Revelation 11:15 Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘... he shall reign forever and ever’.”Psalm 68“You ascended on high, leading a host of captives in your train and receiving gifts among men, even among the rebellious, that the Lord God may dwell there” (Psalm 68:18).Acts 1:9 “And when he had sa

Still, we shouldn’t assume God was doing nothing, as stated in this article by Don Stewart. He had an eternal plan (John 17:24) before Creation. Also, we do have to keep in mind that God wasn’t alone. God is the Trinity, three persons in one. God didn’t need Creation to fill a loneliness in his heart.It gets a little confusing, but as humans, we ha

What Does This Verse Mean? Let’s break down the elements of this verse. The key to this verse is wrapped around this idea of hoping in the Lord. Everything else that happens in this verse flows from that hope. This is a cause-and-effect verse. The word for hope used here in the Hebrew is a word that speaks of anticipation. The one who is hoping in

1. PrideA loving mother once told me how proud she was of her son and the good choices that he was making.“What I want to know,” she asked, “is if it is okay to be proud of my son when the Bible says that pride is a sin?”“Of course you can tell your son how proud you are of him,” I said.Pride is a two-edged sword. On the one hand, some people are a

So, which of these did the wise men see and follow? Was it a supernova, a comet, a planetary conjunction, or something miraculous? Matthew gives us a hint when he says that the star “went ahead of [the wise men] until it stopped over the place where [Jesus] was” (Matthew 2:9). In other words, as one author puts it, “The star is not described realis

This theme is evident in other places throughout the Bible as well. I want to share with you from scripture, three examples of why Proverbs 23:7 (as a man thinks in his heart, so is he), is what God uses to determine a person’s authenticity. Consider these three questions:1. Is Your Worship Genuine?The Lord says: “These people come near to me with

1. “One, therefore, is the way of truth, but into it, just as into an everlasting river, flow streams but from another place.” — Strōmateis2. “[Knowledge] loves and teaches the ignorant and instructs the whole creation to honor God the Almighty.” — Strōmateis3. “Let us remove the ignorance and darkness that spreads like a mist over our sight, and l

The Word of God acts as a mirror by giving us an accurate picture of who we really are (James 1:22-25). Once we see that image, God can begin to change us into what we really ought to be. So dig into His Word to experience both the sobering reality of your own condition as well as the healing forgiveness that you need to walk with God.What to pray:

Who Is James Addressing? Take a moment to read this whole thought in James, and as you’re reading, ask yourself: who is James talking to?What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. Y

As his followers learned, when Jesus died and then rose from the dead, he did not bring peace by overthrowing governments. Instead, he brought peace for Jews and Gentiles (Romans 10:12) by dying for them. He became a sacrificial lamb, dying for humanity’s sins once and for all (Hebrews 9:12). In doing so, he made peace between humanity and God (1 J

Jesus said this in John 3:5 when he indicated we must be born anew in order to enter the kingdom of God, born of water and the Spirit.Otherwise, when it comes time for the harvest, destruction awaits. For, as Jesus taught in Matthew 13, “At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gath

Jesus is the great Unifier. When He was on the earth, He spoke with people the Jews detested when He was kind and spoke truth to the Samaritan woman (John 4:1-45).He received and ate with sinners (Luke 15:2).Galatians 3:28 is a succinct answer to one who questions God about being partial to the Jews, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neithe

Jesus consistently offered compassion and understanding to those who were burdened by sin, guilt, and shame. He invited them to be authentic — just as He was authentic. There was something about Jesus that invited this unfiltered relationship. They knew that they would be accepted in his presence. It was only because the religious leaders couldn’t

1. James 4:7-8 — Fight Your Battles through Humility and Purity“Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands … and purify your hearts.” We must begin our warfare with the right heart attitude. Submitting ourselves to God means coming to Him humbly, admit

The NIV has way outsold other English translations of the Bible since it first appeared in 1978. Before the proliferation of several new translations that appeared in the last decade, it accounted for as much as 42% of all English Bibles purchased worldwide, though more recently, it has dipped to closer to 30%. The KJV has frequently come in at abo

Staying in close communion with God helps us be more aware of the traps that lead us to sin, but when we sin, we repent quickly and embrace God’s forgiveness (1 John 1:9) so that we don’t miss a beat in staying in step with Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:25).Start to Pray to God TodayPraying to God throughout the day will fortify your relationship as you

When Jesus came to earth, He fulfilled centuries of promises, dying on the cross to become the way that all people could be redeemed from their sins. Jesus will return as a king, reign over the earth in the millennium reign, and forever in the New Heaven and the New Earth as prophesied in the Book of Revelation. Because Boaz was only a genetic Hebr

Later revelations about Egypt being “the land of Ham” also imply nothing about race or slavery. Indeed, we know the Israelites, descendants of Ham’s brother Shem, later became slaves of the Egyptians (Exodus 1). In the 1600 and 1700s, a misreading of the language led to a belief that the name Ham referred to “dark” or “black,” and advocates of the

Labor Day’s Beginnings Celebrated in both the United States and Canada, Labor Day is celebrated the first Monday in September as a way to recognize workers and what they contribute to our society. Back in 1882, a union leader in the United States named Peter J. McGuire encouraged the Central Labor Union of New York to consider designating a day to

Matthew wrote his Gospel to a Jewish audience and his main purpose served to exalt Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah and King of Israel.Zechariah 9:9 foretells how the King would arrive in Jerusalem. “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation,Jesus quoted this verse in Matthew 21:5 when