Eternally Minded

I was doing my morning reading through the book of Judges and was shocked at how twisted this man named Micah was. The chapter starts off with him stealing from his mother, then returning the money, then she makes him an idol out of the returned money, and he makes his son the priest of his idols. Later, a Levite comes by and he hires him to be the priest instead of his son and says: "Now know I that the Lord will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my priest." Judges 17:13 How can this guys definition of right and wrong be so thwarted? How can he think God is pleased with his actions? Sure he hired God's ordained ministers to be his priest (Lev7:35), but he was worshiping a idol! He wasn't even worshiping the one true God! So he wasn't obeying the Levite Priest law, because he broke a much more serious law: "Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in the heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is...

In the last few months at my church ( Cornerstone Church ) my pastor, Chris Sippley, has been going though the Gospel of Mark. There are things I'm seeing for the very first time about the reason for the book of Mark, his teachings about Christ, and Christ's teachings about Himself. Not only what Jesus said matters, but also what He did: what He valued and what He prioritized.  I'd like to share with you - as a sort of informal post - my notes taken from the sermon on Mark 5:1-20, spoken on July 29, 2018. (You can listen to this sermon - and plenty more! - for yourself  HERE ) Demons wrecked this man who lived among the tombs. He was rejected, feared, and insane. They made a living hell in him and immediately falls down when he sees Jesus - when the demons see Jesus . They know their fate to hell - they know and try to do as much as possible before they're put away for eternity. They had to have permission from God to go into the pigs. They left the man...

Hello! This week's post is another audio recording uploaded to YouTube of part 2 in our gospel series. These posts are the foundation of our blog, and therefore we wanted to make them available to you to listen to as well as read. Enjoy! Click here: The Gospel Series: Part 2: The Glory of God not Honoured

This is a question I think everyone has asked at one point or another. (If you haven't, I'm sure you will.) Some ask with personal experience to suffering in mind. Others ask in response to the news they hear in the world. Still others ask, because they have been asked and don't know the answer. So however you may be approaching this question, I pray that you might see the truth, as I try to tactfully share what God has revealed in His word - the Holy Bible. Firstly, we cannot deny that there is great suffering in this world. Death, sickness, war, crimes, relationship breakdowns, poverty, etc. The list could go on! We don't have to look very far to see that we do not live in a perfect world, in fact, we don't have to even look past ourselves. So where does this suffering come from? Ultimately, it is the consequence for sin. Suffering has existed since the fall of mankind in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3). The first two people God created, Adam and Eve, brok...

Loneliness can be a heavy cross. Someone doesn't even need to be alone to be lonely; sometimes a lonely soul can hurt the most when physically surrounded by people. There may not always be a solution to acute loneliness, as it may have been brought upon by many different sources: physical abandonment, someone moving away - maybe you yourself has moved away, or the ending of a relationship. There isn't a lot of comfort to be found sometimes. God alone understands our pain - the ache, the longing, the sorrow - as you uniquely feel it and deal with it. If you're like me, then you bury your hurts. But God sees where I bury it, He knows - and can define my feelings better than I can. I have to remind myself to turn to Christ, because it's what we were made to do: As the loincloth clings to the waist of a man, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to Me, declares the Lord, that they might be for Me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory...

Acing a test. Writing a book. Finishing your homework. Coordinating an event. Cooking a meal. Graduating from high school or college. Completing a good workout. Cleaning the bathroom. Finishing a Bible study workbook. Doing the dishes. Figuring out a new dance routine. What do all of these things have in common? Think about it for a minute. They’re all hard. Or at least, require some amount of work. Why am I talking to you about hard things? Well, I think that we (teenagers, that is) should do more hard stuff. That’s because they push us persevere in doing the next hard thing. Hard things are good for us. But guess what: there aren’t a lot of young people doing hard things anymore. We’re not getting much encouragement from today’s culture to do things that are actually worth doing. Because doing those things is for older people with the expertise, the education, the resources, and the stubborn perseverance to do so. . . Right? Wrong! Those people aren’t the only ones who are capabl...

Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus.   Acts 5:41 & 42 North American, first-world Christians, have a hard time wrapping their minds around persecution. We don't pray for foreign believers as we should. We oftentimes forget that in other parts of the world (and maybe subtly in our very own country) children of Christ are being persecuted for their faith.  Martyrdom always fascinated me. I used to lay awake in bed and wonder what it would be like to die for Christ... To be worthy  to die for Him.  Millions of believers have been - and are being - killed for their faith in God. Sad, yes, but oh! Think of the joy that awaits them! Leave this sinful world 'early' and be face to face with Christ the Saviour forever?? Sounds like a sweet deal to me....