Archive for July, 2018
God in My Everything?
The more we begin to rely on our emotions and how we feel about something, the less likely we are going to look to God’s Word as the final and absolute authority for life and practice as Christians. This appears to be what Ken Shigematsu (and too many others to count), is doing. His books attempt to draw people away from the truth of the cross and Scripture into the arena of “feelz” using monastic rituals to get us there. He wants us to embrace the type of rituals that many ancient orders used for the express purpose of getting closer to God. Yet, these things are not in Scripture so we should be very concerned.
It’s Not Just Judah that Needs to Repent
Just because we are saved, this does not guarantee that we are committed to God’s will and ways, which is a daily decision we need to choose. Like the Israel of Isaiah’s day, we can be caught up in the idolatry of this world. Are we focused on the wrong thing – job opportunities, buying a larger home, getting a better car – or are we content to live within the means that God has provided for us and simply look and wait for Him to direct us into service opportunities for Him?
Reading Through the Bible
It is important to look at your Bible reading time each day as an opportunity to learn more about our God, Creator, and Savior. Don’t use this time to “study” the Bible. Use it to read it, to get the flow of how the Bible moves. If you come to a passage that confuses you, this is where good commentaries come in. You want to get either good, quality “devotional” commentaries or the more “academic” commentaries. The former will often apply passages to our lives for us, connecting them with the truth of the biblical text. The latter is written by scholars who delve often quite deeply into the original languages. This is good, but it might actually slow you down quite a bit. My suggestion for those starting out is to reach for the devotional commentaries written by people like Warren Wiersbe, J. Vernon McGee and even John MacArthur. I have a library full of academic commentaries as well as devotional ones. They both help when I’m actually involved in studying certain books of the Bible. Dr. Thomas Constable is another great author whose commentaries, while delving into the original languages, provides good insight and background on the Bible.
Trump Has Picked SCOTUS Kennedy Replacement
Evil people exist and always will. In fact, I also find it fascinating that the very last war this earth will experience occurs at the end of the Millennial Kingdom over which Jesus Himself will physically rule (Revelation 20-22). People will experience perfect peace and perfect just rule by Jesus for 1,000 years. During this time, Satan will be locked up in the bottomless pit and at the end of the 1,000 years, he will be released for a time. During this short time, he will capture the hearts of many people who will deliberately choose to follow him in his rebellion against Jesus. It won’t end well for Satan or those who follow him and they will all be dealt with very quickly and permanently.
A Crooked and Perverse Generation
But if we consider the tone and character of society today, it is easy to adopt a deep sense of helplessness over it. Lies from those who live to obfuscate everything President Trump attempts to accomplish is the norm. Hate, harassment, bullying of conservatives is also becoming the norm and the mainstream (or Mockingbird) media (MSM) support these things without question. Goodness, it’s almost as though they receive their talking points at 4:00am each morning.
The Miracle of Magnesium
I thought I knew enough about magnesium, but after reading this book, it’s clear I knew very little about it. In fact, I wasn’t really taking any of it. I was for a while though and then when I went to refill my pill cases where I store my supplements for daily ingestion, for some reason I neglected to add magnesium back into the mix.
Deception in the Church
Deception in the Church is a book that many will gain insight from reading. The warning against movements like NAR cannot be shouted loud enough. The dangers to the visible church are everywhere and NAR is simply one among many, though it has been gaining quite a bit of ground since the very early part of the 1900’s. This is testament to the fact of just how hard Satan works and how much leeway God gives Satan to pull the wool over people’s eyes.
Wisdom Calls in the Streets
Fear – understanding the awesome power that is God – creates a right frame of mind and allows us to gain knowledge. Knowledge is an understanding about the world in which we live. But wisdom is different from knowledge. Wisdom is the application of knowledge to many different situations and circumstances. A person can be very knowledgeable and still be an idiot in many things. Wisdom, on the other hand, takes actual knowledge and rightly applies it to any and all situations.
Study - Grow - Know 