True Repentance for the German and the Jew
Wednesday, February 13th, 2008Instead of seeking relief from the guilt of the Holocaust in some kind of self-serving way, we need to be reminded that God recognizes only one kind of repentance for all people and for all ages, the fruit of which can be known in how we respond to the Jew in our midst.
Some Thoughts on Romans 10
Wednesday, February 13th, 2008“Calling on the name of the Lord” is no glib incantation, some vocalization to which someone may be coaxed or some mindless ‘decision’ made. It is the taking for one’s self the absoluteness of the Lordship of Christ in the forfeiting henceforth of all personal autonomy over one’s own life. Is it any wonder then that we see so little evidence of this transaction in the multitudes professing to be ‘saved’?
Thinking the Unthinkable: Anticipating the Dreaded and Undesired
Wednesday, February 13th, 2008What can reasonably be expected from a “God of Providence” in the view of His people is shattered when ultimate catastrophe breaks.
The Baptism of the Holy Spirit in a Last Days’ Context
Wednesday, February 13th, 2008Our prayer is a little better than polite, but still not the gushing or ‘groaning that cannot be uttered’ that accompanied the intercessions of earlier Pentecostal generations whose crisis of need was evidently greater.
The Radical Kingdom of God: Conventional Christianity or Biblical Faith?
Wednesday, February 13th, 2008There is a remarkable indifference in the earth to the fact that this planet was visited by God. I think we just have to recognize that we are in a kind of sleepwalk, a stupor; the god of this world has blinded the minds, not only of those who do not believe, but also of those who only nominally believe.
The Joy of the Lord
Wednesday, February 13th, 2008We are living in an hour where the word joy is being cheapened and made to stand for something that God never intended. Its meaning has been reduced to some kind of emotional and giddy experience, rather than a life-giving provision of God to keep us from the deceptions and perils of the last days.
The Heart of David
Wednesday, February 13th, 2008How significant can be a single episode in the life of a man. It was so for David at the height of Saul’s’ relentless pursuit of his life as recorded in I Samuel 24. It is not only historical, but typical as it represents two antibodies symbolized and summed up in both David and Saul.
The Garden of Eden: The Corollary Between Israel and Adam and Eve
Wednesday, February 13th, 2008Archeologists, as well as many Bible commentators, suggest that present-day Israel might well encompass the original Garden of Eden. Whether or not this is so, there are certain factors that suggest a remarkable corollary between the expulsion from the Garden and the present untenable situation of the modern state.
The Davidic Kingdom
Wednesday, February 13th, 2008God gives great honor to King David in using his name as being emblematic of the kingdom that is God’s forever. What is the Davidic kingdom? What is the essence and the character of David that God would want to employ that name to designate that kingdom? Are we Davidic saints now?
Moses at the Burning Bush
Wednesday, February 13th, 2008This is more than just an episode out of the life of Moses. There is something here for our deepest consideration, and I hope it will be for some as much a confrontation as it was for Moses. We have as much a requirement to be met by the God of the burning bush and be sent by Him to deliver a people out of bondage.
Star Wars ‘The Phantom Menace’: An Ultimate Idolatry?
Wednesday, February 13th, 2008I wonder how many share with me the irritation of entering a public place to be confronted with life-size cut-out grotesques publicizing Star Wars and products linked to its promotion? This omnipresent mass-market overkill inundates the community, invades our privacy and gives no relief to those of us who despise the whole unsolicited entertainment-marketing blitz!
Running the Race: ‘Smarty Jones’ and the Defeat at the Belmont Stakes
Wednesday, February 13th, 2008“Let us run the race that is set before us” in all patience and endurance, having something in reserve, not prematurely expending our necessary resources, keeping a wary eye out for the unforeseen and unsuspecting on our blind side, considering the entire distance always longer than we had at first thought, however a fraction physically, much more, infinitely longer when spent! Let us not be drawn into competitive bursts to assure our primacy, considering Him whose ‘mount’ we are in whose nail-pierced hands our reins are held. Let Him fully control our head and mouth, sensitive to His restraint, however light His touch. The race is His not ours. Putting aside the sin that so easily besets us, let us run so as to win.
Righteousness Exalts a Nation:
Wednesday, February 13th, 2008How prohibitive of any faith and hope for change is there in the oppressive realities that prevail in Africa. Yet our encouragement to the saints there was that the gospel is God’s answer in the otherwise foreboding conditions of poverty and the omnipresent struggle for subsistence everywhere visible.
Righteousness in the Old Testament
Wednesday, February 13th, 2008Righteousness as understood in the OT (Old Testament) is a thoroughly Hebraic concept, foreign to the western mind and at variance with the common understanding of the term. The failure to comprehend its meaning is perhaps most responsible for the view of OT religion as “legalistic”…but thanks largely to recent German scholarship, this important motif of biblical faith has been clarified.
A Message on Restoration and Return
Wednesday, February 13th, 2008(With quotations from Thomas M. Raitt’s A Theology of Exile, Fortress Press, 1977) The prophecies of Zephaniah, as is true with all the prophets of Israel, speak not only to the present condition and immediate future of the nation, but also its eschatological future and end. So one is warned of the Babylonian judgment then […]
Reconsidering John 11 in the Context of Isaiah 49
Wednesday, February 13th, 2008They wept for what they thought was irretrievable loss; He wept for their weeping—not understanding the sovereignty and purpose of God in the death of their brother. Should they not have suspected by His inexplicable but calculated delay a purpose in that death in keeping with His previous words to them of His role in Israel’s eschatological destiny?
Psalms 56 and 57: The Heart of Davidic Worship
Wednesday, February 13th, 2008Both of these psalms are psalms of persecution; one is about persecution from the Philistines, and the other is about persecution from Saul.
Prophetic Reflections for the Last Days
Wednesday, February 13th, 2008Concern about decaying environmental, economic and political conditions is moving the world toward global unification. Safety and self-interest will likely take precedence over ideological distinctions between nations, just as doctrinal differences between major church bodies will be eclipsed by the overriding interests of peace and unity.
Princess Diana’s Funeral: A Prophetic Comment
Wednesday, February 13th, 2008I think that it behooves the Church to attempt some evaluation or critique of the remarkable and unprecedented world-wide response to the untimely passing of this lady. No figure of international prominence has known such adoration or received such tribute and evoked such sorrow in passing as she.
Preachers of Righteousness
Wednesday, February 13th, 2008I believe that God wants to make a statement concerning the phenomenon of the preached word, not only for those who are responsible for bringing the word of God, but also for the whole church at large.
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