Category Archives: Theology

Christmas Eve Candlelight Service – What Are We Celebrating?

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Be a light in your neighborhood

Opening song – Hallelujah Christmas – Cloverton

Angels We Have Heard On High – Baloche

1 John 4:9-10

“By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.  In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

Galatians 4:4-5

“But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.”

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Having the Mind of Christ

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mind-of-christ

I have found the book of Psalms to be a gold mine of knowledge and encouragement and if grasped and applied, wisdom. As most of you who follow this blog and ministry know, I have been teaching through Psalms for nearly two years now and a conservative estimate is that it will take five to seven more years to complete. I say that because I have made it to Psalm 39 and extrapolating from there gives me a good idea of what to expect. Aiding the five to seven year time frame is the fact that I have already taught through Psalm 119. That chapter alone took me nearly nine months.  I say all of this to drive home the point that the Bible is so full of nourishment for believers that it is a shame so many Bible teachers hurry through it as if they have a schedule to maintain. In doing so they miss the rich texture and multi-layered significance of the Word.

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Matthew 5:17-48 – Jesus Speaks About The Hot Topics Of His Day – Part 1

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sermon on the mount

I read an article in the online edition of the Evening Leader, which is the local St. Marys daily newspaper.  This article was talking about the history of the “hobo” in the St. Marys, Ohio area.  Now some of you might not know what a hobo is/was.  Back in the 1930’s through about the 1950’s in this area there was a traveling group of men that moved from place to place seeking work.  Their main mode of transportation was the railroad that ran through the heart of town.

They would hop on the trains and go from place to place to work and earn a little money to go to the next place.  They would establish hobo villages if you could call them that.  They were more accurately places they would congregate for protection from the weather and to share their stories with one another.  It was quite an interesting article.

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Scripture and the Authority of God in the 21st Century

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Scripture - it is finished in red letters

This article explores the subject of Scripture and the Authority of God in the 21st Century.  Part one will discuss the authority of God understood within Christian theism generally and historically.  Part two will discuss the authority of God historically within American culture.   Part three will consider God’s authority within 21st century postmodern America as that philosophical system increasingly dominates most scholarly activities today.  Part four will be a Christian theistic response to the conditions discussed in part three.

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The Spirit of Antichrist, Christian Self-Flagellation, and Getting It Wrong

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Elijah and Ahab

The Old Testament of the Bible contains many narratives that give instruction to the modern Christian. One such example is the story of the prophet Elijah and the evil King Ahab and Queen Jezebel.

In 1 Kings 21 we find the account of the King and Queen of Israel plotting to dispossess a man of his property.  Deceit, lying, and libel were all employed expertly by Jezebel to cause the murder of the man Naboth. His crime? His desire to retain his land and vineyard and not sell them to the King. Naboth rightly stated that he was forbidden to sell his land to anyone because God had given it as an inheritance (21:3). Thus in seeking to obey and honor God Naboth became an enemy of the King and Queen.

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