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Thirty-Five Things Worth Knowing About The Bible (link)
Government & Politics (link)
QuoteWorthy Theology
Featured Resources (link)
My Christian Testimony (link)
Life, Learning & Laughter
Disappointment with God
Pray for Our Nation
Featured Bible Study Resource
Weather for Raleigh NC

* Thirty-Five Things Worth Knowing About The Bible *

Government & Politics

QUOTEWORTHY THEOLOGY:

UPDATED 11-18-2008

Matthew’s Christology

For Matthew, as for Mark, Jesus is the Son of God (Matt. 2:15; 3:17; 4:3, 6; 11:27; 14:33; 16:16; 17:5; 21:37–38; 22:2; 24:36; 26:63–64; 27:54; 28:19), by which title he intends all that Mark means by it -- that Jesus stands in a unique filial relationship to the Father because, as the Father’s Son, he is divine. But Matthew makes explicit at some points what Mark takes for granted. Matthew reports Jesus’ supernatural entrance into the world as “Immanuel,” “God with us” (1:18–25). In the “embryonic Fourth Gospel” in 11:27, he brings out the truth that Jesus’ knowledge of the Father is on a par with the Father’s reciprocal knowledge of him, and his sovereign disposition of that knowledge to people is also on a par with the Father’s reciprocal sovereign disposition of his knowledge of the Son (11:27). And it is in Matthew’s account of the Great Commission that we see Jesus placing himself even in the “awful precincts of the divine Name” (Warfield) as the One who shares with the Father and the Spirit the one ineffable Name or essence of God (28:19).

As the messianic Son of Man, Matthew’s Jesus undergoes a period of humiliation as he serves men (20:28) and suffers all kinds of indignities -- even death -- at their hands (12:40; 17:12, 22–23; 20:18–19, 28; 26:2, 24, 45). But as the same Son of Man he possesses the authority to forgive sins (9:6) and is the Lord of the Sabbath (12:8). Although he is killed, according to Matthew his death was a self-sacrifice -- “a ransom for many” (20:28) -- in accordance with prophetic Scripture (26:24), but he rises from the dead (12:40; 17:9, 23; 20:19), assumes authority at the right hand of the Mighty One (26:64), and will return on the clouds with his angels (16:27; 24:31) in power and great glory to judge the nations of the world (19:28; 24:27, 30, 39, 44; 25:31–46; 26:64).

Thus Matthew’s Jesus, while a man, is, as “the Christ” (11:2), also of supernatural origin, and is superhuman, superangelic, indeed, equal with the Father in essential nature though submissive to the Father’s will in his mediatorial role as the Messiah.

---- R. L. Reymond,

A New Systematic Theology of the Christian Faith

LIFE, LEARNING & LAUGHTER:

UPDATED 11-18-2008

Politically Minded

The short memories of American voters is what keeps our politicians in office.
-Will Rogers

Talk-show host to political expert: "Campaigns have become so simplistic and superficial. In the twenty seconds we have left, could you explain why?"
-Bennett in The Christian Science Monitor

Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program
-Milton Friedman (attributed)

The major difference between the two parties in America is when one does absolutely nothing, the other one always says they're doing it wrong.
-Gene and Linda Perret

A Treasury of Humor

excerpts from

Disappointment with God

UPDATED 11-18-2008

Is God silent? "Follow me!" "This, then, is how you should pray." "We are going up to Jerusalem." In certain respects, Jesus made God's will clearer than it had ever been before. Incredibly, he opened himself to the scientific method of investigation, which is exactly what he got from Pharisees, Sadducees, and other skeptics. Anyone could walk right up to the Son of God and ask a question or debate with him. As the Gospels tell it, God broke his silence loudly and convincingly while Jesus lived on earth: the Word was made flesh.

Is God hidden? With Jesus, God actually took on a shape in the world, acquiring a face, a name, and an address. He was a God you could touch and smell and hear and see. "Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father," Jesus said bluntly.

And yet Jesus' visibility, his very ordinariness, introduced a new problem for Jews raised on stories of Mount Sinai and Mount Carmel. Where was the smoke, the fire, the burst of light? Jesus did not match their image of what God should look like. He was a man, for goodness' sake, one who hailed from the jerkwater town of Nazareth at that -- Mary's boy, a common carpenter. Jesus' neighbors, who had watched him play in the streets with their own children, never could accept him as the Messiah. And Mark notes in a remarkable aside that even Jesus' own family once concluded, "He is out of his mind." His mother and brothers! Mary, who on seeing the angel Gabriel had spontaneously let loose with the annunciation hymn; his brothers, who had spent more time with him than anyone else-- these , too, could not reconcile the strange combination of wondrous and ordinary. Jesus' skin got in the way.

Is God unfair? Perhaps this lingering question produced the most doubt about Jesus, for Jews believed the Messiah would set right all that was wrong with the world. Had not the prophets promised the Lord would swallow up death forever and wipe the tears from all faces? Indeed, Jesus did heal some people; but many more went unhealed. He raised Lazarus from the dead, but many others died during his time on earth. He did not wipe away tears from all faces. (pages 114-15)

excerpts from

Pray for Our Nation:

Scriptural Prayers to Revive Our Country

UPDATED 11-18-2008

Part 3: Prayers for the Safety of Our Nation

National Disaster

Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus, please direct our rescue workers in their labors, that survivors of disasters will be found in time. I pray that aid and support would arrive on every front.

May they come with the hope of not only finding the missing but also the means to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty and clothe the naked.

Help those in authority to make the right decisions. Show them ways to avoid and avert such tragedy in the future.

I pray that in the face of this tragedy, the gospel will be preached.

I pray that grieving families would be comforted.

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Scripture References

Matthew 25: 35, 36

Isaiah 61:1-4

Daniel 11:25

Mark 8:35

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We think it is incumbent upon this people

to humble themselves before God on

account o their sins...[And] also to

implore the Divine Blessing upon us,

that by the assistance of His grace, we may

be enabled to reform whatever is amiss

among us, that so God may be pleased

to continue to us the blessings we enjoy.

-- JOHN HANCOCK,

AMERICAN REVOLUTIONIST

AND THE FIRST SIGNER OF THE

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE