THE CROWN
A few years ago, I had to have a gold crown put on a tooth that kept chipping. As I was sitting in the dentist's chair waiting, it occurred to me that the word “crown” appears quite frequently in the New Testament, so when I arrived back at the office I did some studying on it. Our English word “crown” comes from a Middle English root, which in turn comes from the Old French, which is based on… |
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“Martha, Martha”
Luke 10:38ff records a visit Jesus made to Bethany, the home of three of his most
intimate friends, Lazarus and his sisters, Mary and Martha.
Now as they were traveling along, He entered a certain village; and a
woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. And she had a
sister called Mary, who moreover was listening to the Lord's word,
seated at His feet. But Martha was distracted with all her
preparations; and she came up to Him, and said, "Lord, do You not care
that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then… -
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Bryan Johnson has one chief purpose in life: not dying.
The 47-year-old tech entrepreneur notes that immortality is “the most fundamental of all human desires” and that most world religions focus on some version of it. But now, he believes, something like immortality is “technically, potentially possible.”
Johnson explains: “What I’ve done as a project is I’ve said: Can I slow down my speed of aging to the greatest extent of any human on the planet? And can I then eliminate all the sources of death? Can I become…
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“Redeemed, how I love to proclaim it!” we often sing. But what does it mean to be redeemed? Think about two New Testament words that our English versions usually translate “redeem.”
One word means “to buy out” (Gr. exagorazō, from agorazō, to buy). It was used, for instance, when someone purchased a slave in order to set him free. It is this word that Paul uses when he says, “You have been bought with a price” (6:20; 7:23). Having been redeemed from slavery to sin, we must not allow ourselves to become…
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CAN THIS BE THE CHRIST?
(Jim McDonald)
The Samaritan woman, leaving her waterpot by the well, rushed to her village, urging the people, “Come, see a man who told me all things that ever I did. Can this be the Christ?” (Jn. 4:25).
The invitation of this woman, with perhaps Jesus’ supernatural revelation of the woman’s past life, coupled also with the question, “Can this be the Christ?” aroused the interest of the villagers and Jesus did not disappoint them. The Holy Spirit’s comment of these was, “And from that… -
A Lonely Ember
A member of a certain church, who previously had been attending services
regularly, stopped going. After a few weeks, one of the elders decided to visit
him. It was a chilly evening. The elder found the man at home alone, sitting
before a blazing fire. Guessing the reason for the elder’s visit, the man welcomed
him, led him to a big chair near the fireplace and waited.
The elder made himself comfortable but said nothing. In the grave silence, he
contemplated the play of the flames around the burning logs. After some
minutes, the elder took the fire… -
GIVE A DEFENSE OF YOUR HOPE
(By Joe R. Price)The ability to “give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear” is not inborn (1 Pet. 3:15). “Defense” is translated from apologia which is a “speech in defense” (Thayer, 65). Such a defense of one's hope is to be “a reasoned statement or argument” (Online Bible Greek Lexicon). It requires deliberate faith and diligent study to learn the word of God…
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LET'S NOT BE NARROW
(by Roy E. Cogdill)One of the most dreadful things many people can imagine is that they will be accused of "narrow mindedness" in religion. That literally scares them to death; the very thought that they might be considered narrow drives them completely away from the truth. Yet it should not. Truth is narrow. There is nothing liberal or generous about truth; it all narrows down to just one fact. The proper answer to the mathematical…
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“It’s Just Singing”
Years ago the church we were a part of would occasionally devote a service to
hymn singing. One good, knowledgeable brother who was usually faithful to
attend the assemblies, would choose not to come then, because, as he put it, “It’s
just singing.” I have also heard people say, “Some people like to sing, but that’s
just not my personality.”
How would you answer this question: “Why should we sing in worship to God?”
A quick answer could be, “Because He has commanded it.” However there is
much more involved than that.
God created us with the capacity…
