Gospel Living

HT: Thinking in Christ

There is a deep, abiding joy for those who trust in the Lord. God does not promise that we will be “happy all the day.” However, if one’s life is not marked by happiness, then there is some kind of disconnect between God’s presence and one’s soul.  Psalm 84 expresses the hope and comfort we all have in the Lord. Those who dwell in the house of Yahweh are blessed, as are those who find their strength in God through trials and blessings. Even a day at the threshold of God’s temple is worth more than this world can offer. While hardships may come, God will pour out provision, refusing to withhold good from those who are blessed enough to trust in Him.  The psalmist reveals three beatitudes that should set all of ancient Israel to song! In my message below, we will note three beatitudes so that we might cultivate the same abiding happiness in our souls. I.    We are blessed if we dwell in the Lord (vv. 1–4) II.   We are blessed if we journey in the L...

This video is melodramatic until 1:50 (which the author admits).  If you want to fast-forward to the “take seriously” part, it presents an iron-clad evidence against Joseph Smith’s doctrine based on Smith’s own Book of Mormon . (HT: DefCon ) This is the reason why asking people to accept LDS teaching based on the Book of Mormon is deceptive.  Readers coming in with Christian influence may become excited when they find a great deal of scriptural citation, allusion, and doctrine within the text, but the church will proceed to contradict most of it.  As the video states, “ The Book of Mormon doesn’t teach Mormonism .” Moroni 8:18 : “ For I know that God is not a partial God, neither a changeable being; but he is unchangeable from all eternity to all eternity .” Fourteen years later… "... it is necessary that we should understand the character and being of God, and how he came to be so; for I am going to tell you how God came to be God. We have imagined and supp...

HT: Kevin DeYoung

  180movie.com

Here’s a guy rocking a tat sporting the art of a DNA strand, ammonite shell, and bacterial flagellar motor.  Tattooing is not exactly something that is popular within the wider Christian community or even something I would recommend for any reason; but I have to imagine that this an interesting site at the ID conference for the Metamorphosis video. (HT: Evolution News )

HT: Thinking in Christ

HT: Witnesses Unto Me Logos is surely the market leader in Bible software for Windows. But, it has a reputation for being slow. For this reason, WORDsearch is a good alternative when speed is a concern. If you are running Logos and need a speed bump, let me suggest moving your Logos library to a solid state hard drive. You can install a second hard drive in many computers and if you get one large enough for Logos, you will surely notice an enormous speed boost. Unless you buy a huge solid state drive, you will probably want to limit what you store on it. Throw your pictures and videos on the old school drive. Put your operating system and the apps you want to speed up on the solid state drive. Speed Test Logos 4 Launch Time Standard Hard Drive: 65 Seconds Solid State Hard Drive: 12 Seconds Loading Passage and Exegetical Guides Standard Hard Drive: 2 Minutes 48 Seconds Solid State Hard Drive: 11 Seconds Note: this comparison is not on identical hardware, but the hard drive ...

Paul wants to provide comfort, and this comes out when he reminds his readers of their hope when they grieve for those believers who have already died (I Thes 4:13). Paul noted that their grief was not marked by normal sorrow: they were  anxious because they feared dying meant that Christians missed the return of Christ. They expected Christ’s appearing at any moment (as will become apparent), and so they were troubled that some of the saints had not survived. Paul encourages them: He likens the believer’s death to sleep, and reminds them that Christ’s Resurrection means they should likewise expect the dead to also raise and even accompany Christ in His return (v. 14). With this, Paul opens the curtains for the opening act of “The Day of the Lord.” It is a marketplace full of the mundane; it is an average day.  No one stands center-stage.  The sound of a trumpet and a command from an archangel draws the audience’s eyes upward.  A lone Actor descends, but He pauses, ...

HT to Veritas for compiling this list of informative posts by Dr. Michael Vlach: Introduction to the Issue Seven Approaches to How the NT Uses the OT Resources for Studying NT Use of the OT Contextual Use of the OT by the NT Writers Categories of NT Usage of the OT Literal Prophetic Fulfillment Literal Prophetic Fulfillment (2) Literal Application of Timeless Moral or Theological Point Literal Restatement of an OT Passage with Intensification or Alteration Affirmation of an Old Testament Prophetic Text Whose Fulfillment Is Still Future Some Observations Concerning Matthew’s Purposes in Matt 1–2 Matt 1:22-23 and Divine Correspondence between Israel and Jesus Matt 2:15/Hos 11:1 and Divine Correspondence between Israel and Jesus Matt 2:17-18/Jer 31:15 and Divine Correspondence between Israel and Jesus Matt 2:23 and Summation of an OT Truth or Principle Acts 2:25-28/Psalm 16:8-11 and the Resurrection of the Christ Acts 2:33-35/Psalm 110:1 and Literal Prophetic Fulfillmen...

Do not forget that religious extremists massacred American innocents on September 11... back in 1857. The fruits of another false religion.

The American Family Association has put together the following half-hour tribute:

Use with your discretion.  From Free Tech for Teachers : It's almost hard to believe that the terrorist attacks of 9/11 were almost ten years ago now. To mark the anniversary National Geographic has developed Remembering 9/11 . Remembering 9/11 features videos of eyewitness accounts and testimonials about that day. The videos feature a range of people from "average" people like you and me who were just going to work that day to President Bush. Remembering 9/11 has an artifact display from 9/11. A story from an eyewitness accompanies each artifact in the display.   Applications for Education Even my oldest students this year will have only been eight years old on 9/11. To them 9/11 is almost a historic event not a modern event that they experienced. National Geographic's Remembering 9/11 could be a resource for letting them learn about and understand the emotions that so many people felt that day.

... and you're a Christian, please keep your mouth closed about it for the next several days.  Let the people who mourn, mourn.  Based on what Jesus said, you may even stow any pride you have because you're not "an unthinking sheep" and put your arm around someone who still needs it. Thanks, and may God bless you for it. PS : After that, you may want to reconsider a belief popularized by a young dude who, wanting his fifteen minutes, set out to create a fictional screen play based on the events of 9/11.  Google it. Then, feel free to reinvest any lost hours into kingdom work.  Don't let an enticing conspiracy theory rob you of precious time. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths . As for you, always be sober-minded , endure suffering, do the work of an evange...

From Preaching with Passion : The mistake made by many young preachers is that they attempt to mimic the style of great, older preachers, but they fail to mimic their lives as well. The latter gives the former its power. First we sanctify the man, who in turn sanctifies the style. If we would make it our ambition to know Christ more intimately, we would preach Christ more powerfully. Authority comes when the glory of Christ surrounds our lives, even as in the case of Moses on his decent from Mount Sinai (cf. Exod. 34:28–35). Paul’s advice to young Timothy was to strive to be what he preached, knowing that the more of the Word the man has in his life, the more life there will be in his spoken word (81).

One of Paul’s goals in writing to the Thessalonians was comfort. His focus on the end times makes this goal notable. By fine tuning the Thessalonians’ view of what is going to happen through the continual revelation of the Lord (“word of the Lord,” I Thes 4:15), he created a vehicle for the grace and peace in both books. Paul instructed the Thessalonians on end-time matters before (II Thes 2:5), so the end-time issues Paul discusses in his letters are by way of reminder. This blog series will consider the scenario Paul presented by reconstructing his teaching in a chronological layout. That is, by drawing on the consensus of both books, I will try to lay out his teachings as a systematic unfolding of events. That said, it is important to highlight the fact that Paul is writing specifically to the church (verse 1 of both books).  As such, it should not surprise us that he doesn’t spend much time explaining latter-day specifics directly involving the church. Because this series will ...

This GTY study introduces new believers to the key doctrines of Scripture, giving them hooks to cling to as they navigate their way through the Bible.  Older believers discover new truths every time they revisit it. The series is now available in both text and audio downloads, and teachers who find this to be a worthy study can purchase workbooks.  (HT: Veritas ) Buy Workbook Buy Teacher’s Guide 13 Lessons to Grow in the Grace and Knowledge of Jesus Christ Every Sunday morning at Grace Community Church (and throughout the week), small groups of people gather together around this manual for ‘Fundamentals of the Faith’ classes. Thirteen lessons blend basic biblical truths with personal obedience and service. Many young believers take these classes to grow in their understanding of biblical truths. With topics ranging from the character of God to church participation, it’s an ideal study for discipling new believers or returning to the basics of what it means to be a disci...

(You may need to download the .wmv plug-in to view the video on this page.) ( Visit this NCW Page ) “Wonders of the Cell” by Chris W. Ashcraft , MS., M.Ed. Seattle Creation Conference , October 2009. Download WMV video: “Wonders of the Cell” on YouTube L. quality (14MB) M. quality (117MB) H. quality (258MB) Purchase DVD PowerPoint: View online Download , 16MB Download ZIP File of PPT and videos, 113MB About the video: Cell Biology provides many extraordinary examples of intelligent design. Inside each and every organism reside biomechanical systems that Darwin and his contemporaries could never have imagined. Even today, much of what is happening inside cells is still not understood, and yet evolutionists hold fast to a belief that these remarkable constructs developed without God. These two contrasting views of the cell provide poignant illustration of how worldviews impact our interpretation of physical evidence. In his presentatio...

A code went awry that forwarded Pisteuo visitors to rpc.blogrolling.com.  To be honest, I don't recall what I may have been linking to or even if this is code I added, but it is now gone.  It looks like several other blogs in the past 24 hours has had this same issue . Sorry for any inconvenience.