for you and your faith in the Word is working for the benefit of all. His plan and purpose were ordained and established when he created Man.  Anything that has to do with God's creation, I repeat God's creation, the devil and his cohorts have tried to corrupt and alter God's plan for how it is to operate.  All alterations from God's plan for male, female functions, he (Satan) has altered.  At the fall of Adam, Satan went about attacking everything God created, and God's purpose for that creation.  Satan's big trick was to blame God for the evil creatures, sickness, famine, wars, climate change...etc. Years ago, I did a study  on Solomon and his writings on the Book of Proverbs. I found he could not keep the Proverbs, so he wrote them. The Book of Prover...

John 3:30 states "He must increase, but I must decrease." This means that inward Christian growth must increase while there is a lessening in terms of influence, popularity, and authority.  These seven words are so important for us in understanding our internal spiritual development and maturity. It is so sad that too many honest well meaning believers are directed to think that salvation and staying saved is our most important plan. These seven words relate to 2 Corinthians 3:18, which says, "But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord." This is metamorphoo which is Greek meaning change, transfiguration, or transformation. It is being changed from a sense or mental leadership, to a Word of God hunger for the mysteries hidden in the Spirit to spirit transformation.  The deeper the darkness the brighter we should w...

The source of all Christian opposition, demons, constantly wage war on saints to instill false concepts about God, to make them weak, nervous, discouraged, ruined spiritually, physically, and materially.  Demons do their utmost to keep men in poverty, and in failure to bring reproach upon God, and His Gospel. They must be restricted and rejected if complete victory is to be gained (James 4:7; Ephesians 4:10-18; 1 Peter 5:8-9, and 2 Corinthians 10:4-7).  To counter this opposition, you must constantly affirm your faith in God and vigorously deny all fallacies, and everything contrary to the plain written Word of God.  You play a great part in making yourself free. You are to know the truth and to cooperate with it in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit that lives and abides in you by faith.  You must give no place to the devil. If opposition comes, when you try to attain the blessings of the Word of God, do not be conf...

The words in Ephesians 5:18 are “Be filled with the Spirit.” There are four grammatical rules in the Greek language which lead us to four truths relative to this great subject.   First, the verb is the imperative mode.   That is, it is imperative that we be filled with the Spirit.   God commands it, and gives access both ways--By Him and by us.   The fullness is the divine enablement in the life of a Christian which results in a Christ-like life.   The fullness of the Spirit, if we are looking to please God in this life, can only happen in the beauty of holiness.   Failure to be filled with the Spirit is sin and results in failure to live a life honoring to God.   Access only makes everything you ask to do by Jesus who is head of the Church clearer.   Second, the tense of the verb is present, and this tense in the imperative mode always represents action going on.   We learn from this that the mechanics of a spirit-filled life does not pr...

Hebrews 11:1-6 states that, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 2  For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. 3  By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible. 4  By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks. 5  By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, “and was not found, because God had taken him”; for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God. 6  But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”   Terms used as coming to Christ, looking to Christ, and receiving Christ are all descriptions of faith, a...

In the Old Testament, every demand God makes on a man is from His point of view and is completely logical. What is the demand that God makes of man? God said be ye holy as I am holy. How holy then is the natural question?  Even as I am holy. Utterly holy, totally holy in the absoluteness of God's righteousness.   In the New Testament, what is the demand the Lord Jesus would impose of us?   Matthew 5:48 says we should be holy, and be perfect even as your Father in Heaven is perfect. These are demands on a man from God's point of view which is completely reasonable. Christ's logic is the goal not man's logic. Evasive is man shaming, ducking, dodging, that the Word of God, and stretching grace in a carnal direction that God never intended.   God made man to be in likeness and in His image -- not a carnal self-centered, ego driven Bible monster.   When God first made man, how holy do you think he was?   If, He made him in His ow...

God as Christ has become the origin of that image we are to display to the world, in His likeness, one in the same time, we can play the role of the mirror reflecting to others what we received from Him. To understand that, we need to understand the nature of man and the way He made us including how He intended us to function.  In 1 Thessalonians 5:23 man is spirit, soul, and body. The least important is the body; next the soul which is that behavior mechanism that man has in common with all forms of animal life; and then the human spirit, the most important part of man to God. This spirit allows His creator to occupy man that God might have access to him (man) and man might have access to Him as God. As we talk about access to God, many of us unfortunately operate backwards with God. We at times look for another approach or another way to access Him. This other way is a back door, which involve our carnal ideas about access to ...