Various Articles
The Psalmist offers us specific reasons for gratitude. Yahweh, our Father, pardons, heals, redeems, crowns, and satisfies. Our great need for redemption and restoration is that which He richly supplies. Not only that, He goes so far as to "crown" us with lovingkindness and compassion, and satisfy us with good things all our years. In essence …
"And He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, ‘So, you men could not keep watch with Me for one hour? Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak’" Matthew 26:40-41.
The true test of character is in the critical times. Moments of crisis and challenge are when we are most tempted to compromise values and beliefs.
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There is an expression you may have heard that goes something like "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree", which is usually used to mean that a son is quite like their father in one or many ways. Sometimes it is used to praise someone who has shown virtue, other times it is used to lament how vices are handed down like heirlooms no one wants. John, similarly, calls those who have virtue from living in the love of God, children of God.
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Light and dark have often been used metaphorically to distinguish between two diametrically opposed entities, such as good and evil. Sometimes, they are used to show a balance of two necessary things (i.e., yin and yang in Chinese philosophy). In the case of John's first letter, however, it is a dividing line that cannot be crossed. If you love God, who is light, you cannot love the world, which is in darkness.
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(Proverbs 18:11, ESV) says that "[a] rich man's wealth is his strong city, and like a high wall in his imagination." On the surface, Solomon seems to suggest that a person who has gained wealth has put themselves in a good position–setting themselves up for a life free from worry. But is this what Solomon was getting at and is this how we should view wealth?
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"Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, `Be taken up and cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him. Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you. Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions." Mark 11:23-25.
If faith can move mountains, the landscape should appear differently….
"Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven" Matthew 18:3-4.
The priority is not immaturity, but teachability. It is no coincidence that an account of an unteachable rich young man is recorded in the next chapter…
Have you ever felt so troubled that you couldn’t speak? Your heart is so heavy, nothing you try brings comfort, you can’t sleep, you question God’s love and promises…..you are miserable. Psalm 77 begins, “I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, and he will hear me. In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord”.
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"The LORD looked at him and said, ‘Go in this your strength and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you?’ He said to Him, ‘O LORD, how shall I deliver Israel? Behold, my family is the least in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father's house.’ But the LORD said to him, ‘Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat Midian as one man’" Judges 6:14-16.
The priority is not ability, but availability. Credentials are unimportant to the God who chooses and enables
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"And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up toward heaven, He blessed the food and broke the loaves and He kept giving them to the disciples to set before them; and He divided up the two fish among them all. They all ate and were satisfied, and they picked up twelve full baskets of the broken pieces, and also of the fish. There were five thousand men who ate the loaves" Mark 6:41-44.
The message from the miracle is that little is much when it's in the Master's hands. Limited resources are no hindrance to the multiplier of the loaves and fishes.
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"And He took him outside and said, ‘Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them. And He said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.’ Then he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness" Genesis 15:5-6.
We must never underestimate the power of simple faith. Few things are as audacious as asking a childless old man to believe he will have descendants too numerous to count. Outrageous as the promises seemed, elderly Abram dared to believe what Yahweh said.
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Well, here is the biggest rescue scene ever! Mark 13:24-27, “But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.”
Can you picture it? The utter despair and hopelessness that the world will experience?
Well, thankfully there’s more. “And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.”
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