What is the Church, and why does it matter?” The answer to that question very much depends on the narrative that one places himself into. What is the story that surrounds our life? Secular narrative is evolutionary where all change is progress. Anything that’s happening must necessarily be contributing to the betterment, the evolution, the growth of this naturally occurring world. This concept, however, does not present those who adhere to it a sense of purpose. Christians who adhere … [Read more...] about Being the People of God
Ancient Israel
Pentecost, the Spiritual Connection
There are many things that we can learn and understand in our walk with God when we observe God’s walk with the nation of ancient Israel. There’s much about the nation of Israel that sets a pattern for us to learn from. By covenant, they became a called-out people who were destined to live according to the will of God as expressed by His law. The feature of the special relationship was the fact that God would dwell among them: “And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among … [Read more...] about Pentecost, the Spiritual Connection
British-Israelism
If ideas about Israel are discussed within a non-church environment, it could be quite uncomfortable because many of those ideas can point to some concepts contained in British-Israelism which are widely considered to be racist. British Israelism is a belief that asserts the people of Great Britain are the descendants of ancient Israel. When asked if British-Israelism is racist, ChatGPT, an AI language model for generating human language, responded: “Yes, British-Israelism can be … [Read more...] about British-Israelism
The Son Makes Us Free
The publication called The Hedgehog Review is an intellectual publication written by intellectuals for intellectuals. One article that particularly stood out began with this sentence: “How do we foster the conditions conducive to a truly enduring moral and ethical order?" There are highly intellectual people writing, trying to find this moral and ethical order for themselves. There are a couple of comments in the book section, one mentioning a graduate student in the Germanic Studies … [Read more...] about The Son Makes Us Free
Prophecy’s Relevance Today
As events in this world move along at a rapid pace, there’s an ever-growing interest in prophecy. We don’t want to get into the position of forcing parts of prophecy to come together to fit like a puzzle, but to take what is revealed to us by God, progressively putting them together to make an image that is factual according to scripture, not an interpretation of man. Peter is a particularly good place to start: " knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private … [Read more...] about Prophecy’s Relevance Today
Let the Oppressed Go Free
We are all different. But what I find very, very difficult to deal with is man’s inhumanity to his fellow man. We are not caring about or thinking about the effect our behavior is having on other people, whether individually or nationally. For many people on this earth today, human life has very little value. Solomon had something to say about the state of oppression on the earth: “Then I returned and considered all the oppression that is done under the sun: And look! The … [Read more...] about Let the Oppressed Go Free
Lessons Leading to Life
Consider a lesson that the ancient Israelites as the wilderness congregation never learned. It is a lesson that’s so elemental and essential to God’s way of life that embracing this lesson ensures that the followers of Christ can avoid the failures that ancient Israel made. Simply put the lesson that we are to learn is obedience to God and His way to eternal Life. It is by following God’s principles that we will be able to develop eternal relationships with Him and others of like mind. From … [Read more...] about Lessons Leading to Life