From Kristi Ann’s Haven: It never hurts to review the Beatitudes (see Matthew 5)
We are not alone. –LD
Tag: Bible study
God’s Word
From David Fischer, at damarministries blog… We are not alone. –LD
Psalm 46, ‘Our Refuge and Strength’
I read this Psalm this morning–Psalm 46, “God is our refute and strength”–and I want to share it with you.
God’s providence is woven into the fiber of the physical universe, sustaining it moment by moment. But He is also the Lord of Hosts, mighty in battle: and when He intervenes in history–watch out!
A Life in Balance #7 (Kids and Righteousness)
This lesson from the story of Rachel and Leah is a little long, but it’s important. And wise. And the lesson is, to put it as simply as I can… “in Christ alone.” –LD
‘Cherry-Picking at Our Peril’
In the Ancient Near East, there was no universally-accepted calendar. The same kinds of “discrepancies” are found in every kingdom’s annals.
In this April 30 Chalcedon blog post, Mark Rushdoony tackles the question of whether the Bible is accurate as to matters of historical fact.
https://chalcedon.edu/blog/cherry-picking-at-our-peril
Critics like to point to supposed “discrepancies” within the Bible: for example, when it comes to stating how many years were in the reign of a king of Israel or Judah. At that point in world history, there was no widely-accepted standard of timekeeping, no universal calendar. Nor, within the same kingdom, was there any agreement as to when a king’s reign actually began or ended. So naturally the numbers will differ, here and there.
The point is, the Bible is 100% reliable and, as the Word of God, 100% authoritative–even when we can’t understand some of the historical details.
If your faith stands or falls by how well the numbers tally in Kings and Chronicles, there’s not much to it.
God Hears Us
A brief message, but very necessary. Pray more! –LD
“No Weapon Formed Against Thee Shall Prosper”
Esther and the Persian king
One of the hardest lessons for us to learn, in such an evil and confusing age as this, is how to walk by faith and not by sight: because if we walk only by sight, most of what we see is bad. Mark Rushdoony discussed this in his blog post yesterday.
https://chalcedon.edu/blog/no-weapon-that-is-formed-against-thee-shall-prosper
The Book of Esther, in which the name of God does not appear, shows how God governs history, intervening at need. Our God created us with free will and respects it, even when our will is bent to evil: but he will not let evil prosper in the long run. As Isaiah said, “No weapon formed against thee shall prosper” (Is. 54:17).
How many times would God’s people have been wiped off the face of the earth, had He not intervened? As history, the Bible offers many examples of this truth.
And we do well to learn them.
‘When to be Scared of Cucumbers’ (2015)
And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. –Isaiah 1:8
The Holy Spirit could have given Isaiah a lot more violent, bloody imagery, but instead opted for a hut left all alone in a field of cucumbers. And somehow that’s an image that stays with you.
Isaiah’s prophecies came true for Jerusalem with the Babylonians took it and burned it to the ground.
They will be fulfilled again.
Christ’s Warnings to ‘the Angels of the Churches’
My Bible reading has brought me around again to Revelation. In the intervening time, I had occasion to edit a Chalcedon article by Martin Selbrede which made it clear to me that in Revelation Chapters 2 and 3, Our Lord Jesus Christ is speaking to the “angels”–that is, the leaders–of the seven churches in Asia (https://leeduigon.com/2018/02/12/the-lukewarm-angel-of-laodicea/). The leaders, not the congregations.
So I read Chapter 2 this morning, and this time it made much more sense.
In 1:20, the Lord makes clear that the seven stars that John sees are the “angels” of the churches, and the seven candlesticks are the seven churches. Let’s see what Jesus says to the leaders–pastors, elders, whoever–of those churches.
Ephesus: the “angel” has “left thy first love,” and if he doesn’t repent, the Lord will “remove thy candlestick”–that is, take away his ministry. Or their ministry, if the church is governed by a council of elders.
Smyrna: Persecution is coming. It’s going to be hard. Hold fast! Your reward will be forever.
Pergamos: Whoever was ruling this church let doctrinal corruption into it–probably allowed certain of the congregation to snuggle up again to some of the old pagan gods. This sin is assiduously practiced in many, many “liberal” churches today.
Thyatira: Here, whoever was in charge allowed “that woman Jezebel which calleth herself a prophetess to teach and seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed to idols” (v. 20). Have we seen this in churches today? The Lord allowed time for the false prophetess and the erring “angel” to repent, but they chose not to.
The miracle is that somehow the Church survives the churches! Even in the most far-out, all-but-apostate churches, Our Lord has His true servants doing their best to “occupy until I come.” All of them, whatever the denomination whose sign is out in front of the building, are part of the true Church built without hands–and we are united in more ways than we know.
I’ll be reading Chapter 2 tomorrow.
Three Anticipation of Christ and the Gospel in Ezekiel
From our friend SlimJim’s blog, “The Domain for Truth.” We are not alone. –LD