Oh, what a glorious thing to be forgiven! To no longer carry the guilt of your sins! God’s willingness to forgive all who come to Him in true humility and repentance is an amazing thing. But I have found that the forgiveness of God is often misunderstood. On the one hand, there is nothing you or I can do to earn forgiveness from God. We receive God’s forgiveness based on what Jesus did on our [...]
Have you ever been blessed by God? Jacob wrestled with God. Do you remember the story? He wrestled with God and refused to let go until he received God’s blessing… It got me thinking… what exactly does it mean to be blessed by God? As I studied the role of blessings in the stories of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, I found that although I had a sort of inner sense of what a blessing is, [...]
Jacob had an interesting relationship with God. You may remember the story: Jacob and Esau were fraternal twins. From the beginning, they were polar opposites: Esau was a rough outdoorsman. He loved to go hunting. Jacob preferred to stick close to home. Esau was big and burly and hairy. Jacob was smaller and smooth-skinned. Because Esau had been the first of the twins to reach outside the womb, he was Isaac’s firstborn and in line [...]
The three-in-one or trinitarian nature of God is perhaps one of the most difficult concepts to grasp when we contemplate the nature of God. But when we begin to understand this very foundational facet of His nature, we also gain insights into our relationship with Him and with one other. I have found that the trinitarian nature of God explains the why of many things. What do we mean by the Trinity? Sometimes people seem [...]
Unless you have studied European Renaissance Literature, you may not know the name of John Donne. John Donne was born into a Catholic family in England in 1572. That may not seem significant to you, but due to laws previously passed by Queen Elizabeth I, anyone not faithfully attending the Church of England in those days was subject to fines, confiscation of property or imprisonment. In 1601, John Donne secretly married Anne More, grand-niece of [...]
From Professor Douglas O. Linder, UMKC School of Law: Although the 1995 criminal trial of O.J. Simpson for the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman has been called "a great trash novel come to life," no one can deny the pull it had on the American public. If the early reports of the murder of the wife of the ex-NFL football star (turned-NBC-sports-announcer) hadn't caught people's full attention, Simpson's surreal Bronco ride on [...]
Thomas Chisholm (1866-1960) lived an ordinary life. Born in a log cabin in Kentucky, he became a teacher at age sixteen. Chisholm enjoyed writing poetry and at twenty-one, he became associate editor of his town newspaper in Franklin, Kentucky. At twenty-seven, Chisholm received Christ as his Savior under the revival ministry of Dr. Henry Clay Morrison. He moved to Louisville to become the editor and business manager of Dr. Morrison’s Pentecostal Herald. At the age [...]
David said to Gad, “I am in great distress; please let me fall into the hand of the Lord, for His mercies are very great. But do not let me fall into the hand of man.” (1Chr. 21:13) What does mercy mean to you? Noah Webster described mercy as, That benevolence, mildness or tenderness of heart which disposes a person to overlook injuries, or to treat an offender better than he deserves; the disposition that [...]
When it comes to understanding the nature of God, love is at the center of many mysteries. If you have been following along with this series, we have touched on some difficult questions that arise when we consider the nature of God. For example, if it is true that God knows everything, if it is true that He is all-powerful and supreme in authority, if it is true that perfect righteousness and justice are integral [...]
Humanity has problems with the justice of God. On the one hand, people complain when God does not act, when evil appears to go unpunished and innocents suffer. On the other hand, people fear God’s strict standard of judgment. God is just, and as in all things, God’s justice is perfect and complete. His judgments are right and good. The real issue is that sin is a bigger problem than we like to admit. Sin [...]
