Origen was a leader among believers a couple of centuries after the birth of Jesus. As a portion of a treatise he titled, “Against Celsus,” (Origen Book III, 29-30) he wrote what I have quoted below. It is a contrast between the ekklesias that were local representations of the governments of men and the local ekklesias that represented the Kingdom […]
Be en-couraged, not dis-couraged, by the likelihood that the hardest battles in your life have not yet been fought. If it is true – that the worst is yet to come – then it is true that the best is also yet to come. The greatest challenges are shoved out front to scare us or distract us from or prepare […]
Several schools of modern psychology attempt to improve our lives by helping us know ourselves better. We attempt to know ourselves by uncovering our pasts. We are instructed to know our current selves by uncovering our feelings. We can only know true measurements by using some guide that exists beyond our selves, though. We need a device that can expose […]
Some of the opportunities (“good things”) that we encounter are not good. Righteousness is doing what the Spirit of the King says to do, even if it doesn’t seem best or most effective. Asking the Spirit what to do won’t always result in righteous actions, because we don’t always hear what He says or always realize it is Him saying […]
As the darkness around us grows in these days, remember that navigation has always been possible when the stars become visible. In all your ways and deeds and thoughts and concerns and relationships and plans introduce to the thoughts of them all the knowledge of Who Yahweh is and how He loves you and has called you into His Kingdom […]
I heard a believer recently complaining about a denomination that allowed women in the pulpit. Several faulty practices came to my mind that seemed more important, that both his denomination and the one he was challenging consider to be good. Practices like: having a pulpit, in a temple, where one person, who may or may not have the spiritual gift […]
Five years is a long time if you are spending the time waiting on something. Five years isn’t long if you are spending it enjoying something. What is different about your life now, compared to five years ago? What has changed regarding work, or habits, or knowledge, or attitude? If you believe that you could have done more to improve […]
As soon as Jesus becomes the Center of our doctrine, our hope, our discussion, our study, our life, our joy, our love, believers will be united and will begin to bring His authority into every aspect of life in the world. As long as we each have our discussions and doctrines and love and study and hope or anything else […]
Then Elisha said, “Take the arrows!” So he took them, and he said to the king of Israel, “Strike the ground!” So he struck the ground three times and stopped. The man of God was angry with him and said, “You should have struck the ground five or six times. Then you would have struck down Aram until you had […]
People whose religion demands procedures and ceremonies as the defining mark of having been “saved” will always ask questions of people they meet to determine if the people are “qualified.” “Have you been baptized?” “Have you been baptized in the name of Jesus?” Have you been immersed in baptism?” “Have you spoken in tongues?” “Have you been through the new […]