The Bible Archive

?O Timothy?, Paul cries out ?protect what has been entrusted to you by avoiding the profane chatter and contradictive absurdities of so-called ?knowledge.? By professing it,? he warns ?some have strayed from the faith.? (1 Tim 6:20,21)

This was a very tough charge for this young man. Philosophers and scientists surrounded him. How was he to avoid such things and similarly protect what has been entrusted to him, the very preaching and teaching of the gospel of God (1 Th 2:4)? How are we to do the same?

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Introducing ?The Naught Before Christmas? to the tune of Edgar Allen Poe?s ?The Raven?. The story of a little boy who gained some wisdom one Christmas Eve many years ago.
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This is my favorite time of year.

Although I listen to Christmas music year round (especially because of my son but not exclusively so) the songs seem brighter (and less strange) during December. Although I hate the cold, I love standing out there on 5th Avenue freezing my face off watching the tree. Although I know that the holiday is grounded in pagan roots (the Tree, Decking the Halls, the Yule Log, holly, mistletoe) I love decorating, watching decorations and even eating some good ol? Christmas ham.
I know that the birth of Jesus could?ve been during some other time of year, but it just winds up being enjoyable that we do it during this time of year. Despite all those contradictions, I love Christmas. That being said, I think I should offer up the top 10 reasons why I Love Christmas.

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MCF shows off his powers over the obscure with his linking
to everyone. I take up the challenge and link to Curt.

Spring-boarding off of Curt's site, The California Hammonds
shows the life, love and longing of a man, husband and father.

Continuing my blog-hopping quest I came upon this guy's site
through Truth Laid Bear. He's a graphic designer (like me) but lives in Oklahoma
City (not like me). He came up with a whole mess of blogisms.

Which eventually led me to these two cool sites, gizmodo and
engadget.

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After using case-law to establish precedence in defense of
God's righteousness when He declares a sinner justified, Paul now makes the
link to the present discussion. We have a man who is in a position of total
depravity in that specific sense which we have previously established. The man
is ruined before God and although God enjoys good works the idea that a person
can use works to make their state righteous before God is completely useless.
This man's solution was illustrated in case-law but how is faith a conduit to
righteousness in actuality? How can faith make the believer  secure?

An oft-used and pale illustration to direct our thinking: A
man is at home, bankrupt and up to his eyebrow in debt. Call him Rey. Any
similarities to my own present financial condition are purely coincidental.

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By the grace of God we're at 20 and a half weeks of our first pregnancy
since our series of miscarriages. Painful as those days were (and still
are) we're now reveling in the joy of expecting another child.

So today we went to the doctor's for the usual 20 week sonogram. The
appointment was for 2:30 and getting there at 2:05 did nothing for our
wait. The minute hand passed far into 3:00, while we listened to the
idle chatter of the staff. I blissfully played catch-up with sleep
while my thoughts at this point were "man, this is boring but at least
I get to sleep."

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Court in Session

In our courtroom (other articles linked below), we find the defendant’s
lawyer, Paul, showing more evidence. Men are judging God (the
defendant) and bring the unjust claim that He has no say in their
actions and is in fact faulty in His ruling. Paul’s argument then is to
defend God’s righteousness and we have already mentioned that this
defense consists of four major movements.

The first line of defense is God’s righteousness in the very
fact that He judges. We noted God’s right to judge in the future and
even His present judgments. We subsequently found that all of mankind
is guiltily under God’s righteous judgment for all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God and they know it.

We do see several sub-themes running throughout the book of Romans and
one of these is actually the basis for the major part of the defense’s
evidence?the fact that “the just shall live by faith” (1:17). We
discussed some matters of interpretation in light of the usage of
terminology in the thought-flow of Paul’s argument and now find
ourselves looking at this solution of the problem of the first section currently asking, “How is God righteous in
Justification?” Read the rest of this entry »

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It?s been quite a few days and I?ll let you know that I am working on an in-depth examination of Romans chapter 4 but have been horrendously sidetracked. Better posters than myself have coined the phrase ?Real Life Trumps Blogging? and have made good use of it as the need arises.
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Here I am, instead of studying I'm thinking about looking at
the book of Romans in one screen and reading the book of Colossians on another.
What do I start to do?

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So as I was driving home from work the other day I felt the sudden desire to turn off the radio. The main thought in my head was this: ?Think.? I sat there, driving, my eyes on the road and my mind traipsing around different ideas and thoughts and suddenly, violently even, the world (book rather) I?ve been working on since I was in junior high opened up and spiraled down to where I last left my friends (characters). It?s been about 3 years since I?ve actively touched the world?and I remember in vivid detail exactly what they?re doing.
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We have lately received a long letter, furnishing a very striking proof of the bewildering effect of one-
sided theology. Our correspondent is evidently under the influence of what is styled the high school of
doctrine. Hence, he cannot see the rightness of calling upon the unconverted to "come", to "hear", to
"repent", or to "believe". It seems to him like telling a crab-tree to bear some apples in order that it
may become an appletree.

Now, we thoroughly believe that faith is the gift of God, and that it is not according to man's will or by
human power. And further, we believe that not a single soul would even come to Christ if not drawn,
yea, compelled by divine grace so to do; and therefore all who are saved have to thank the free and
sovereign grace of God for it; their song is and ever shall be, "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but
unto Thy name give glory, for Thy mercy, and for Thy truth's sake".

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I guess we?re all allowed to do it once in a while. Not complain really, but kind of open up and just throw down our thoughts. It?s often strikingly random, wildly rampant in the blog community and strikingly unoriginal but each time it?s pertinent to the person writing it feeling a complete lack of direction in their current situation.
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