Author: elizabethprata

Christian writer and Georgia teacher's aide who loves Jesus, a quiet life, art, beauty, and children.
Posted in prophecy, theology

In love with Nahum

Posted on by elizabethprata

My internet went out at 4:00 yesterday afternoon. I took a quick nap, did some other things, and after an hour or so saw it was still out. I turned the modem on and off, still no internet. I called my company and they said it was a widespread outage due to node failure. No word on when it was coming back.

It’s certainly disconcerting to be disconnected. All my lectures, sermons, entertainment, notes in the cloud etc. require online connection. I have no TV or stereo. Absolutely everything I do is online.

I have some downloaded lectures on my laptop from Todd Friel, in a series called Drive By Discernment. I bought them about ten years ago and went through them all at that time, about 70 lectures, delivered by various men. It’s one of the only and in my opinion, best, series on actually teaching what discernment IS and how to practice it. 70 lectures sounds like a lot but it isn’t. Drive By is the series, and it’s so named because the lectures are 7-11 minutes each. It’s to be listened to, you guessed it, as you drive to work or wherever. So they made the lectures fairly short so people can grab a listen on the go.

Two of the men on the series have since fallen. RW Glenn and Art Azurdia. It is so sad to see the progression of sin and the devastation of what it does to a man and his ministry. Here are a few of the quotes and thoughts from lesson #1 of Drive By Discernment, Todd Friel, speaker:

False teachers hate Jesus. They hate the Bible.

They carry a Bible around on the stage. They put it up on the big screens behind the podium. They claim to love Jesus, but the Jesus they love is the Jesus of their imagination, or the Jesus that makes their bank account better. It is the Jesus that gives them power. It is the Jesus that allows them to live a licentious life- which are all the markings of false teachers.

Believe it or not, there are some positives of false teaching-

1. Heresy clarifies orthodoxy.
2. Heresy sharpens believers in being able to give a reason for the hope that lies within us.
3. It increases the suffering of false teachers. This one is harder to swallow, but given God’s hatred of sin and His vengeance against those who draw His beloved people away from Him, it makes sense.

There are 3 reasons to practice discernment

1. Love of truth
2. Love of people
3. Love of God

Thomas Brooks said, “False teachers are hell’s greatest enrichers!”

I recommend Drive By Discernment. You can listen to the first three sessions for free here on Sermon Audio.

During the offline time I did spend time of course in my Bible and in prayer. I started the Book of Nahum. I finished the book of Nahum. It’s only 3 chapters, lol. I love the Old Testament prophets, Major or Minor. Yesterday I’d heard a sermon from the wonderful series from Grace Community Church, Sundays In July, about the Major Point of the Minor Prophets. For my Bible reading, I decided to spend some time renewing my acquaintance with some of the OT Minor prophets again.

I say again, because I’ve read them all. I read through the OT when I was first saved and I focused a lot of my time on the OT prophets. I love the OT Prophets. I can’t say that enough.

There was a new book on sale that I’d bought back along, a Nahum commentary called Severe Compassion, The Gospel According to Nahum, by Gregory D. Cook. The commentary is so easy to read, insightful and biblical. I also have all of Roy Gingrich’s OT Prophet outlines.

Roy Gingrich contributed uniquely to the faith by making outlines of most of the books of the Bible. Instead of lengthy prose treatment explaining all the aspects of the verses, his outlines succinctly state the main point of each verse in one or two sentences. In his introduction to the book of Nahum, Gingrich wrote:

The book has great value because of its teachings concerning God’s righteousness. It teaches that God ultimately destroys the wicked and delivers the righteous. It teaches that God is severe to His enemies and good to His friends. It is majestic in its moral descriptions of God—No other Bible book excels Nahum in this respect. Gingrich, R. E. (2003). The Books of Micah and Nahum (p. 28). Memphis, TN: Riverside Printing.

As I read through Nahum, I was so moved by the poetry, the images, the contrast of man who thinks he is mighty and the true Mighty One. The OT Major and Minor prophets are majestic pieces of work. Nahum is particularly known for its poetic imagery.

If you are new to the faith, Minor Prophets are called that not because they are of less value, for all scripture is good for correction, edification, and reproof. But they are simply shorter books. Nahum, as I mentioned, is just 3 chapters.

We’re familiar with Jonah, mainly because of the strange tale of the runaway prophet who was swallowed by a great fish. Jonah was sent to Nineveh, the capitol city of Assyria, to preach that God was going to destroy the city. The Ninevites heard the message and repented.

They remained in God’s good graces for a few generations, but after 100 years passed, the Ninevites were back in the same boat. They were committing atrocities, they were boastful, they were spiritual adulterers. God determined that the time had come. He sent Nahum to preach to Judah that their oppression and harassment by this nation was about to be over, and gave Nahum an oracle to deliver. That message comprised the book of Nahum.

Nahum is a straightforward book, offering no interpretive challenges. Its history doesn’t bear a lot of digging into because it’s not complicated. Assyria & Nineveh, your time for destruction has come. That’s it.

Nahum is one of the most beautiful of the prophetical works, being the most vivid in imagery and poetry. Give Nahum a try. Better yet, read Jonah, then Nahum. I think you will learn a lot about God.

nahum

Posted in theology

Who are hell’s greatest enrichers?

Posted on by elizabethprata

From Grace Gems, below is this short piece from Thomas Brooks. Brooks was a British Puritan who lived from 1608 – 1680. If you’re interested in Brooks, here is Tim Challies with a short bio of Thomas Brooks.

I’m struck by the plethora of false teaching today that undermines and poisons the faith, but by the same token, the false teachers bringing it are tolerated and even lauded. “You don’t know their heart”, we are told. “They’re sincere, and some people benefit from their works,” we hear. “Don’t judge them, let them be, God will take care of them eventually” we’re advised.

poison
Saying false teachers are sincerely working for Jesus is the same as saying the cyanide is sincerely working for your death. EPrata photo

If you had a herd of rats running around your living room, would you say, ‘Let them be, they’ll die eventually.’ I’m sorry for the graphic visual, but of course you wouldn’t say that. Your home is your retreat, your safety. Rats are dirty and bring disease into your home. They bite your baby. They contaminate and pollute your food. You would not tolerate them.

Now how does God feel about false teachers doing the same in His home?

No, false teachers are not to be tolerated. They are a plague and a poison to one and all they come into contact with. To the people who say and advise such things, If I pour this eyedropper of cyanide into your glass of water, and say, ‘Just sip it. The rest of the water is fresh and good. Drink around the cyanide’ would you say I’m ridiculous? Of course. False teaching is like cyanide in liquid. It poisons everything. As is written, a little leaven spoils the whole lump. (Galatians 5:9, 1 Corinthians 5:6).

willard_01
Ernest Borgnine in the classic 1971 horror film Willard.

Here is how the false teachers were viewed back in the day-

Hell’s greatest enrichers!
(From Brooks’ longer sermon, “Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices“. In it, Brooks lays out 7 characteristics of false teachers).

“The prophets who lead my people astray.” Micah 3:5)

Satan labors by false teachers, who are his emissaries to deceive, delude, and forever undo the precious souls of men! They seduce them, and carry them out of the right way into by-paths and blind thickets of error and wickedness–where they are lost forever! As strumpets paint their faces, and deck and perfume their beds, the better to allure and deceive simple souls; so false teachers will put a great deal of paint and garnish upon their most dangerous principles and blasphemies, that they may the better deceive and delude poor ignorant souls. They know sugared-poison goes down sweetly.

They wrap up their pernicious, soul-killing pills in gold! “Peace, peace! they say, when there is no peace.” (Jeremiah 6:14).

“Beware of false prophets, for they come to you in sheep’s clothing–but inwardly they are ravening wolves!” These lick and suck the blood of souls! These kiss and kill! They cry, ‘Peace, peace!’ until souls fall into everlasting flames! False teachers handle holy things with wit and trifling, rather than with fear and reverence. They are soul-murderers!

They are like evil surgeons, who skin over the wound–but never heal it. False teachers are hell’s greatest enrichers! Such smooth teachers are sweet soul-poisoners!

This age is full of such teachers–such monsters! They eye your goods more than your good; and mind more the serving of themselves–than the saving of your souls. So they may have your substance–they care not though Satan has your souls! That they may the better pick your purse–they will hold forth such principles as are very indulgent to the flesh. These are Satan’s great benefactors, and such as divine justice will hang up in hell as the greatest malefactors!

———–end Brooks———

He was fervent, wasn’t he? I think his is the appropriate attitude. False teachers draw away God’s beloved. They poison His Gospel. They’re a rebellion and a blot against His holy name. They fail at their ambassadorship. They vaunt sin and present a stumbling block to the lost. They are a scourge.

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 2For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. (2 Timothy 3:1-5).

Avoid such people.

Posted in prophecy, theology

Why Study Eschatology?

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

1. Why Study Prophecy (the prophetic scriptures)

It’s a sanctifying hope. Keeping our eyes on the heavenlies keeps our hope in the future reward alive. Our citizenship isn’t here on earth, it’s in heaven. Hoping in faith for Jesus to come, each day, (‘When you pray, pray…Thy Kingdom Come…’ Matthew 6:10) keeps us inside a sanctifying hope. Our eyes lodged firmly on Jesus, we can better resist the flesh, which, in our sanctifying hope, we know will pass away

And every man that has this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure. (1 John 3:3)

2. What does it mean to keep our eyes on our future?

It means we always remember this earth is not our home. Once your mind is awakened to this concept that we are pilgrims, you will see the reference and types throughout scripture from the Old Testament to the New. The Bible alternately uses words like sojourner, exiles, foreigners, aliens, and strangers.

You shall not oppress a sojourner. You know the heart of a sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. (Exodus 29:3)

Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear to my cry; hold not your peace at my tears! For I am a sojourner with you, a guest, like all my fathers. (Psalm 39:12)

Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. (1 Peter 2:11-12)

The word in Greek as used in the 1 Peter 2 means,

parepídēmos – a sojourner (foreigner) – literally, someone “passing through” but still with personal relationship with the people in that locale (note the prefix, para, “close beside”). This temporary (but active) relationship is made necessary by circumstances.

The writer of Hebrews noted the patriarchs that have come before us, and concludes,

All these people died in faith, without having received the things they were promised. However, they saw them and welcomed them from afar. And they acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 

Do we acknowledge we are in relationship with the citizens of earth but know this relationship is temporary? Or do we participate in the world systems, for example the political, with a do-or-die attitude?

3. What will happen at the very, very end?

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. (2 Peter 3:10).

As John MacArthur said of global warming: “So, your hairspray isn’t going to do it. Go ahead and spray.”

This is one startling example of reasons not to get entangled in world systems. In the above case, it’s environmentalism. In the vein of the word sojourner above, we have a relationship with the people in our lives and our surroundings, and God did tell us to shepherd the earth (care for the garden). But getting embroiled in saving the earth is a quite different activity. It is an activity that people who are eternally attached to the earth will do. We are not attached to the earth. Upon salvation, our citizenship was transferred off the earth, to heaven.

We can rejoice in knowing our future is with Jesus and He is sovereign over all things, including the prophetic plan.

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Posted in end time, theology

Daniel’s 70 weeks and Tribulation explanations

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

I can’t wait to see what you all look like when you are glorified! I can’t wait to see the glassy sea, the angels who have helped me, the face of Jesus! I can’t wait to be free from pain and shed of my sin nature. I can’t wait to be in eternity! However, I will await His timing. We all must await the number of our days to be up and His determination of when we enter glory. More on that below.

The Tribulation is prophesied to be a period where many things will happen. One of them is that the earth and heavens themselves will be wildly disrupted. Landforms disappear. Weather patterns evaporate. Orbits cease. And more.

The outline of what Jesus will be doing at that time is presented to us in Daniel 9:24. The Lord will do 6 things:

“Seventy weeks are determined For your people and for your holy city,
1. To finish the transgression,
2. To make an end of sins,
3. To make reconciliation for iniquity,
4. To bring in everlasting righteousness,
5. To seal up vision and prophecy,
6. And to anoint the Most Holy.”

Notice several things. First, it is a period where though the times will seem chaotic, it will actually be orderly. It is all in control of God. The three series of 7-judgments apiece (Seals, Trumpets, Bowls; perhaps four sets if the Seven Thunders of Revelation 10:3-4 are actually judgments) will be delivered in orderly fashion. The judgments unleash chaos, but their deliverance is orderly and controlled.

The Tribulation is the time for it all to come to the conclusion that God exists, He is angry with sinners, and to repent. So it will be a time of demonstrable wrath and the conclusion of the 6 things. In further orderliness, He stopped His prophetic timetable clock at 483 years. In Daniel 9:24a the angel declared to Daniel it would be 7X70 or 7 bundles of 7’s (a shavuim). But nowhere was it promised to be 490 consecutive years! But they should have known that, because the interruption was stated. In Daniel 9:25-26, a mere verse later, the angel told Daniel that after seven sevens and 62 sevens, Messiah will be cut off (vernacular for died) and the people of the prince who is to come (antichrist) shall destroy the city.

Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem was 483 years to the day and then the clock stopped. Since then, Jesus has been taking 2000 years to build His church. When the church reaches His quota of people inhabiting it, (Romans 11:25) He will snatch us away from this earth, and He will finish that last 7 years of the prophesied 70 weeks and accomplish the rest of the 6 things.

The angel also explained to Daniel that it is a time when God directs His attention to “your people” and “your holy city” (Jerusalem). That does not mean He isn’t paying attention to non-believers or non-Jews during the Tribulation, or that nothing will happen to them during the Tribulation. Not at all. Jeremiah 30:7 calls it the Time of Jacob’s Trouble, though, and its point is for the LORD to finish His promises to His people. #1 is to finish the transgression, and #2 says He will make an end to sins. This making an end to sins is an event that will affect everyone on the planet. God always sees the world through the lens of His people the Jews and through the central location of the Holy City. But all the world will be affected.

In addition, note the progression of the 6 things on the list. At the beginning, He allows the transgression to have its full expression. By the end, the Most Holy is anointed. The Most Holy is Jesus. Ahhh, what a day that will be! The Tribulation is the cap-stone to the final age of man where He allows the total outcome of rejection of the Holy Spirit to take its full course. Like in Noah’s day, where all of man’s thoughts were only evil continually, (Gen 6:5) so it shall be again at the end of days (Matthew 24:37). But in the Tribulation, man will actually act out all his evil in his heart, it won’t remain there. He who holds back lawlessness will be taken out of the way (2 Thessalonians 2:7), another way of saying He will release His restraining hold against sin, which will allow it to flood in..

The LORD set up certain restraints against sin in these and previous days. Our conscience, the family, government, and law, like police law that pagans are under all work to restrain sin in the unbeliever. (Christians have the Holy Spirit to help us restrain, even kill, sin.)

Can you even imagine how drastic that time period will be? Just as we can’t imagine in our finite mind the full scale of His glory in heaven, we cannot imagine that bottomless, putrid pit in which sin flows forth. /shudder/. Better to not think of it.

The Daniel 9:26 verse also promises that the end will come like a flood. This does not mean that there will be a flood of actual waters as in the first global judgment. He promised Noah that he would never drown the world again. (Genesis 9:13). However, as part of the cataclysmic geo-physical upheavals during the Tribulation there will be floods and tides and hurricanes and tsunamis. However, the verse uses figurative language. The Hebrew word in Dan 9:26 is “sheteph; from shataph; a deluge (literally or figuratively) — flood, outrageous, overflowing.” He means that SIN will have its outrageous overflowing.

This flood language mirrors the language in Revelation 12:15. Midway through the Tribulation, the antichrist tears up the peace treaty he had confirmed with the Jews at the beginning of the Tribulation. He then persecutes them with all unholiness and evil. He goes after the Jews with an evil vengeance that makes the WWII Holocaust look like a picnic. Revelation 12:15 says- “And the serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, so that he might cause her to be swept away with the flood.” Satan pours out his evil and sin flows over the world like a flood.

Floods have waters that rise, and rise and rise, eventually washing away all that is in its path. Even tsunamis which travel at jet speeds have waters that flow and rise accordingly. The end began when Jesus ascended, but it has been 2000 years and we can see that the flood waters of sin are not lapping at our toes…are not sweeping against our waists…but the flood waters of sin seem like they are actually crashing over our heads by this point in time. It is like the famous photo of the lighthouse and its keeper-

la-jument-7[6]

But we are not destined for wrath! (1 Thessalonians 5:9). Though sin tries to engulf us, it will not prevail against His church! (Matthew 16:18). Notice where the keeper is: INSIDE the Lighthouse. Would you want to be anywhere else when the wages of sin try to engulf you? No. You would not survive that wave. You would not survive the hidden reefs under the wave. (Jude 1:12). Being in the Lighthouse is the only safe place to be, in ages past and in this present age. Blessedly, Jesus removes His bride from the earth before the Tribulation begins. We are not condemned, nor will we be punished for sins that He forgave us for. It will be the unbelieving world and His people Israel who will suffer the consequences of their rejection of the Savior.

Jude says, the unbelievers and apostates are “Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.” (Jude 1:12).

Peter says, “These men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them.” (2 Peter 2:17).

Isaiah says, “But the wicked are like the tossing sea, which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and mud.” (Isaiah 57:20).

What of us, individually? His word says that Hades will not prevail against His church. Some days, though, sin prevails against me. What about you? Each of us struggles against sin every day. Some days it truly feels like it will engulf me. Here is the remedy: “The Lord is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” (Psalm 27:1).

We are Light keepers, and our job is never more important than during the storm! We are in Christ as THE Light, but we keep His word hidden in our hearts. We are ambassadors of His glory and His truths. We keep His commands. We keep His flame alive on earth by staying in Him and close to Him. It is important to be brighter during the storm and so let us be bright, by being full of peace and joy in these stormy times. Let the waves crash! We have the eternal Strength of the Light. Let others see, and hear the Good News, and come to Him.

Posted in theology

In Praise of Ordinary

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

I live a quiet life, very limited, with a small ‘reach’ in the daily routines in which I dwell. If it’s fall, winter, or spring, I go to work, go to church, go to small group, and come home, where I drink tea, read, nap, and commune with my cats.

If it’s summer, I do all the above except go to work.

At the beginning of the summer I started a photo series called “My Day”. I knew that I’d have little to show, being that I stay at home 5 days out of every 7, rarely even emerging from the house to breathe fresh air. I started the series because I wanted to challenge myself in being creative with limited options.

I kept it up for several weeks before the inevitable boredom and repetitiveness with it set in and I quit. I mean, how many collages can you make that show the same things: I ate a salad. Here’s my cat. This is the book I’m reading now. Coffee with whipped cream on it. Repeat.

But then someone said they really loved the series. I was surprised. I thought about this for a long time. Several weeks, in fact. I thought about why and what it meant. This is the conclusion I came to:

We should celebrate ordinary life.

I am a fan or ordinary life, and using social media to show that ordinary life. This is for two reasons.

1. It’s a rebuttal to the fad of being “radical” that was sparked by David Platt’s book “Radical” where the prominent thread throughout the book was that if you’re not shedding American/Western consumerism and flinging yourself headlong into an inner city or a third world country somewhere for the Gospel’s sake, you’re a second-level Christian. Be radical, that’s where it’s at.

John MacArthur rebutted the radical fad with an article I’ve mentioned and linked to many times on this blog. It’s called An Unremarkable Faith. It’s about a fictional high school chemistry teacher who goes to work, witnesses, loves his wife, repeat.

[From the essay], Pastor Tom Lyons describes the unremarkable Christian: “His aspirations, his thirst for notoriety, his estimate of greatness have all been changed. His horizon has come closer to home. He finds in the Bible no call to be outstanding. He is not without ambition, but his dreams have nothing to do with rising above his fellows. Unless pressed, he prefers anonymity to attention. He is steady. Steadied by grace. And one of the most amazing things about grace is how it works this even disposition.”

The unremarkable (ordinary) Christian life is full of things that are not there. The cross word never spoken. The impatience never displayed. The ignorance never revealed. The ordinary life is full of restraint. It’s buttressed by mundanity. It’s filled with kindness, love, patience and all the fruit of a successful life in Him.

and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, (1 Thessalonians 4:11)
flowers pixlr

The word ‘aspire’ in the verse as we read it in the ESV (philotiméomai) means I desire very strongly. Should we desire very strongly the celebrity life? No. Should we desire very strongly our best life now? No. Should we desire very strongly the quiet life? Yes.

2. I also esteem the ordinary life for a second reason that’s even more important than the first. It’s to honor the life described in the Bible.

Since it was 1st century AD most people worked with their hands. There was no Wal-Mart to go pick up stuff. Paul was a tentmaker. I can imagine Dorcas/Tabatha sewing, Lydia making purple running her business. Simon the tanner. Fishermen. Very few lived the life of the mind. The Pharisees, notably, and scribes. Their and my greatest moment in life has already happened: salvation. What is there after that? Where else would we go? Jesus has the words of life.

That word philotiméomai also means to seek after what is honorable. Living quietly, circumspectly, working at the mundane job, witnessing, demonstrating the day by day sustenance on His word, is honorable. We forget that.

3.This essay offers yet another reason to seek after the ordinary life.

The Instagrammable Christian Life

Our discipleship mostly consists, day in and day out, of following Jesus on some rather ordinary roads. … Something similar is true in our own lives. If we ignore or pass over the ordinary things of life, giving the highest honor to our best, most picturesque moments, we miss what life is really about.

It’s hard to photograph the ordinary, but that is our life, most of us. It was the Bible people’s life, too. What would Simon the Tanner photograph and publish on Instagram if he could? Animal guts, blood, the kids running around, fixing the fence, sharpening the knives… His ordinary day. I suppose the jailer might post Kinfolk Aesthetic pics of his keys atop a pile of wood and artsy B&W pics of the jail bars in repeated shadow, lol. Dorcas: sewing needles and bolts of cloth and ladies sitting around.

We think of the Bible people’s lives as ones of wielding swords in victory and shekinah glory all the time every minute, but most people’s lives for their whole life was ordinary and filled with quiet routines. We see our friend posting photos and making Facebook statuses of their fabulous trips. And there’s nothing wrong with that. I personally I enjoy all the family vacation photos I can see on Instagram or FB because they encourage me. But as the article The Instagrammable Christian Life makes the point, the high points aren’t the only part of life. Life is the ordinary, the quiet, the mundane. The article goes on to remind us that the Christian life also includes suffering.

I’ll probably start up my daily collage series again but instead of My Day call it #OrdinaryLife. I’m also going to do a blog series called A Day in the Life of… and focus on the nuts and bolts of daily 1st century living for, say, a tanner, a merchant, a fisherman, a centurion, a jailer.

Meanwhile, celebrate your ordinary life. If you’re a mom changing diapers, a laborer counting widgets on assembly line, a nurse cleaning up a mess, it is OK. This is what God ordained in our quiet lives. We just plug along in our ordinary routines, exalting God in the big and the little. Repeat. Our real life gets really REALLY good after we die. It will be our best life then.

 

Posted in encouragement, theology

A Beautiful Interlude: David’s Exultation

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

During the summer several of our regular Thursday night discussion groups disbanded. In their place, the elders instituted a Tuesday night  class going through the first 8 chapters of Romans. It has been a wonderful study. In the hour before the class starts, the elders are also raising up younger men by allowing them to select a short text and teach it to a smaller audience. Though the period is jokingly referred to as The Inferno, the men receive comments and encouragement after, not criticism.

This week, one of the younger guys taught through several texts centering on the concept of Christians being sojourners. That concept is worthy of a lengthier study and I’ll be doing that later this month. But one of the texts he mentioned was from 1 Chronicles 29 and it is beautiful.

To set the context, the Israelites have been repatriated. The building of the temple is commissioned. The kingdom is transitioning Israel from warlike kingship (David) to Solomon and the ongoing worship at the newly built temple. The people had gathered incredible offerings in exultation of this fact.

David’s Prayer

So David blessed the LORD in the sight of all the assembly; and David said, “Blessed are You, O LORD God of Israel our father, forever and ever. “Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, indeed everything that is in the heavens and the earth;

Yours is the dominion, O LORD, and You exalt Yourself as head over all. “Both riches and honor come from You, and You rule over all, and in Your hand is power and might; and it lies in Your hand to make great and to strengthen everyone. “Now therefore, our God, we thank You, and praise Your glorious name.

“But who am I and who are my people that we should be able to offer as generously as this? For all things come from You, and from Your hand we have given You.” (1 Chronicles 29:10-14 NASB).

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary says of the 1 Chronicles passage:

10-19. Wherefore David blessed the Lord—This beautiful thanksgiving prayer was the effusion overflowing with gratitude and delight at seeing the warm and widespread interest that was now taken in forwarding the favorite project of his life. Its piety is displayed in the fervor of devotional feeling—in the ascription of all worldly wealth and greatness to God as the giver, in tracing the general readiness in contributing to the influence of His grace, in praying for the continuance of this happy disposition among the people, and in solemnly and earnestly commending the young king and his kingdom to the care and blessing of God.

The fact that God is sovereign, and delivers all that we have, without Him we would have nothing, reminds us of the verse in James 1:17,

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

And Jesus reminded Pontius Pilate that he had no power in himself,

Jesus answered him, You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. (John 19:1a).

Let our life and prayers be infused with a warm and effusive gratitude for not only the things God has given us (from common grace all the way to salvation and adoption) but a gratitude for being allowed to worship Him in spirit and in truth. What we have to give him, comes from Him. Our tongues to utter prayers, the air filling our lungs, the tithes and offerings from our work, all of which He has given us.

But who am I and who are my people that we should be able to offer as generously as this? Who am I? Indeed, a sinner, redeemed by His grace, and who are the people? a Body of worshiping, forgiven sinners united in knowledge that apart from Him we can do nothing. All that we are and all that we have is from Him. He is GREAT! And worthy to be praised- and thanked.

praising god

Posted in news, theology

Please don’t repeat fake news, here’s how to spot fake news

Posted on by elizabethprata

I was a journalist for over 6 years, working for weeklies and dailies. I can attest to the fact that most newspapers have an obvious liberal slant. They don’t see it, and they would deny it.

Add to the mix widespread social media and unscrupulous liberals who really do stop at nothing to push forward their talking points. I can attest to the fact that the liberal worldview, which is satan’s, has minions that promote or engage in violence, lie, cheat, and generally do anything to ensure both the squashing of the Christian worldview and to push forward the liberal world view. We’ve seen that on television broadcast news. It’s the same in newspapers. I knew some newspapers that just made up stuff. I wonder how they justified it.

Sadly, there are few sources for a conservative to turn to receive unbiased news with no agenda behind it. We can always ready past news and future news in the Bible, I guess!! LOL.

If we want to be responsible citizens of God’s Kingdom, we don’t want to perpetuate lies, either. We need to engage in the world, but responsibly.

Facebook seems largely a woman’s domain. Many men on that particular social media are strong witnesses for Christ, but they can also fall prey to a liberal trap.  A lot of these fake news items arise from Facebook and then get pushed into other mediums. Please sisters, don’t forward or like news posts that are false. We can’t fall into the trap of fake news. Before you share or tweet or like or forward or message, lol, stop a second and think. We can’t be perpetuating lies. Here is a helpful schematic to run through a thought process to see if the news item is true or false.

Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself. (Proverbs 26:4)

fake news

Posted in theology

I changed the template

Posted on by elizabethprata

I like the two column blog format, but it is old-looking, I have to admit. Dated. I’ve been noodling around for several weeks trying different templates, but none really satisfied in all the aspects (reader ease-of-use, photos, text, arrangement, widget handling, header…). Today I finally took the plunge and switched to a simple magazine format, figuring I’ll deal with things as they arise when I go forward day by day.

I know it looks a little bad. This template is visually driven (whereas all these past years blogs have been text driven). That is where my emphasis has been- the words. So the visuals that highlight each blog entry on this front page aren’t the best for this format. As I go forward and choose more photos and graphics to accompany the text, specifically keeping in mind this format in this size, it should look better. Gradually. I hope.

The About and Contact is at the top and the Search, Archive, and Donate button etc. are at the bottom. One other change is now I’m using my byline in every post. Someone on Twitter said they don’t trust an essay with no byline, and though in my ‘About’ I stated my name, credentials, belief system, and email address, people just don’t look there. Hence, the byline.

I’ll continue to tweak the template and decide if I like it. My old one was just making me crazy so I took the leap. 🙂 Whichever template drives me crazy the least in the next couple of weeks will win.

goldfinch