Questioning why to be baptised When people come to question their faith and do find an other group may have something more to offer them or has the truth and can bring them closer to God, they often wonder why such church or group demands that they become baptised. Roman Catholics and many others who… Read More Salvation, Baptism and Re-baptism
The 1st Adam was the beginning of man, the “head”, the first-made. Out of the seed of Adam and Eve all men and women came. “Because of Adam and Eve’s sin, humankind is sinful” is not exactly totally right. Man still has his own free will and has still the same opportunity as Adam and… Read More The 1st Adam in the Hebrew Scriptures #8 Looking for the 2nd Adam
After the choice Adam and Eve made to go against the Will of God, eating of the fruit of the Tree of knowledge of good and evil, God came to deal with three parties in the fall of mankind: Adam, Eve and the serpent. An alleged fourth – the devil – is not mentioned in… Read More The 1st Adam in the Hebrew Scriptures #5 Temptation, assault and curse
Philippians 4:1-9 The Scriptures 1998+ (1) So then, my brothers, beloved and longed-for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Master, beloved. (2) I appeal to Euodia and I appeal to Suntuche to be of the same mind in the Master. (3) And I also ask you, true companion, help these women who laboured… Read More Thought for September 8 Weak but standing strong in the ground swell
After or in-between our series on finding a church, we would like to share an exhortation given a few weeks back by brother Simon Peel at the Newbury ecclesia which we could follow thanks to the Google Hangouts. It referred back to the second part of the two Books of Chronicles (or the Diḇrê… Read More Queen of Sheba visits Solomon
“«For the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.» The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.” (Psalms 19:1 ERV) “1 And God spake all these words, saying, 2 I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of… Read More Bible, God’s Word to edify (ERV)
In the coming days we shall look at the way how we can look at things and how we have to be conscious about those things we see around us and how they fit into the Plan of the Creator. We shall look at that what many in this world do not see any more… Read More May reading the Bible provoke us into action to set our feet on the narrow way
Exposition before the Creator Our prayer life leaves us entirely exposed before that Creator whose name is to be hallowed. We reverence His name, ask for him to come, plead for help physically, and acknowledge our desperate inadequacies. We should be hoping that Jehovah God reveals Himself to us so that we get to know… Read More Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #15 Exposition before the Creator
Are we better off? In the world we may find atheists, believers in all sorts of gods, and believers of all sorts of denominations in the one they call the Only One God. Are those who think they believe in Jesus to be God, or those who think Jehovah being God the only righteous? They… Read More Condemnation of the World and Illustration of Justification
In Matthew 21:28-32 we are told about a father who had two children. Approaching the first, he said, ‘Child, go work today in the vineyard.’ Now, this child responded, ‘I will, Sir’, but did not leave for the vineyard. The father approached the second child and requested the same, who said, ‘I will not!’ but… Read More Listening and Praying to the Father
Massacres allowed to happen The Aurora, Colorado massacre, brought many debates about believes and about carrying weapons. It is unbelievable that many people do really want to believe it would not be so bad in case more people would have weapons on them. Often with such massacres, we mostly can find in the United States… Read More Fear and protection
Aftermath and Trauma of an incident The aftermath of the movie theatre shooting, at the opening of the latest blockbuster, The Dark Knight Rises, in Colorado that claimed the lives of 12 people brought out once again the familiar calls for greater gun control and national reflection to determine what could have triggered such a… Read More A world in denial
Elections or a Voice In Belgium there shall be the elections for the communities, bringing new mayors, but this year probably also with a vote over the political situation in the whole country. In the United States of America they are not going to look for a new mayor or governor, it is the presidential… Read More Fear of God reason to return to Holy Scriptures
In the previous article Manifests for believers #1 Sex abuse setting fire to the powder we saw that the role of the priest in the child and adult abuse has included cover-ups, neglect, and arrogance. In documents of the church, letters between victims and church, and in the media we could find enough proof the… Read More Manifests for believers #2 Changing celibacy requirement
Self inflicted misery to bear 2. Weakness of human race Man’s neglect and misuse of his own life has corrupted the stream of human life itself, and left evils which fall on succeeding generations. These, again as part of natural law, may manifest themselves as hereditary weaknesses and tendencies to disease. The very stuff of… Read More Self inflicted misery #2 Weakness of human race
As Kevin Miller writes in his blog article about Job “Job is a book of tragedy, foolish counsel, mourning, but also great strength.” For us it can be counted as such a real romantic film: Job begins and ends happy and cheery, but in-between we get drama of high calibre. By the end of the very… Read More Fragments from the Book of Job #7 Epilogue
In his concluding speech in chapter 31, Job did demand that God appear before him, and in a sense, it is somewhat surprising for Elihu to appear instead. But can a man command God to appear? Do we have the right or authority to demand the Most High to appear before us? Job’s concluding remarks… Read More Fragments from the Book of Job #6: chapters 38-42
We can imagine that people get scared when they hear certain preachers talking as the three friends of Job. As the wife of a Southern Baptist pastor writes in her blog that one pastor saying that all the troubles which befell Job were his fault because he spoke forth fear into his life. That alleviated some… Read More Fragments from the Book of Job #5: chapters 32-37
In the previous chapters the rampant evil in the world was described by Job (Job 24:2-24) and we have heard the speeches of Job’s friends who got to accuse him of gaining his now lost wealth by robbing the poor, withholding sustenance from the hungry and even abusing the weaker ones like widows and orphans.… Read More Fragments from the Book of Job #4: chapters 27-31
Job and his friends agreed that God is omnipotent, omniscient, has all the wisdom and strength, is just, and perfectly good. They could bring forwards that an omniscient being knows every way in which evils can come into existence and has the power to prevent that evil from coming into existence. God can just say… Read More Fragments from the Book of Job #3: chapters 21-26
