The name means "To stand with" as in "to stand or fall together." This is the word used in Colossians 1:17 that "in Him (Christ) all things consist". By His active power, God sustains our existence. This must be a subject of great interest by those in heaven. If we were wise we would do well to study it ourselves, think deeply upon it and allow it ( Read more... )

Today was pretty rough for me. I woke up sapped, not so much needing more sleep as discouraged before the day even got started. My sleep had, to be sure, been of the toss and turn kind, but this due to the spiritual sapping I mentioned beforehand. But I got my coffee and off to work I went. On the way there I was listening to a sermon which helped ( Read more... )

I've got a lot of time to think while I'm at work and while this can be severely detrimental depending on the direction of my thought, I do try to steer my mind in better ways. So, I came to think on gratefulness. I am grateful to be alive. This is true on many levels, for example, had not God intervened (and my dad prayed) I might very well not ( Read more... )

For the past two Sundays my pastor has been preaching a new series of messages. Last week was on the media and its centrality in our culture and he exhorted us to remove the media from centrality in our lives. We should not schedule our lives around our shows or our Internet time. This week's message was on e-dating and how it stacks up compared to ( Read more... )

We're going through the Truth Project in our small group and the last one I saw was about how our culture is anti-mind, anti-intellect, anti-thinking. How much of our lives is in our mind? I do not mean that reality is an illusion or exists only in our minds or anything Matrixy like that. Reality exists of course. But what I do mean is how much of ( Read more... )

We are made in the image of God. We have fallen into sin. These are two facts of the case of humanity. One is glorious and a great honor. The other is our shame and guilt and fear. So, being in the image of God and fallen at once is a recipe for pride. The very thing that should humble us, being the only creatures in creation made in the image of ( Read more... )

"And the Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him... When they had finished the days, as they returned, the Boy Jesus lingered behind in Jerusalem... So when they did not find Him, they returned to Jerusalem, seeking Him. - Now so it was that after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting ( Read more... )

"And God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away." (Rev. 21:4 ( Read more... )

Today, we celebrated the Passover Seder at Bible Study. It was the very first Messianic one I had celebrated. I still remember the very first one I went to, a Jewish one in Hebrew. I remember being spellbound for much of it, delighting that this language of the Bible was being spoken. So often in my Hebrew class back in college I was moved to ( Read more... )

John MacArthur ( Read more... )