At that time, some people came and reported to Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. And He responded to them, “Do you think that these Galileans were more sinful than all Galileans because they suffered these things? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as well! Or those 18 […]
Artaxerxes was a title of a few Persian kings. It meant “ruler from truth.” One of these kings gave the Hebrew Ezra a letter that authorized him to resume the work of rebuilding the temple of Yahweh, which had been originally authorized by his predecessor Cyrus. The work had been stopped because of the complaints of some rulers near Jerusalem […]
Problems are probably always related to people. Unclean spirits are frequently the sources of problems, but apart from people accepting or even hosting their activities, those spirits are like poverty-stricken orphans in a Charles Dickens story, peering in a bakery window at the warm pastries with no pennies to buy one. John saw in the Revelation of Jesus that one […]
What should we be doing in terms of giving to the King’s work and blessing His servants by offering them financial assistance? First, consider that in a Kingdom, everything belongs to the King. If something is in someone else’s possession, it is because the King is entrusting it to them at that time. They are just stewards of it, and […]
Part of the daily weather report is the meteorologists’ estimation of atmospheric visibility hindrances. They offer their perspective in miles. Jesus told Nicodemus that a person has to be born a second time before they can see the Kingdom of God (John 3:3). He merely described it as a prerequisite – He didn’t offer it as a guarantee – to […]
John (Jonah / Yochanan) had a son named Simon (Shim’on). Jesus gave him a nickname: Rock (Cephas / Peter). Simon’s actions as a follower of Jesus included declarations of his desire to worship Jesus (and Moses, and Elijah: Matthew 17), the fact that Jesus’ Father is Yahweh (Matthew 16) and that he would die before denying Jesus (Matthew 26). Yet, […]
Karl Marx was the grandson of a Jewish rabbi. Before Karl was born, his father converted to Lutheranism to escape persecution as a Jew. Karl was baptized into the Lutheran church in 1824. He was influenced by many liberal thinkers in his education, but somewhere in his educational experiences he was exposed to the idea of the Kingdom of Heaven. […]
Gnosis is a foreign word that means “knowledge.” The “Gn” part of the word is pronounced like “gnat.” Gnosticism is a loosely connected set of ideas held by groups of people who believe that there is “hidden knowledge” that is only accessible to the “enlightened” or “invited.” Kabballah, Freemasonry, Shriners, Buddhists, Hindus, alchemy, and a hundred forms of witchcraft argue about […]
Cursing, in most peoples’ minds, amounts to someone talking to them loudly with the inclusion of offensive words to the conversation. Another possibility would simply be the use of phrases like, “damn it!” or “I’ll be damned if…” Looking to examples in Scripture of both blessings and curses reveals something different from these cultural examples. Asking the Spirit how to […]
If I decide that I am going to start saving money, or stop using tobacco, or be nicer, or stop beating the dog, I am not likely to be successful if I have only had a change of mind, and not had a change of values. If I am not going to beat the dog anymore, but then the dog […]