Podcasts about some christian

Some Christian influencers have called Ryan Coogler's Sinners 'Anti-Christian Propaganda' but is it? This week on Pass The Mic Dr Jemar Tisby and Pastor Tyler Burns give a full review of Sinners. This is a review filled with heavy SPOILERS so please do not watch unless you are ready to be spoiled. Sinners is a 2025 American horror film written, co-produced, and directed by Ryan Coogler. Set in 1932 in the Mississippi Delta, the film stars Michael B. Jordan in dual roles as twin brothers who return to their hometown to start again, only to be confronted by a supernatural evil. The film co-stars Hailee Steinfeld, Miles Caton (in his theatrical-film debut), Jack O'Connell, Wunmi Mosaku, Jayme Lawson, Omar Miller, and Delroy Lindo. Sinners premiered on April 3, 2025, and was theatrically released in the United States on April 18, by Warner Bros. Pictures. The film received critical acclaim, with particular praise for Coogler's direction and Göransson's score as well as the performances of Jordan, Steinfeld, Lindo and Caton. Sinners has grossed over $236 million worldwide, becoming the fifth highest-grossing film of 2025. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Some Christian influencers have called Ryan Coogler's Sinners 'Anti-Christian Propaganda' but is it? This week on Pass The Mic Dr Jemar Tisby and Pastor Tyler Burns give a full review of Sinners. This is a review filled with heavy SPOILERS so please do not watch unless you are ready to be spoiled. Sinners is a 2025 American horror film written, co-produced, and directed by Ryan Coogler. Set in 1932 in the Mississippi Delta, the film stars Michael B. Jordan in dual roles as twin brothers who return to their hometown to start again, only to be confronted by a supernatural evil. The film co-stars Hailee Steinfeld, Miles Caton (in his theatrical-film debut), Jack O'Connell, Wunmi Mosaku, Jayme Lawson, Omar Miller, and Delroy Lindo. Sinners premiered on April 3, 2025, and was theatrically released in the United States on April 18, by Warner Bros. Pictures. The film received critical acclaim, with particular praise for Coogler's direction and Göransson's score as well as the performances of Jordan, Steinfeld, Lindo and Caton. Sinners has grossed over $236 million worldwide, becoming the fifth highest-grossing film of 2025. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As we continue walking through Holy Week, Wednesday marks a subtle but significant turning point. Monday and Tuesday were filled with teaching, challenge, and public presence. But today, we move quietly yet definitively toward the cross. Though Scripture doesn't give Holy Wednesday a dramatic narrative like the days that follow, it carries a deep spiritual weight. Some Christian traditions even refer to it as Spy Wednesday—a name that draws our attention to the act of betrayal that would set the passion of Christ in motion.Shameless plug: here's a link to Method(ist) to the Madness, our new, hopefully entertaining podcast about church history. - https://methodisttothemadness.buzzsprout.com/Join us for our daily reflections with Andy. In 10 short minutes, he'll dig a little deeper into Scripture and help you better understand God's Word.If you'd like to receive this daily reflection on your phone, text @39110 to 81010 to sign up. You can read today's passage here - https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2026%3A%2014-16&version=NRSVUEYou can watch this in video form here - https://revandy.org/blog/

  “The Angel of the Lord”  - there are 52 occurrences of the phrase "the angel of the Lord" in the Hebrew Scriptures, the Old Testament.  You can see the verses starting in Genesis to Exodus 3 below.  Also, check out the links to two previous Bible studies that dealt with the Angel of the Lord.  Link – Gen. 15-16 – How to See God and Not Die - https://lightofmenorah.podbean.com/e/the-gospel-according-to-moses-genesis-gen-15-16/ Link – Exod. 3 – Who is that in the Burning Bush? - https://lightofmenorah.podbean.com/e/the-gospel-according-to-moses-exodus-lesson-7-part-1-xod-31-8-the-angel-of-the-lord/ Below are the verses with the phrase THE ANGEL OF THE LORD. Gen_16:7  Now the angel of the LORD found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur. Gen_16:9  Then the angel of the LORD said to her, "Return to your mistress, and submit yourself to her authority." Gen_16:10  Moreover, the angel of the LORD said to her, "I will greatly multiply your descendants so that they will be too many to count." Gen_16:11  The angel of the LORD said to her further, "Behold, you are with child, And you will bear a son; And you shall call his name Ishmael, Because the LORD has given heed to your affliction. Gen_22:11  But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am." Gen_22:15  Then the angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time from heaven, Gen_24:7  "The LORD, the God of heaven, who took me from my father's house and from the land of my birth, and who spoke to me and who swore to me, saying, 'To your descendants I will give this land,' He will send His angel before you, and you will take a wife for my son from there. Exo_3:2  The angel of the LORD appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed. Who is the Angel of the Lord?  What is it?  What do the rabbis say?  Some Christian scholars say it is Jesus!  However, they never ever give backup to support their view that it is Jesus.  They just say it.  This is so frustrating.  How can that be if one studies and asks the question what does the Bible say?  The question is does the Bible hint at the fact that the angel is Jesus?  If so this would be related to John 5:39 and Jesus teaching us that scripture testifies of Him.  How?  How does the Bible hint that the Angel of the Lord is a manifestation of Yeshua?   In this podcast we will get at this in detail. Once again we need to BRING OUR BRAIN to the Bible.  We all agree this is the inspired word of God.  In short we say the Bible is God's word.  If so and God never said the angel of the Lord is Jesus, then how do some of our Christian scholars say it is Jesus?  It is dangerous to put words in the Bible that are not there.  I would rather it be taught with words like "is it possible" that the angel of the Lord might be a manifestation of Jesus.  Perhaps some Bible verses suggest this might be true.  But there are many that seem to say they know the answer and it is their way or the highway.  Not a good way to teach God's word. An excellent article on this topic can be found at this link.  Link - https://www.crosswalk.com/faith/bible-study/who-is-the-angel-of-the-lord.html I mentioned Rabbi Jonathan Cahn's book entitled, “The Return of the Gods.”  This is a must read to see what is happening in our day.  To know it is to understand a mystery – the mystery is that Yahvay, the Lord, God, is helping us SEE the return of the gods from ancient days.  The book is an awesome study that shows us the evil in our day was the evil in the ancient Middle East under the pagan nations and their gods which are only demons.  Here's the link - https://www.amazon.com/s?k=the+return+of+the+gods+jonathan&hvadid=701821827340&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9019560&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=14598189095742890310&hvtargid=kwd-2314157865763&hydadcr=8292_13544362&mcid=c8af577108d6391eb2f402d3d4271cae&tag=googhydr-20&ref=pd_sl_4wmyc557fa_e Another interesting topic studied in this lesson is what is are boundaries of the Promised Land.   What did God say regarding the borders of the land He promised to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all Israel?  Check out the list of Bible verses at the link below.  It is a very comprehensive list that will give you a good understanding of the borders of the Promised Land. It goes way beyond the current borders of Israel today. LINK – Open Bible – the exact boundaries of the land - https://www.openbible.info/topics/promised_land_boundaries Below is a free download of what is likely the actual Promised Land as outlined in the Bible by the ord.  You'll notice it encompasses much more than the present land of Israel. Yahvay, the Lord, God, will bring back His people.  He'll do it in the true RAPTURE – the Jewish Rapture.  Check out the video series entitled “The Rapture Restored” –   https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvcIXun2BQDIjNNTBWSQ_23MIODTFzknn It is known as the Day of the Lord when He gathers His people to the land.  Check out the verses below.  Gen 15:18  On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, "To your descendants I have given this land, From the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates: Gen 35:12  "The land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac, I will give it to you, And I will give the land to your descendants after you." Gen 26:3  "Sojourn in this land and I will be with you and bless you, for to you and to your descendants I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to your father Abraham. Deu_11:24  "Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours; your border will be from the wilderness to Lebanon, and from the river, the river Euphrates, as far as the western sea. Jos 1:3  "Every place on which the sole of your foot treads, I have given it to you, just as I spoke to Moses. Jos 1:4  "From the wilderness and this Lebanon, even as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and as far as the Great Sea toward the setting of the sun will be your territory. Jeremiah 16:15: "For I will bring them back to their own land that I gave to their fathers." Isaiah 11:11: "He will raise a banner for the nations and will gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth." Ezekiel 37:21: "Say to them, 'Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will take the people of Israel from the nations among which they have gone, and will gather them from all around, and bring them to their own land.'" Rev. Ferret - who is this guy?  What's his background?  Why should I listen to him?  Check his background at this link -  https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/8qth6w4e56oub9js1w1gu/BackgrndTeacher-mar-25-2020.pdf?rlkey=f14fr2wmde5fezjmnrny8cycl&st=8dy5sa2s&dl=0

Some Christian doctrines are weightier than others. When discussing Christian theology, many of us have heard the helpful quote attributed to Augustine, “In the essentials, unity, in the non-essentials liberty, and in all things charity.” There is much to be learned from this quote, but did you know that many Bible teachers identify four different categories of doctrinal weight? Our good friend Doug Eaton helped us with this when he stopped by this morning. https://fightoffaithblog.com/2024/08/20/4-categories-of-doctrinal-weight-in-christian-theology/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Some Christian men find it very difficult to ask other Christian men to be praying for them. We can so often allow our pride, our ego, or our fear, to cause us to not ask for prayer. We will all have times in our lives, where we really do need other godly men to be lifting us up in prayer. There is no shame is asking for prayer!

Some Christian men find it very difficult to ask other Christian men to be praying for them. We can so often allow our pride, our ego, or our fear, to cause us to not ask for prayer. We will all have times in our lives, where we really do need other godly men to be lifting us up in prayer. There is no shame is asking for prayer!

In this RECAPS episode, Tim, April, and Andrew discuss the link between conspiracy theories and Christian nationalism. They explore the rise of conspiracy theories in white evangelical spaces and the normalization of these theories. They also examine the connection between Christian nationalism and vaccine skepticism, highlighting the role of epistemology and group identity in shaping beliefs. The conversation delves into the challenges of engaging with conspiracy theorists and the impact of media silos. The hosts emphasize the need for critical thinking, openness to new information, and a nuanced understanding of science. In this conversation, Tim and April discuss various conspiracy theories and misinformation propagated by Christian nationalists. They highlight the prevalence of conspiratorial thinking within this group and its potential impact on political discourse. Takeaways There is a growing link between conspiracy theories and Christian nationalism, particularly in white evangelical spaces. Christian nationalism's cultural elements, such as authoritarian social control and a desire for traditionalist hierarchy, make it more susceptible to conspiratorial thinking. Christian nationalism and vaccine skepticism are strongly correlated, with believers more likely to reject vaccines and embrace conspiracy theories. Conspiracy theories thrive in times of stress and uncertainty, providing a sense of control and someone to blame. Science is not a dogma but a process of testing and evolving based on new evidence. Openness to new information is crucial for combating conspiracy theories. Conspiratorial thinking is prevalent within the Christian nationalist movement. Some Christian nationalists exhibit toxic masculinity and engage in harmful rhetoric. The intersection of Christian nationalism and conspiracy theories has implications for political discourse and public opinion. Chapters 01:45 Diving into Conspiracy Theories and Christian Nationalism 08:14 RFK Jr.'s Conspiracy Theories and Vaccine Skepticism 14:14 The Link Between Christian Nationalism and Conspiracy Beliefs 26:20 The Appeal of Conspiracy Theories to Christian Nationalists 31:02 The Intersection of Beliefs: Mark of the Beast and Other Conspiracies 35:14 Navigating Skepticism, Solutions, and Science 38:41 Conspiratorial Thinking in the Christian Nationalist Movement 49:51 Inconsistencies in the Pro-Life Movement 56:09 The Impact of Christian Nationalism on Political Discourse _______________________________ Come to the LIVE EVENT in Austin, TX | Democracy at Risk REGISTER TO VOTE If you'd like to support our work, you can DONATE here! Get Tickets to Beer Camp (PROMO: TNEHOBBIT) Follow Us On Instagram @thenewevangelicals  Subscribe On YouTube @thenewevangelicals The New Evangelicals exists to support those who are tired of how evangelical church has been done before and want to see an authentic faith lived out with Jesus at the center. We are committed to building a caring community that emulates the ways of Jesus by reclaiming the evangelical tradition and embracing values that build a better way forward. If you've been marginalized by your faith, you are welcome here. We've built an empathetic and inclusive space that encourages authentic conversations, connections and faith. Whether you consider yourself a Christian, an exvangelical, someone who's questioning your faith, or someone who's left the faith entirely, you are welcome here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Some Christian singles believe that because they're not married by a certain age, it will never happen. Others think because they've done the 'right things' that God in a way owes them what they want. What do you do when you're believing God and it feels like nothing's happening? It's been months or years of praying and you're in the same spot. If God is 'good' why is this happening? Let's get real and decide where we stand. Should we keep believing or give up? Join me as we dive deep into these tough questions and find hope and direction together. Keywords: Christian singles, marriage, faith journey, praying, God's timing, waiting on God, unanswered prayers.

Is it biblically acceptable for Christian couples to use in vitro fertilization (IVF) if they are unable to conceive children naturally? Some Christian groups object to the practice because it can lead to the destruction of leftover human embryos. Dr. David K. Bernard discusses the United Pentecostal Church International's pro-life stance and how it applies to the practice of in vitro fertilization.Visit UPCI.org/statements-archive to access official UPCI position papers on various subjects.If you enjoy this podcast, leave a five-star rating and a review on iTunes or your preferred podcast platform. We also appreciate it when you share Apostolic Life in the 21st Century with family and friends.

In this podcast… Nick Fuentes is one of the most famous nazis around right now. When his stream came to an end the other night, some… male adult entertainment started playing on his computer. He says he was hacked. Everybody else kind of recognizes the obvious. Let me lay out the facts for you and you can decide if he's into exclusively male adult entertainment for yourself. A commencement speaker at a Catholic college had some absolutely wild stuff to say in the speech. He told the women who just graduated that they should be homemakers instead. He also said birth control is wrong, and men are terribly mistreated in society. It's insane. You have to hear it. Some Christian nationalists held a panel on biblical patriarchy and it got absolutely insane. Most of the time when I talk about christian nationalists, they pretend they dont know what the word even means. In this panel, the masks were off. they described their plans to take over the government and everything. You have to hear it. We also take voicemails. If you want to leave a voicemail, the number is 1-800-701-8573. Get my book (Understanding Jehovahs Witnesses): https://owenmorgan.com/ Become a youtube member: https://owenmorgan.com/fireside-membership Patreon: https://owenmorgan.com/patreon Twitch: https://owenmorgan.com/twitch Telltale: https://www.youtube.com/@OwenMorganTelltale Telltale Fireside Chat: https://www.youtube.com/@telltalefiresidechat Telltale Unfiltered: https://www.youtube.com/@telltaleunfiltered TikTok: https://owenmorgan.com/tiktok Discord: https://owenmorgan.com/discord PayPal: https://owenmorgan.com/paypal Teespring: https://owenmorgan.com/teespring Podcast on iTunes: https://owenmorgan.com/itunes-podcast Podcast on SoundCloud: https://owenmorgan.com/soundcloud-podcast Voicemail: 1-800-701-8573

Our world can be confusing and scary. Sometimes it's hard to know what is true, and sometimes it's hard to know who to trust. For Christians, coping with this uncertainty should always come down to God's word. What principles are we given in Scripture that will shine the sure light of truth on whatever dilemma we perceive to be in our way? Some Christian groups have taken to label much of the rampant darkness of our world as the work of “monitoring spirits.” The suggestion here is that these spirits are firmly connected to Satan, and their work is overwhelmingly focused on spying on and disrupting the lives of Jesus' followers. As we look into this belief, we will ask the same question we always ask: what scriptural basis is there for these conclusions?

We often tend to avoid a Christian who has sinned. We fear being associated with the sinner. Some Christian leaders may publicly expose them. How should Christians react when they discover that someone has fallen into sin?Blog Link: https://kuzaapp.com/how-to-react-when-a-christian-friend-falls-into-sin/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kuzaappInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/kuzaappTik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@kuzaappBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/kuza--3674993/support.

Summary In this conversation, Tim and April discuss Taylor Swift's new album and the criticism it has received from some conservative Christians. They address the accusations of blasphemy and witchcraft, as well as the critique of explicit lyrics. They also highlight the hypocrisy of supporting Donald Trump while condemning Swift's music. The conversation reveals the subjective nature of art interpretation and the need for self-reflection within religious communities. In this conversation, Tim and April discuss the misconceptions and misunderstandings surrounding the concepts of witchcraft, demons, and Christian nationalism. They critique the views of Sean Feucht, a Christian musician and activist, who uses buzzwords like witches and demons without fully understanding their historical and cultural contexts. They also highlight the financial motivations behind Feucht's activism and his association with other controversial figures like Mark Driscoll and Eric Metaxas. The conversation touches on the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the role of Christian Zionism, as well as the harmful effects of fear-based ideologies and the importance of respecting individual beliefs. Takeaways The criticism of Taylor Swift's album by conservative Christians reveals the subjective nature of art interpretation. Accusations of blasphemy and witchcraft are based on selective reading and misinterpretation of lyrics. The hypocrisy of supporting Donald Trump while condemning Swift's music exposes the double standards within some religious communities. Misunderstandings and misconceptions about witchcraft and demons are prevalent, often fueled by a lack of historical and cultural context. Some Christian activists, like Sean Feucht, use buzzwords without fully understanding their meanings, leading to misrepresentations and fear-based ideologies. Christian nationalism often promotes a narrow and exclusionary view of Christianity, disregarding the diversity of beliefs within the faith. Respecting individual beliefs and avoiding the imposition of one's own beliefs on others is crucial for fostering understanding and dialogue. Chapters 00:00 Introduction and Mispronunciations 07:06 Engaging with Different Perspectives on LGBTQ+ Affirmation 27:27 Sean Feucht's Urgent Message and Misguided Critiques 35:26 The Subjectivity of Art Interpretation and the Need for Self-Reflection 45:52 Navigating the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict with Nuance 52:56 Respecting Individual Beliefs and Avoiding Imposition Check out our website for merch, educational materials, and how to join our community! If you'd like to support our work, you can DONATE here! Follow Us On Instagram @thenewevangelicals  Subscribe On YouTube The New Evangelicals exists to support those who are tired of how evangelical church has been done before and want to see an authentic faith lived out with Jesus at the center. We are committed to building a caring community that emulates the ways of Jesus by reclaiming the evangelical tradition and embracing values that build a better way forward. If you've been marginalized by your faith, you are welcome here. We've built an empathetic and inclusive space that encourages authentic conversations, connections and faith. Whether you consider yourself a Christian, an exvangelical, someone who's questioning your faith, or someone who's left the faith entirely, you are welcome here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

26 ¶ "But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. Number one, we witness as individual members of the body, number two we are to witness as a total body. No individual member is excused from being a witness, did you know that? I had people say, "Well I don't think the Lord has called me to be a witness." No, that isn't so. Every one of us is a witness. Every individual member of the body is a member for witness. Acts 1:8: "You shall receive power", said Jesus, "after the holy power has come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses." There's no option there, none at all. The Apostle Paul so carefully points this out in 2 Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore if any man be in Christ he's a new creation. Old things are passed away, behold all things are become new. And all things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself, and hath given us the ministry of reconciliation". There's nobody excused from that - anybody who has been reconciled has the ministry of communicating reconciliation to others. To wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. 2Corinthians 5:20: "Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us, we beg you in Christ's stead, be reconciled of God". Every believer whose been born again, everyone who has been reconciled has been given the ministry of reconciliation. No believer is excused from being a witness. Every Christian is a witness of Christ, to bring others to Christ. Nobody is off the hook on that. We are a body for edifying that we might be a body for witness. We are individual members to be edified that we might be individual members for effective witness. See, the ultimate goal of the body folks is witness. Witness. Witness. Why do we want to be one? That the world might know that God sent Christ, that's why, not so that we can say "we're one, ". The word witness is a very interesting word. It's used there in verse 27. Witness is a legal term. It takes us into a law court. We see a judge on the bench, and we see a prisoner on trial. We hear the case argued by lawyers, first the prosecution and then the defense, and both of them call witnesses to substantiate their case. And we as individual members of the body are individual witnesses in a trial. You say who's on trial? Jesus Christ is on trial. Who's the judge? The world is the judge. Who's the defense attorney? The Holy Spirit. Who's the prosecution? Satan with his lies and accusations Notice it says in verse 26 when the comforter is come; the word comforter is paraclete. It came to mean "the counsel for the defense". It's one called alongside to help. It refers to the Holy Spirit who is the counsel for defense - he is defending Christ and calling you and I as individual members of the body to witness and confirm the testimony of Christ. Sad to say, much of our witnessing does not confirm the testimony of Christ. Some Christian witnesses do greater harm than if they weren't Christians, you know that. Others have effective witness all over the world defending him and commending Christ, and substantiating his claims by their lies.   Proceeds from the Father and the Son, shows that Jesus is God and is equal with the Father    27 "And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning.(NKJV) The Spirit is sent from the Father (cf. 14:26), just as the Son was sent from the Father. Yet this mysterious work of the Spirit is not done in isolation from the church. The apostles were to bear witness to the facts that they came to know: You also must testify. As the apostles witnessed, the Holy Spirit persuaded, and people were saved. The same combination of human obedience to the divine command (Acts 1:8) coupled with the witness of the Spirit is needed in every generation.     John 16:1 "These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble. Jesus did not want His disciples to stumble (Gr. skandalethron, be caught unaware) in their discipleship after His departure because the events that would follow took them completely by surprise (cf. Matt. 5:10-12). Even though they did not understand everything Jesus told them immediately, they would remember them and understand them more fully later (cf. 14:20, 25-26). "The greatest danger the disciples will confront from the opposition of the world is not death but apostasy.  Jesus gave this present teaching so His believing disciples would not depart from Him and what He had taught them when persecution assailed them following His departure from them (cf. Matt. 10:33; Mark 8:38; 2 Tim. 2:12; Rev. 3:8).  2 "They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. 16:1-2. The disciples may have wondered why Jesus was telling them about the world's hatred and persecution. Jesus, anticipating this question, indicated that expecting trouble beforehand would help them remain in the path of God's will. (He gave a second reason in v. 4.) The disciples would face excommunication and even death. Persecution unto death occurred in the case of Stephen (Acts 7:59), James (Acts 12:2), and others (Acts 9:1-4). Some people throughout church history have been motivated to persecute believers because of a misguided zeal for God. They think they are offering a service to God Romans 10:2 2 For I bear them witness that bthey have a zeal for God, cbut not according to knowledge. Jesus was always very open and direct about the cost of discipleship with those who wished to follow Him: Luke 9:23-26 Then he said to them all, “If anyone wants to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. 25 For what does it benefit a person if he gains the whole world but loses or forfeits himself? 26 For whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man be will ashamed of this one when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels (see also verses 57-62). Jesus does not want His disciples to be taken by surprise, and so He tells them about the difficulties which lie ahead for them as His disciples. These men will be rejected by their fellow-Jews, put out of the synagogue, and even put to death. And the irony of all this is that when their opponents do such things, they will actually suppose that they are serving God by their opposition to Christ and His disciples.[1] Whether in the first century or in the twentieth, Christians have often discovered that the most dangerous oppression comes not from careless pagans but from zealous adherents to religious faith, and from other beliefs. A sermon was preached when Cranmer was burned at the stake. Christians have faced severe persecution performed in the name of Yahweh, in the name of Allah, in the name of Marx—and in the name of Jesus.” Who better illustrates this than Saul, before his conversion? Acts 22:4 “I persecuted this Way even to the point of death, tying up both men and women and putting them in prison”. Acts 26:9-11 “Of course, I myself was convinced that it was necessary to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. 10 And that is what I did in Jerusalem: not only did I lock up many of the saints in prisons by the authority I received from the chief priests, but I also cast my vote against them when they were sentenced to death. 11 I punished them often in all the synagogues and tried to force them to blaspheme. Because I was so furiously enraged at them, I went to persecute them even in foreign cities” (see also 1Timothy 1:12-16).  3 "And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me. The opponents of the disciples would do these things because they had not come to know the Father or the Son. Theirs would be a sin of responsible ignorance.  4 "But these things I have told you, that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them. And these things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you. The disciples appear to be in a state of emotional shock. They are overwhelmed with sadness. There seems to be nothing to say. Think of it. Jesus is going to leave them, and when He does, they are not only going to be forsaken by their own people, they are going to hunted down by them as though they were criminals.        Mark 8:36 "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?              John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Have you trusted Him as your Savior? He can Save you if You ask Him based on His death, burial, and resurrection for your sins. Believe in Him for forgiveness of your sins today.               “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”  -John 8:32             Our mission is to spread the gospel and to go to the least of these with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ; We reach out to those the World has forgotten.              hisloveministries.podbean.com #HLMSocial hisloveministries.net https://www.instagram.com/hisloveministries1/?hl=en His Love Ministries on Itunes Don't go for all the gusto you can get, go for all the God (Jesus Christ) you can get. The gusto will get you, Jesus can save you. https://www.facebook.com/His-Love-Ministries-246606668725869/?tn-str=k*F             The world is trying to solve earthly problems that can only be solved with heavenly solutions

Will Spencer joins us again to talk about a topic you may have seen boiling up on social media of this Christ Pill vs Red Pill debate. Some Christian content creators have seemingly gone offensive against the red pill and the main content creators there so we figured we'd weigh in on the topic since we find great value in the red pill but also are obviously Christians and promote Christian values.

There is a lot of pressure on parents to build resiliency in kids. Some Christian and secular writers wrestle with stats on how to approach best preparing kids for the challenges of the modern world.  Dr. Kathy considers some of the parenting approaches that are perceived as lawnmowing or helicopter parenting. She explains how we can better equip and walk with kids in current culture moments while considering their mental health and emotional resiliency. 

Guest Bios Show Transcript https://youtu.be/kfW97erZjYA What do you do when the man you looked up to as your spiritual hero is exposed as a fraud? How do you recover from the disillusionment and betrayal? And how do you find hope when your world is turned upside down? On this edition of The Roys Report, you're about to hear a highlight session from this year's Restore Conference featuring Carson Weitnauer, a former director with Ravi Zacharias International Ministries. Ravi Zacharias had a huge impact on Carson when he was coming of age. When Carson was hired by Ravi's ministry, he thought he had found his dream job. But then in 2020, the dream became a nightmare as more and more evidence showed that Ravi Zacharias was not the man he purported to be. He was not a model Christian leader and sterling apologist, but a serial sexual predator, who lied and manipulated to cover his tracks. The revelations rocked Carson's world—and especially his faith. And in this incredibly raw and vulnerable talk, Carson doesn't sugar-coat anything. He tells of his journey from believing the exposés about Ravi were just Satanic attacks—to realizing that his own leaders, people he looked up to, were lying to him. He tells of the excruciating betrayal, pain, and depression he experienced. He talks about almost losing his faith and feeling like God had abandoned him. But he also talks about hope and hanging on, even when life seems bleak. Guests Carson Weitnauer Carson Weitnauer is an author, speaker, and the founder of Uncommon Pursuit, a Christian apologetics ministry. He formerly served on-staff at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries and resigned to advocate for survivors. He has coauthored multiple books. Learn more at uncommonpursuit.net Show Transcript SPEAKERS CARSON WEITNAUER, JULIE ROYS JULIE ROYS 00:02 What do you do when the man you looked up to as your spiritual hero is exposed as a fraud? How do you recover from the disillusionment and betrayal? And how do you find hope when your world is turned upside down? Welcome to The Roys Report—a podcast dedicated to reporting the truth and restoring the church. I'm Julie Roys. And what you're about to hear is the second of 11 talks from this year's Restore Conference. Speaking is Carson Weitnauer, a former director with Ravi Zacharias International Ministries. And as you'll hear, Ravi Zacharias had a huge impact on Carson when he coming of age—and internalizing his faith. So, in 2013, when Carson was hired by Ravi's ministry, he thought he had found his dream job. But then in 2020, the dream became a nightmare as more and more evidence showed that Ravi was not the man he purported to be. He was not a model Christian leader and sterling apologist, but a serial sexual predator, who lied and manipulated to cover his tracks. The revelations rocked Carson's world—and especially his faith. And in this incredibly raw and vulnerable talk, Carson doesn't sugar-coat anything. He tells of his journey from believing the exposés about Ravi were just Satanic attacks—to realizing that his own leaders, people he looked up to—were lying to him. He tells of the excruciating betrayal, pain, and depression he experienced. He talks about almost losing his faith—and feeling like God had abandoned him. But he also talks about hope and hanging on, even when life seems bleak. If you've ever experienced betrayal trauma or church hurt, I think you're going to resonate deeply with Carson's journey.  Here's Carson Weitnauer, a former director with Ravi Zacharias International Ministries—and someone I've come to know as a man of integrity and courage.     JULIE ROYS 04:02 Hi, I'm Julie Roys, founder of The Roys Report and the RESTORE conference, and you're about to see a video from RESTORE 2023. Though a lot of conferences charge for videos like these, we've decided to make them available for free. We've done that because we don't want anybody to miss out on this valuable content for lack of finances. But of course these do cost us money to shoot and to edit. So if you're able we'd really appreciate it if you consider donating to The Roys Report, so we can continue this important service. To do so just go to JulieRoys.com/donate.  Also, I hope you'll make plans to join us at the next RESTORE conference which we'll be announcing soon. As great as these videos are they pale in comparison to being there in person. As one speaker commented, “this year RESTORE is more of a restorative community than it is a conference.” And every year that community just grows deeper and richer. And so I hope you'll be able to join us at the next RESTORE. Be watching for that. And in the meantime, I hope you're blessed and encouraged by this video. CARSON WEITNAUER 05:11 Julie Roys is a liar. It was September 21st, 2020, and I felt nauseous and disoriented. As I thought about all of the crazy things she was saying. I was at the beach with my family. We were trying to recover COVID. But it had been a hard year because Ravi Zacharias had died. He had very suddenly and unexpectedly passed away from cancer, and I don't cry, but in May at his funeral, I had wept that Ravi was no longer with us. And I was angry that God had taken him so soon. The Vice President (Mike Pence) was there. He said, “In Ravi Zacharias, God gave us the greatest Christian apologist of the century. He was the CS Lewis of our day.” And tributes in that spirit poured in from all around the world. Christian media, social media was flooded with praise for Ravi Zacharias. And our ministry was trying to figure out what we would do without our founder our inspiration or leader or guide. But at the beach a few months later, I felt tense and tight. And I was trying to get my bearings because I was scrolling on my phone through these articles Julie had written. Julie claimed to be an investigative journalist. But responsible leaders at RCIM had explained the truth. She was a clickbait journalist. She would dig up dirt on people so she could get her 15 minutes of fame by, you know, scandal mongering. And now she was stooping to a new low in the aftermath of Ravi's funeral. She was claiming that Ravi Zacharias had taken advantage of Lori Anne Thompson. 07:49 And Julie had documented a lot of facts about the situation I had never heard. So I read her articles. And I tried to do a critical reading of them, I tried to ignore all of her negative biased commentary. I just wanted to pay attention to the facts that she had primary documentation for. And every evening, after I got my kids to bed, I would open up my computer and open up a Google spreadsheet, and I would put everything that Ravi and RZIM had told me in one column, and I would put everything that Julie was documenting in another column. And I got 287 rows of discrepancies. And I just kept comparing Julie's articles with everything I had learned for three years since 2017 and 2018. I'd scoured the internet for information for three years to get information on Lori Anne Thompson. I had talked to many of RZIM's leaders, I debated what was being claimed with my colleagues. For every good point that was raised, RZIM's leaders had a good answer.Lori Anne had schemed with some friends to leak emails to embarrass Ravi. And they made it look like Ravi had done something really wrong. But our leaders had the whole context of the entire email chain. And they explained that the whole chain of emails had been selectively and manipulatively distorted and taken out of context to make Ravi look guilty when he wasn't. 09:30 Ravi and a senior leader who were both Easterners explained how they read these emails from an Eastern point of view. And they said if you think Ravi is guilty of something, that's because you're reading this as a Westerner. We had earnestly prayed for God to protect our ministry in this time from satanic attacks. And it felt like God had put a veil of protection, a dome of protection over our headquarters, and our ministry and our events. And these satanic attacks had been thwarted by the power of prayer. And it hadn't been my job to investigate these claims. But there were people of outstanding integrity and leadership, Christian leaders of major organizations. And it was their job to look into this. And so there were two independent external investigations. Ravi's denomination was a highly respected denomination. And when claims like this came up, they did a proper investigation to ensure that none of their pastors did anything like this. And they had found that Ravi was innocent. 10:44 Ravi's publisher would not publish a book by an author who did this kind of thing. They wanted all of their authors to not only have good teaching but good lives. The publisher had a responsibility to investigate. They investigated, they found that Ravi was innocent. RZIM was a multimillion nearly $40 million a year organization, in the 30s of millions, and our board was comprised of extremely qualified Christian leaders. And when a claim like this came up, the board had a responsibility. They investigated. Our senior leaders were best selling authors and powerful speakers and well educated. They had a responsibility. So our speakers our senior leaders had investigated. So I was looking at four separate investigations by Ravi's denomination, his publisher, his board, and the senior leaders. And all four investigations concluded that Ravi was innocent, and that Lori Anne and her scheming husband had tried to extort Ravi out of $5 million dollars. It was a blackmail attempt. 12:03 So what made more sense? A self promoting journalist, desperate for clicks and attention was passing on lies because she always believed survivors? Or multiple investigations by the most trustworthy people had gotten it wrong? And so I wavered. 12:25 I had first met Ravi, when I was in high school. I was struggling with my Christian faith, do I believe this or not? And I'd read Ravi's book can man live without God, and it really helped me. And so there were some connections, and I got to go to a dinner around Christmas time where Ravi was speaking. And afterwards, it was arranged for me and Ravi to talk with each other. And I could not believe it. Ravi spoke to world leaders. And now he was going to talk to me. And he explained, keep in touch Carson, I'd like to keep in touch with you. So on the way home, I told my mom, I would love to work for Ravi Zacharias one day. 13:03 I studied at Rhodes College in Memphis, studying philosophy. And so I asked Ravi, I wrote him a letter and asked him to give me some advice on my future career. I studied abroad at St. Catherine's college at Oxford. And while I was there, I visited the RZIM offices. It was a chance to meet the people that Ravi had hired and trained and spoke with. I then went into campus ministry for 10 years, seven of those years, I had the joy of serving students at Harvard College. We faced difficult intellectual and cultural questions. And so we often went and said, What is Ravi say about this? What resources does RZIM have to help us navigate this conversation with gentleness with respect, with biblical fidelity with intellectual clarity? So in 2013, when I was hired to work for Ravi Zacharias, it was a dream job. I felt like God had orchestrated all the details of my life and worked it out for me to work for Ravi. During the seven years that I worked there, I got to start with the US speaking team, leading them. And then I transitioned to starting and growing an online community called RZIM Connect. And we had hundreds of thousands of people visit this community and learn how to have good conversations about faith and get answers to their questions. I had respected Ravi and RZIM for over 20 years. I'd worked at RZIM for seven and RZIM was not just a job, it was a joy. It was my identity, my community, my sense of purpose, my faith, my spirituality. So I was a real mess on the beach. And then came to more bombshells. 14:58 Both Christianity Today and World Magazine reported that massage therapists who worked at Ravi's spa alleged that Ravi was guilty of awful, horrendous sexual misconduct. And as I read those articles, my heart sank as I thought about what those women had endured. World Magazine also reported that the tax documents Julie had were accurate and that the Thompson's had given away nearly $200,000 one year to different Christian charities. And so I just asked myself, “Are the Thompsons greedy extortionists or exceptionally generous Christians?” “Are all of the journalists self promotional hacks, or courageous truth tellers?” And I was reluctantly but totally convinced. And I felt that I had a responsibility to take action. Because for years, I had shut down people who thought Lori Anne Thompson was telling the truth. And I had defended Ravi. And now I needed to speak up for his victims. And I had been helped by RZIM so much, I had to do whatever I could to help the ministry do what was right. 16:16 And I just trusted that Ravi Zacharias International Ministries was nothing like Ravi Zacharias. I mean, he was a fraud. He was abusive, a bully a liar. But my friends, my mentors, the people I worked with day in and day out, we'd been on road trips together, we'd done ministry together, these people were solid, they were people of integrity, I could count on them to be truth finders and truth tellers and advocates for the vulnerable. So it was October 1st, 2020. And RZIM's board had already put out two statements, fake news, these are false. We've already looked into it, nothing to this. And they also said truth is the foundation of what we do. And I had to ask myself, is truth, the foundation of what we do? Are you just saying that so people will believe what you're saying? 17:20 And then we had a global town hall meeting because the ministry launched a investigation and they knew staff had questions. And one of the ideas on official motto was no questions off limits. And so I had a few questions. And I wanted to know if we have this investigation going on, but Lori Anne and her family are subjected to a nondisclosure agreement, how can the investigation include them? They can't disclose. And the family wasn't willing to release them from that. So would RZIM provide cover to the Thompsons were they to violate this agreement? If there was financial penalties or legal costs, couldn't we make sure that they could participate? And the response was wonderful. It sounded very gentle and respectful. “We're totally committed to the truth here. We want them to participate. The NDA won't be a problem. We're definitely going to include them in this investigation.” It sounded awesome. And then I thought about it. And they hadn't made any concrete promises of unwinding the NDA or providing a legal defense for the Thompson. So they were just empty promises. And then the hammer fell. There was a private follow-up conversation with our general counsel. And he explained that I had been out of line and inappropriate and should not have asked those questions. And I still have flashbacks to that conversation. And I will freeze up and just feel feel so helpless. And then I will remember that I don't have to be afraid of him anymore. And I will take a deep breath and relax my muscles. And I will try and go back into my day. One day out of nowhere, the Chief Financial Officer sent me and my line manager an email. I guess she'd gotten wind of what I was doing, talking to staff about the situation, advocating for the women. And she wrote to me, “while I agree that we should remain transparent with the truth, I don't think repeating potential lies, or passing on judgment, or qualities we want to embody at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, Carson.” She said she value transparency and truth. But her threat was not idle. Staff had been fired for asking questions that fall. I had thought Julie was a liar. And now one of RZIM's senior leaders was saying that maybe I was a liar too. Throughout the fall of 2020, I heard many heartbreaking stories of my friends being bullied. 20:19 At one point, the human resources director sent out an email saying, “We want to make sure there's someone to receive staff complaints. So we've appointed an ombudsperson.” And that sounded awesome! There's going to be an ombudsperson to advocate for staff. And I was shocked to see the name. The new ombudsperson had a nickname:The Enforcer. She had a track record of bullying staff. So I wrote to the HR director and said, “This person has a track record of bullying staff. You can't have her be the ombudsperson.” And they ignored my email. The ombudsperson stayed in her role. And I had to ask myself, why did they want a bully to receive complaints of bullying? If they cared about staff mistreatment, why did they appoint the Enforcer to this role? 21:09 And as information began to circulate around the ministry, I started to learn about some pretty big lies. Ravi had always said that for that nondisclosure agreement, no money changed hands. But in 2017, our senior leaders had read an email where they had learned that Ravi Zacharias had paid $250,000 for that NDA. And so for years they had known Ravi was lying. And they never corrected the record about a $250,000 payment. And the four investigations I had trusted, they consisted of asking Ravi if he did it, taking him at his word when he said he didn't, and closing the investigation. 21:58 RZIM's president asked us not to publicly comment on the investigation because they were so committed to the integrity of it and to finding the truth, they didn't want anyone to comment about it, so it could run its course. But then, at the end of October, there was a major fundraising weekend called Founders. They would raise millions of dollars in one weekend. And all of the people speaking there, they basically said, “Ravi is a hero, and we want you to make a major gift this year in honor of his legacy.” In November, there was a global apologetics conference. Pastors and churches were trusting us to help them with the big questions of the day. And to a global audience, our speakers share their favorite memories of Ravi and how Ravi had mentored them. They encourage participants to imitate Ravi's example. And I realized that our President's request for silence wasn't about the integrity of the investigation. It was about silencing anyone who believed that Ravi had abused women. It was about protecting Ravi's reputation. And his reputation and our ministry's reputation. 23:03 I had gone to prayer meetings four days a week, and the weekly chapel one day a week, for years. And at the prayer meetings, there were again prayers for God to protect our ministry from the satanic attacks. And I realized now that they were praying against me and what I was doing. And that really complicated my prayer life. By December, I was so discouraged and worn out and wrung out and exhausted. I talked to anyone I could about this issue and been pretty discouraged. When I showed up to our staff Christmas party, I was hoping, look, this is a classic, we laugh, we have fun, the spirit of Christmas. This could be a good moment of connection and recovery. And then came the Christmas Devotional. It came from our chief cultural officer who was a board member. It was Ravi's widow. There's a verse in the Bible that says, the apostle Paul says, “Follow me as I follow Christ.” And her Christmas Devotional was, “Everyone here, follow Ravi's example, the way he followed Christ.” And it was a home run. People liked the message. They thought it was a great Christmas Devotional. And at that point, I knew RZIM was not interested in finding the truth. And they weren't interested in the victims. They didn't believe there were victims. It was about loyalty to Ravi over everything else. And I felt that darkness was closing in around me and I ran out of hope. 24:42 RZIM said they valued truth, and they kept telling lies. They said they valued respect, but they bullied us. They said they valued integrity, and they acted hypocritically. They use the name of Jesus to get money, and they didn't use the money to follow Jesus. In September of 2020, I lost my confidence in Ravi. By December of 2020, I lost my confidence in RZIM. And in January of 2021, I resigned. And I had to wonder if I would lose my confidence in God. 24:42 I was a wreck. I was unemployed. I didn't feel good. I found my family finances changed. I was directionless. What do I do with my life now? I was isolated. I lost all my friends from work pretty much. I was disillusioned. My childhood hero was a liar and a bully and a sexual predator. I was recovering. I was trying to find words to explain all the pain I was feeling. I was trying to understand what spiritual abuse was, how to respond to bullying. I didn't know how to describe what I was experiencing. I was frustrated and angry. I poured my heart into this online community and it had to be shut down and then deleted. All gone. I was ashamed that I'd given seven years of my life to this ministry that would be always associated with scandal. 26:26 And I was so confused. Why would God bring me to work for a sexual predator and a corrupt ministry? I felt so rejected. And hopeless. I just felt like my whole body was covered in pain. One of my first attempts to recover didn't go very well. I went on a retreat by myself. I got an Airbnb in the Great Smoky Mountains. It was beautiful. You know, since childhood my my Bible had been a source of life. But for three months it had been poisoned. And so I didn't really want to read the Bible. And I'd usually loved praying to God. It just felt like dust in my mouth. I had graduated from seminary, but I had never had any training for this. I finally just opened up this journal I brought. And as I started to write, I wrote these incredibly bloody and raw and angry, just super intense prayers to God. Like some pages were just one word of anger at God. And I felt so troubled by what I had said to God, I threw the journal away. 28:01 Slowly, over time, I started to find a few things that helped. After I would drop off my kids at school, I would go to the gym. And instead of feeling weak, I would start to feel strong. And then I would go to the dry sauna. I would just sit in there as long as I could. And it just felt like the heat was taking all the pain out of my body. That's a really good time. I kept talking with a counselor, and he helped give me language helped me express my emotions and start to understand what had happened. I shared my story with friends at church,. And I told them the same story 100 times and they listened and listened and listened and listened and listened to me. I got to know Lori Anne Thompson. I found she was a source of healing in my life. That she would be my friend and forgive me and give me wisdom and care to help me find my way forward. Ruth Malhotra is here. And she has been a steadfast friend and has helped me navigate so many complex things about this. My mom is here for this talk. And she's been amazing. I leaned on my wife for support. I could not in any way have made the decisions I had made, except that she decided to be completely there for me. And it's been years of her, offering me unconditional love and support as I figured things out again. 29:40 I had to rethink all of my beliefs. I read books on theology and church history trying to evaluate if this still made sense to me. And I got really, really honest with God. And I stopped having any pious prayers. It was unfiltered, direct expression of how I felt with God, exactly how I felt about him. I told him, what was on my heart. And even though I was yelling at God, I continued to sense that God was with me, and that God loved me. And I started to pray the Psalms, and I would tweak them as needed. And it was amazing to me that the Psalms were so visceral and real. They blame God for a lot of things. And God heard those prayers and said, I'm going to put these in my Bible. So people can pray them for the rest of time. And I realized that Jesus and the prophets had already spoken the words I needed to say to the leaders at RZIM. And to Ravi Zacharias. I had tested Ravi. He was a disappointment. I had tested RZIM. They were a disappointment. And then I tested God with my very worst. And I found that he could handle it. 31:16 One thing I didn't know is that the road to recovery goes up and down a lot. Sometimes you cannot make progress. Sometimes you don't know if you are making progress. Sometimes you thought you have made progress and you have not–you have regressed. At one point in the spring of 2021 My family went back to the beach for another chance to recover. And I got an email from RZIM saying they wanted to give me severance, which sounded like a real moment of repentance and hope. But I read the separation agreement and my heart sank. It was a nondisclosure agreement. I sent it to four lawyers to make sure I understood this correctly. All four said that's a nondisclosure agreement. 32:05 Boz Tchividjian helped me fight it. And for two months, we were dealing with RZIM's corporate attorney. I lost sleep. And I felt stressed out. And I could hardly think straight, that an organization with millions of dollars in the bank was trying to take the one thing I had left: my voice. 32:28 And if you think that's an unfair characterization, consider that RZIM has never done anything to help Lori Anne Thompson with her NDA. To this day. It's embarrassing. And I got hit from other angles that really confused me and threw me for a loop. I reached out to my whole network and people reached out to me. Mentors, respected Christian leaders, people who wrote books and talked about integrity and Christian leadership. And they had heard my heart ache. They had cared for me. They had prayed with me. They had told me they hoped I would get better. They were there for me. And then they endorsed the books of RZIM's leaders. They did events with RZIM's leaders. And I couldn't understand why they would help relaunch the ministry of people who had bullied me. I reached out I said, “Can I update you? They have not done anything to get right with me or a lot of other people. They don't have the Christian character and integrity you're always saying is so essential.” They said, “Why haven't you forgiven them?” 33:45 Some of them just refused to talk to me. They just never responded to the message. And again and again, I realized that for many Christian leaders, accountability is for anyone who gets in my way. It's never for my friend who's done something wrong. 34:09 And I didn't know that I would have flashbacks. I thought the past was the past. I didn't know that I would be at my desk trying to do work and be unable to do anything for hours because I couldn't stop thinking about a conversation I'd had with someone at RZIM. I didn't know it would keep taking days of my life. 34:29 I would log into Facebook. And Facebook would be like, here's a happy memory of you and Ravi Zacharias. I would hear a new story about RZIM's corruption. And there are so many stories that are not public. So up and down, up and down, up and down. There were times I was in so much pain, I didn't know if I would ever get better. I didn't know if it was possible to get better. I could not see a light at the end of my tunnel. And then I wouldn't get a little bit better. But something would happen. And I would go back down into that pain again. So then, when I was better, I didn't know if I would stay better. It felt so fragile. How long does this last for? When will something catch me off guard and knock me back down into the pit. 35:34 And if you feel like there is no light at the end of your tunnel, and if you wonder if you will never get better, I just wanted to say, I hear you. And then it's okay to not be okay. That was one of the main things I just kept saying to myself, it is okay, in light of what I've been through, to not be okay. 36:03 And over time, I had to accept that Ravi and RZIM had damaged me. And for a long time, I just denied that and resisted that and hated that. It felt so unfair and wrong, that they had changed who I was. And I didn't like what they had done to me. And the kind of person that they had shaped me to be through their hurt. And I felt so helpless. I mean, how do you change the past? How do you undo all the horrible things they did? You can't. I didn't know what to do with that. I didn't want to face that reality. 36:50 But at some point, I gained the strength to choose who I want it to be. I will never justify what happened. I'll never spiritualize it. All of the lies and bullying and spiritual abuse were totally wrong. But that doesn't mean I can't choose a better future for myself. 37:13 So I'm now awakened to the pain of survivors. I'm excited about that. That's a good thing God's done in me. When I see evangelical corruption, I'm not afraid to challenge it. Sometimes people say to me, Carson, are you worried that if you keep calling out all of these big name leaders for corruption is going to limit your future. And I say if it limits my future, that's not a future I want to be a part of. 37:51 I once thought Julie was a liar. And now I can call her a friend. I hit rock bottom. I might go there again sometime in the future. But I'm here today sharing with you a story of hope. I enrolled in the Doctorate of ministry programs so I can learn how to build a healthy Christian culture. Some Christian leaders decided to investigate what happened. And they published a report holding RZIM's leaders accountable. It's sad how many ignore their report. But it's great that they did that. 38:30 My former line manager at RCM reached out to make amends and over and over again, he made really sacrificial choices for my benefit. And that rebuild trust that he kept doing sacrificial things to repair our relationship. I started Uncommon Pursuit. And we're creating resources to help people grow in their Christian faith. And I read the Bible with more sensitivity to God's heart for many years, thanks to some good mentors, I had always had known for many years that God cares about the vulnerable. The orphan, the widow, the immigrant and the poor. God hates injustice. God hates racism. God hates sexism. God hates all forms of oppression. But it had shifted from being something that I could do exegetically to something I felt in my gut as I turned the pages of Scripture. 39:34 And I have developed a way more honest relationship with God. I don't pray pious prayers anymore. What I feel that's what I tell God about. And I know he can handle it. When the truth becomes a lie, when a good reputation is used to lure people in and abuse them, when the minister turns out to be a monster, it's okay not be okay. 40:05 I am not here today with any answers or advice. All I have is the story of how God has been able to handle all of my pain and helped me to start to heal. And how with God's help, this pain has helped me to choose a better version of myself. I am convinced that if we can maintain the courage to be honest with God, and with each other, about all of our reasonable and righteous disillusionment, that we will also find our way to hope. Thank you guys for the chance to share with you today. JULIE ROYS:  41:02 Well again, that was Carson Weitnauer, speaking at Restore 2023. And what a very special and moving talk that was. And I hope if you're in a place of disillusionment or discouragement today, that this talk encouraged you. Next week, we'll be releasing a fitting sequel to Carson's talk. That's a talk by Lori Anne Thompson on trauma recovery and empowerment. And this was the most raw and real talk I think I've ever heard. My husband cried during this talk. And he's a math teacher, so he's not really given to shows of emotion. But wow, Lori's talk is just so powerful—and helpful for anyone who's experienced severe trauma. So, you'll definitely want to be watching for that. Also, I want to mention that the videos of these talks are all available at my YouTube channel. A lot of conferences charge for their videos. But we've decided to make ours available for free because we don't want anyone to miss out on this valuable content because of lack of finances. But as you can imagine, these videos do cost us to shoot and edit. So, if you appreciate this content and you're able to pitch in, would you please donate to The Roys Report so we can continue this important service? To do so, just go to JulieRoys.com/Donate.  And when you give a gift of $30 or more this month, we'll send you a copy of Scot McKnight and Laura Barringer's latest book: Pivot: The Priorities, Practices, and Powers that Can Transform Your Church into a Tov Culture. So again, just go to JulieRoys.comDonate. Also, just a quick reminder to subscribe to The Roys Report on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. That way, you'll never miss an episode! And while you're at it, I'd really appreciate it if you'd help us spread the word about the podcast by leaving a review. And then, please share the podcast on social media so more people can hear about this great content. Again, thanks for joining me today! Hope you were blessed and encouraged!    Read more

Eve is mentioned twice in the New Testament, once in 2 Corinthians 11:3 and once in 1 Timothy 2:11-15. In the first instance, Paul alludes to the serpent's tempting Eve in the garden. The Apostle does not want the Corinthian church to be as gullible as Eve was. In the second instance, the author of this pastoral letter elaborates on Eve's role as a way of admonishing women. Because Eve succumbed to temptation, the writer of the letter does not permit her to teach men. He claims that Eve was deceived, though Adam was not. Because of this, women are to be silent in church educational settings. This, of course, is enormously controversial. Ultimately, the author says that women will eventually saved by bearing children as long as women maintain a holy demeanor. Some Christian churches have taken this admonishment literally as applicable to all places and all times. Other churches have attempted to soften this teaching.

Some Christian sects forbid all alcohol, alcoholic mouthwash, and painkillers altogether. Others rush into alcohol and tobacco with great zealousness and a distinct lack of sobriety. Men of the world look at alcohol, marijuana, peyote, and the like as essentials for a decent -good time.- But what about us-- Shall we be filled with the spirits, or filled with the Holy Spirit, as the basic constituent of glad fellowship-- More importantly, how do we prepare our young men to be sober, grave, thoughtful, wise, temperate, and full of Holy Spirit fruits-- --This program includes- --1. The World View in 5 Minutes with Adam McManus -Manteo, a Native American, baptized August 13, 1587- 35 million Scriptures distributed worldwide last year- U.S. Supreme Court dealt final blow to -Lemon- test, ensuring religious liberty at school- --2. Generations with Kevin Swanson

Some Christian giving must be done corporately, as a body or through the body. In this case, individuals lay aside what is then entrusted to the hands of certified men for disbursement and delivery. One focus of corporate giving is that those whose life's labor is preaching the gospel can get their living by preaching the gospel.

Some Christian leaders teach that since our bodies will be resurrected by God, they must remain bodies in burial. Bob addresses this issue on today's podcast. Bob is joined by his producer Brendan Thomas Click on your podcasting platform below to subscribe to The Bob Siegel Show:   Apple  |  Google  | Spotify |  TuneIn  | Blubrry | Deezer | Android  | RSS Feed […]

In the last few years, many Christians had said that all Christians need to be winsome at ALL times. Now, of course, Christians should always have the fruit of the Spirit in their lives and that absolutely must govern our conversations. But it is not that simple. Some Christian apologists are so nice and so accepting when talking with those who have rejected the truths of Christianity that the non-Christian they were talking to might not realize that their eternal destination is at stake. Also, believers need to be careful that winsome doesn't become a cloak for cowardice. The word winsome is defined by Merriam-Webster as “1: generally pleasing and engaging often because of a childlike charm and innocence….: CHEERFUL, LIGHTHEARTED” (capitalization in original). The Cambridge Dictionary defines it as “attractive and pleasing, with simple qualities, sometimes like those a child has.” Princeton Writes defines winsome as “pleasing or attractive in appearance, handsome, comely; of attractive nature or disposition, of winning character or manners.” Now Jesus may have evinced a “winning character or manners,” but “attractive in appearance, handsome, comely” perhaps isn't true because we read in Isaiah, “he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him” (53:2). And did Jesus always come across with an “attractive nature or disposition”? There is a great difference between Jesus' ministry and much Christian public discourse today. Namely, Jesus wasn't concerned about scoring political gains, except indirectly as He changed the hearts of those in power. Since Jesus was not trying to win the Pharisees over, He was laying out plain truth for the audience's sake. Jesus was letting the crowd know that the Pharisees were evil and that their counsel should be rejected. This Postmodern Realities episode is a conversation with JOURNAL author Clay Jones about his online article, “Jesus Wasn't Always Winsome“. When you support the Journal, you join the team of to help provide the resources at equip.org that minister to people worldwide. These resources include our ever growing database of over 1,500 articles, as well as our free Postmodern Realities podcast.Another way you can support our online articles is by leaving us a tip. A tip is just a small amount, like $3, $5, or $10 which is the cost for some of a latte, lunch out, or coffee drink. To leave a tip, click here Other articles and podcasts featuring this author: Episode 333 A Question Mormons Can't AnswerA Question Mormons Can't AnswerEpisode 270 The Divine Hiddenness of GodFour Types of Divine Hiddenness of God. For a special limited preview of this print article please click here! To read the article in it's entirety please please click here to purchase this issue. Postmodern Realities Episode 247: Is It True That There Are Good Non-Christians?Is It true That There Are Good Non-Christians?Postmodern Realities Episode 233 You Probably Aren't Saved If…(This Is about Sex)You Probably Aren't Saved If…(This Is about Sex)Postmodern Realities Episode 202 Symbolic Immortality Projects Can't Save YouSymbolic Immortality Projects Can't Save YouPostmodern Realities Episode 183 Immortal: How the Fear of Death Drives Us and What We Can Do About ItImmortal—Epicurus, Sam Harris, and Bart Ehrman Are Wrong: Death Is SomethingPostmodern Realities Episode 176 Our Fallen WorldHank Unplugged: Why God Permits Evil with Clay JonesPostmodern Realities: Episode 114 Why Did God Let that Child Die?Why Did God Let That Child Die?Postmodern Realities: Episode 068: Something Made: The Role of Form in ApologeticsSomething Made : The Role of Form in Apologetics Postmodern Realities: Episode 030: Evangelizing the Cultural Christian Evangelizing the Cultural ChristianKilling the Canaanites: A Response to the New Atheism's “Divine Genocide” Claims

As we conclude our series exploring the worship of the church, we turn our attention to the Lord's Supper (or Communion or Eucharist). Some Christian traditions only have the Lord's Supper once per year, once per quarter, or once per month. Some traditions only allow the laity to eat the bread. Some traditions think the Supper is a time for introspection and confession. Others believe the bread and wine actually become the physical body and blood of Christ. What's going on as we eat and drink each Sunday? Join us this Sunday as we consider the work of God for us—feeding us with the body and blood of Christ, strengthening us for the pilgrim journey ahead.

Can women preach in churches? People may answer this question in different ways, depending on their denomination or faith tradition. Some Christian churches allow for women to be ordained. In others, women are barred from any kind of teaching or leadership position at all. Many women working in faith-based ministries have likely heard such statements as “it's unBiblical for women to preach,” “women should be silent in the churches,” or “women are to be subservient to men, as the church is to Christ.” But what should Catholics make of the different, sometimes seemingly contradictory scripture passages about women preaching? What is the actual history of women preaching, from the early church on? And is there an official Catholic teaching on whether women can preach in churches or not? On this episode of the podcast, hosts Emily Sanna and Rebecca Bratten Weiss talk to Rhonda Miska about the scriptures, history, and teachings associated with women preaching.  Miska is a preacher, lay ecclesial minister, writer, and spiritual director based in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota. She holds a master's degree from the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry and spent several years discerning vowed life with the Dominicans, the Order of Preachers. She is the founder and co-convener of the Catholic Women's Preaching Circle. You can learn more about this topic, read some of Rhonda's writing, and hear her preach in these links.  “Should women preach at Mass?” by Jessie Bazan https://uscatholic.org/articles/202002/should-women-preach-at-mass/ “How can preachers break through the noise of today's world?” by Rhonda Miska https://uscatholic.org/articles/202204/what-makes-a-good-homily/ “Two historians track down Jesus' women disciples,” A U.S. Catholic interview https://uscatholic.org/articles/202209/two-historians-track-down-jesus-women-disciples/ “We need more women in the lectionary,” by Jean P. Kelly https://uscatholic.org/articles/201903/we-need-more-women-in-the-lectionary/ “A reflection for the second Sunday of Easter,” by Rhonda Miska https://uscatholic.org/articles/202204/a-reflection-for-the-second-sunday-of-easter-2/ Glad You Asked is sponsored by the Claretian Missionaries. https://www.claretiansusa.org/

Jacob wrestles with a man.  This is what it says in the Hebrew in Gen. 32:24.  Who is this "man?"  The rabbi say it is the devil himself, HaSatan - the adversary.  Some Christian scholars say it is Jesus!  Others say it is the Angel of the Lord.  But, what does the Bible say?  Are there strong hints in the text that give us an idea of who this "man" is?   Come and join us in the Torah study.  Come as we put the Bible into its historical context and discover things that are hidden but are now being brought to light by Ruach HaKodesh - the רוח הקודש Holy Spirit, our teacher given to us on Shavuot after Jesus' Resurrection. Rev. Ferret - who is this guy?  What's his background?  Why should I listen to him?  Check his background at this link - https://www.dropbox.com/s/ortnret3oxcicu4/BackgrndTeacher%20mar%2025%202020.pdf?dl=0

There is a lot of pressure on parents to build resiliency in kids. Some Christian and secular writers wrestle with stats on how to approach best preparing kids for the challenges of the modern world.  Dr. Kathy considers some of the parenting approaches that are perceived as lawnmowing or helicopter parenting. She explains how we can better equip and walk with kids in current culture moments while considering their mental health and emotional resiliency. 

Some Christian says yes, and some say no you don't!! Let's look at some scriptures and see. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/vrenon-cockrum/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/vrenon-cockrum/support

Some Christian leaders are saying the land of Israel belongs to Christians but not Jews. What did Jesus the Jewish Rabbi say about the land?

As we've seen, the book of Hebrews opens with a contrast – in the past God spoke to us by the prophets; now he has spoken by his Son. The contrast between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant is the main theme of the book of Hebrews. It runs throughout and the superiority of the New Covenant is highlighted at every point. Today's passage continues the contrast between the angels and the Son, which the author began in verse 4. Chapter 1 moves back and forth between Son and angels, showing how the Scriptures have always expressed the supremacy of the Son. So I want to begin by giving a brief overview of angels, because you can't understand Christ's supremacy without some biblical baseline. Then we'll look at the Son and what Hebrews finds in the psalms about Christ. And then we'll close with a few words of application. Brief Overview of AngelsAngels are personal spirits of great power and might. They are immortal and invisible (Luke 20:35-36; Colossians 1:16). They neither marry, nor multiply by procreation. They don't have flesh and bone as men and beasts do, though they do manifest themselves in visible and bodily form at times. They are not omnipresent or omniscient. When the angel Michael appears to Daniel, he tells him that he was sent from God, but was held up along the way by the prince of Persia. And 1 Peter tells us that there are things into which angels long to look.When angels appear in Scripture, the most common human response is awe and fear. Even the holiest men fall on their faces and are tempted to worship them. Angels are personal; they aren't merely forces or powers. They communicate and act. They are moral beings; some spirits obey God, whereas others have rebelled against him. Evil spirits are at war with God and with men; they are able to influence and oppress people, both physically and psychologically. The Bible alludes to various kinds of spiritual beings that we typically classify under the category of “angels.” There are the cherubim, which are essentially throne guardians; they first appear in Genesis 3 and guard the way to the tree of life. Images of cherubim appear in the tabernacle and temple, and over the ark of the covenant. When prophets see visions of the heavenly throne room, the cherubim are represented as possessing characteristics of certain beasts: lion, eagle, leopard, and so forth. There are also the seraphim, the burning ones, who appear in Isaiah 6, winged spirits who surround God's throne. Paul mentions spiritual powers and classifies them as “thrones, dominions, rulers, authorities, principalities” and so forth (in Colossians 1 and Ephesians 6). Some Christian theologians have attempted to delineate the different orders and ranks of angels, and while there may be some truth to these, the details are speculative. At least two angels are named in Scripture – Michael and Gabriel.The word “angel” itself simply means “one who is sent.” Throughout the Bible, we see these spiritual beings performing various tasks as God's representative. We frequently see them worshiping God, as with the cherubim and seraphim pronouncing “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty,” or the heavenly choir at Christ's birth, or the angelic hosts in the book of Revelation. They often act as God's messengers, bringing word to his prophets. The Bible speaks of essentially a heavenly council or court, in which angels (and at times the prophets) assemble to receive orders from God himself. Angels are agents of judgment, as at Passover, when the angel of death executes judgment on Egypt, or in the book of Revelation. Some of their titles (dominions, thrones, rulers) imply that they have some sort of governing authority in the cosmos, ruling and reigning over aspects of God's creation (including men). They are frequently linked to the stars; the phrase “heavenly host” sometimes refers to the stars in the sky, or to the angelic armies of heaven.But perhaps one of their most important functions, at least according to the New Testament authors, is that angels were the mediators of God's law in the Old Testament. In Galatians, Paul says that God put the law in place “through angels.” In Hebrews 2, the law is described as “the message declared by angels.”So to summarize, the Bible teaches us that the cosmos is inhabited by innumerable spiritual beings, some good, and some evil, who have great power and might and interact and influence history and human affairs. Faithful angels are God's agents, gladly fulfilling his purposes; fallen angels, though in rebellion, are ultimately under God's control and fulfill God's purposes despite their hostility to God and man. In other words, there is an entire spiritual world operating behind the scenes of what we visibly see all the time. Think of Elisha's words to his servant when the armies of Syria surrounded the city and the servant was dismayed. Elisha prayed that God would open his eyes, and he saw that the enemy army was itself surrounded by an angelic army, complete with horses and chariots. Just a Metaphor?When we come to our passage in Hebrews, we hear the author quote Psalm 104: “He makes his angels winds,and his ministers a flame of fire.” God's word about angels contrasts with his words about the Son (1:8-13). And the author is really keying in on a few words from this passage, which show up again in 1:14. The phrase “ministering spirits” is drawn from this quotation. “Minister” and “ministering” are obviously related. The other connection is difficult to see in English, because our translators translate the word “pneumata” as “winds” in v.7 and “spirits” in v.14. But it is the same word. God makes his angels to be spirits and ministers (ministering spirits) who are sent out to serve for our sake. But perhaps he's doing more than this. In its original context, Psalm 104 is clearly talking about wind and fire; the previous verses note that God covers himself with light as with a garment, he makes the clouds his chariot, and he rides on the wings of the wind. And then he says, “he makes his angels winds and his ministers a flame of fire.” As modern people, our tendency at this point is to regard this as “just a metaphor.” Angels are like wind, because they are invisible, or because the wind is ephemeral; it comes and goes. And God's ministers are like fire, in that fire burns up and then disappears. And this contrasts with the Son in the next verse whose throne is forever and ever. And I think there is something to that contrast.But we ought to be slow to reduce things to being “just a metaphor.” That whole modern way of framing reality is inherently myopic and narrow. We live in an age of scientific reductionism, in which material, physical causes are regarded as the only real causes. The entire modern world reinforces this reduction. It constantly catechizes us into what some philosophers aptly call “nothing-buttery.” A star is “nothing but” a ball of flaming gas. You are “nothing but” a sack of protoplasm. Love is “nothing but” a chemical reaction in the brain. So I simply want to raise the question for you: What if this isn't merely a metaphor? What if he really does “make his angels winds”? The book of Jonah says that God hurled a storm at Jonah when he fled from his mission. What if the storm had a name, like Gabriel or Michael? We name hurricanes. What if God does too? What if he really does make his angels winds?“But Joe, we know how hurricanes are formed: warm ocean air rises into clouds, creating areas of low-pressure, which causes more air to rush in and then rise and cool, which leads to rain, which creates more warm ocean air and more low pressure, until the air really begins to rush in and swirl. It's science, not angels.”But why would those be mutually exclusive? You have a spirit, an invisible aspect to your being that makes use of the chemicals in your brain in its activities. The spiritual and the physical don't cancel each other out. Might not winds, clouds, and fire have something similar underneath? What if the regularities that we observe in nature, are not owing to impersonal laws, but owing to the fact that holy angels are really, really obedient?There's more to be said about this modern tendency. On February 23, I'll be giving a lecture at The North Church (formerly Bethlehem's North Campus) as a part of Bethlehem College and Seminary's Spring Lecture Series on Puddleglum's Faith: Breaking the Dark Enchantments of the Modern World. We'll include more information about that in the weekly email.Of the SonBack to Hebrews. The main contrast he's drawing is between angels who are “made” and who “serve” and the Son who has an eternal throne, and who laid the foundation of the earth, and whose years have no end. Angels are creatures; they are made. The Son is not. To make this contrast, the author draws from Psalm 45 and Psalm 102 and claims that these passages are talking about the Son. How can he do that? How is he reading his Old Testament. Let's look closely at Psalm 45.Psalm 45 is clearly a royal psalm. “I address my verses to the king.” "You are the most handsome of the sons of men;grace is poured upon your lips;therefore God has blessed you forever.Gird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one,in your splendor and majesty!In your majesty ride out victoriouslyfor the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness;let your right hand teach you awesome deeds!Your arrows are sharpin the heart of the king's enemies;the peoples fall under you." (Ps. 45:2-5) Later, the psalm celebrates the marriage of the king to the queen. “At your right hand stands the queen in gold of Ophir.” And then she is exhorted to leave her father's house and fully be joined to the king who desires her beauty.This is clearly a human king. But then, in the middle of the passage (v. 7-8), we have this oddity: "Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness;you have loved righteousness and hated wickedness.Therefore God, your God, has anointed youwith the oil of gladness beyond your companions;" So someone is addressed as “God,” and then that person is said to have a “God” “Therefore, God, your God” has anointed you. So this human king, most handsome of the sons of men, with a queen in her beauty, is said to be God and have a God, who anoints him with the oil of gladness.Some might call this Messianic hyperbole. The Bible uses this exalted language to describe Israel's king and to express Israel's hopes for a future king who will restore the house of David. This is just hyperbole, nothing but hyperbole.We see the same sort of thing in Isaiah 9, the famous Christmas passage. Isaiah 9:6–7, “For to us a child is born,to us a son is given;and the government shall be upon his shoulder,” Clearly, this is a human son, a child. In verse 7, we're told that the zeal of the Lord of hosts will establish the throne of David. So this is a child in the Davidic line. And what will his name be called? “and his name shall be calledWonderful Counselor, Mighty God,Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.Of the increase of his government and of peacethere will be no end,on the throne of David and over his kingdom,to establish it and to uphold itwith justice and with righteousnessfrom this time forth and forevermore.The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.” Just Hyperbole? Nothing but messianic exaggeration? Perhaps. Until the hyperbole becomes reality. When Jesus arrives, we clearly see that passages like Psalm 45 and Isaiah 9 (and like Deuteronomy 32 which David Mathis explored last week) are not merely hyperbole. There is a human king, a son of man, born to a woman. And this son of Man is truly the eternal Son, the one who laid the foundations of the earth in the beginning, whose throne is forever and ever, and whose years will have no end. This is what the Old Testament has been saying all along, and why Jesus rebukes the Pharisees and scribes for not getting it. Or consider the final quotation from Psalm 110. “And to which of the angels has he ever said, ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet'?” Jesus himself appealed to this passage to stump the Pharisees in Matthew 22. Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.” He said to them, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying,“‘The Lord said to my Lord,“Sit at my right hand,until I put your enemies under your feet”'?If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?” Note the argument. David wrote the Psalm. And David says that “the Lord” (Yahweh) says to “my Lord” (Messiah) “Sit at my right hand.” The Messiah is both David's son and David's lord. He is David's descendant, and David's superior. Just as we must not reduce winds to physical causes, we must not reduce the Messiah to his human origins. The Old Testament promises, and the New Testament verifies and confirms, that the Messiah is a man, and more than a man, more even than an angel. The things that God says about the Messiah could not be said of any creature–human or angelic. Christ is supreme over the angels.ApplicationWhere do we go with this truth? Next week Pastor Kenny will unpack the conclusion that the author draws in 2:1 (note the word “therefore”). And then the following week, we'll discuss the relationship between Christ and the angels in 2:5-9. And for that, let me just plant a little seed for your reflection. Last week Pastor David noted that the Bible gives us an order of being: God, angels, man, beasts. Humans reign over animals (Genesis 1, Psalm 8), and angels are over humans. Angels, it seems, reign over the nations of men and influence the course of human history. God gives the law through angels (Hebrews 2:2; Galatians 3). And this makes sense. Angels are beings of great power and might; they see the face of God, and act as his agents. Man is made “lower than the angels.”But then we have 1:14, which says that angels are sent out to serve for our sake. So at one level, angels are above us; in another, they are below us. How do we make sense of both of those claims? Ponder that over the next few weeks.For now, let me note a few ways that we can be encouraged by this chapter.First, recognize the place of angels in God's works. Modern people need reminders that there is more in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in our reductionistic philosophies. Our earthly problems feel so big; reminding ourselves of the invisible supernatural realm, and the battles and praises taking place there, can help to recalibrate us. I don't mean that you should become obsessed with angels (or demons). But I do mean that it is good and right for you to welcome and seek the service of God's ministering spirits. When I put my kids to bed, I regularly pray that God would send his mighty angels in flames of fire to guard my house and my children. And you might say, “Joe, why don't you just ask God to guard your house and your kids himself? Why bring angels into it?” Because I don't want to be holier than God. I don't want to be more spiritual than Jesus. The Bible tells us that God will command his angels concerning his people so that we don't strike our foot against the stone. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and deliver them. The psalmist praises God for the activity of faithful angels and seek to praise God with the angels:Psalm 103:20–21, “Bless the LORD, O you his angels,you mighty ones who do his word,obeying the voice of his word!Bless the LORD, all his hosts,his ministers, who do his will!” Jesus, in the garden of Gethsemane, as he prayed in agony, was strengthened by the appearance of an angel. Later in Hebrews, the author says that we should show hospitality, because some people have entertained angels unaware.So recognizing and acknowledging the role of angels is a real part of the biblical vision of reality. And so we want to keep both truths in view: angels are real; Jesus is better. Second, let the loves and hates of Jesus shape your own. Of the Son he says, “You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness.” There are things that Jesus loves, and things that Jesus hates. He has embedded knowledge of right and wrong in our consciences and then expressed them clearly in the Bible. And yet, we're sinners, and we suppress the truth, and exchange the truth for a lie. Human beings know God's decree and practice the opposite and celebrate our sin. And so it takes gracious effort to cultivate your loves and your hates. And I stress both, because the passage stresses both. We are pressed on every side to emphasize what God loves, and not what God hates. But there are things that Jesus hates.Earlier this week at Bethlehem College and Seminary Chapel, we sang an arrangement of Psalm 125. Psalm 125:1–3, “Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion,which cannot be moved, but abides forever.As the mountains surround Jerusalem,so the LORD surrounds his people,from this time forth and forevermore.For the scepter of wickedness shall not reston the land allotted to the righteous,lest the righteous stretch outtheir hands to do wrong.Do good, O LORD, to those who are good,and to those who are upright in their hearts!” Christ's scepter is a scepter of righteousness (Hebrews 1:8). Here there is the scepter of wickedness. And one of the dangers of living beneath a wicked scepter, under wicked rulers is that ungodly law shapes even the righteous so that they stretch out their hands to do wrong. This is one of the reasons why law matters – it shapes our views of what is good and evil. And we live under wicked rulers. Just this week the Minnesota legislature is considering bills that will expand abortion access for any reason up until birth, remove waiting periods and parental consent, and deny medical care to children who survive abortions. They've also queued up bills that would enable the state to seize custody of children from parents should they deny “gender affirming care” to their minor son or daughter, that would outlaw efforts by counselors to help minors and vulnerable adults as they wrestle with their sexuality, and that would mandate that schools teach children about the “spectrum” of sexuality. These are wicked laws, established by the scepter of wickedness. But we live under Christ's scepter of righteousness. We trust in the Lord, and seek to calibrate our loves and hates by the loves and hates of Christ. And from that faith and upright heart, we seek the face of God; we ask him to do good to us, and then through us to our city, state, and nation. We ask the Lord to act to establish justice for the weakest and most vulnerable members of society, for his kingdom to come and his will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. Third, and finally, because Christ perfectly and completely loved righteousness and hated wickedness, therefore God anointed him with the oil of gladness beyond his companions. According to Acts 10, the oil of gladness here is the Holy Spirit, who descended upon Jesus and empowered him for his ministry. And then, Christ pours out that same oil of gladness upon us, anointing his people with his Spirit at Pentecost. In the face of the great evils we face – both in the culture and in our own midst and hearts – the joy of Jesus anchors us in his rule and reign.The TableThis brings us to the table. Here, we marvel that Jesus doesn't change. His throne is forever and ever. He laid the foundations of the earth in the beginning. He made the heavens, and he will outlast them. He will bring history and this creation to its close. Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. And he is seated now, as God brings everything into subjection to him. God makes his angels winds; he makes Christ's enemies his footstool. We eat this meal because Christ is seated at the right hand of Majesty.

Some Christian teachers have interpreted Yeshua's Sabbath healings as evidence that He came to do away with the Sabbath. In reality, Yeshua's Sabbath healings demonstrate the proper way to keep the Sabbath. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/david-wilber/support

“How to hear God's voice in troubled times“ Pete Greig, Premier Christianity magazine, April 2022 “Each one of us has been born with an extra ordinary superpower: an innate ability to hear the voice of God.” 49  “…it's amazing that God who speaks in such powerful ways would listen to us, but generally he doesn't seem to speak in an audible voice. What does it mean?” 49 Jesus assumes that we will be able to hear him, John 10:27. “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. I and the Father are one.”” John 10:27-30 “Learning to listen is one of the disciplines of the Christian life. It may be an innate ability, but that doesn't mean it doesn't need to be developed. Part of that is protecting ourselves from the things that get in the way of our ability to listen.” 51 Barriers include: Unworthiness. Not feeling spiritual enough to be heard. Therefore we don't try.  Theological. Some Christian traditions mistakenly give us the impression that the Bible does not allow for us to expect to hear from God. Experiential. If we have certain expectations of how we might experience the guidance of God, and our experiences don't fit into that, we may not notice when God is seeking to us. We must listening with an open mind as well as open “ears“. Busyness. When we allow too much noise and clutter into our lives we find it hard to hear the gentle voice of God Talking too much. God is a patient listener, but we need the discipline to listen.  Five ways to hear God The Bible Prayer Community Creation Most of the literature written about listening to God has been written by introverts who are only 35% of the population, and that they “understandably advocate their own preference for quietness, stillness and solitude.“ And this might cause extroverts to think that they're not very good at or don't need to listen to God because they don't fit in with the introverts' experiences. We can all listen and hear. What can you do to develop your listening capacity? Please add your comments on this week's topic. We learn best when we learn in community.  Do you have a question about teaching the Bible? Is it theological, technical, practical? Send me your questions or suggestions. Here's the email: [malcolm@malcolmcox.org](mailto:malcolm@malcolmcox.org).  If you'd like a copy of my free eBook on spiritual disciplines, “How God grows His people”, sign up at my website: http://[www.malcolmcox.org](http://www.malcolmcox.org/).  Please pass the link on, subscribe, leave a review.  “Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.” (Psalms 100:2 NIV11)  God bless, Malcolm #prayer 

This 6m episode provides the listener an ear to Jesus as He celebrated The Last Supper with His disciples and thereby instituted the LORD's Supper with Communion. "Maundy Thursday", refers to the command Jesus gave to the disciples at the Last Supper, that they should love and serve one another. Some Christian churches observe a foot-washing ceremony on Maundy Thursday to commemorate Jesus' washing the feet of the disciples. Doing a foot-washing in remembrance of how Christ humbled Himself and washed the feet of the disciples is a powerful reminder of how we are to live the Christian life (Philippians 2:1-11). It is a good thing to remember the Last Supper and Jesus' sacrifice on our behalf. It is a good thing to remember the Lord's example of humility.

Sunday Service Online — Is it possible to speak our desires into existence? Do our spoken words move God to action? Some Christian camps say, absolutely not! But other Christians believe we have the power to speak things into existence, similar to God. What does the Word of God say about this? Let's find out.  Links — Sunday Services, Online Community,  Partnership

Some Christian women seem to have been burdened with the workload not even three women could accomplish, while others find themselves bored or disinterested in the tasks at hand and struggle to find the motivation to tackle even their most basic tasks. In this program, Cindy Dunagan, Ila King, and Alison Graham share the blessings of wisely stewarding this most valuable resource --- time--- and will offer tips for working smarter in both the big and little things of life.

Some Christian groups, including the Roman Catholic Church, have accepted as canonical or semi-canonical several Jewish writings dating from about 200 BC to 30 BC (and one from about AD 100). These writings are commonly called the Apocrypha. Fourteen such writings even appeared in the original edition of the King James Version. So why isn't the Apocrypha included in most modern Bibles?Dr. David K. Bernard offers a brief overview of the Apocrypha and explains why neither the early church nor modern Oneness Pentecostals view these writings as divinely inspired.If you enjoy this podcast, leave a rating and a review on iTunes or your preferred podcast platform. We also greatly appreciate it when you share Apostolic Life in the 21st Century with your family and friends.Thank you for listening!

Some Christian women seem to have been burdened with the workload not even three women could accomplish, while others find themselves bored or disinterested in the tasks at hand and struggle to find the motivation to tackle even their most basic tasks. In tonight's program Cindy, Ila, and Alison share the blessings of wisely stewarding this most valuable resource --- time--- and will offer tips for working smarter in both the big and little things of life.

Question Time Stamps for Quick Reference: 0:00 Intro1. 0:04 {My Fault if Someone’s Not Saved?} I know God is in control, but since prayer and fasting makes a difference, is it my fault if someone is not saved because I didn’t pray or fast enough for them? I feel responsible when I eat or forget to pray.2. 9:31 {About the 2 Witnesses / Rapture?} It seems like the 2 witnesses in Zechariah 4 and Revelation 11 are like two peoples instead of individuals, as Romans 11: 17-21 speaks of olive trees/branches being Jews/Gentiles. If so, would the rapture be the "calling up" of them?3. 17:01 {Does Romans Teach Works for Salvation?} Does Romans 6: 22 preach salvation by works? John Piper claims that this verse suggests that at final salvation, our works coming from sanctification result in eternal life.4. 24:30 {Does God Grant People Faith? / Calvinism} How would you interpret the end of Matthew 11 in a non-Calvinist way, since it seems at a quick read to me that God grants people faith?5. 29:55 {Thinking Biblically about Trends} There is a trend in many young male Christians where they are wearing earrings, painting nails, fixing eyebrows, and putting on makeup. Help me think biblically about this, as it's a bit shocking.6. 35:04 {Advice for being a Godly Man} I just turned 18 today, and for the past few months, I've been struggling with the transition into adulthood. Got any advice for someone trying to become the man God wants them to be?7. 39:22 {Does Blindness Cover Sin?} In John 9: 41, Jesus says, "If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin..." What does it mean to be "blind" in this context? Does this blindness also cover sin?8. 45:43 {Discerning Extrabiblical Prophecies} When should extrabiblical prophecy be accepted or rejected? I don’t know how to discern or “test the spirits,” and I don’t want to be overly dismissive, even if the claims seem astonishing.9. 51:34 {About Submission in Marriage} If a husband's rule over his wife was a curse of the fall, why is it taught as God-ordained in the New Testament? Aren't husbands and wives called to submit to each other under the New Covenant?10. 54:18 {Right and Wrong Public Worship/Prayer} In Matthew 6:5, Jesus says not to pray like people in public who try to get attention. Would that include praying and worshiping in church?11. 58:18 {Interpreting the Psalms} In Psalm 2: 12, What does the psalmist mean by this verse in its non-messianic context?12. 1:02:23 {Judging & Correcting Non-Believers} Are we supposed to judge those outside of the Church, and do we have any right to control/direct what they do (Romans 1: 32; 1 Corinthians 5: 12)?13. 1:06:30 {Theological Differences while Dating} I've just discovered my long-term girlfriend does not believe homosexuality is a sin, and I'm really struggling with anxiety regarding this. Is it wrong to break up over this, and how should I approach this?14. 1:09:04 {How Does the HS Guide Us?} I'm a new born-again Christian and I'd like to know, how does the Holy Spirit guide us?15. 1:12:34 {Resources for Seniors} Are there any good sources for ministering to seniors you can recommend?16. 1:13:07 {Is Sheol/Hades the Same as Hell?} Are the biblical references to Sheol/Hades necessarily Hell? Some Christian traditions have it as the underworld, with Hell only being something after the resurrection.17. 1:15:45 {Abortion OK - Babies will Go to Heaven?} What would you say to a vicar who says that abortion isn't the biggest issue or problem for God as the babies will end up in Heaven anyway?18. 1:20:58 {Did Jesus Come to Abolish the Law?} Why does Paul say in Ephesians 2: 15 “…by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances…” when Jesus said that He did not come to abolish the law in Matthew 5: 17?19. 1:27:14 {Book of Ecclesiastes – Enjoyi

Question Time Stamps for Quick Reference: 0:00 Intro1. 0:04 {My Fault if Someone’s Not Saved?} I know God is in control, but since prayer and fasting makes a difference, is it my fault if someone is not saved because I didn’t pray or fast enough for them? I feel responsible when I eat or forget to pray.2. 9:31 {About the 2 Witnesses / Rapture?} It seems like the 2 witnesses in Zechariah 4 and Revelation 11 are like two peoples instead of individuals, as Romans 11: 17-21 speaks of olive trees/branches being Jews/Gentiles. If so, would the rapture be the "calling up" of them?3. 17:01 {Does Romans Teach Works for Salvation?} Does Romans 6: 22 preach salvation by works? John Piper claims that this verse suggests that at final salvation, our works coming from sanctification result in eternal life.4. 24:30 {Does God Grant People Faith? / Calvinism} How would you interpret the end of Matthew 11 in a non-Calvinist way, since it seems at a quick read to me that God grants people faith?5. 29:55 {Thinking Biblically about Trends} There is a trend in many young male Christians where they are wearing earrings, painting nails, fixing eyebrows, and putting on makeup. Help me think biblically about this, as it's a bit shocking.6. 35:04 {Advice for being a Godly Man} I just turned 18 today, and for the past few months, I've been struggling with the transition into adulthood. Got any advice for someone trying to become the man God wants them to be?7. 39:22 {Does Blindness Cover Sin?} In John 9: 41, Jesus says, "If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin..." What does it mean to be "blind" in this context? Does this blindness also cover sin?8. 45:43 {Discerning Extrabiblical Prophecies} When should extrabiblical prophecy be accepted or rejected? I don’t know how to discern or “test the spirits,” and I don’t want to be overly dismissive, even if the claims seem astonishing.9. 51:34 {About Submission in Marriage} If a husband's rule over his wife was a curse of the fall, why is it taught as God-ordained in the New Testament? Aren't husbands and wives called to submit to each other under the New Covenant?10. 54:18 {Right and Wrong Public Worship/Prayer} In Matthew 6:5, Jesus says not to pray like people in public who try to get attention. Would that include praying and worshiping in church?11. 58:18 {Interpreting the Psalms} In Psalm 2: 12, What does the psalmist mean by this verse in its non-messianic context?12. 1:02:23 {Judging & Correcting Non-Believers} Are we supposed to judge those outside of the Church, and do we have any right to control/direct what they do (Romans 1: 32; 1 Corinthians 5: 12)?13. 1:06:30 {Theological Differences while Dating} I've just discovered my long-term girlfriend does not believe homosexuality is a sin, and I'm really struggling with anxiety regarding this. Is it wrong to break up over this, and how should I approach this?14. 1:09:04 {How Does the HS Guide Us?} I'm a new born-again Christian and I'd like to know, how does the Holy Spirit guide us?15. 1:12:34 {Resources for Seniors} Are there any good sources for ministering to seniors you can recommend?16. 1:13:07 {Is Sheol/Hades the Same as Hell?} Are the biblical references to Sheol/Hades necessarily Hell? Some Christian traditions have it as the underworld, with Hell only being something after the resurrection.17. 1:15:45 {Abortion OK - Babies will Go to Heaven?} What would you say to a vicar who says that abortion isn't the biggest issue or problem for God as the babies will end up in Heaven anyway?18. 1:20:58 {Did Jesus Come to Abolish the Law?} Why does Paul say in Ephesians 2: 15 “…by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances…” when Jesus said that He did not come to abolish the law in Matthew 5: 17?19. 1:27:14 {Book of Ecclesiastes – Enjoyi

Some Christian movies are starting to push content boundaries. The Plugged In team discusses the new film Redeeming Love and its content concerns. Adam Holz then talks with Paul Asay about another new movie with questionable content—The King's Daughter. Get the book "Burning Bush 2.0: How Pop Culture Replaced the Prophet" for your donation of any amount: https://donate.focusonthefamily.com/don-plugged-in-2020-12-31?refcd=1309508 Get more episode resources: https://www.pluggedin.com/blog/the-plugged-in-show-episode-114/ If you've listened to any of our podcasts, please give us your feedback: https://focusonthefamily.com/podcastsurvey/

At Risk Radio - Special Edition: Christians in India Beaten and Displaced because of their Faith in Jesus In this special edition of At Risk Radio, Pastor Singh (Director of SOM-India) speaks to our listeners directly from the field. In this riveting episode, Pastor Singh shares about how militant, Communist Hindus are seeking out and heavily persecuting Christians who are in our church planting network.   Some Christian families have been displaced from their homes, others must hide in their homes, and even a few have been severely beaten and hospitalized because of their faith in Jesus and their leadership. Persecution is increasing, yet believers in these areas are filled with joy because of their new-found faith in Jesus. Listen as Pastor Singh tells the incredible events that have happened in just this last week.

God speaks of two mysterious beasts: the behemoth and the leviathan. He uses them to humble Job, remind him of his limits, and that he can't save himself. - Sermon Transcript - Turn your Bibles to Job 40. We continue our sermon series in the book of Job. As we do, I am mindful of a pretty spectacular moment in the history of Israel. The prophet Elisha and his servant were surrounded by an invading army sent by the king of Syria who was enraged at the prophetic gift of Elisha, and the fact that he was telling military secrets to the king of Israel, so that the king of Syria was consistently thwarted in his efforts, militarily. And the king of Syria was frustrated, and sent a whole army to capture one man who was residing in Dothan. And they went stealthily through the night, snuck up into position, did everything right militarily, surrounded the city, and they're ready to capture this one man. And as the sun rose early in the morning, Elisha's servant went out and suddenly saw the Syrian army surrounding Dothan and figured that the game was up. Terror filled his heart. And he went back to the prophet and he said, "Oh my Lord what shall we do?" And Elijah said these words, "Don't be afraid. Those who are with us are more than those who are with them." And then he prayed this prayer. "Oh Lord, open his eyes that he may see." Then the Lord opened the servant's eyes and he saw hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. So I have that story in mind as I preach this sermon today because I believe that surrounding us every moment of our lives is a spiritual dimension, sometimes in scripture called the heavenly realms. This spiritual dimension cannot, ordinarily, be perceived by our five senses, though occasionally the barrier, whatever it is, between this physical world and the spiritual dimension, the spiritual realms, is occasionally torn open, such as at Jesus's baptism. That's the very word used in Mark's gospel, the heavens were torn open, and the Spirit descended on Jesus. Or again, at Stephen's martyrdom, the heavens were torn open. He saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God. So occasionally, that membrane, or that wall, that barrier is torn open, but usually not. And everything that we know about the spiritual dimensions we learn in scripture. We read words in scripture and find out these truths and believe them, so that we are aware of the spiritual realms, and that within the spiritual realms that surround us at every moment are powerful beings called angels and demons. And these angels and demons are created beings. They have great power and great influence over the unfolding events of Earth and the unfolding events of our lives. They exert an invisible but constant force on the minds and the bodies of people, so the scripture says. Now this morning, this sermon is meant to be a plea to all of us. As Elisha said, "Lord, open our eyes that we may see." I. Open Our Eyes That We May See Now the book of Job, big picture, is addressing the problem of evil and suffering in the world. We have walked through ... We're in the 40th chapter now. We've walked through, again and again, this issue, given to try to explain why it is that there is so much evil and so much suffering and destruction in this world. And specifically for us as followers of Christ, why do bad things happen to God's people? How do we understand that? And I am asserting today that the problem of evil and suffering in the world cannot be fully and rightly explained, understood, without understanding the effect of Satan and his angels called demons. So we come to Job 40 and 41, and these two animals, behemoth and leviathan. And immediately we come, as I have week after week in the book of Job, to the problem of hermeneutics, or Bible interpretation. What shall I do with these two animals? How can we rightly divide the word of truth? My desire is not just to feed you one meal, but to teach you also how to feed yourselves rightly from scripture, so that throughout the week you can read the Bible accurately and rightly for yourselves. So I try to work through that at various moments in the book of Job. And I believe that this issue of spiritual warfare, the opposition of demons and of Satan, is such a significant issue that I plan on spending two weeks on this topic. Originally, this sermon was one sermon called “Dragonslayer.” Isn't that exciting? What a great title. But then I realized the sermon was 23 pages long and getting longer. It was growing at night without me doing anything. It just kept getting longer and longer. And so I said, "All right, I've got to separate them." But separating sermons like that is like separating conjoined twins. And both of those twins have to live, so how do we do this? How do we understand? So I thought let's have two sermons on Jesus as dragonslayer. And it really makes sense because Jesus has been slaying this dragon for 2000 years. It's a long, slow death he has ordained for Satan. And he will, in some sense, instantly put his career to an end, in the future, but not yet. In the meantime, it's a long slow death, and that's pretty exciting. So we get to walk through it for two weeks. And so I have the problem of hermeneutics, of Bible interpretation, with behemoth and leviathan. Who are these mysterious beasts? And they're described only, simply, in beast like terms. So let's understand the context in the book of Job. God has been speaking to his suffering servant Job. Job has had his life shredded by wave upon wave of suffering: the loss of all of his wealth, and the loss of all of his children and then, in phase two, the loss of his health, wave upon wave, and then some ongoing debates and discussions with his friends about the problem of evil, which make up the bulk of the book of Job. And during that time, little by little, by little, more and more of Job's sin came out, emerged where he sinfully accused God of injustice and wrongdoing in his case. To humble Job, God appears and speaks to him out of a storm, a whirlwind. Job 38:2-3, "Who is this that darkens my counsel by speaking words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man. I will question you and you shall answer me." He then exposes Job's frailty and limitations as a man by rolling out natural theology, what we can learn from God's creation. That's what he confines, that's what God confines his comments to with Job. He walks Job through overwhelming evidence of the attributes of God woven through creation. God's power in creating the universe, the foundations of the Earth, the boundaries of the sea, the clouds, the rhythm of sunrise and sunset, the patterns of weather, snow, hail, lightning, thunder, the path of the east winds, the giving of the right amount of rain and dew to satisfy the grasses on the Earth, the freezing patterns of ice, even up to the distant stars that make up the constellations, and the laws of physics that control their motions. The use of all of these inanimate objects that God made show his great power and his wisdom. And then he brings forth animate creatures, animals, 10 of them, one after the other, animals and birds that God made and controls: the lion, the raven, the mountain goat, the deer, wild donkey, wild ox, the ostrich, the horse, the hawk, and the eagle. He cites their birth, their habits, and habitats, their feeding, their marvelous attributes, the stealthy hunting at night of the lion and the lioness, the mighty strength of the ox, the freedom of the wild donkey, the speed of the ostrich, the bold courage of the horse, the flight of the hawk, the eyesight of the eagle, all of these attributes. But he keeps mixing it in with Job's limited attributes, his limitations. “Job, you are limited in time. I am not. You are limited in wisdom. I am not. You are limited in power. I am not. So how then, Job, can you think to question me? How can you think to challenge me? How can you question my justice?” And by the time this work of natural theology spoken by the Creator of it all is done, Job is humbled. And he says in Job 40:3-5, “Job answered the Lord, ‘I am unworthy. How can I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth. I spoke once, but I have no answer. Twice, but I will say no more.’” But God, as I said last week, didn't feel that the work was done. Still more humbling work to do. He doesn’t- God doesn't deal lightly with the corruption of his children. And so he probes deep and deeper, even deeper still. And basically just says the same thing again, we've got more to say, verse 6-7, "Brace yourself like a man. I will question you and you shall answer me." We saw last time that God addresses at that part of Job 40, the fundamental disrespect of Job toward God is fundamental unbelief, charging God with injustice. Verse 8, "Would you discredit my justice? Would you condemn me to justify yourself?" Now this is the very thing we must not do when we're suffering afflictions, and that is see God as the enemy. God is not accountable to us. He doesn't owe us any explanation. He's infinitely above the entire human race, and he knows exactly what he's doing. Job is not God. He has no splendor of his own. He has no glory radiating from his being, and he has no mighty voice. Verse 9-10, "Do you [Job] have an arm like God's? Can your voice thunder like his? Then adorn yourself with glory and splendor, and clothe yourself in honor and majesty.” “And restrain the evil doers of the earth. And if you can do all of that, then I will admit, myself, I will admit to you: that your own right hand can save you." So that's exactly where we're at in the Book of Job. So, Job, you're limited in time, limited in knowledge, limited in power, and you cannot save yourself. That's exactly the point we're at in Job. We suffering human beings cannot save ourselves. But from what? Who's the adversary, what's the adversary? How do we understand that adversary? Now we've got these two beasts that come in, behemoth and leviathan. God wants Job to know that his own right hand cannot save himself, and then implies we've got two enemies to talk about, because, unlike the 10 animals, he puts Job in an adversarial relationship with these two animals, behemoth and leviathan. Can you fight them? Can you overcome them? He doesn't do that with the other 10 animals. And basically, the concept you cannot save yourself is, in my mind, expanded to these phrases. With these two beasts, you cannot control them, you cannot capture them, and you cannot kill them. But I can control them, I can capture them, and I can kill them. So that's the simple way of looking at these two beasts. Now, again, with Bible interpretation, we can simply just take them as animals, just two more animals. Should we do that? Should we just take them as literal predators that are just too hard for human beings to conquer, but God has no problem dealing with them? And so the argument, then, is just how then can you challenge God, such a mighty God? He's greater than they are. So if you can't handle them, you certainly can't handle God. And so you got 10 animals, and then Job's repentance, and then you got two more animals, possibly. Some Christian scholars do that. It is safe in one respect. You're just taking the words at face value. Two mighty animals you cannot control, you cannot capture, you cannot kill. God can, so be humble before God. Don't question God. Repent before God. If you can't deal with them, you can't deal with me. That's it. And that fits if you look at chapter 41, the next chapter, verse 10 and 11 in the middle of the leviathan section he basically does this. He says, “No one is fierce enough to rouse leviathan. Who then is able to stand against me? Who has a claim against me that I must pay? Everything under heaven belongs to me.” So that's a simple way of understanding these two animals. How much more argument? If you can't handle these animals, then you certainly can't handle their Creator. And then, what you would do is try your best to identify these animals, which almost certainly all of your Bibles have done in the footnotes. What do you have in your footnotes? “Pastor, we have hippopotamus and crocodile.” Is that what you have? I don't know. Maybe you have a study Bible with more options. I don't know. What are they? But I can tell you right now, no matter what you choose, absolute certainty on the literal interpretation will elude you. We don't know for sure. We don't know what the ... But the point is straightforward. God is mightier than they are, so humble yourself before God. And at that point I could just pray, and we would be done with the sermon. You've heard it. All right. There's nothing more to say. But I personally do not find this satisfying. Seems like a letdown at the end of all these chapters. Ten animals, and now two more animals. I feel like that point's already been made. Job's already repented. And now we're going to circle back with two more animals and make the same point again. But I think the problem of evil and human suffering is far deeper and greater than that. And I think God wants to help us. God wants to give us some answers. And another issue that is openly brought up at the beginning of the book is never addressed again, and that is the role of Satan in human suffering. It's openly brought up for the first two chapters. Satan's one of the main dominant characters in Job 1-2. And then he drops off the account entirely. He's just never mentioned again. So you can go back and look, or just listen, Job 1:6-12, right at the beginning of the book, "One day, the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them. The Lord said to Satan, 'where have you come from?' Satan answered the Lord, 'From roaming through the Earth and going back and forth in it.' Then the Lord said to Satan, 'Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on Earth like him. He is blameless and upright. A man who fears God and shuns evil.' 'Does Job fear God for nothing?' Satan replied, 'Have you not put a hedge around him, and his household, and everything he has? You've blessed the work of his hands so that his flocks and his herds spread through the land. But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.' The Lord said to Satan, 'Very well, then. Everything he has is in your hands.'" It's a key statement, isn't it? "'But on the man himself, do not lay a finger.' Then Satan went out from the presence of the Lord." Then, as the narrative continues in Job 1, the loss of Job's oxen, donkeys, sheep, camels, and even his 10 children, immediately follows Satan going out from the presence of the Lord when God says, “Everything he has is in your hands.” And then look what happens. Satan's direct activity in the rest of Job 1 isn't mentioned. He's not there in the rest of Job 1. But it's just so openly implied that all of those things that happen, happen because of Satan. Then in phase two Satan comes back and God directly ascribes the suffering in Job's life to Satan's accusations and activity. Some might argue Satan was not mentioned, therefore not really involved. If you read the account, it was the Sabeans that took Job's oxen and donkeys, the fire of God, whatever that means, fell from the sky and burned his sheep and his servants. The Caldeans came in and stole his camels. And a mighty wind from the desert destroyed Job's children. But just the way Job 1 reads, Satan's behind all of that, all of it. And then in chapter 2:1-6 it says, "On another day, the angels came to present themselves before the Lord. And Satan also came with them to present himself before him. And the Lord said to Satan, 'Where have you come from?' Satan answered the Lord, 'From roaming through the Earth and going back and forth in it.' Then the Lord said to Satan, 'Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on Earth like him. He is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil. And he still maintains his integrity, though you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason.’ ‘Skin for skin,’ Satan replied. 'A man will give all he has for his own life, but stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and his bones, he will surely curse you to your face.' The Lord said to Satan, 'Very well, then. He is in your hands. But you must spare his life.'" And this time there can be no doubt because it openly says in Job 2:7, "So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and afflicted Job with painful sores from the souls of his feet to the top of his head." Satan's activity and disease is a deep mystery, isn't it? We'll find out in heaven how active he was in crafting viruses to cause trouble. There's an intelligence behind it. But on that, I'm not going to go any further. It just openly says in Job 2:7 that Job's afflictions, physical afflictions, were directly worked by Satan. It is reasonable, therefore, I think, to see all of the calamities that came on Job as mediated to him directly by Satan. And I think, therefore, any explanation of evil in the world must address the activities of Satan. Yet, Satan's not mentioned again in the book of Job. He never comes up in the debates between Job and his friends. Elihu never mentioned Satan. God never openly mentioned Satan in all of his statements here at the end of the book. But it may well be that behemoth and leviathan represent the demons and the devil, though hidden behind the forms of beasts. Satan appeared first in the Bible as a serpent in the Garden of Eden, so this isn't at all far fetched. And even Peter in I Peter 5 says, "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like [what?] a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.” He's like an animal. So if behemoth and leviathan represent Satan and demons, then to some degree, I feel that the book of Job has come now full circle. And we're going to come around to, to some degree, the real enemies of the human race. God is saying to the human race, “Evil and suffering in the world is directly worked by the devil and his demons. They use wicked men as their puppets, but they control this evil world. And behemoth, representing demons, and leviathan, representing Satan, are vastly more powerful than you are. You cannot control them. You cannot capture them. You cannot kill them. But I can.” And in the end he will. And that is a consolation to us in the midst of our suffering. So in that sense, it's satisfying. And beyond that, God will continue in a very powerful, wise, infinitely deep way to channel, and control, and block, and reign in, and use demons and Satan to do things in every generation, literally, I would say every day, in ways that we will discover, I think, in the next world. But in the meantime, we just know general principles that God puts hedges of protection, and leashes, and does all of these things to advance his own purposes. So, I am 100% biblically certain that Satan and demons are directly involved in human suffering every single day. I am not so certain that behemoth and leviathan are talking about that at all. So if you are a let's stick to the animals person, you've heard your sermon. For the rest of you, I'm going to go on and say we're going to talk about behemoth as representing demons, and leviathan as representing Satan. II. Leviathan Representing Satan: Job 41 And in taking this symbolic approach, leviathan, I believe, is the key, just in the book of Job. You have to jump ahead to leviathan, though; I'm not going to walk through the leviathan versus today, but next week. He's the key because he shows up in Psalms and he shows up in Isaiah, and especially Isaiah 27:1 is important for me. He, leviathan, is mentioned in Isaiah as an enemy whom God will slay in the future. Isaiah 27:1, "In that day, the Lord will punish with sword his fierce, great, and powerful sword, leviathan the gliding serpent, leviathan the coiling serpent. He will slay the monster of the sea." a direct enemy of God, who God will slay with his sword, his fierce, great, and powerful sword. What a great verse. John Calvin, in commenting on Isaiah 27:1, wrote this. "The word Leviathan is variously interpreted. But in general, it simply denotes either a large serpent, or whale, or sea fishes, which approach the character of monsters on account of their huge size. For my part, I have no doubt that he speaks allegorically of Satan and his whole kingdom, describing him under the figure of some monstrous animal." Calvin hated speculation. That's not the kind of interpreter he was. He's just saying, to me, it's patently obvious in Isaiah 27:1 that leviathan represents Satan. So it seems to me, best to do the same with Job 41. Leviathan represents Satan, the monster whose wickedness is devastating the whole Earth. It's made even stronger when you read Job 41 and the descriptions of leviathan and he seems like a fire-breathing dragon, especially verses 14-17. He says, "Who dares open the doors of his mouth, ringed about with his fearsome teeth. His back has rows of shields tightly sealed together. Each is so close together that no air can pass between. They're joined fast to one another. They cling to together and cannot be parted." And then fire breathing stuff in verses 18-21. "His snorting throws out flashes of light. His eyes are like the rays of dawn. Firebrands stream from his mouth. Sparks of fire shoot out. Smoke pours from his nostrils as from a boiling pot over a fire of reeds. His breath sets coals ablaze, and flames dart from his mouth." Now it's interesting. Many cultures have depictions of dragons, fire breathing dragons, that are very similar. The artistic renditions are very similar to one another, though the countries are thousands of miles apart, like the British Isles and China. And they have similar depictions of dragons. I find that interesting. Ken Ham, in his Answers to Genesis, has done a lot of research on dragon legends, and they have a whole wing of dragons in their creation museum. And so creationists will point to Job 40 and 41 as evidence of aspects of creation as over against evolution. However valuable those insights are, for me, I just am not going to pursue that. I think it's probably true that there were creatures like that, and that's where this analogy comes from. But I think it's better to see the dragon here as Satan. And to me, the clincher is Revelation 12, where Satan is clearly presented as a dragon. Revelation 12:3, it says, "Then another sign appeared in heaven. An enormous red dragon with seven heads, and 10 horns, and seven crowns on his head." And then clearly Revelation 12:9, "The great dragon was hurled down, that ancient serpent called the devil or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the Earth, and his angels with him." And so, Satan is clearly portrayed in Revelation 12 as a dragon. And then also, in Daniel 7, we have four great beasts that come up out of the turbulent sea, each of them representing a human empire. So the empire of Babylon, Neo-Persia, Greece, and Rome depicted as success of four beasts coming up out of the sea. And so then again in Revelation 13, the final single world ruler called Antichrist in 1 John 2, the man of sin in 2 Thessalonians, to this single world conquering ruler is the beast from the sea, same image as Daniel 7. So all of this representational language of evil and of Satan makes sense to me. III. Behemoth Representing Demons So now let's zero in on behemoth, and then, God willing, next week will look more at leviathan. Behemoth- and I believe behemoth, in this pattern then, would represent demons. Why would I say that? Well, because the Hebrew word means beast, like a beast of the field, like any four footed creature. It's frequently used of cows, but the plural is used here. The O-T-H ending, oth, is a Hebrew plural, behemoth, like beasts. But he's treated in the text as a singular. So it's kind of odd. You've got this plural singular that behaves cohesively in a certain way. The word behemoth is just inevitably brought over as such into the English translations. They don't translate it saying beasts, but it's just behemoth. But it's a plural word. It's interesting. The plural sets us up well to see behemoth as representing demons collectively. Now, who are the demons? Revelation 12 tells us that when the dragon was hurled to the Earth, his tail swept a third of the stars and flung them to the Earth. And this represents angels that joined Satan in this heavenly rebellion against the throne of God. One third of them fell into wickedness, and they are the devil's angels, or we also say demons. It's good to know that more ... there are more on our side than on their side. Praise God. Two thirds, isn't that encouraging? Of course, none of that matters. God is on our side. Amen? If God is for us, who can be against us? Even if he had all the angels, we would still win because of omnipotence. Then Matthew 25, and the sheep and the goats, he says to the wicked who rebels and who never believed in Christ, “Depart from me, you who are cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels." So those are demons. And that's the ultimate end of Satan and of demons, the lake of fire. In Mark 5, when Jesus interacted with the Demoniac of the Gadarenes, the demons, many of them spoke collectively as one entity, and named themselves Legion, for we are many, so behemoth then, a plural word representing many demons acting collectively as one evil force in the world. Now, what does he say about behemoth? Well, he starts in many translations with the word behold, or even more urgently, behold now behemoth. It's like he's unveiling behemoth. I want you to see behemoth. Behold him now. Look at him. Behemoth is hidden from our eyes. We don't see him. But I want to unveil him. I want you to look at him. And then he says, "I made him along with you." So God created every creature that exists. As the Creator, he also sustains every creature that exists. Nothing in the universe has existence apart from the will of God. God continues to will the existence of the devil and his angels. At every moment, he sustains them. If God chose, he could speak them out of existence instantly. They would cease to exist. Of course, that begs a question. Why doesn't he do that? I'll address that briefly at the end of this sermon, and more next week at any rate. Then he says behemoth eats grass like an ox. Well, we know that a beast of the field would do this. So if we're just dealing with a beast, that's what they do. He likes grass. But in a more of an allegorical, or interpretive, or a parable type of ... How do demons eat grass? What is that? Perhaps, I don't know, but that's the whole thing with parables, it's hard to know what every line represents. But it perhaps represents the frailty and mortality of human beings. Because it says in Isaiah 40:6-7, "All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall." That's speaking of people dying. They die like grass. And I believe that demons are executioners or killers. Satan is a murderer from the beginning. He hates human beings. And so do demons. They don't have any allegiance to any group of human beings. They hate them all. So they're executioners. Remember that God has to tell Satan not to kill Job. He has that power. He has the power to kill. The next statements all speak to the overwhelming power of behemoth. This beast is very strong, much stronger than human power. Look at verses 16-18. "What strength he has in his loins, what power in the muscles of his belly. His tail sways like a cedar. The sinews of his thighs are close knit. His bones or tubes of bronze, his limbs like rods of iron." Well, just speaking of demons, they are vastly more powerful than we are. Vastly more powerful. If you look at the account of the Demoniac of the Gadarenes, it says of him in Mark 5:4, "He had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons from his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him." He was just physically powerful. Remember how God sent a single angel to move the stone from in front of Jesus' tomb. Remember how the women were worried? Who's going to move the stone. Oh, send an angel to take care of it. He just picks up the stone and moves it, and puts it down somewhere. Just no problem for him. So demons are strong, very strong. And then his rank in creation, verse 19, "He ranks first among the works of God." Interesting statement. If it's just an animal, I don't really understand that. Why would a hippopotamus rank first among the creations of God? But in this case, if demons really are ... if we're really talking about fallen angels here, I would think chronologically they may well have been the first things he ever made. The first things he made were spirit beings who then watched him make everything else and celebrated. As it says in Job 38:7, "While all the morning stars sang together and all the angels," or sons of God there, but clearly angels, "shouted for joy." And so originally, they were created good, powerful, glorious, beautiful beings. So they're very, very powerful. Yet God, the creator, retains full power over behemoth to kill him anytime he chooses. Verse 19, "Yet his Maker can approach him with his sword." That's an interesting statement if we're talking about just an animal. He's saying, "You," effectively, "You can't kill him, but I can. I can do it easily." “His Maker can approach him with his sword.” So it's very obvious that while demons are vastly more powerful than humans, God is infinitely more powerful than they are. So let's just keep it simple in terms of the hierarchy. We are, effectively, we are powerless. Demons have much power. God has all power. So that's what we're dealing with here in the problem of suffering and evil. And that is our great hope. Behemoth, representing demons, exists continually under the threat of that fierce, great, and powerful sword with which God is going to kill Leviathan, Isaiah 27:1. So the- Satan and his angels are afraid of God. They're afraid of his judgment, his fierce, great, and powerful sword. And it will be Jesus, at his second coming, who is depicted in Revelation 19 as having a sword coming out of his mouth, also in Revelation 1. There's no literal sword coming out of Jesus' mouth. His word is his weapon. If he says, "Be dead," you're dead, because he's God. And so the demons were terrified of Jesus during his time on Earth. They were clearly afraid of him. And he had zero fear of them at all. There was no doubt in Jesus' mind who has the upper hand in these encounters. First one, in Mark's gospel, Mark, 1:23-24 Jesus is at the synagogue in Capernaum, and suddenly a man with an evil spirit cried out, "What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the holy one of God." Well, who's afraid of who there? They are afraid that Jesus has come to destroy them, and they know he can do it. And then in verse 20, the whole world pays homage to the behemoth: “The hills bring him their produce, and all the wild animals play nearby.” Satan runs the world, and the demons run it with him. And just as Satan wanted Jesus to fall down and worship him, so the demons thrive on worship, the worship given by men. All false religions in the world are demonic. All of them, they're essentially demonic. So demons are god and goddess impersonators. They get behind the false ideas, and they make them supernaturally come alive so that people worship. And so Paul says in I Corinthians 10:20, "The sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons." Thus, the unbelievers of the world are feeding the demons, feeding their demonic egos by this kind of worship. Remember, Satan wanted Jesus to fall down and worship him. The demons are like that. And so the world brings the harvest, the produce, to the behemoth. Behemoth also is portrayed as concealed. Look at verse 21:22, "Under the lotus plants, he lies hidden among the reeds in the marsh. The lotuses conceal him in their shadow, the poplars by the stream surround him." So this is beast like for you literalists. It's like yeah, it's the hippo. He's in the river. You can barely ... You just see his eyes and his nostrils moving through the water like that. He's in the reeds. Okay? But for the spiritual interpretation, saying that demons are hidden from us. We can't see what they do. They're invisible. And they do their attacking from the shadows. And so we have to be told by the apostle Paul in Ephesians 6:12, “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities against the powers,” plural, plural, plural, rulers, authorities, powers, “of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” That's what's opposing us. So these demons do their destructive work in the heavenly realms, concealed from our eyes. They lurk in the shadows and suddenly rise up to attack. And they have no fear of man, none. Verse 23-24, "When the river rages, he is not alarmed. He is secure, though the Jordan should surge against his mouth." Verse 24, "Can anyone capture him by the eyes or trap him and pierce him through the nose?" So that's why I say you can't control them: you can't capture them, you can't kill them. And so that adversarial sense between Job and behemoth is set up. It's even stronger, that adversarial sense, even stronger with leviathan, as we'll see, God willing, next week. IV. Christ the Dragonslayer We're powerless against behemoth. We can't control him. We can't capture him. We can't kill him. And so, like I said, we're going to walk through leviathan next time, but we need a dragonslayer, don't we? Amen? We need a dragonslayer. And that dragonslayer is Jesus Christ. Christ is the dragonslayer. He was predicted in Genesis 3:15 as the one who had crushed the serpent's head, the serpent, Satan in disguise. So God spoke to the serpent and judged the serpent in serpent-like words, “You're going to crawl on the ground on your belly and eat dust.” But we know he's talking to Satan behind the serpent. And so in Genesis 3:15, he says, "I'll put enmity between you and the woman and in between your offspring and hers. He will crush your head and you will strike his heel." That happened at the cross. Jesus died, physically died, to crush the serpent's head. "Christ is the dragonslayer. He was predicted in Genesis 3:15 as the one who had crushed the serpent's head, the serpent, Satan in disguise. " Now, Christ the dragonslayer could not be slain when he was born. Revelation 12, "The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth so that he might devour her child the moment it was born. She gave birth to a son, a male child who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter." That's Jesus. "And her child was snatched up to God into his throne." So the dragon was ready to devour Jesus the moment that he was born. Read about it in Matthew 2, where King Herod sent soldiers to kill all the boy babies in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the magi, but they couldn't get him. They killed a lot of babies, but they didn't kill Jesus because Jesus escaped. And then when he began his public ministry, Christ the dragonslayer moved out to destroy Satan's kingdom. God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power. And in the power of the Spirit, Jesus drove out demons effortlessly. So again, the Demoniac of the Gadarenes, Mark 5:7, "What do you want with me, Jesus, son of the most high God? Swear to God that you won't torture me." Who's afraid of whom there? 6,000 maybe demons in one man, and who's afraid of whom? “Please don't torture me before the appointed time.” And they begged permission to go into the pigs, and he granted them permission. And that concept of begging permission and permission granted is essential to my understanding of God's sovereign control over this whole thing. So he is absolutely in charge of behemoth. Syrophoenician woman comes with a demon-possessed daughter. She's not even there. She's back home lying in bed, demon possessed. And Jesus said, "First let the children eat all they want. It's not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs." "Yes, Lord," she said. "But even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs." Then he told her, "For such a reply, you may go. The demon is gone. The demon has left your daughter." Like that. Didn't speak any words. He didn't go to the house. He didn't lay hands on her. How did it happen? What was the modality? What was the effective force that made the demon leave the daughter? He just thought it. And the Father sent forth the power of the Spirit. The demon was evicted immediately. Not given a 30 day notice here. He's out. Effortless power. And Jesus spoke about his power over the demons. "If I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you." Or again, “How can anyone enter strong man's house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can rob his house.” So we cannot control them. We cannot capture them. We cannot kill them. But Jesus effortlessly can do whatever he wants with him. And when he wants to plunder Satan's house, he just ties him up and plunders the house. You know what the plunderer is? It's us, dear friends. We were in Satan's dark kingdom. We were rescued, Colossians, from the kingdom of darkness, and we were brought into the kingdom of the beloved Son. And so, if you came here today in an un-converted state, the Bible says that you're Satan's possession, you're in Satan's house. Jesus is more powerful than Satan. He can set you free. He can set you free. The chains, the invisible chains that have been around your soul can just drop off by simple hearing of God's word and believing. And the centerpiece of this gospel is Jesus' death on the cross, to some degree under Satan's power, because Judas betrayed him, and Satan was inside Judas. And Jesus gave himself over to that and didn't fight it, and just went like a lamb to the slaughter. But in his death, Hebrews 2:14 says, "By his death, he destroyed him who holds the power of death- that is the devil- and freed those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death." So maybe you came here today knowing you're a sinner and afraid to die. Well, you should be afraid to die if you're outside of Christ. You should be afraid. But if you come to Christ, you don't need a fear of death anymore. Death will be a doorway into heaven. You'll spend eternity looking at the glory of God. That's what Jesus did. He crushed Satan at the cross by his death. "Jesus is more powerful than Satan. He can set you free. ...The invisible chains that have been around your soul can just drop off by simple hearing of God's word and believing. " And then he gave us the power of the Holy Spirit and the ministry of gospel, the ministry of reconciliation, and told us to go out gradually, 20 centuries of destroying Satan's kingdom. “I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” And so we go forward in the power of the Holy Spirit, and little by little, by little, a long, slow death for Satan's kingdom, a torturously long slow death, because in every generation there are God's people to be rescued. And so it says in Revelation 12:11, concerning the people of God, "They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. They did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death." And in the end, he will kill Satan for all eternity. And the demons. It says in Revelation 20:10, "The devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. And they will be tormented day and night, forever and ever." That is the death of leviathan. V. God’s Goodness in Controlling, Using, and Conquering Evil All right. So as we bring this to conclusion, God willing to look at it again next week, look at God's goodness in controlling, using, and conquering evil. The big picture topic in the book of Job is the issue of suffering and evil in the world. The book of Job, I think, makes it plain from the beginning. And here, I think again at the end, that Satan and demons have a huge role in that. Any theology of evil and suffering that does not deal with that, with Satan and demons, is defective, inadequate. In Job 40 and 41, we've revealed the power of two great beasts, behemoth-representing demons, leviathan- representing Satan. These beasts are too powerful for human beings. But God has them on a leash. To some degree, he uses language like, "They are my pets." He uses them every day for his own purposes. And in the end, he will kill them for eternity. In the meantime, we need to understand how wise and good it is for God to keep them going, to keep them alive. It must be, because he does it, and he could effortlessly speak them out of existence if he didn't want to. But God wants to use them. We may say, "Why? Why not kill them now?" Why does he give the legion of demons permission to go into the pigs? Why doesn't he just kill them? Because he's going to use them. And he is using them. "God uses Satan and the demons as foils, creating a context for him to display his power, his wisdom, and his love. And every single day, God uses evil to bring about good. " Augustine said, "God judged it better to bring good out of evil than not to permit any evil to exist." And so God uses Satan and the demons as foils, creating a context for him to display his power, his wisdom, and his love. And every single day, God uses evil to bring about good. The clearest example of this is the death of his own dear Son, the most singularly evil thing that has ever happened in history. Look at the river of good that's come from it. And so, also the evil of pain, and suffering, and natural disasters, and wars, and all of that create context for us, the servants of God, to show valor, to show self denying love, to lay down our lives for others. That is context for glory that God displays in our lives by enabling us to do courageous, good works. You won't need any courage in heaven, friends. No courage needed in heaven. You won't be sacrificing anything in heaven. Time for that is now. This is the time for courage. This is the time for valor. This is the time for self denial. The time to lay down your life, the time for sacrifice. That's what we're called to do. And behind all of that, are the devil and his angels. And God is controlling them for his own glory. Close with me in prayer. Father, thank you for the time we've had to look today at Isaiah ... or at Job 40, 41, behemoth and leviathan. Lord, give us courage, give us courage. Help us, oh Lord, to not be afraid of what the devil and his angels are doing, but know that you have put us, all of us, behind a beautiful hedge of protection, and that Satan can't tempt us beyond what we can bear, that we can stand firm in the time of temptation. Give us courage to witness to people who are lost and in invisible chains so they can be set free. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Lyrics matter. As moms we often care so much about what our kids listen to, but what do I let myself listen to? And will that affect my family? My marriage, my view of God, and what it means to be a mother are at stake. And don't think for a minute that just because you listen to only Christian music that you're immune from the damage lyrics can do to your mindset and belief. Some Christian artists undermine our view of God too. Come and let's have a chat together about what we listen to.Support the show

Some Christian denominations and movements have completely neglected the Holy Spirit while others have credited the Holy Spirit with manifestations that were not of God. Dallas Holm joins Gary Wilkerson to examine what the Bible says about the Holy Spirit. When do we receive the Holy Spirit? How do we know if we've received the Holy Spirit? View podcast show notes: https://wcm.link/gwp118c

Many in the millennial generation, like myself, were taught to follow our dreams. Some Christian leaders went further -- they told us that if we pursued our God-given dreams, God would empower us to fulfill them. We were taught to look within ourselves for these dreams. But is this at all what the gospel teaches? And what were the results for millennials? **Content Warning: For the sake of storytelling accuracy, there is foul language in a section of this episode.**

Some Christian a/theist thoughts inspired by Heidegger and BonhoefferThe full text of this podcast can be found at the following link:https://andrewjbrown.blogspot.com/2020/11/when-is-ruination-not-quite.htmlPlease feel to post any comments you have about this episode there.Music, "New Heaven", written by Andrew J. Brown and played by Chris Ingham (piano), Paul Higgs (trumpet), Russ Morgan (drums) and Andrew J. Brown (double bass)If you would like to join a conversation about this or any other edition of this podcast then please note that our next Wednesday Evening Zoom meeting will take place on 2nd December at 19.30 GMT. Here's the timetable. A link to that Zoom meeting will be in next week's podcast notes. 19.15-19.30: Arrivals/login19.30 - approx. 20.00: Streaming of the latest edition of "Making Footprints Not Blueprints"20.00 - 21.00: Questions to, and conversations with, Andrew James Brown moderated by Courtney Whalen Van de Weyer21:00: Event ends Those of you who have already listened to the podcast and who only wish to join in the conversation are invited to login to the meeting at about 19.55.

Introduction Jonathan Edwards and the Great Awakening Amen. So turn in your Bibles to James 4, continue our study in James, incredible book, so convicting and so powerful. In April of 1734 the greatest revival of the Christian religion, arguably in church history began in a quiet hamlet in Western Massachusetts where Jonathan Edwards was pastor of a small church in Northampton. And it began in that community for that time, with a shocking event, the sudden death of a teenage boy. And Edwards spoke about that. “There happened a very sudden and awful death of a young man in the bloom of his youth who being violently seized with a pleurisy, and taken immediately very delirious died in about two days. Which together with what was preached publicly on that occasion much affected many young people." Edwards biographer, George Marston, says this, "Jonathan Edwards’ whole life had prepared him to seize this moment. Having been twice on the verge of death himself in his teenage years, he had spent much of his own youth reflecting on the folly of loving earthly pleasure when on the brink of eternity." Edwards preached the funeral sermon for that young man from the text in Psalm 90:5-6. “In the morning they are like grass which groweth up, in the morning it flourisheth and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down and withereth.” That's the text that he preached. And this poignant sermon brought many of the friends of the dead young man to tears. Edwards went on, at length, with the experiences many of them had had of walking through a field of wild flowers, which look beautiful but which soon wither. Recently I was in a beautiful mountain area in Europe and I saw these vivid purple flowers. And I wanted to bring a small bunch of them home to my wife, so I picked them and brought them to my hotel room. That evening I couldn't recognize them, I actually didn't know the color, so I threw them in the trash and my wife never knew anything about it. Sorry hun, that I didn't bring you your flowers, but they were withered within hours. And so it is these young people at this funeral had this sense of walking through a field of wildflowers and perhaps they've even picked them and had the same experience I had within hours. He then turned from that image to warn the youth of Northampton against squandering their lives in the pursuit of worthless things. This is in the funeral message. He said this, "Consider, if you should die in your youth how shocking would the thought of your having spent your youth in such a manner be to them that see it. When others stand by your bedside and see you gasping and breathing your last, or come afterward and see you laid out dead by the wall and see you put into the coffin, and behold the awful visage which death has given to you, how shocking will it be to them that think, 'This is the person that used to live so vain and frothy a life. This was he that was so lewd a companion. This is he that used to spend of his time and his leisure hours in so much frolicking.'" He then concluded this funeral sermon very sweetly. "If you have gained an interest in Christ by faith,” that means become a Christian, “if you have gained an interest in Christ, your body shall flourish again, in a glorious manner. If you should die in the flower of your days when the body is most attractive and beautiful, it will actually rise again a thousand times more attractive and beautiful. Your happiness would be far greater than that of simply being fondly remembered for a time. Your glory will last forever." Well, Edwards used this occasion to gain a foothold in the lives and hearts of the young people in Northampton, and to minister the Gospel to them deeply and widely. Over the next few weeks they would gather together in small groups to pray, and it wasn't long before many of them were savingly converted. This was the beginning of the Great Awakening. Right there in Northampton, it transformed the youth culture in that town, and it was soon spreading to many other communities around. And when he wrote about it, and it was published in England it kindled similar effects in that country and it began to cascade around the English-speaking world. I. Salvation: Rescued from Being the Master of Your Fate Invictus Now, this morning's text tells us that “our lives are a mist, a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” And therefore the wisest thing that any of us mortals can do is flee to Christ while there's time. To come to Christ for the forgiveness of our sins for eternal life. And I believe a good way to look at salvation is mirrored in the attitude of the text. It's being rescued from being the master of your own fate and the captain of your own soul. This phraseology came from a different kind of man than Jonathan Edwards. In 1894 William Ernest Henley lost his precious six-year-old daughter, Margaret. And in his grief and anger, he rather defiantly wrote a poem called “Invictus”, which means I have not been conquered. And this is what he wrote, "Out of the night that covers me, black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be for my unconquerable soul. It matters not how strait the gate, how charged with punishment is the scroll, I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul." Well, the essence of the rebellion of the human race against Almighty God is autonomy. That word literally means “self-rule.” Being the master of your own fate and the captain of your own soul. You can determine therefore what you will be and what you will not be. Where you will go, what you will do with your time, you'll decide all that for yourself, and how long you will live. So there's an essential arrogance and defiance about all that, about autonomy. One of the key ingredients to this human self-rule, this autonomy, is presuming upon tomorrow. Presuming upon tomorrow. Assuming that we will be alive tomorrow, and in the text, even a year from now, just assuming that we'll be alive. And that if we'll be alive a year from now, we get to choose to do whatever we want with our time on earth, and whatever we want in whatever city we go to. We get to make that decision. That's what autonomy is all about. We see it in our text. Saved from Autonomy Now when our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ saves a sinner, He saves that sinner out of autonomy. He actually comes and takes our stiff necks and puts them under his kingly yoke, under his kingly rule. And we, by the transforming work of the Spirit, consider that the greatest thing that has ever happened to us, that we've been delivered from being masters of our own fates and captains of our own souls. We actually have repented for the kingdom of Heaven has come near, Mark 1:15, that's how Jesus began His preaching ministry, "Repent, the time has come, the Kingdom of God is near." He didn't say these words, but he could have. And at the center of the kingdom of God is God the king. So repent and believe the Gospel, believe the good news. And as he says, so sweetly in Matthew 11:28-30, “Come unto me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” For many years I didn't understand what that yoke was all about until I did a biblical word study and found that when it wasn't a literal physical piece of wood, put across the necks of beasts, it was generally a metaphor for kingly rule. Again and again, kingly rule, and Jesus is saying, "Take my kingly rule upon you and learn from me. You have been serving another king, a wicked tyrant, Satan who flogs you and beats you, but I'm here to break and shatter that yoke off your shoulders and put another yoke on you.” Not no yoke, that's the lie from Satan. "You have no yoke on you, you're free." No, you're not. But you will find if you take your stiff neck, and yield to me and submit to me and put my yoke upon you, you'll find rest for your souls, and you'll find that my yoke, my kingly rule is easy, my burden is light. That's salvation. And therefore, we learn to say that God the creator, God the king, God the law giver, God the judge, he's the center issue of my life and all that matters is His will. That's it. What is the will of the Lord for me in my brief time here on Earth? The Lord then brings a serious consideration every day of the best use of our time and our energy and our money and our gifts and all of that for His glory. Be Wise and Redeem the Time Wisdom then very much consists of making a wise improvement of our time and of the opportunities that we enjoy. This is often spoken of in scripture, a great part of wisdom. Deuteronomy 32:29 “O, that they were wise that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end." Wisdom is to know where you're going, where is all this heading? Or again, Psalm 90:12, “Teach us to number our days properly that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” Or as Ephesians 5 says, "Be very careful then how you live. Not as unwise, but as wise, Redeeming the time because the days are evil, therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is." It's the same concept as the text we're looking at today. So that's what this text is about. Being saved from autonomy, self-rule, being saved from being the master of your fate, the captain of your soul, and learning to be wise about the fleeting time that we have here on earth, and the centerpiece of that wisdom is learning to say, "If the Lord wills, I will live, and if the Lord wills I will do this or that." II. The Arrogance of Presuming Upon Tomorrow Prideful Assurance About What is Uncertain Okay, so let's walk through the text, let's begin with the concept, the arrogance of presuming upon tomorrow, we'll look again at the words. James 4:13-17, “Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we'll go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money’ while you don't even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? It is a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’ As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. Anyone then who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it sins.” Alright, so we're picturing here, perhaps a businessman a merchant who travels a bit for his trade, goes from place to place, he's used to being prosperous and he's making plans for the future. And notice his attitude about the future. “Today, or tomorrow,” it doesn't matter, they're equally sure to him. “There's plenty of time. Actually, there's a limitless resource of time.” And notice his autonomous plans, "Well go to such and such a city, this city or that city, whatever I think is best. And we're going to spend a year there, and we're going to carry on business, we're going to make a trade and we're going to make a profit, we're going to make money, that's how it's going to go." Notice that this individual goes far beyond certainty about tomorrow to certainty about a full year beyond tomorrow. The one is as certain as the other in this mindset. In all of his plans, the will of God never enters in, and think about it, he is the master of his fate, he is the captain of his soul. He will live as long as he wants to live, I guess and spend his time as he chooses. He is presuming on the future. Notice also verse 16, one translation says, "You boast and brag or you boast in your arrogance," is another translation. So there's an essential pride to all of this. The human being is pridefully forgetting about God, he is making his own plans, he forgets that his very existence is in the hand of God. We Live and Die According to God's Will Look at verse 15, “Instead you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord's will we will live.’" Let me just pause right there and just say this is probably one of the most helpful things you can begin to say to yourself, every day. “If it is the Lord's will, I will live.” I don't think it'll do you any harm to say it multiple times a day. You don't have to say it to others. It will alarm them. Maybe they should be alarmed, I don't know, but you should be alarmed at least into “numbering your days properly that you may gain a heart of wisdom,” just say again and again, "If it's the Lord's will, I will live." This is biblical theology for Paul said in Acts 17, "In him [God] we live and move and have our being.” Colossians 1:17 says, "In him [Christ] all things hold together." The very atoms of your body are being held together by the ongoing will of Almighty God, whether you believe in him or not. As Daniel the prophet said to the wicked king of Babylon, Belshazzar, who was holding a horrible, idolatrous, drunken feast, using the holy articles taken from the Holy of Holies in the temple, in Jerusalem, and using them to toast the gods of bronze, iron, wood, and stone. And then the hand, this mysterious hand appeared, and there was what we call, “he saw the writing on the wall,” comes from Daniel 5, and Daniel came in and said to this evil king, "’You did not honor the God who holds in his hand your life and all your ways.’ That very night, Belshazzar the Independent died.” So the arrogant man who presumes in the future forgets this one fact. Hebrews 9:27, “It is appointed to each one of us to die, and after that to face judgment.” Or again, Ecclesiastes 8:8, “No man has the power over the wind to contain it, so no one has the power over the day of his death.” It's not in your hand. You don't control it. He also forgets that God is sovereign over the things that happen on his planet. He overrules every human decision for his own purposes and his own glory. Proverbs 19-21, "Many are the plans of a man's heart but is the Lord's purpose that prevails." So whether you believe in or not, God's purpose, every day, is being worked out providentially. So this arrogant person in the text boasts about something he doesn't possess, tomorrow. And he just goes out, and he's going to do what he's going to do. Now, I think James probably had this proverb in mind, Proverbs 27:1, "Do not boast about tomorrow for you do not know what a day may bring forth.” Sounds exactly like our text, doesn't it? “Do not boast about tomorrow for you don't know what a day will bring forth.” And why is this so foolish? Well, the boasting about tomorrow shows the independence from God, forgetting the transitory nature of our lives, forgetting how dependent on God, we are for our continued existence. The Brevity of Human Life And so James says it in verse 14. “What is your life? “It is a mist [or a vapor] that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” So our time here on Earth is extremely brief. God in judging the original sinner, Adam, said, "By the sweat of your brow, you will eat your bread until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken, for dust you are and to dust you will return." Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 2 had a vision, a dream in which he saw a statue with a head of gold, chest and arms of silver, legs of iron, belly and thighs of bronze, legs of iron and feet partly and partly, clay. Those different metals represented different empires, four mighty empires. And then in the dream he saw all of them became like chaff on a threshing floor, and the wind blew them away without leaving a trace. That's four empires, the Babylonian empire, and the Medo-Persian Empire, and the Greek Empire, and the Roman Empire blown away without leaving a trace. The Book of Ecclesiastes, one of the central themes, "Vanity of vanities, everything is vanity, it's meaningless," says the teacher. “What does man gain from all his labor, at which he toils under the sun? Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.” Ecclesiastes 1:11, “There's no remembrance of men of old, even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow.” Ecclesiastes 1:14, “I've seen all the things that are done under the sun, and all of them are meaningless. They are chasing after the wind.” So as I was meditating on this, "your life is a mist, it's a vapor," I was thinking about the parable of the rich man, you remember, whose fields produced a bumper crop and he had immediate logistical problem, “Where am I going to put it all?” “He didn't know what to do. He said, “Oh, I know what I'm going to do, I'm going to tear down my barns and build bigger barns and there I'm going to store all of my grain and my goods and I'll say to my soul, ’Soul, you have plenty of good things laid up for many years, take life easy, eat, drink and be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘You fool, this very night your soul will be required of you. Then who will get all the things you have prepared for yourself?’" We ought to meditate in light of the text we're studying today on those words, “You fool, this very night your soul will be required of you [demanded of you.]” Friends, not requested, demanded of you. And when God demands your soul, you have no choice. You could be in the death throws and say, "I can't die, I was doing X." Does not matter what X is. "I had plans to do Y." Doesn't matter, when your soul is demanded you will die. And people die suddenly, all the time. They die of car accidents. Jonathan Edward's case, it was a pleurisy, a fever that came on two days later, dead, you know, it happens. The older you get, the more of those scenarios you hear about, or even are personally involved with with people we know. And so, we're aware of how individuals can go from prime health to sickness and then death very quickly. And even aside from immediate death, there is the process of aging, which comes on people faster than they think, and so, their capabilities get reduced. And then some injury or some other illness comes and then they're in physical rehab for a while and they never really quite return to that, and they never got back to their prime strength and health, and those days are quickly gone, in which we can energetically powerfully serve the Lord. So James wants us to be humbled by our transitory lives, by how brief our time here is on earth. We ought to realize every day that our life here as a mist, it is a vapor. When I drive to work in the morning, every morning, I cross a body of water, it's a reservoir near my house. And there are some mornings that the atmospheric conditions, the sun, everything, there's a thick mist that floats up and kind of hovers there over the bridge and over the lake. And you cut through it, you drive through it and then if you have the opportunity to come back even within an hour, it's gone, it's been burned off by the sun. Now, you've had that experience, and that's what James says our life is, it's a mist, it's a vapor, it's brief. And so, as Moses said, "Teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom." We don't know how long we have. The Calendar of Our Lives Let me just give you a kind of a geeky image that stuck with me from my engineering days. Bear with me. It's one of the prices you have to pay to have me as your pastor. So, we used to have, in the engineering department I worked at, we had this big ugly calendar of the whole year. And it was given to us by a hardware supplier. It's one of the ugliest calendar's I've ever seen. I like calendars with mountains and rivers and beautiful things, but this was a 3 x 4 matrix for the 12 months. January, February, March, April, May, June, etcetera. So there are 12 months, and I remember somebody got up with a red pen and put an X through the day we just did yesterday, so we're on the next day that doesn't have a red X in it. It was kind of depressing. And you're looking at it, and the red X is just making progress through the 3 x 4 matrix. And one day in my weird sort of way, I looked at it and I said, “Suppose that calendar represented my whole life, with January 1st being the day of my birth and December 31st the day of my death, where am I?” I don't know. I know what the actuarial charts say about where I am, okay. The average lifespan of someone in my condition, I know that, but, I don't know. And I'm never satisfied, I always push it to the next level. I wonder if that represents the day I began working at this company and December 31st the day I'll stop working at this company, where am I? Or parenting, the day that they're born and the day that they grow up and leave our home. Our days are numbered friends and they're brief and they fly by. And so the Gospel lifts our eyes above this present age to eternity, and it shows us that the world to which we are going is entirely different. Our eternal life is not a mist or vapor, not at all. It's eternal. And the world to which we are going, we will be there for all eternity. If you have trusted in Christ, it will be glorious and beautiful and radiant. If you have not, it will be eternal conscious torment, that's the Bible's doctrine of Hell. Flee the wrath to come. III. What It Means to Presume Upon Tomorrow Be Wisely Prepared So, what do we mean by presuming upon tomorrow? Well, let's set up some boundaries, okay? It does not mean you shouldn't plan for anything. There's a big difference between saying, “I'm depending on, or relying on tomorrow for spiritual reasons, and I am preparing for a day, that may come, and I'm preparing wisely.” So the Scripture actually does commend that we prepare for the future. Proverbs 6:6, says, "Go to the ant you sluggard. Consider its ways and be wise. It has no commander, no overseer, or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.” So I'm not arguing that you should sell all your possessions, buy a white robe, and sit on the roof of your house and wait for the second coming of Christ. Actually, in church history, some have done exactly that, and they eventually came back down and tried to buy back their things. So we are to live as though every day might be our last, but we're also supposed to prepare and store up for the future. All missions are done this way. You prepare a mission trip, you don't say to the people going with you on the mission trip, we don't know where we're going or how we're getting there, but come. We're going to get on a plane, and who knows what'll happen. That, we don't do that. We plan short-term mission trips, career missionaries plan, they prepare, they get trained and that's appropriate. That's how we live in this world. And so we do prepare for the future, but there's a difference between preparing for the future, and presuming on the future. And so, the most important thing that you can do in hearing this is, be certain that you are born again, that you have trusted in Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Don't put that off to another day. Make Good Use of Today You remember Felix had the greatest evangelist in church history incarcerated with him. He was imprisoning him, and he had access to him, and he took advantage of it. So he sat with Paul, the Apostle, the one who wrote the Book of Romans. “Do you know anything about the Gospel Paul?” “I know a lot about the Gospel. Let's talk about the Gospel.” And so, He discoursed with Felix about righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come. And when Felix heard that, he became alarmed, and stopped him and said, "Stop. We'll talk about this at another time." Amazingly, God in His grace gave him another time, and actually many other times, maybe a year or more, maybe two. But in the end he never, as far as we know, repented and believed, and then handed Paul over to the next governor Festus and moved on. He put it off because he thought he would have more time. The Lord says to all of us, 2 Corinthians 6, “In the time of my favor, I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” Then Paul says, “Behold I tell you now is the time of God's favor. Today is the day of salvation.” Or again, the author to Hebrew says, “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.” Repent and Serve God So the wisest thing you can do then is hear this Gospel message, hear of the atoning work of Christ, here that all you have to do is believe and not by works, but by faith are all your sins forgiven and flee to Christ while there's time. For us as Christians we're stronger every day by people who think just like the person in this text. You know it's true. We go to work in secular places that people are basically thinking this. “We're going to do this, we're going to do that, etcetera,” and God never enters in. We're surrounded by people without hope and without God in the world. Our task in this Raleigh, Durham area, our task is to shine the light of truth into that darkness. So, I'm giving you kind of the talking points for tomorrow at work. Find some way to talk about the brevity of life. Find some way to talk to some lost person about their life is a mist, it is a vapor. Find some way. And then for you as Christians, put your own house in order. Put your own house in order. Don’t Procrastinate Is there something God wants you to do? You know there's something God wants you to do, do it. Do it. Don't wait. Some Christian people are postponing some spiritual aspect of their life, could be a sin pattern that they plan on repenting from and turning from, but they haven't yet. Or it could be a good ministry that God, they feel, is calling them to do, but they just haven't begun it yet, and they'll get to it, they plan of it, they have to arrange some things first. So we tend to do spiritual procrastination thinking we're going to have plenty of time in the future. And so, we procrastinate from addressing sins in our lives and from beginning positive, fruitful ministries that the Lord is calling on us to do. So, if you have a pulling, a magnetic pull towards some ministry, follow it, feed it, see where it will lay, don't postpone it. And if God is convicting you, if I say to you, "Is there some sin pattern by which you are violating your conscience?" And something pops in your mind right now, the Holy Spirit is convicting you right now, I don't know what it is. Don't delay repenting from it. Put it to death now, don't wait. But deal with it now. So, positively, if God's calling on you to do a ministry, don't delay, find out about it, take steps toward it, start doing it. Negatively, if there's some sin in your life, don't delay, repent. Put it to death. IV. Application Learn the Lord’s Will Now, there's some practical things that I want to give you about this. I believe you should have a quiet time every day. You should get up and feed your soul in God's Word. And in so doing, you'll do what it says in Ephesians, “find out what the will of the Lord is,” find out what His will is. So, you should say, If the Lord wills, I will live and do this or that. Okay? So, I've already covered, If the Lord wills, I will live. So, in your quiet time, you say, “Lord, thank you that I have this day, this is the day the Lord has made, you have willed that I'd be alive, at least to this point. If you will, I will finish the day out. So I'm putting my life in your hands. It is yours.” Secondly, if the Lord wills, I will do this or that. What are your plans? It's not wrong to have plans, but have you asked God for wisdom? Have you sought His face concerning your plans? Have you passed them by for his review? Have you said like Jesus did with the greatest single act of human courage there's ever been in history, “Not my will, but yours be done”? Jesus was exactly the opposite, he was saying to his father, If the Lord wills, I will die. And it was God's will that he died. And he was willing to drink that cup for us, that's how much he said, if the Lord wills, I will live and do this or that. So we follow after Him and say, if you will, I'll live for your glory. So what do you want me to do? And then, first and foremost, the Spirit speaks through his word, he's going to tell you what the Lord's will is. Just do a word study on, it is the will of the Lord to that, so that you be sexually pure, 1 Thessalonians, “that each of you learn to control his own body in a way that's holy and honorable, not in passionate lust, like the heathen, who do not know God.” So it is God's will that you be sexually pure and holy. So you can just go down. Find out, it is God's will, it is God's will that we serve Him with all of our time and our energy. It is God's will that we ask him, “Should I go to this or that city? Should I spend a year there if you give me that time? Should I make money? And if I do make money, what should I do with it?” And so, there are some clear things that God says, it is His will, well we'll just find out what the Scripture says. But then there are some things that are pertinent to you, they're unique to your life and you don't know. “Should I leave this church and go to this city and take a job offer that I have now that I finished my graduate program, or if there's an opportunity, should I or not?” The Bible is not going to tell you directly what to do, but it does say in James 1, "If anyone lacks wisdom, he should,” what? “Ask God.” Ask God. Should I take that job? Should I marry that person? Should I go on that mission trip? Should I do this, Lord? And listen to him. “And when you ask, you should believe and not doubt that he'll speak into the quietness of your heart and lead you and guide you.” Sins of Omission Finally, the text ends with an important statement on a category of sin called sins of omission. We tend to focus on sins of commission, things that you do that you know God doesn't want you to do. You violate some law. But this says, “if anyone that knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, he sins.” So, God wants us to be lights shining in a dark place. I mentioned this a few minutes ago. He wants us to be evangelistic. But are you evangelistic? Are you sharing the Gospel with lost people? Is this a regular pattern of your life? These were his last words to the church before he ascended to Heaven. Read the end of Luke 24, you know exactly what I'm talking about. He said, share the Gospel to the ends of the earth and then He ascended. So, if you know what you ought to do and don't do it for you, it is sin. So for us, let's not procrastinate. Is there a lost person in your life, somebody that you are focused on, somebody you're seeking to lead to faith in Christ? Don't wait, share the Gospel with them, be bold and see what God will do in and through you. Friends let's make the most of the time we have here as a church. Let's make the most of the days we have left together. Let's realize they're brief, they're fleeting, and let's live for the glory of God. Preparing for the Lord’s Supper Now we have an opportunity to prepare for the Lord's Supper. Let me say something about the Lord Supper. I believe that the celebration of this ordinance is an opportunity that we as believers in Christ have to encounter the living God. I do not believe in transubstantiation? I don't believe it actually becomes the body and blood of Jesus, neither do I take a bare memorial view, like we can't expect anything here. I believe that in proportion to our faith in the Word of God, we can have an encounter with the living God, prepare your hearts for it. You've already had the opportunity to confess your sin, but be mindful of the fact of any sins that you may have in your life. If you are not yet a Christian, if you've not testified to saving faith through water Baptism, we ask that you refrain, that you refrain and just observe. But we pray that in later months that you may actually be able to partake with us. But if you are a believer and you've testified to it by water baptism, we want you to partake. So let me this close this sermon time in prayer, and then I'll ask the helpers to come and I'll read the words of institution. Let's pray. Prayer Father, thank you for the power of your word, thank you for the clarity of your word. Thank you for the insights that it gives us about the brevity of our lives. Thank you for the Gospel that saves us from eternity and not apart from you. I thank you for this church, and now, Lord, as we have the opportunity to not just having fed on God's Word by hearing it, but that we can partake in the actual elements we pray that you would be glorified and send forth your Spirit. Be with us as we celebrate now in Jesus' name. Amen.

An oft-repeated claim by skeptics is that geneticists have disproved the possibility of Adam and Eve. Because existing human genetic diversity is so great, there can be no original couple from whom all people are descended. Or, that's what we're told.          Biology professor and author Dennis Venema summarizes this argument up in his book, “Adam and the Genome.” In it, he claims that “every genetic analysis estimating ancestral population sizes has agreed that we descend from a population of thousands, not a single ancestral couple.”          Some Christian authors have reacted to this apparent consensus by proposing new ways of reading Genesis that make Adam and Eve either mythological or not really our first parents. The goal has been to accommodate theology and the Bible to what we're told is “settled science.”          But what if the science on Adam and Eve isn't so settled? That's the argument of a new paper by Discovery Institute senior fellow and developmental biologist Ann Gauger and Swedish mathematician Ola Hössjer, recently published in the journal, “BIO-Complexity.”          In order to test whether it really is impossible to account for modern variation in human beings by starting with just two people, these researchers did something that, incredibly, no one had tried before: They started with just two people, and ran the numbers.          Using accepted population growth and mutation rates, Gauger and Hössjer programmed a computer to start with a genetic Adam and Eve and replicate the known distribution of diversity in today's human population. Their results, to put it simply, fly in the face of the much-touted consensus.          According to their model, a couple who shared some genetic markers could generate all the diversity we see today within about 2 million years—which Venema and others claim is impossible.          However, given two people who share no genetic markers—in other words, two people who weren't born but were created with four unique sets of chromosomes—that time frame drops to a few hundred thousand, not millions, of years.          Writing at Evolution News, Gauger points out that further tweaks in the rates of population growth, structure, mortality, birth, and mutation could place that theoretical first couple even more recently in history.          In any case, the authors are careful to note that the point of their paper was not to date Adam and Eve, or even to prove from a genetic standpoint that they existed. Rather, they just wanted to demonstrate—contrary to the oft-repeated claim—that it is possible for all human beings to have descended from an original pair.          Of course, much more work remains to be done, but the paper has served to clarify two things.          First, scientists' assumptions about the past can change their results. Gauger explains that once hurdles in computing power were overcome, this experiment was an obvious way to test existing dogma on human origins. But in her words, no one bothered because “They believed that starting from two was useless.”          In fact, many researchers failed to use standard methods for modeling population genetics because of their baked-in evolutionary assumptions. For instance, one popular tool relies on comparisons between human and chimpanzee DNA to track mutations—something Gauger points out is useless if we don't share a common ancestor with chimps.          Second, and more importantly, this paper hints at how tentative so-called “settled science” can be. Christians who rush to revise their understanding of characters like Adam and Eve to make way for the latest consensus should think more about the theological consensus they're tinkering with, like the fall, the image of God, original sin, and creation. They should also consider all the un-tinkering they may have to do one day when that scientific consensus changes.

McConnell's Senate subpoena's Donald Trump Jr. even though the Mueller investigation is over. Why? Is Mitch trying to exert power over the president? And is supporting President Trump a sin? Some Christian pundits think so. Here's where they're wrong.

Wonder Woman is a movie about heroes and the power of heroic role models to inspire heroism in others. Part of the cultural significance of Wonder Woman as a character is to provide young girls with a larger than life image to which they can aspire, parallel to the role Superman plays for young boys. This spoiler-filled podcast episode is a conversation with author John McAteer as he answers questions including what is the approach to heroes that Wonder Woman takes. Wonder Woman is a feminist icon is this movie trying to tear down biblical gender roles? What does the movie say about the origin of war and the possibility of ending war? Some Christian movie reviewers have interpreted Wonder Woman as a Christ-figure. Would you agree with that?