Day: January 20, 2019

Isaiah 3:1–4 1For, behold, the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah stay and staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water; 2the mighty man, and the man of war; the judge, and the prophet, and the diviner, and the elder; 3the captain of fifty, and the honorable man, and the counsellor, and the expert artificer, and the skilful enchanter, 4And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them. (ASV, 1901). In previous chapters God has been using the prophet Isaiah to let the people of the world, and particularly …

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Reflections From the Psalms Why standest thou afar off, O Lord? why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble? (Ps. 10:1) One of the traits of any trial of faith is that it will seem as if God is indeed, “afar off.” It will often seem like He is indifferent. Perhaps the greatest trauma in any trial of faith is the sense that, for reasons unknown to us, God has forsaken us. We may cry, “Why are you hiding Yourself from me, Lord?” Of course, God has not forsaken us. Neither is He hiding Himself from us. The problem, therefore, …

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For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them. (Eph. 2:8-10)The relationship between grace, faith, and our works, is given in this passage. In short, we are saved BY grace, THROUGH faith, UNTO good works. If we alter this relationship we are in danger of creating a false gospel; a false Christianity.It is a fact that faith would be in …

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A Bible Study by Jack Kelley “In your anger do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold (Ephesians 4:26).” This is the verse the Lord impressed upon my heart as I was asking for a topic for this article. It’s familiar to anyone who has ever experienced any Christian counseling, and like many Bible verses it bears closer examination. Translations differ slightly in rendering this passage and the Greek contains some interesting insights, but Paul was quoting from Psalm 4 where the intent of the …

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Because we can’t become Christlike on our own, we must let the Holy Spirit produce godly characteristics in us. GALATIANS 5:22-26 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. 26 Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another. The Holy Spirit is vital to the Christian life. Read about …

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Some groups use these verses to teach that a believer can lose his salvation. But this passage is not actually speaking of the spiritual salvation of individuals. Rather, it concerns Israel as a nation under the Mosaic Law, individual accountability, physical life and physical death. Under the Mosaic Law, if one were obedient to the Law, he would physically live; if one disobeyed the Law, he would physically die. If this passage were speaking about spiritual salvation and spiritual death, then spiritual salvation would be obtained by works. The passage states that “if you do all these things, if you …

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