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27/06/2024

"...God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” — Gen. 3:5

"...I [Paul] want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you." — Romans 16:19-20

What Adam & Eve took impatiently & wrongly through the temptation of Satan, God now freely gives through Jesus Christ, the snake-crushing, dying-and-rising King who gives wisdom and eternal life freely.

02/05/2024

>> Jonah 2:1-9
>> Psalm 116
>> 2 Corinthians 4:13-15

Wild connections here, but they are there:

— Death & the realm of the dead

— Resurrection & thanksgiving

— Temple & the presence of the LORD and the presence of those who make up the LORD's true congregation

— The purpose of Israel as a light to the Nations

30/04/2024

"They shall not **labor in vain** or bear children for calamity, for they shall be offspring of the blessed of the Lord, and their descendants with them." — Isaiah 65:23

"Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord **your labor is not in vain."** — 1 Corinthians 15:58

What God through Isaiah promised, God in Christ has fulfilled — never to be overthrown.

So let's get to work 🙂

24/04/2024

Effective church ministry is (from Colossians 4:2-6):

1) Prayerful within God's purposes & will
2) Ready and expectant of opposition/suffering
3) Entrusts its results to God
4) Operates in such a way that makes people scratch their heads

All of this costs ✨ z e r o d o l l a r s ✨

All of it will cost you your LIFE!

11/04/2024

There’s a strong OT precedent for linking the Flood of Genesis 6 with the Day of the Lord, a time when God’s people would be delivered & God’s enemies would be destroyed.

It makes perfect sense, then, that the NT writers would regularly link these concepts together.

(See Zephaniah 1 and compare to Genesis 6-7)

04/04/2024

Let the reader understand —

28/03/2024

😂🤘🏻✝️ —

28/03/2024

"But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed." — Gal. 1:8

Is this just dramatic hyperbole on Paul's part?

I don't think so.

Both the New Testament and early Jewish tradition (Josephus) indicate that that Mosaic Law was given to Moses on Sinai from God through angelic/spiritual intermediaries. (Acts 7:53; Gal. 3:19; Hebrews 1:4; 2:2, etc.)

What we see at the time of the writings of the NT documents is a change in administration.

Whereas previously God spoke to his people in prophetic visions & angelic messages, God has now finally spoken to humanity through his Son and those whom the Son has sent (apostles) (Heb. 1; 2:3).

The temptation that the 1st Century Christians faced was to abandon Christ and revert to Judaism. And the temptation to do so would/could come from someone claiming to have a vision of a spiritual messenger from God (Gal. 1:8; Col. 2:18, Heb. 1). Given the history of revelation to the Jewish people, such a thing would be, in fact, very tempting — especially given how much resistance the Christian movement faced prior to 70 A.D.

But Paul doubles-down — therefore, you get the book of Galatians.

27/03/2024

“Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
‭‭— Luke‬ ‭20‬:‭25‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.”
‭‭— 1 Peter‬ ‭2‬:‭17‬ ‭ESV‬‬

When Jesus showed up to the temple on holy week, he was looking for “fruit” for his Father (Luke 20:10).

Instead, what he found was his very own people being willing to worship Caesar (and use the state) instead of their God. (John 19:15)

Point in case: they rejected God’s Son.

Amazingly, prior to Nero’s persecutions in the 60s A.D., the greatest defense for the church were the Roman pagans.

(This is why you read multiple instances of Paul and Peter both encouraging the churches to appropriately respect the Roman state: they were God’s minister to protect the infant church.)

Conversely, the greatest persecutors of the church were the first century Jews.

Give the state its due; but you better give God the fruit he’s after.

25/03/2024

“And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.”
‭‭Malachi‬ ‭3‬:‭1‬b ‭ESV‬‬

When the King showed up, he went straight to the root of the problem: his House and the thieves occupying it.

20/03/2024

“Before David contends against a giant with a sling & stone, he contends against an evil spirit (tormenting Saul) and fights with a song & the lyre.

“The singing of the church is the church’s heavy artillery in spiritual warfare.”

— Peter J. Leithart

17/03/2024

“They (the Jews) went each to his own house, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.” — John 8:1

This is an interesting comparison.

The expectation would be for Jesus to also go to his own house.

But he doesn’t.

By this point in John’s Gospel, it’s been well established that Jesus is God Himself.

And what is God’s house?

The temple.

In Ezekiel, the judgment of God against his people is pictured as the glory of God leaving the temple and resting on the Mount of Olives.

Jesus is enacting a powerful claim: he is God himself; and when he came to his own people, the rejected him. Therefore, he will leave them, his “house,” and go build a new house not made with hands — that is, the church, the new Temple of God.

03/03/2024

Why did Noah’s Ark come to rest on a mountain? 🧐

God could just as easily caused the Ark to rest in a valley.

Why a mountain? 🤔

Because as the “new Adam” (at that time), Noah must meet with God & be blessed & be commissioned to bring dominion over a “new creation” that God was making through him & and his family.

Eden was a mountain Garden where God dwelt with Adam & all of God’s creatures (Gen. 2 & Ezk. 28:14)

Ararat was a mountain where God dwelt with Noah & all of God’s creatures (Gen. 8:4; 20-9:1)

29/02/2024

God the Father breathed on Adam, and he became a living being and got to work. (Gen. 2:7)

Jesus breathed on his disciples, and they became LIVING-AGAIN beings — and they got to work. (Jn. 20:21-22)

29/02/2024

The King Herod (and his descendants) we read about in the NT are Idumeans, meaning they are Edomites.

Conflict between the Israelites and the Edomites goes back as far as the conflict between their forefathers: Jacob and Esau.

The Edomites regularly conflicted with and even betrayed the Jews in times of nation upheaval and war, a fact that God prophesies against in the OT prophetic book Obadiah. (See also Malachi 1:2-5)

They collaborated with the surrounding nations to collude against a nation that is, matter of factly, their "brother."

Having this historical background in your mind highlights the significance of why Herod wanted the (Jewish) Messiah to be murdered and why his son (Herod Antipas) had John the Baptist beheaded and also colluded with the Roman state to have Jesus murdered.

28/02/2024

Here’s another book I highly recommend.

What do Christians have to say to the rise of the acceptance of hallucinogenics and DMT to facilitate life-change and religious knowledge?

Get this one!

26/02/2024

Douglas Van Dorn’s book on Giants in the Bible & ancient near east is astounding.

Highly recommend.

24/02/2024

“What’s heaven like?”

Though the book of Revelation is written in biblical symbolism (indeed, it quotes and alludes to ~400+ OT passages), I believe its description of the New Jerusalem is visually accurate AND symbolic.

Why do I think that?

Hebrews 9:23-24 indicates that the OT Temple was a type (example of) of true heavenly realities.

The OT Temple (especially the most Holy Place) was where God was enthroned on earth, was ornately decorated, and covered in gold.

If the writer of Hebrews is saying these things were a diminished yet translatable reality compared to the holy place of Heaven, then we’re on solid ground telling our kids, family, and one another that heaven is similar to and better than how John describes it in Revelation 21.

20/02/2024

"The aforesaid Scribes and Pharisees, therefore, placed James upon a wing of the temple, and cried out to him, ‘O thou just man, whom we ought all to believe, since the people are led astray after Jesus that was crucified, declare to us what is the door to Jesus that was crucified.’

"And he answered with a loud voice, ‘Why do ye ask me respecting Jesus the Son of Man? He is now sitting in the heavens, on the right hand of great Power, and is about to come on the clouds of heaven.’

"And as many were confirmed, and glorified in this testimony of James, and said, Hosanna to the son of David, these same priests and Pharisees said to one another, ‘We have done badly in affording such testimony to Jesus, but let us go up and cast him down, that they may dread to believe in him.’ And they cried out, ‘Oh, oh, Justus himself is deceived,’ and they fulfilled that which is written in Isaiah, ‘Let us take away the just, because he is offensive to us; wherefore they shall eat the fruit of their doings’ (Isaiah 3).

"Going up therefore, they cast down the just man, saying to one another, ‘Let us stone James 'the Just.’ And they began to stone him, as he did not die immediately when cast down; but turning round, he knelt down saying, ‘I entreat thee, O Lord God and Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.’ Thus they were stoning him, when one of the priests of the sons of Rechab, a son of the Rechabites, spoken of by Jeremiah the prophet, cried out saying, ‘Cease, what are you doing? Justus is praying for you.’

"And one of them, a fuller, beat out the brains of Justus with the club that he used to beat out clothes. Thus he suffered martyrdom, and they buried him on the spot, where his tombstone is still remaining by the temple. He became a faithful witness, both to Jews and Greeks, that Jesus is Christ."

— The Martyrdom of James, Jesus' half-brother [Recorded by Eusebius]

15/02/2024

“Bearing fruit” is an incredibly important concept in the NT.

Why?

Because Jesus’ primary (and correct) accusation against the Jews of his day was that they were all branches but no “fruit”

(See Matthew 23, for example)

So what immediately marks the small, fledgling church is that they (for all their imperfections) are bearing fruit—not of their own goodness but by the miraculous working of God.

(See Matt. 21:43; Romans 7:4; Galatians 5:22-24; Colossians 1:6)

——————

So how’s it going for you, Christian?

Are you bearing Christ-enabled fruit or is your profession merely dead twigs & branches waving in the air?

17/03/2023

😂😂😂 —

27/02/2023

😂👌🏻💯 —

26/02/2023

🥲🥹 —

25/02/2023

LOVE this ministry. Download their app today! —

22/02/2023

😬👀💯 —

11/02/2023

It’s true 😂 —

09/02/2023

God, have mercy! —

08/02/2023

φιλανθρωπία ("philanthropia") is the word translated as "loving-kindness" in Titus 3:4.

Most directly, the word means "love of people." Our vocations, when done in faith and for the good & benefit of others, is a reflection of God's own character, nature, and activity.

Simply, God is a philanthropist -- and he demonstrates this most clearly in the giving of his Son as a sacrifice for sins FOR PEOPLE (just like you).

No matter what you do today, be a philanthropist as your Father in heaven is a philanthropist!

06/02/2023

👊🏻🫣😂 —

06/02/2023

💪🏻❤️✝️ —

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