Daily Devotional

   Sermon from July 27 Morning Worship service "The Urgency of Mercy" - Daniel 2:17-30 First Baptist Church, Carney, OK Pastor Dan Calkins Here's the link:  July 27, 2025 Sermon Link  

  Adriaen de Vries (1550/60-1626):  Cain killing Abel, 1622, KMS5492 In the Beginning…Let There Be Inbreeding? – Part 2 Post #5 of the “Eleven Toes” Series     This article isa continuation of Post #4 , giving presuppositions for the purpose of these posts, as well as the beginning. Big presupposition: The Bible is true and Genesis is a literal historical narrative. If you don’t believe that, I’m probably going to lose you.   Genesis 4 – The first and second male children of Adam and Eve were Cain and Abel. Of course, Abel did not have any children, since Cain murdered him. This brought Cain into a precarious position with God and his family, becoming “a fugitive and a vagabond…in the earth” and going “out from the presence of the Lord” (verses 14 & 16). However, he still got married and began a family line that continued up to the Deluge.   Now the questions begin: Who did Cain marry? Countless armchair theologians have insisted that Ca...

   Sermon from July 20 Morning Worship service "Saving Their Bacon" - Daniel 2:1-16 First Baptist Church, Carney, OK Pastor Dan Calkins Here's the link:  July 20, 2025 Sermon Link  

  "Master of the Hours" by Jean de Montauban - 15th century In the Beginning…Let There Be Inbreeding? – Part 1 Post #4 of the “Eleven Toes” Series   Presuppositions for this Post and subsequent posts (not being dogmatic in #1-6, just simply for the purposes of this series): 1.      Every child of Adam and Eve who married and had children married other sons or daughters of Adam and Eve (therefore, full siblings). 2.      Every grandchild of Adam and Eve married another grandchild of Adam and Eve, but not children of one or both parents (therefore, first cousins and not full or half siblings). 3.      Great-grandchildren of Adam and Eve may have married other great-grandchildren, or 2 nd -great-grandchildren, etc. 4.      Multiple marriages were permissible in this time, such as marrying after widowhood or perhaps polygamy. 5.      Adam and Eve had a boatload of ch...

  Sermon from July 13 Morning Worship service "Dogged Determination" - Daniel 1:8-21 First Baptist Church, Carney, OK Pastor Dan Calkins Here's the link:  July 13, 2025 Sermon Link  

  (apologies to Jack Webb, RIP) “Just the Facts, Ma’am.” – Forbidden Marriages and the Mosaic Law  Post #3 of the “Eleven Toes” Series This post covers the Mosaic Law commands contained in Leviticus 18:1-30 & 20:10-21. Some of the command violations in chapter 20 require execution, with one specifying “ they shall be burned to death (v. 14).” In other law violations, beginning in 20:17 (and the generally-stated punishment of ch. 18), God promises that violators “ shall be cut off in the sight of the children of their people (20:17),” and other violators will die childless (v. 20-21). Here’s a summary of the passages in chart form! Now, ignoring the homosexuality, bestiality, and other unions irrelevant to this study (probably each in need of its own post), how many of the other forbidden unions are only blood related? (Answer: A minority are only by blood, some can be by blood but not necessarily, while others are certainly not blood related)   Here’s m...

  Sermon from July 6 Morning Worship service "You Will Be Assimilated" - Daniel 1:1-7 First Baptist Church, Carney, OK Pastor Dan Calkins Here's the link:  July 6, 2025 Sermon Link  

                                                  Why Do I Care about Inbreeding? Post #2 of the “Eleven Toes” Series Why do I care about this subject? Short answer: Nothing personal, but it’s been a grossly intriguing subject for me since high school (mainly dealing with the Blue family of Kentucky and speculating similar situations among various communities in southern Missouri [unproven, BTW]). The recent intrigues have come mainly from Bible study and sermon preparation, particularly working through the First Epistle to the Corinthians for about a year, as well as the book of Ruth for several weeks thereafter (Levirate marriage is a “related” topic, pun shamelessly intended).   The passage from 1 Corinthians I’m referring to comes from chapter 5, about a particular sin (sexual immorality) defiling a particular church (the ...