Lot’s wife belonged to a family with a great name and trust in God’s promises. She even had angels visit her home! God sent them to personally escort her from His coming wrath to His safety (Gen.19:1-22). Yet, she fell into eternal judgment because she looked back to her life in Sodom. She longed to preserve what she had and became a pillar of salt–a crystalline substance used for preservation (Gen. 19:26). Friends, Jesus is kind to warns us in Luke 17:32-33: “Remember Lot’s wife. Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it.”
Cornelius’ conversion account can teach us many things about the spread of the gospel to the Gentiles in the first century church. We see in this story that God’s salvation through Christ is for all the families of the earth. God shows no partiality but comes to redeem people from all nations. All this is true. But my focus today is on that small line in verse four. It makes me wonder: what if my service and prayers to God were like a memorial offering rising up as a pleasing aroma before His throne?
When sinful men and women seek their own glory, we call it narcissism; when they seek God’s glory, the Bible calls it right. John 7:18 states: “The one who speaks for himself seeks his own glory. But He who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.” God’s passion to spread His name is grace, not narcissism.
God is glorified in His mercy. He is also glorified in His judgement of sin. In Jerusalem’s captivity, God reveals Himself as a God who keeps His word (Deuteronomy 28:58-68) and displays justice, holiness, and infinite power.But how can God be both merciful and just? Doesn’t His justice nullify His mercy, and vice versa? When we look at Christmas, we have to say “no.”
Imagine the anxiety when Sennacherib of Assyra shows up in Judah, 8 years after the North's exile, with these words: “Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria?... Have they rescued Samaria from my hand?” (2 Kings 18:33-34). It was true. Samaria had been crushed by Assyria...would that same hand now wreckJudah?
This passage is a staggering display of God’s sovereignty! The triumphs that wicked Sennacherib rested in had been enabled by the Lord God Himself. God had planned his rising and his falling from the days of old. Indeed, what is outside of our God’s control? Trust today that your own times are in His hands--and that hand is immeasurably kind to those in Christ (Psalm 31:15; Ephesians 2:7)!
I listen to teachers who tend to stress (and rightfully so, I believe) our inability to please God on the basis of our own righteousness. Christians are not justified by their works but by faith in the work of Christ on their behalf (Galatians 2:16). But does this mean that God is only pleased with Christ and never pleased with us? Are the works of believers always and only filthy rags in His sight (Isaiah 64:6)?
If you are in Christ today and, like me, are tempted by unexpected and difficult circumstances, please receive this good news: Jesus Christ is "the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For everything was created by him, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and by him all things hold together" (Colossians 1:15-17). Sister, remember that your Redeemer is the God of the whole earth, the Lord of Armies, what is too difficult for Him?
My husband and I are the thankful parents of two precious daughters. We would be grateful for a third child and have prayed for over two years for this gift without conception.
I’m technically infertile with what is known as secondary infertility. Here, a couple that has already produced, at least one child, will suddenly face difficulty conceiving another. In most cases, couples are considered infertile after a year of trying without conception.
Both motherhood and the desire for more children have proved useful instruments in God’s hands, dissecting and revealing my heart. As I kneel today to pray for a third child, here are three truths that resound:
The cross of Jesus stands unmoved today and will not be shaken on January 20th. That cross is my confidence. Whatever a Trump presidency might bring, God still works all things according to the council of His own will (Ephesians 1:11). And if God ordered the affairs of cunning leaders in the first century for the sake of our salvation than He is able to order the events of any government to fulfill His good and ultimate purposes.
My first day watching porn was also my last. I was nine when an adult neighbor took me to a house where several of her friends were gathered. The men and women came knowing the agenda—to watch hours of pornographic videos. I was placed on a man’s lap, and the tapes were played. At one point, my neighbor asked if I “felt” anything. I said no, and the group laughed.
I remember the day now as the end of something immeasurably precious—the gift of being innocent and unashamed. I’ve often mourned for my nine-year-old self, her soul plundered and her naiveté stripped. I grieve for her and fear for my two small daughters. What images (and God forbid, touches) might be lurking, waiting to take their innocence? God help us.
Read the full article at Christianity Today.
Zechariah used a writing tablet for communication for nine months (Luke 1:63). Elizabeth must have longed for her husband’s voice in these months. Her first and second trimesters were spent in hiding (Luke 1:24). These must have been quiet months for the expectant mother. A picture, perhaps, of Israel’s own 400 years of waiting in silence for the fulfillment of God’s promises.
The widow had nothing but a single jar of oil. Elisha tells her to borrow many vessels from her neighbors. Her jar of oil would miraculously multiply as she poured it into each vessel. God’s means of provision for this woman sends her to many doors on that day—the more she knocked on, the more vessels she would receive. The more vessels she borrowed, the more oil she would have for her son’s freedom and for their livelihood (2 Kings 4: 2-7).
Why is Elijah sent to this widow? She was not among the people of Israel and she herself testifies of her sins. Clearly, she doesn’t choose God but He chooses her (John 15:16). He saves her just as He has and will redeem all those He has predestined for adoption as children through Jesus Christ; this is according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His own glorious grace (Ephesians 1:5-11)! Salvation is of the LORD.
On August 2, 2008, I stood before God and witnesses and made a vow of love, honor and fidelity to Eric J. Dolce. I was certain of the LORD’s hand in the union. My husband and I marveled as a rainbow appeared over our reception. Indeed, God's promises for us in Christ have been “Yes and Amen” (2 Corinthians 1:20)!
Today marks seven years since that day. The years have passed quickly but my love for my husband has not. In truth, I adore him now more than ever…and here’s why:
Jezebel’s hatred of God’s covenant people is one example of the larger cosmic battle between the offspring of the woman and the offspring of the serpent. God put enmity between the serpent and the woman in Genesis 3:15. From here onward, Scripture unfolds the pattern of two communities: those who belong to the promised Seed of the Woman and those who are hostile to that Seed and his people.
I'm thankful to the Reformed African American Network for their re-post of my 2014 article, Parental Failures and the Gospel. The beginning paragraphs follow and the full post can be found here. Always grateful for your read!
I could begin this post with countless descriptions of my parental failures. Moments when anger got the best of me; times when a little patience would have made all the difference; or just plain insecurities in making the right decisions for my children at every moment and at every stage of their development.
You might agree that feelings of inadequacy are common to parents; whether relatively new like me or seasoned with experience, we feel the weight of the responsibility and the immensity of the task. But in some ways, feelings of inadequacy can be a blessing!
Hannah addressed God as “the LORD of Hosts” (Yahweh Sabaoth) in her prayer. The name translates as “the LORD Almighty,” the one who rides before legions of armies. We might imagine this victorious title declared at the parting of the Red Sea or the conquest of Jericho, but Hannah’s narrative is the first time the name appears in the Old Testament. The woman who was thundered against by a persistent adversary, needed the LORD Almighty to remember and defend her.
I’ve often considered Naomi “the female Job” of the Bible. She and Job could have been understanding friends. They both knew pain and loss (Job 1:13-21). And they both attributed their suffering to God’s sovereign hand (Job 6:4). Like Job, Naomi’s narrative inspires an old question: can a loving and all-powerful God ordain human suffering and remain wholly consistent with his character? Our passage answers “yes” as we continue.
In the days of the judges when everyone did what was right in his own eyes, a Moabite woman does what is right in God’s eyes (Ruth 1:1; Judges 21:25). Ruth reflects God’s own covenant love for his people in choosing to leave her familial home for the saving of another. She turned from father, mother, and country for a people she didn’t know and found refuge under the wings of Israel’s God (Ruth 2:11-12).
