Why You Need to Hear About the Resurrection from Women

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/drlaurelshaler/2018/03/why-you-need-to-hear-about-the-resurrection-from-women/

Was Moses Being Deceptive?

~ Mike Leake  

I grew up in the faith reading my NIV Study Bible, so this was my reading of 2 Corinthians 3:13:

We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to prevent the Israelites from seeing the end of what was passing away. (NIV)

I always read this as if Moses was being a bit deceptive. He knew that the glory of God shining on his face was fading away and so in order to hide this he put a veil over his face so they couldn’t see as the glory diminished. The NIV isn’t alone in translating the passage this way.

Continue: http://www.mikeleake.net/2018/03/was-moses-being-deceptive.html

The Fruit of Self-Control – podcast

A Broadcast with R.C. Sproul Love is always in conflict with human pride. From his series Keeping in Step with the Spirit, R.C. Sproul shows that pride is devastating and destructive to the human heart.

LISTEN NOW

Book Review: “The Essence of the New Testament: A Survey”

https://bellatorchristi.com/2018/03/26/book-review-the-essence-of-the-new-testament-a-survey/

Invalid reasons for staying in a church you know teaches false doctrine

http://fitl.co.za/2018/03/22/invalid-reasons-for-staying-in-a-church-you-know-teaches-false-doctrine/

podcast: “Questions about NDEs” (2 Cor. 12:1-10)

https://bellatorchristi.com/2018/03/27/podcast-3-27-18-message-questions-about-ndes-2-cor-121-10/

4 Misconceptions about Resurrection…and the Truth

http://seanmcdowell.org/blog/4-misconceptions-about-resurrection-and-the-truth

Psalm 63 – thirst

Oh God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;
My soul thirst for you;
As in dry and weary land where there is no water.
So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
Beholding your power and glory.
Because your steadfast love is better than life,
My lips will praise you.
So I will bless you as long as I live;
In your name I will lift up my hands.
My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food,
And my mouth will praise you with joyful lips. Psalm 63: 1 to 5

Dear Jesus, we come before you today asking for the gift of thirst. Renew and intensify our thirst for you. Make a so faint that unless you hydrate our hearts with the Gospel, we will surely perish.

It is a dangerous thing to no longer deeply crave fellowship with you, Jesus. It is a deceptive thing to enjoy but no longer actually need you. It is a deceitful thing to be satisfied with correct theology about you, without experiencing rich communion with you. It is a demonic thing to find our ultimate satisfaction and anyone or anything else but you.

Only your steadfast love is better than life, Jesus — only your contra-conditional, irrepressible affection for us. Nothing else will do. You have created a gospel–shaped vacuum in our hearts –– a screaming empty place that fits only you. Forgive us we try to cram human love, creature comforts, or anything else into that place. Don’t let us be so easily satisfied. Give us redemptive discontent until our hearts rest again in you.

Jesus, we are asking this not just for ourselves as individuals, but for our churches as well. Forgive us when we get so organized, creative, and “right” that we no longer miss your presence. Is it really you we are worshiping, or are we just worshiping worship? Is it really you we are serving, or are we just serving ourselves as religious consumers?

If you actually “left the house,” how long would it take before we knew the difference? In all honesty, Jesus, how much of what we do in our churches doesn’t require the Holy Spirit at all? Show us, convict us, forgive us, and change us.

Let us see and experience your power and glory in fresh ways, Jesus,. We want to lift our hearts, voices, hands, and whole lives to you as a sacrifice of praise. May the truth and grace of the gospel satisfy us as fat and rich food. We pray longing hearts. Amen

~ Scotty Smith, Everyday Prayers

Listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmsgYY-INf8

The Human “Face” of God

“Then, leaving her water jar, the [Samaritan] woman went back to the town and said to the people, ‘Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?'” 1 John 4:28-29

In the Australian edition of Encounter magazine, Ivor Bailey wrote how Trinity College in Cambridge, England, has a long-held tradition of sending students to the slums of South London. At the parish of Camberwell the students sleep in the parish hall and spend a week each year working among the parishioners.

Some years ago a student was helping do some home repairs when the occupant, a bed-ridden elderly lady, asked him if anyone had ever told him that he bore a remarkable likeness to Prince Charles. “Spitting image of him you are,” she said. The student replied, quite truthfully, that no one had ever told him that before. “Strange,” she replied, “even with my poor eyes you look just like him.” To her dying day she probably never realized that her drains were being cleaned by the heir to the throne of England [Prince Charles].~ Ivor Bailey, Encounter, December ’04-January ’05, p 15. ACTS International, Australia. http://www.actsinternational.org/au

Some 2,000 years ago the King of kings came into the world as a baby and most of the people of his day, including the religious leaders, never recognized him as the long-promised Messiah because he didn’t fit the role of what they expected. However, there were those who did see him for who he was. Even the loose-living woman, whom Jesus ministered to at the well in Samaria, was so impressed with the fact that Jesus accepted her that she ran back to her community and shared how this stranger ministered to her and she asked, “Could this be the Christ?”

How sad and how tragic when we don’t recognize Jesus for who he is and for the gift of salvation and eternal life he has for all who come to him.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, though I cannot see you with my physical eyes, please open the eyes of my understanding so that I recognize you for who you truly are and always be aware of the leading of your Spirit in every area of my life. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

Comment at: Click HERE

Where Two or More are Gathered’ Doesn’t Make a Church

What people want this verse to say is that any time two or more Christians are gathered, there’s a church, because Jesus is in their midst. On a closer examination of the whole passage, we find this text to specifically deal with the practice of church discipline.

The passage from Matthew 18:15-20 reads:

If your brother sins against you, go and confront him privately. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, regard him as you would a pagan or a tax collector. Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, I tell you truly that if two of you on the earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by My Father in heaven. For where two or three gather together in My name, there am I with them.”

The first clue we have to understanding this verse comes with the preposition “for” at the beginning of verse 20. As an interpretive principle, the preposition can be used in many different ways – but as a general rule, you will do just fine inserting “for this reason” when you see the word “for” in many cases. The natural question arises: for what reason? All this should do is train us to look to the text and see what the biblical author is speaking to. In this case, the preposition is explanatory. Secondly, this verse is not the main point of the passage, but it is subordinate to the main point, which is the often neglected practice of church discipline.

Continue: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/chorusinthechaos/where-two-or-more-are-gathered-doesnt-make-a-church/