As iron sharpens iron,
one person sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)
The idea “that our universe of things points to God and proclaims his glory, is the foundational thesis for Andrew Wilson’s book…. [which] poses the question why God created things—after all, he could have created only a spiritual world without physical substance.” - TGC
Acts 1:12-26 is a challenge for a preacher. It seems like a transition piece―filler. We wouldn’t want to call it that, but we might think it. What is the passage about? What should pastors do with it?
I am excited to announce the release of my new book, The Old in the New: Understanding How the New Testament Authors Quoted the Old Testament. The book is published by Kress Biblical Resources with an imprint from The Master’s Seminary. I have been working on this book since 2011. It was formed through years of teaching a Th.M. seminar at The Master’s Seminary called, “New Testament Use of the Old Testament.”
“…even if carnivory was prevalent in the late pre-flood world, it is still possible that the animals that God sent to Noah did not eat meat or were omnivores that could have survived for one year without meat.” - AiG
“Even atheists like Friedrich Nietzsche or the modern-day philosopher Luc Ferry, have acknowledged that our ideas about human dignity, human equality and human value were not present across cultures and civilizations, but were introduced to the world in Christianity. Why? Because of its core belief that humans were made in the image and likeness of God.” - Breakpoint
“As part of this move, I will be leaving Christianity Today. I’m thankful for my time there. It includes several friendships and some significant impact together. I will remain a paying subscriber and a supporter because I think that Christianity Today is an important part of evangelicalism.” - C.Today
Read Part 1.
The second temptation of Jesus in Matthew concerns the protection of God:
Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: `He shall give His angels charge over you,’ and, `In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’” (Matthew 4:5-6)
C. H. Spurgeon, “God’s Fatherly Pity,” in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, vol. 28 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1882), 157–158. Headings in the post below are mine.
Like as a father pitieth his children,
so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. (Psalm 103:13)
Jonah is “a paradox: a prophet of God, and yet a runaway from God: a man drowned, and yet alive: a preacher of repentance, yet one that repines at repentance.”1
Discussion