This article discusses our emotions — how they are neither good nor bad in themselves, but rather in how we handle them. Thus, our emotions must be filtered through God’s Word at all times. From Randy Alcorn and Eternal Perspectives Ministries………………..
Truth is a gift God instilled into creation so that we can properly engage reality. In this way, truth is like aiming a rifle. If our aim is right, or true, then we are able to hit the target. Likewise, if our ideas and beliefs are true, we are empowered to engage with the reality of our lives. This is a very simple concept that only very bright people can confuse for us. It is a tragedy that truth, as it has come to be known today, is often considered enigmatic, unrecognizable, or even relative. Unbelief in truth encourages both hopelessness and arrogance. Neither can be endured for long when engaging the most important things in our lives.
From The Divine Conspiracy Continued: Fulfilling God’s Kingdom on Earth. Copyright © 2014 by Dallas Willard amd Gary Black Jr. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers.
Wow. This is just an excellent and most helpful article on a topic that probably about 95% of us can use some help with — thinking about our past in godly and constructive ways. From biblical counselor Rick Thomas at RickThomas.net…………………..
This article talks about one of the greatest statements of faith in all of Scripture. This is worth a read! From Crosswalk.com…………..
https://www.crosswalk.com/faith/bible-study/what-job-mean-my-redeemer-lives.html
This article is encouraging all believers to really be open to God and all that He is saying to them in and through His Word when they are reading and studying the Bible. A very helpful and practical read! From the LOGOS Blog………………….
This article provides a fairly in-depth look at five reasons why Jesus chose to get baptized by John in the River Jordan. “The echoes of Jesus’s baptism reverberated through his life, and still resound through the world to this day. For his baptism is an emblem of his entire incarnate work of offering himself perfectly to his Father and gathering us into his own consecration and obedience.” From Desiring God………………………..
This article from Knowable Word serves as a reminder to take promises in the Bible within their proper context. For example, “God will give you the desires of your heart.” But that is only part of the verse (Psalm 37:4). From Knowable Word……………..
In this beautiful article from Randy Alcorn, he talks about what an everyday believer would look like if he or she was to be considered a “cross-bearer” or “cross-carrier.” And the answer turns out to be more about little everyday sacrifices made willingly and gladly. From Eternal Perspectives Ministries…………….
At this point, the series begins to look at how individual theologians and church leaders viewed spiritual adoption. First up is John Calvin. From Things Above Us……………
This is a continuation of a series of articles on our adoption into God’s family that we started last month, and now we pick back up. In this article, we see how systematic theology handles the topic of spiritual adoption From Things Above Us………….
“But if I am to be someone’s apprentice, there is one absolutely essential condition. I must be with that person. This is true of the student-teacher relationship in all generality. And it is precisely what it meant to follow Jesus when he was here in human form. To follow him meant, in the first place, to be with him.”
“If I am Jesus’ disciple that means I am with him to learn from him how to be like him. To take cases from ordinary life, a child learning to multiply and divide numbers is an apprentice to its teacher. Children are with their teachers, learning from them how to be like them in a certain respect—similarly for a student of the piano or voice, of the Spanish language, of tennis, and so forth. The “being-with,” by watching and by hearing, is an absolute necessity. . . .”
“God can, of course, make himself present to the human mind in any way he chooses. But—for good reasons rooted deeply in the nature of the person and of personal relationships—his preferred way is to speak, to communicate: thus the absolute centrality of scripture to our discipleship. And this, among other things, is the reason why an extensive use of solitude and silence is so basic for growth of the human spirit, for they form an appropriate context for listening and speaking to God.”
From The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God. Copyright © 1997 by Dallas Willard. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers.
Bible teacher and author Ann Spangler focuses in her writings on the various scriptural names for God. This time, one of the holiest and most majestic of the names of God — El Elyon, which means “God Most High.” From AnnSpangler.com………………….
El Elyon — God Most High
This article suggests making the effort to do a word study on the word “Remember” and draw out all the lessons from the Bible to be derived from that exercise. And she offers some of her own findings. From BarbaraLeeHarper.com……………….
This is a thorough and very informative article on a most critical topic: Abiding in Christ. In fact, Jesus said the only way we could grow and bear fruit was to abide in Him. But what does this mean? Here are some answers. From Anchored in Christ……………….
Pastor Rick Renner provides insight from the original Greek for James 4:7 — “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” Some good wisdom and encouragement here! From Crosswalk.com………………..
In this next article on the theology of spiritual adoption, the author talks about how this doctrine of adoption is developed in the Bible. From Things Above Us………………
In this ongoing series on the theology of adoption, the writer touches briefly on what the church has taught in the past on this topic. From Things Above Us…………………
Another in a series of articles examining how our salvation is tied to our adoption into God’s eternal family. From Things Above Us…………..
Perhaps it is because I am an adoptive father, but I believe the subject of our adoption into the family of God is one of the most overlooked and one of the most beautiful aspects of our relationship with God. This article is the first in a series that looks at this topic. From Things Above Us………………..
Do you know who I most want to meet in Heaven after Jesus? Joseph, the adopted father of Jesus. What a special man he must have been! This article talks a little about him. From Place for Truth…………………….
This article has some interesting historical and theological insights to offer into these interesting characters. From Christian Crier…………
“In God’s infinite wisdom, he seems to have chosen to make extensive use of waiting in his sovereign purposes. Indeed, the common experience for the people of God in every generation has been characterized by waiting. Indeed, we are reminded of this reality every time we sing some of our most beloved Christmas hymns and carols.” From MatthewJHall.net…………………
https://www.matthewjhall.net/articles/the-waiting-is-the-hardest-part-advent-and-waiting-on-the-lord
This is a rather lengthy article, but it is very much worth your time to read! It contains a wealth of information to incorporate God’s Word within you for life transformation. From pastor and author Rick Renner at harrisonhouseblog.com…………………
John tells us in his gospel that Jesus came to earth as the Light of the World. Here are some wonderful insights on this lovely Name for God from author Ann Spangler……………….
Ohr — Light, Light of the World
Contentment CANNOT be tied to our temporal circumstances; only to the fact that we belong to Christ! From BibleStudyTools.com……………….
This article gets into the important theological term “imputation.” It’s a fancy word for Christ’s righteousness being credited to us by God, and so it is not dependent on our actions, but only on God’s grace. From Beautiful Christian Life………………..
Solitude well practiced will break the power of busyness, haste, isolation, and loneliness. You will see that the world is not on your shoulders after all. You will find yourself, and God will find you in new ways. Joy and peace will begin to bubble up within you and arrive from things and events around you. Praise and prayer will come to you and from within you. With practice, the “soul anchor” established in solitude will remain solid when you return to your ordinary life with others.
From The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus’s Essential Teachings on Discipleship. Copyright © 2006 by Dallas Willard. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers.
Grace and peace. Who does not want that in their life? Who would not appreciate someone sharing God’s grace and peace with them? From Crosswalk.com……..
Does anyone even remember what “virtue” means? The Encyclopedia of the Bible calls virtue “Force or excellence of mind or body; ability; moral worth.” Well, the Bible certainly has a lot to say about moral virtue. From Christian Crier……………..
This article touches on how Scripture equates our life with the way we walk. I suppose this is because how we walk and where we choose to walk tells a lot about us! From Place for Truth……………….
This is a pretty important article because it addresses an important problem that probably occurs frequently in our reading and studying of Scripture; and that is, if we are unaware of the context of a particular, then our minds will supply a context, which may very well be incorrect for that particular portion of Scripture. From Stand to Reason………………………..
https://www.str.org/w/how-creating-a-context-vacuum-sucks-us-into-overwriting-god-s-word
This is a passage that has caused some controversy over the years, but Greek scholar Murray J. Harris provides a great answer. From Logos.com……….
This article is helpful for those times when we think, “But I don’t know what to say when I pray!” From Anchored in Christ………………..
As widespread and common as depression is, it surprises me to realize that so many people are misinformed about it. This brief article addresses some of the misinformation that is out there. Here is a quote I really liked: “Gandalf, one of my favorite quotable characters who exists only but no less vividly in the minds of readers, said ‘Despair is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt. We do not.’6 It is a temptation to think that we do when we do not, and to see an evil end when God has something quite different in mind and in store. Yet, it is a temptation to which most—if not all—of us are vulnerable.” From Crossway.org…………………..
Hopefully you will not need to read all 31 psalms in the following list to fall asleep, but they are there if you need them! From Crosswalk.com……….
https://www.crosswalk.com/faith/bible-study/psalms-to-help-you-fall-asleep-at-night.html
Perhaps you have heard that the best interpreter of Scripture is Scripture. Along those lines, to get more out of your Bible reading and Bible study, it is important to catch when a biblical author or character is quoting or alluding to another section of Scripture. This article explains why. From In Christ blog…………………..
This is a pretty important article. We have all heard and read how important it is to find a mentor (or even to be a mentor for someone else!). But unfortunately, it is extremely rare for a younger believer to find a true mentor in the faith. But this article brings us the happy news that all of us can be disciples and encouraged by our local church…if we go about it in the right way! From The Gospel Coalition………………..
It is God’s intention that our lives should be a seamless manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Galatians 5:22–23). He has made abundant provision for His indwelling our lives in the here and now. Appropriate attention to the care of our souls through His empowerment will yield this rich spiritual fruit and deliver us from the sad list of “deeds of the flesh” (Galatians 5:19–21). We can be channels of the grace of the risen Christ, and through our ministerial activities—speaking, praying, healing, administering—He can minister to others. But we must attend to the means of His grace in practical and specific ways to experience His life into and through our lives.
From The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus’s Essential Teachings on Discipleship. Copyright © 2006 by Dallas Willard. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers.
This article will hit home with those of us who are pet owners. How’s that? Read it and see! From CriagThompson.org………………..
Because of the unique nature of the Old Testament in relation to the New Testament, our study of it will be most effective and accurate when we approach the Old Testament with certain ground rules. This article goes over those basics. From New Wineskins…………….
This article provides an introduction to the minor prophet Micah by Martin Luther. From Concordia Publishing Publishing House……………
This is really an excellent article! Did you know that God has three kinds of “wills”? It’s true, and this article will explain how to discover those “wills” as you pray. From Unlocking the Bible…………….
We should, to begin with, think that God leads a very interesting life, and that He is full of joy. Undoubtedly He is the most joyous being in the universe. The abundance of His love and generosity is inseparable from His infinite joy. All of the good and beautiful things from which we occasionally drink tiny droplets of soul-exhilarating joy, God continuously experiences in all their breadth and depth and richness.
From The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God. Copyright © 1997 by Dallas Willard. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers.
Having a grateful heart, I think, is one of the hallmarks of the Christ follower. And this article provides a nice listing of verses that emphasize this. From Crossway.org……………….
This time, the emphasis is on a very important verse that is found in the Epistle to the Hebrews, Hebrews 11:6 — “And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.” From Crosswalk.com……………….
When you start to count them up, there are a surprising number of things in the Bible that come in tens. This article from Patheos runs through a good number of them. From Christian Crier………………….
Hint: Yes. Interesting info from The Christian Crier………………..
One of the major themes throughout the Bible is the glory of God. Here is an article for all of us theology nerds — a little longer and meatier than what I typically post, but this is well worth the extra time and effort! From Desiring God…………………….
Anxiety and depression are common to the human condition, even though we believers may try to “pray it out” and still try to rely on our own strength. A really good article from Like an Anchor…………..
Anxiety and depression are two of the most common mental illnesses, and they often occur together. Just because its relatively common, though, doesn’t make dealing with both feel any less weird. Exhibit A, this image I ran across on Pinterest: It’s overly simplified, of course, to say “depression is when you don’t really care about […]
via How Do You Hold on to Hope When You’re Fighting Anxiety and Depression? — Like An Anchor
This is a book review from The Reformed Reader. We need to better understand the Book of Revelation so that it can be the encouragement in hard times that God meant us to have (instead of all the silly date-setting and this year’s version of who the Antichrist is)………………….
Revelation is a great part of Scripture that in no uncertain terms tell us the reality of Christ’s ultimate victory, but it’s not always easy to interpret and understand the last book of the Bible. Some parts aren’t too tough; others are seriously difficult. One resource that has helped me study Revelation is Dennis Johnson’s […]
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