Have you walked through a beautiful garden in the springtime? It’s very difficult to be weighed down by the cares of the world when you’re surrounded by the majesty of God’s beautiful art. Solomon was a glorious king, Jesus tells us, with the wealth of several kingdoms at his disposal. But all of his sparkling finery pales in comparison to the simplest lily that God placed beside your feet. And how many office hours have those lilies put in? How
Christians believe that Jesus Christ is our Redeemer. He redeemed us from the penalty of our sins — eternal torment and separation from God — by taking upon Himself our sins and guilt, and paying our penalty by dying in our place. It doesn’t seem like an even exchange, does it? He gets our sin and we get His righteousness. His righteousness reconciles us to the Father. And it happens the moment we believe in and accept Christ’s substitutionary death.
“I remember how frustrated I became when, as a young atheist, I examined specimens under the microscope,” wrote Dr. Douglas Oliver. “I would often walk away and try to convince myself that I was not seeing examples of extraordinary design…” But the more Oliver studied the complexities of the natural world … the more inadequate he found atheistic and evolutionary explanations.* Today Dr. Oliver is among a growing number of former atheists who value the biblical truths of creation. It
Last month, the Palestinians once again firebombed Joseph’s Tomb in Shechem, Israel. This is at least the 10th time in the last 30 years the Palestinians have tried to destroy the tomb. Now, Muslims claim to revere Joseph and hold his tomb to be sacred. So why do they frequently try to destroy it? In Genesis, Joseph extracted a promise from his brothers that after his death they would carry his bones from Egypt back “…to the land which He
It struck me recently that the seemingly endless debate of “Evolution versus Creation” contains an obvious irony on the side of Evolution. First of all, it should be noted that, according to the Wikipedia definition, Creationism is the religious belief that the universe and life originated “from specific acts of divine creation.” For young Earth creationists, this includes a biblical literalist interpretation of the Genesis creation narrative and the rejection of the scientific theory of evolution. Wikipedia contains this definition
Last week, the United Nations General Assembly convened. As usual, the heads of state from across the world made the pilgrimage to New York to appear before the delegates and speak their minds. Vladimir Putin defended Russia’s entrance into the Middle East and chided the U.S. and the West for arming ISIS and al-Qaeda, thus causing the mess in that region. Mahmoud Abbas (though he is not a head of state since the West Bank is not a state) announced
In his article, “Jesus’ Surprising Use of Parables“, John Koessler (chair and professor of pastoral studies at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago) shows how the parables Jesus spoke were specially designed to reveal the truth of His mission to some while actually hiding it from others. In his gospel, Mark writes (Mark 4:11-12): He [Jesus] said to them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those outside, everything is in parables, so that although
from A.D. The Bible Continues: The Revolution That Changed the World [2] When the Sanhedrin demanded that Peter stop preaching about Jesus, Peter shot back a telling question: “Do you think God wants us to obey you rather than him?” (Acts 4:19). At some point today, believers will face this question as well. And as Western governments drift further away from godly principles, it will be something we face more often and with more serious consequences. Christ made it clear
“Why should I care if men marry men or women marry women?” The truth is that it’s a very big deal. In fact, it may be the biggest deal – after the state-approved murders of 50 million unborn children – that the United States has ever faced or ever will face. It’s important because it weakens one of the last remaining foundational pillars on which our nation is built. For that matter, on which any nation is built. You see,
There may be serious differences in the understanding of His promised coming. To one it is plain as day that He is coming very soon in person to reign on earth, and that imminent coming is his hope and his stay. To another, who loves his Bible and his Savior just as much, the coming can mean nothing but the Judgment Day – the solemn transition from time to eternity, the close of history on earth, the beginning of heaven;
