Some Christians actually preach this idea, and many people become disillusioned when their experience turns painful. The only people who can claim to live trouble-free are those who redefine “trouble” into a word that describes absolutely nothing. Only with this kind of word play (theology run amok) can Christians claim that their life experience is trouble-free.
Continue reading WILL GOD ELIMINATE ALL TROUBLE FROM OUR LIVES?
26 Then Paul took the men, and the next day purifying himself with them entered into the temple, to signify the accomplishment of the days of purification, until that an offering should be offered for every one of them.
27 And when the seven days were almost ended, the Jews which were of Asia, when they saw him in the temple, stirred up all the people, and laid hands on him,
Continue reading SCRIPUTRES OF THE DAY (ACTS 21:26-36)
The Bible doesn’t reveal how Sarah (Sarai) reached when she learned that Abram wanted her to be his wife (see Gen 11:29). We’re also not told how she handled the fact that she was barren (see 11:30), though we could probably imagine how devastating this realization was.
Continue reading WOMEN OF THE BIBLE (SARAH)
The number four and groups of four connect with our sense of place in the horizontal world. Everything around us is in one of four directions: east, west, north, or south. In the worldview of the Old Testament, complete descriptions were often developed in sets of four. When the tax collector Zacchaeus expressed his practical faith in Jesus, he included a promise to “pay four times as much as I owe to those I have cheated in any way” (Luke 19:8). Jesus accepted that commitment as a sign of genuine repentance, symbolic of completeness. And there are four Gospels, a complete picture of the life of Christ.
Continue reading SIGNS AND SYMBOLS OF THE BIBLE (FOUR/4)
Some Christians actually preach this idea, and many people become disillusioned when their experience turns painful. The only people who can claim to live trouble-free are those who redefine “trouble” into a word that describes absolutely nothing.
Continue reading WILL GOD ELIMNATE ALL TROUBLE FROM OUR LIVES?
From a historical perspective, it seems that Daniel came of age at exactly the wrong time in Israel. He was born just in time to see his once-great nation fall to the Babylonians. As punishment for their centuries unfaithfulness and disobedience. God allowed his people to be defeated by their enemies. Daniel, along with other young, strong, and capable people in Israel, was carried away into captivity in Babylon.
Continue reading MAN OF THE BIBLE (DANIEL “UNSHAKABLE FAITH”)
Solomon’s list of times and “seasons” must be viewed within the larger context of life an history. He is not necessarily saying, “Hey, it’s twelve o’clock, time to kill-so go out and bump someone off.” Rather, Solomon insists that human life takes place within a larger framework of events that repeat down through history: laughter, tears, killing, healing, destruction, building, death, birth.
Continue reading AGAINST SO MANY BIBLICAL COMMANDS, HOW CAN SOLOMON ADVISE THAT THERE IS A TIME TO KILL, TO TEAR DOWN, AND TO HATE?
1. Unto thee will I cry, O Lord my rock; be not silent to me: least, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit.
2. Hear the voice of my supplications, when I cry unto thee, when I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle.
3. Draw me not away with the wicked, and with the workers of iniquity, which speak peace to their hearts.
Continue reading SCRIPTURE OF THE DAY (PSALM 28:1-6 “PRYAER IS POWERFUL”)
6 The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field:
7 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass.
Continue reading SCRIPTURE OF THE DAY (ISAIAH 40:6-11 “COMFORT FOR GOD’S PEOPLE”)
The books of Ezra and Nehemiah tell the story of how God’s people came home form Babylon. They had spent man years there because they had disobeyed God. Now that they were home, they wanted to let God know how bad they felt about making him unhappy.
Continue reading DID YOU KNOW THAT SOME PEOPLE TORE THIER CLOTHING TO SHOW THAT THEY WERE SORRY FOR SIN?