Why Jerusalem?
Sep 28
“His foundation is in the holy mountains. The LORD loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. Glorious things of thee are spoken, Zion, city of God.” Psalm 87:1-3
Why bear one another’s burdens?
Sep 26
"Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ . . . For every man shall bear his own burden." (Galatians 6:2, 5) This is one of the most commonly cited Bible "contradictions." The apostle Paul commanding us, almost in the same breath, to bear other people's burdens and yet to bear our own burdens. There is, however, no real contradiction, and both commands are equally valid and important. The problem is partly one of translation. There are two Greek words used here, baros and phortion, respectively. The first means "heavy load," the second, "responsibility." When a Christian friend has been stricken with a great burden--whether sickness, financial need, death of a loved one, or even a grievous sin in his life which he has been unable to overcome by his own strength (see verse 1)--he needs desperately the love and support of his Christian brethren. The Scripture assures us that, when we help relieve this burden, we "fulfill the law of Christ." The previous chapter also notes this: "For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" (Galatians 5:14).
The lost tribes of Israel are not “lost”!
Sep 23
"And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel." (Revelation 7:4) There has been much speculation as to what happened to the so-called "ten lost tribes of Israel" ever since these ten tribes of the northern kingdom of Israel were taken as captives to Assyria by the Assyrian king (2 Kings 17:6). The other two tribes (Judah and Benjamin) were later taken captive to Babylon, but eventually returned to rebuild Jerusalem and establish their nation in the land once again. Nothing is ever said about the ten tribes, however, and various theories have been offered as to what happened to them.
How to know the will of God…
Sep 22
"Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." (Proverbs 3:5, 6) The key to knowing God's will is willingness and determination to follow it before knowing it. "If any man will |literally 'wills to'| do his will, he shall know" (John 7:17). The best indicator as to whether one is really willing to follow God's will, of course, is whether or not he is now following that part of His will which is already known, as revealed in His Word. This requires first knowing and believing, and then obeying the Word, especially those portions dealing with God's general will for all Christians. "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path" (Psalm 119:105). Then, if one indeed is following the revealed will of God, he may ask in confidence (1 John 5:14, 15) for the Lord to indicate His will in a specific matter on which there is no explicit biblical teaching (see also James 1:5, 6).
What God says, “… is a real woman!”
Sep 20
The famous passage on "the virtuous woman" (Proverbs 31:10-31) is often used on Mother’s Day, so the description of the attributes of such a woman is already well known. But it is not so well-known that these 22 verses were originally put together in the form of an acrostic, with each verse starting, in turn, with the successive 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. It is as though the compiler of Proverbs wanted to conclude the book with a special tribute to his own mother (v. 1), and to imply in so doing that it would exhaust all the resources of human language! However, the translators have done something of a disservice by using the word "virtuous," which tends to make us think primarily today simply of moral purity. This woman was far more than just that. The Hebrew word, when used as an adjective or adverb describing a woman, was always translated "virtuous" (Ruth 3:11; Proverbs 12:4; 31:10) or "virtuously" (Proverbs 31:29). When used in reference to men, however (as it is far more frequently), it is always translated by such words as "strong," "valiant," "worthy," etc. Its most common translation is "army." Thus, an ideal woman is a strong, brave, industrious, trustworthy woman, worth an entire army to her husband and her children and her nation. This is woman as God intended woman to be. She is, most especially, a godly woman. "Favor is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised" (v. 30).
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