Gnostic Foolishness From the early days of the church, they had to deal with Gnostic teachings infiltrating their congregations. The Gnostics taught that there was a hidden divine that people could discover only by finding secret meaning that nobody had yet discovered. They were seeking a personal, special experience with a god who must be…
Treating Symptoms
Not Enough to “Feel Better” Sometimes, treating symptoms is the best we can do. When we have a flu, we’re just going to have to wait for our God given immunity to eventually defeat it. It can help, however, to manage the fever, change our diet to deal with the stomach problems, etc… until that…
Testimony of Creation
Normally, my posts on this site are about topics that come to mind during my time in the scriptures. God, through his inspired Word, often reveals something to me that I am eager to share with anyone who will read it. However, this week a message was impressed upon me by a different source. Where…
God vs. Satan
Our View Human life is full of struggles. Since the fall, we have had to toil for food, shelter, clothing, etc… and have had no end of disasters (natural and from man) to train us in conflict. Even close friends and loved ones will argue about things over which they disagree. Because of this, we…
Blessings Gone Bad
Relief In Numbers 21, we find Moses leading the people of Israel out of Egypt. As usual for all peoples, it didn’t take long for their joy at being saved to turn into bitterness about hardship. Here, they begin to miss the “comforts” of their slavery. And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have…
Foolish Shepherd
Last week I posted about the idea that God appoints to all nations their leaders, and how he uses that as a instrument of judgement as well as blessing. Today, I’m going to go over a specific instance where God explained how he intended to bring judgement on Israel in the form of a bad…
Divine Appointment
God Over Government As I’ve discussed in a previous post, a Christian should always be looking only to God for moral guidance and not to government. Also, that the government’s role is to be God’s wrath against wrongdoers and our obligation as Christians is to respect that position as enforcer that the government has been…
Vengeance is God’s Business
In our polarized society, facts can often be presented to us as if they are one dimensional. That is to say, they are presented as if they exist in a vacuum and can only possibly lead to a single conclusion about a single topic. Take the title for instance. Some people would read this as…
Wicked Patterns
Life Advice No matter where you’re getting life advice, or the area of life for which you’re getting advice, it is likely that you will eventually be encouraged to start taking small steps toward a goal in order to start building a pattern of life that will lead to a goal. Most change doesn’t happen…
The Narrow Door
The inspiration for the name of this blog is a common refrain from the Old Testament, but also imagery that can be found in parables like the one in Luke 13. It’s the image of the “straight and narrow” path of following God’s commands. The warning is that, to turn either to the right or…