Kay Cude is a Texas poet. Used with permission. Right click to see larger in new tab
Kay Cude Poetry: Mortifying Misundertanding
When teachers rely on word studies to create lessons
By Elizabeth Prata
The Master’s Seminary published an essay titled “Exegetical Fallacies: The Word Study Fallacy” by William Barrick
I found it interesting because much of women’s ministry teaching comes from this kind of study. The Grandmother of word studies is Beth Moore. Her proteges are following suit and her proteges’ proteges, third generation Bible teachers for women, are following suit also.
I attended a BM Living Proof “study” in North Carolina years ago. I had begun going to church regularly only a few years prior. So I was a newbie to church and to the faith. I was totally new to discernment. Most of my earliesty blogging had to do more with prophecy than discernment or encouragement.
I re-read the discernment essays I had written back then regarding Moore’s teaching and I am proud of the Holy Spirit because I think they hold up over time. I believe I was on the money with my concerns to a degree that only the Holy Spirit can take credit because, as I said, I was new and fairly unlearned. I had written a review about my concern with how Moore approaches a teaching she said she constructs for delivery at Living Proof.
She explained how she arrives at the lessons she teaches on her tour. She said that when she prays the Holy Spirit will deliver a word to her. [This is an extrabiblical, Mystical practice] In the case for the teaching in Charlotte, it had been “Hold Fast.” In the case of her next tour in Columbia, it will be “Prepare.” She then creates an acrostic of teaching points that begin with each letter in the main word. In that long-ago Living Proof conference I attended ours was –
His affection is set upon us
Only He is your praise
Loving Him awakens your true heart
Doing His will does us good
Fleeing to Him means fleeing with Him
Any tighter embrace will also replace
Satan wants what we have
The Lord is your life
Looks kind of OK, doesn’t it? I won’t explain each of the eight mantras point by point, but share with you some of what troubled me most. I think word studies are good, and I like when teachers look into the Greek or the Hebrew meaning. This manner of exegetical study, finding all the words that relate to a subject and building a lesson out of it is fraught with danger. You lose the context of each passage you are extracting the word from. If you cross OT to NT that context gets more complicated because you have to research whether the word used in a context was meant only for the Jews in the Old Covenant or can be extrapolated into the New Covenant for the Gentiles. Getting meaning from the Hebrew-to-Greek is also problematic for a layman.
This approach also means that you wind up using a LOT of verses in one study and that tends to feel cobbled together and superficial. Rick Warren does this constantly and he has been called out for it. You can’t really explain to full depth each verse so you simply refer to them, and there winds up being a lot of different points. It gets unfocused, really fast.
What is Hermeneutics? from Ligonier, “the art science of biblical interpretation” … more at link
Moore had said that she found every ‘hold fast’ in the Bible, OT or NT, and she put together a lesson from that. A lot of people in the audience were so impressed with her mention of the Greek word for this or the Hebrew word for that. Even at my naïve state years ago, ripping out a word from its context and matching it to other words it may seem like, wasn’t a good approach. Context is everything.
The Master’s Seminary article explains in detail just why students should not absorb lessons from teachers who crafted lessons based on these kinds of word studies, nor should teachers create lessons based on studies of these kinds. Below are two short excerpts from the short version of their article. If you want to go deeper into the whys and wherefores, there is a fuller, lengthier version of the same article, here.
When it comes to studying Scripture, word studies are popular, easily obtained from available resources and an easy way to procure sermon content. However, word studies are also subject to radical extrapolations and erroneous applications. It is not always possible to strike exegetical gold by extracting a word from the text for close examination. Word studies alone will not suffice. Indeed, over-occupation with word studies can be a sign of laziness and ignorance involved in much of what passes for biblical exposition in our times.
Study of the words alone will not present us with a consistent interpretation or theology. This is one of the misleading aspects of theological dictionaries/wordbooks. One learns far more about obedience/disobedience or sacrifice and sin from the full statement of a passage like 1 Sam 15:22–23 than he will from word studies of key terms like “sacrifice,” “obey,” or “sin” in the text.
The most important thing about studying the Bible is actually reading the Bible. Too many people spend too much time warming up first. Getting the right chair, the cup of coffee, the notebook, the pen, the devotional, the book about how to read the Bible … all fussing over the preparations and never digging into the main event.
Be a good Bible student. And watch out for shallow word study teachers. Just because they mention “Greek” or “Hebrew” doesn’t necessarily mean they’ve delved deeply. Many times it means the opposite.
Recommended resources:
Hermeneutics: her·me·neu·tics- ˌhərməˈn(y)o͞odiks/
noun. The branch of knowledge that deals with interpretation, especially of the Bible or literary texts.
Short book: How to Eat Your Bible: A Simple Approach to Learning and Loving the Word of God by Nate Pickowicz
Grace To You/John MacArthur-
Essay: How to Study Your Bible
Essay: Simple Steps to Solid Study
Book: How To Study the Bible
Article by Tim Challies: How To Study the Bible
Book by Richard Mayhue How To Interpret The Bible By Yourself
Challies Review of Mayhue’s Book
Article by Focus on the Family: How to Study the Bible
Lesson series Herman Who? by Wretched/Todd Friel
Worshiping the Creator of creation
By Elizabeth Prata
Because the times are so hard and the world is so dark, I’ve been posting some short essays on worship. Just worship. It’s a way to remind me, and anyone, that “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him for ever” says the Westminster Shorter Catechism. Let’s just find ways every day to enjoy God!
Prayer, an act of worship
“Please show me your glory!”
Worship interlude: Praising a sovereign Savior
I like natural history. It’s God’s creation. I like thinking about how He has created everything from nothing with just a word. I see the intricacy of His creatures and flora and fauna and I’m just amazed.
I walked across my apartment parking lot yesterday when I got home from school. The frigid weather had turned to 68 degrees and it was warm and humid. Halfway across I heard what sounded like a frog. Frogs! I thought it’s way too early for frogs! There is a pond next door butt the sound was coming from high up in the trees on the onterside of the road in the woods.
I went inside and searched for “bird that sounds like a frog” and came up with Hooded Merganser.
But reading natural history books is a two-edged sword. Most are written from a secular point of view, and at some point the constant lies within such books begins to grate, and I abandon them.
I wrote once about the Victorian craze for seaweed collecting. This was a craze in which mostly women participated who were constrained by cultural pressure not to collect the more seductive looking plants. It was based on an original article at Atlas Obscura, which is a secular magazine. My article was to look at the issue through a biblical lens.
One of the natural history books mentioned in the Atlas Obscura article was a seaweed journal by Margaret Gatty. Atlas Obscura wrote of her,
One of the best known and most dedicated of these so-called seaweeders was Margaret Gatty, a children’s book author who took up the hobby while convalescing in Hastings, on Britain’s southeast coast, in 1848. Gatty’s crowning work of algology, British Sea-Weeds, is an exhaustive compilation of local seaweeds, fully described and illustrated in 86 colored plates.
I did not know there was a whole field of study called ‘algology’. These are selected plates of her seaweed drawings,
I love those colored plates from natural history books from the 1800s. I owned two rare books,
A popular history of the mollusca : comprising a familiar account of their classification, instincts and habits and of the growth and distinguishing characters of their shells, by Mary Roberts, 1851; and
Popular British conchology. A familiar history of the molluscs inhabiting the British Isles, By George Brettingham Sowerby, 1854.
I love the hand colored plates of the plants or animals they carefully drew. I also have several books by Harvard University paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould (secular guy, sigh). There’s French poet-philosopher Paul Valery in his engaging meditation on the aesthetics of the seashell, as Amazon describes his work. Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s musings on shells in her famous Gift from the Sea. And so many other books. I guess now that I’m thinking of listing them, my library contains quite a few natural history books. Rachel Carson, Farley Mowat, John Hay, Abbot & Dance…
In this article I enjoyed from the New York Times Review of Books, I learned from this article “What the Trees Say,“
In 1664 John Evelyn, diarist, country gentleman, and commissioner at the court of Charles II, produced his monumental book on trees: Sylva, or a Discourse of Forest Trees. It was a seventeenth-century best seller. Evelyn was a true son of the Renaissance. His book is learned and witty and practical and passionate all by turns. No later book on trees has ever had such an impact on the British public.
Hmmm, maybe that’s why the Monty Python comedy troupe mentioned THE LARCH so often…
I love trees. Maybe I’ll get that book.
As much as I love reading about the creation from scientists of various kinds, there’s nothing like reading the Bible, God’s actual account of His world. As poetic as Lindbergh was, as witty as John Evelyn was, as precise as Sowerby or Roberts was, the thrill of reading about the creation from God Himself never fails to thrill me. As familiar as these verses are, they still ignite a reverent awe at His power:
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
3And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. 5God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
6And God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” 7And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. 8And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day. (Genesis 1:1-8)
Nature displays God’s glory. The best place to read about that is His word, what He, Himself, has declared.
Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it. Let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them; let all the trees of the forest sing for joy. (Psalm 96:11-12)
We are glad because as Job 12:10 says,
In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.
Is there any better place to be, if you’re saved? In His hand? Is there any worse place to be, if you’re not saved?
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. (Hebrews 10:31)
Read of His creation. The essays, poems, philosophies of the secular writers and scientists is fine, also good are Natural History books on the Bible such as The Scripture Alphabet of Animals by Mrs. Harriet N. Cook, 1842; The Plants of the Bible by John Hutton Balfour, 1885. But the originator of it all is the one to be worshiped and the best place to do that is read of Him in His word-
Do you not know? Have you not heard?
The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth
Does not become weary or tired.
His understanding is inscrutable. (Isaiah 40:28)
Prayer, an act of worship
By Elizabeth Prata
This is an excerpt from David McIntyre’s The Hidden Life of Prayer, chapter 6. This book, written in 1913, is available for free online, as well as for purchase in regular book or Kindle form.
—-Begin book excerpt—–
The prayer of faith, like some plant rooted in a fruitful soil, draws its virtue from a disposition which has been brought into conformity with the mind of Christ.
1. It is subject to the Divine will-“This is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us” (1 John 5:14).
2. It is restrained within the interest of Christ-“Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (John 14:13).
3. It is instructed in the truth-“If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you” (John 15:7).
4. It is energized by the Spirit-“Able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us” (Eph. 3:20).
5. It is interwoven with love and mercy-“And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any; that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses” (Mark 11:25).
6. It is accompanied with obedience-“Whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight” (1 John 3:22).
7. It is so earnest that it will not accept denial-“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you” (Luke 11:9).
8. It goes out to look for, and to hasten its answer “The supplication of a righteous man availeth much in its working” (James 5:16, RV).34
—-End book excerpt—–
Pray for your pastors or elders. Pray for your family Pray for your unsaved family. Pray for your political leaders. Pray for the world, for God’s will to be done, for His return. Pray for everything! But pray. It is an act of worship, acknowledging God is sovereign over all things, beginning with your will and soul.
American Family Radio drops Begg’s program over same-sex advice
By Elizabeth Prata
A few days ago I wrote about an interview that had surfaced between Bob Lepine and Alistair Begg which revealed that despite Begg’s normally solid and biblical stance that homosexuality is a sin, he had given a counselee advice for her to attend her grandson’s wedding to a transgender person, and bring a gift. That blog essay is here.
Begg’s remarks that sparked the outcry were contained in an interview from four months ago in September 2023 about the publication of his new book, The Christian Manifesto. Begg had said,
I asked the grandmother, “Does your grandson understand your belief in Jesus?”
“Yes.”
“Does your grandson understand that your belief in Jesus makes it such that you can’t countenance in any affirming way the choices that he has made in life?”
“Yes.”
I said, “Well then, okay. As long as he knows that, then I suggest that you do go to the ceremony. And I suggest that you buy them a gift.”
“Oh,” she said, “what?” She was caught off guard.
I said, “Well, here’s the thing: your love for them may catch them off guard, but your absence will simply reinforce the fact that they said, ‘These people are what I always thought: judgmental, critical, unprepared to countenance anything.’”
Begg has preached several times about homosexuality and same-sex issues, always aligned with what the Bible says. Therefore, Begg’s answer in this interview was surprising.
There was an outcry, there were pleas to be patient, heated social media discussions, and of course, lots going on in the background.
One of the background items was American Family Radio’s (AFR) concern over Begg’s stance. AFR hosts Begg’s program, Truth for Life (TFL). The company issued a statement that they had contacted TFL for clarification in order to have a frank discussion and determine the depth of Begg’s commitment to his comments.
Apparently it did not go well enough for American Family Radio to feel comfortable continuing to present Begg’s radio material to their listening public any further. They said that representatives speaking for Begg on the phone call maintained Begg’s stance was firmly held and he wasn’t budging. Though AFF and Truth for Life both agreed homosexuality was sin, regarding a trans wedding, Truth for Life “sees the issue as one of individual conscience.“
Whereas American Family Radio believes otherwise, saying,
“So the question is, if a Christian goes to a homosexual wedding, are they approving of it?” he said. “And our answer here is absolutely.”
Though AFR pressed the issue, reconciliation was not possible. There is no misunderstanding and it is perfectly clear, “that Begg was standing by his comments from the September podcast.”
AFR therefore dropped the program from their lineup.
I give AFR congratulations for making what I am sure was a difficult and heartbreaking decision. The purity of the material presented to their Christian listening public, though, is paramount.
You can read more here from AFN: “Radio ministry drops pastor over same-sex wedding comments“
I think we all feel the same way that AFR does, which remarked at the end of their article:
“This isn’t something that we saw coming,” Wildmon told AFR listeners. “This isn’t like some of the others, evangelical leaders, that have drifted. This is not one that was on the list.”
Though the circle of credible pastors and theologians and teachers seem to be shrinking, if you are in a good and solid church, THANK the Lord. We are in dark days when the culture seems to be rising in strength daily to claim one or another of this one or that one. Pray for your pastors or elders. They need all the strength and prayers they can get to withstand the onslaught of a very strong secular and evil culture.
“Please show me your glory!”
By Elizabeth Prata
Moses pleaded with God for Him to show His glory to Moses. What does this tell us about Moses? What does this tell us about us? But first, the passage in context: Exodus 33:17-23,
The LORD said to Moses, “I will also do this thing of which you have spoken; for you have found favor in My sight and I have known you by name.” 18Then Moses said, “Please, show me Your glory!” 19And He said, “I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the LORD before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion to whom I will show compassion.” 20He further said, “You cannot see My face, for mankind shall not see Me and live!” 21Then the LORD said, “Behold, there is a place by Me, and you shall stand there on the rock; 22and it will come about, while My glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. 23Then I will take My hand away and you shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen.”
Moses had communed with God already on the Mount. He’d heard His voice. He had seen the burning bush, a manifestation of God’s power and sovereignty over creation. He’d been given the privilege of learning God’s own name from God’s own lips. He’d been told he had favor with God.
So why ask to see His glory? Is Moses being pushy? Selfish?
What’s happening here is that God had told Moses that he would continue leading the people to Canaan…BUT that God would not be with them. Moses then makes 3 pleas:
“In verses 12–14 he asked for something for himself as the mediator;
in verses 15–17 he asked for something for Israel as the people of God;
in verses 18–23 he asked for something for himself as a man who wanted to know God.“
Source- Ryken, P. G., & Hughes, R. K. (2005). Exodus: saved for God’s glory.
Moses have been as close to God as any man till then and almost till now. But Moses wanted to know God MORE. The more we get to know God, the more we should want to know Him more. He should be our cornerstone of life.
“What Is the Glory of God?”
“The glory of God is the holiness of God put on display. That is, it is the infinite worth of God made manifest.” ~John Piper at Ligonier.org
Moses knew he could not successfully lead that fractious group of stiff-necked people to the Land. He needed God. Moses had spent decades in Egypt trying to do things his way. It didn’t work. He needed God.
More than that, he wanted God. He desired a close relationship with Him, to be in constant communication. To see God’s glory is to be reminded of his own station (lowly) and God’s station (Holy and perfect). Who wouldn’t WANT someone like that in your life? And God wasn’t just anyone, He is THE Someone.
What this shows us is that the more you are with God, the more you want Him. Our Bible reading and prayer life should motivate us to want to know more and more of Him. Have you ever been so overwhelmed with the majesty and wonder of God that you just cry out, MORE!?
Matthew Henry said of Moses,
“He had enjoyed as intimate a communion with God as ever any man had on this side heaven; and yet he is still desiring a further acquaintance.“
Do we?
What does satan know about us?
By Elizabeth Prata
This was a question asked of me on my The End Time facebook page.
Good question. What DOES satan know about us?
Resource: Answers in Genesis, Who is Satan?
First of all let’s remind ourselves who satan is. Satan is actually a title. It means Adversary. He seems to have been a high angel, maybe the highest. Until sin was found in his heart and he decided he wanted to usurp God from His throne. Satan chose to sin. This is recounted in Isaiah 14:12-14. Then satan convinced a third of the angelic host to side with him, and there was rebellion in heaven. Unholy angels, fallen angels, are now called demons in common vernacular.
Satan (probably originally named Lucifer) and his minions fell from God’s favor and became enemies of God, and by proxy of the Israelites then of the Christians. Anything holy, good, or God-like – satan hates.
When God created the first man and woman, satan came down and messed with them, and convinced them to oppose God by disobeying and doubting His word. And we have been off and running ever since.
God is allowing satan and his evil ones latitude to do their worst, as part of God’s plan for humankind. Eventually, they all will be thrown in the Lake of Fire and punished forever for their rebellion.
Satan is known also as the Devil, Evil One, The Serpent, The Dragon.
There are two ways to interpret the question, what does he know about us humans, what does he know about each saint individually?
Satan cannot read our mind, whether we are saved nor not saved. Only God has the ability to know our thoughts and our heart (1 Kings 8:39; Acts 1:24). Satan cannot know our internal thoughts of each individual.
Resource:
–Martyn Lloyd-Jones preached about Good Angels here.
–LLoyd-Jones’ companion sermon about the unholy angels is lost but the transcript is here: fallen-angels-sermon-transcription-lloyd-jones
Collectively though, satan has been observing humankind for thousands of years. He is wily and subtle. He knows what our desires are in general. He tempted Eve with them, (Genesis 3:1-5) and he even tempted Jesus with them! (Matthew 4). Those desires are listed in 1 John 2:16; the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.
As he observes us (or more likely, his minions, most of us do not rate personal interference by satan himself), he simply sees what we press toward, what we say, how we act, and melds our temptations to what he or his demons observe in us.
I am not a fan of CS Lewis EXCEPT for his book The Screwtape Letters, which is an accurate and somewhat chilling recounting of a temptation of a Christian man from the perspective of an older demon educating his nephew demon on how to get the man away from Jesus.
Also it must be said, our own sin nature bedevils us more than demons haunting us. Mainly, satan and his demons leave us to our own devices, which if we do not kill that sin crouching at the door (Genesis 4:7), will have us- as the cartoon shows-
I am reading a Puritan Paperback called The Wiles of Satan. It’s by William Spurstowe. A Puritan Paperback is an updated language and a shortened version of the original. It has lots of scripture references and details how satan operates. I recommend it.
The author fleshed out the concepts and the one about speediness… eye opening. Satan does press us to do it, do it now! If we resist, and resist for a long time, then satan capitalizes on the frailty of our flesh and wearying us so that after a while of resisting it suddenly seems easier just to do the sin than spend the energy opposing his temptation. Man, we really ARE helpless sheep ripe for the slaughter!
But God! He made a way for us to oppose our sin nature, the world, and the devil. If we confess with our mouth and believe on Jesus, then he will save us and send the Holy Spirit to indwell us and be the Helper to resist. Most of us aren’t Job, where the devil personally provoked and hurt him. But demons are around, you can sometimes see them in the behavior of a false teacher (like Kenneth Copeland, as Justin Peters has said). The Bible tells us they do tempt us. So let’s not give them anything to tempt us with. The more we pursue holiness, the more the devil and his army will flee from us.
Submit therefore to God. But resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (James 4:7)
FURTHER READING
Grace to You: Can satan hear our thoughts?
The End Time: Angels part 1
Podcast Haunted Cosmos (if you’re into the weird and strange)
What do I do here? What is “The End Time” blog about?
By Elizabeth Prata
It’s 2024, and a new year. A fresh start. I’ve been blessed with many new readers and visitors to the site lately. I think it’s a good time to write a bit about me what I do here, and my goals with this blog and podcast.
I was converted as an adult in 2004. I was 43 years old. God is gracious to transfer me from the kingdom of darkness where there is only sin, to His kingdom of Light where there is joy and holiness. Over 4 decades of sin was washed away in a moment when He justified me (declared me righteous, IN His Son Jesus).
Therefore there is now no condemnation at all for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1)
I had a blog I’d started in 2006 called The Quiet Life. It was a relief to be able to write and self-publish. Before blogs came along, even before the internet came along (yes I’m THAT old!) gatekeepers to publishing held on to the doors tightly and hurdles to get published were high. Then came the internet and chat boards, then blogs, and finally streaming and podcasting. Now anyone could say something and send it into the ether to be read by the public.
I had been published a very few times in my adult life. Once in a literary journal, once in an academic education journal. I was overjoyed now that I could write and choose to publish it on my blog whenever I wanted to.
I process information by reading, of course, and then writing. I’ve always kept a notebook with me, often chronicling things, or jotting down observations. My favorite book in elementary school was Harriet the Spy, about a girl who obsessively chronicled things and wrote down observations in her notebook she always had with her. 🙂
I noticed a short after salvation that my personal musings on my blog were turning more religiously focused on Jesus. I decided to create a separate blog. The Quiet Life is about art, music, general life. I created The End Time in 2009 to write about what I was observing in the Bible, to distill complex theology into manageable (for me) bytes so I could understand the Lord’s word. And to use what I detected in me was a Spiritual Gift of Discernment.
Why “The End Time”? We are IN the end time. That’s the time between Jesus’ ascension and His return when He is building His church. The title is to remind us that all this will end one day. We are not citizens of earth but citizens of heaven. He may return any time, or we may be called home any time and called to account for our works while on earth after He saved us. Are we using the time well, for His glory? We must be about the Father’s business.
It is my joy to write and podcast for you; always pointing to Jesus, to exhort for a holier lifestyle in discernment, and passing along credible ministry links. These are my three goals with this blog.
I work full time as a para-professional in a school as the Literacy Interventionist. I help kids learn to read better. I enjoy books, art, classical and Southern Gospel music, and writing!
Look unto Christ!
By Elizabeth Prata
Charles Spurgeon was converted by a stumbling layman substituting in the pulpit for a pastor stuck elsewhere in a snowstorm. Spurgeon was making his way to his own church too, but the raging storm forced him to this tiny church instead, the Primitive Methodist Church at Colchester.
The layman, a cobbler or a tailor, didn’t say much, he didn’t even pronounce the words correctly, he just kept referring to the text. Here it is in the King James Version because that is the text the layman read,
Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else. (Isaiah 45:22).
You can read more of Spurgeon’s conversion story here, which is in Spurgeon’s own words and an encouraging read. You don’t have to be a seminary Ph.D. to share verses that the Lord uses to pierce a heart and a conscience.
Spurgeon referred to that moment frequently in his sermons and in his autobiography. Here is Charles Spurgeon excerpt of a sermon where he is speaking of the conscience.
Struggles of Conscience
By Charles Haddon Spurgeon September 23, 1860
Scripture: Job 13:23
From: New Park Street Pulpit Volume 6
Christ, that is the beginning and the end, the first and the last. The plain gospel is just this, “Look unto me, and be ye saved all the ends of the earth.” “But, Lord, I cannot see anything.” “Look unto me.”
“But, Lord, I do not feel.” “Look unto me.”
“But, Lord, I cannot say I feel my need.” “Look unto me, not unto thyself; all this is looking to thyself.”
“But, Lord, I feel sometimes that I could do anything, but a week passes, and then I am hard of heart.” “Look unto me.”
“But Lord, I have often tried.” “Try no more, look unto me.”
“Oh, but Lord thou knowest.” “Yes. I know all things. I know everything, all thine iniquity and thy sins, but look unto me.”
“Oh, but often, Lord, when I have heard a sermon I feel impressed, yet it is like the morning cloud and the early dew; it passes away.” “Look unto me,” not to thy feelings or thy impressions, look unto me.”
“Well,” says one, “but will that really save me, just looking to Christ?”
My dear soul, if that does not save thee I am not saved. The only way in which I have been saved, and the only gospel I can find in the Bible is looking to Christ. “But if I go on in sin,” says one. But you cannot go on in sin; your looking to Christ will cure you that habit of sin. “But if my heart remains hard?” It cannot remain hard; you will find that looking to Christ will keep you from having a hard heart. It is just as we sing in the penitential hymn of gratitude,—
“Dissolved by thy mercy I fall to the ground,
And weep to the praise of the mercy I’ve found.”
Prata potpourri: Video-palooza- Nature encounters, Beauty, and Creative Challenges
By Elizabeth Prata
There is much ugliness in the world. I, too, am waiting for the day in heaven when the responsibilities Jesus gives us do not weigh so heavy. In the Garden, work was easy. It was after the fall that God cursed the ground and made labor so hard for us humans. (Genesis 3:17-19). The creatures were subject to the Fall too. All creation groans under the weight of sin that permeates everything. (Romans 8:21-22). Every leaf, every blade of grass, every cloud, nebulous as they look. Laced with sin. Our relationship with the animals changed and now they have the fear and dread of man put on them. (Genesis 9:2). Sin drenches everything.
Someday, all that will be reversed. Our relationship with each other, with the creation, and with His creatures will be released from sin and death.
I often think, when seeing a gorgeous sunset, a bounding animal, a delicate flower, if creation fell with Adam, and sin pollutes it all, and it’s still THIS beautiful, what will heaven be like? I love beauty. In these dark times when kindness is in short supply and pain presents a screen in front of our eyes to diminish God’s beauty around us, what will it be like in the future glory?
I saw a few videos of animals interacting with humans, animals doing their graceful thing they do. See this eagle. How majestic, graceful and beautiful. We can see why the eagle is used as a metaphor in Isaiah 40:31,
Yet those who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.
I don’t think leviathan is the whale but here is a verse that extols the Lord’s creation of the sea creatures,
LORD, how many are Your works! In wisdom You have made them all; The earth is full of Your possessions. There is the sea, great and broad, In which are swarms without number, Animals both small and great. The ships move along there, And Leviathan, which You have formed to have fun in it. (Psalm 104:24-26)
Elephants are amazing! When I was a youth and learned of poachers killing them for their ivory tusks I was so crushed. Elephants are not mentioned in the Bible (though ivory is). This ancient synagogue’s excavation revealed a mosaic of a group of elements, a non-biblical scene. It is in Galilee. Article source
Watch 3 minutes of time lapse of flowers blooming. Just take a breath, pause, and let your thoughts go to God who made these, sustains these, season after season. Beauty is of God.
Then God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit according to their kind with seed in them”; and it was so. The earth produced vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them, according to their kind; and God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, a third day. (Genesis 1:11-13).
And now for something completely different. I often set myself photo challenges. I liked his self-made challenge to capture 1000 human moments in one week. His advice on setting yourself a challenge, any challenge, and just get out there and do it is good advice.
I saw this video because I like notebooks. The algorithm pops these up on my Youtube timeline and I tuned into this one. We oldsters know the distracting capabilities of a phone or a computer. But it was refreshing to hear a youngster say it. He explained it so well how carrying his phone interrupted his creative process. He articulated the issue in a way I found perfect. Take a listen. 9-minutes.
Enjoy the videos, enjoy the day. The Lord God made it all.
the-end-time.org 