“For though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly, but the haughty he knows from afar.” (ESV – Read the chapter)
God wants to be close to us. There is no one so low who is yet seeking God to whom He is not as close as their next breath. Although He is the high and exalted God, yet He is near to us. He is transcendent, yes, but He is also immanent. Read the rest…
“Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you.” (ESV – Read the chapter)
Make no mistake: If you are a follower of Jesus, the world hates you just like it hated Him. Now, this doesn’t mean that everyone who isn’t one of His followers as well hates you. You may (and should) have friends who are non-believers, some of whom may be very good friends. But, for anyone who is committed to the ends of the world (the elevation of self and the desires of the flesh above all else), they will hate the ends of the kingdom toward which you are working (the elevation of God and the humiliation of self), a hatred which will eventually be worked out through you.
Persecution should never surprise us as followers of Jesus. If we behave as He did, we will be treated as He was as well. This should be a mark of pride, knowing that we are on the right track.
“Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son.” (ESV – Read the chapter)
Although it is not so much a topic of conversation as it was a few years ago, there is a fair bit of interest in the idea and the person of the Antichrist. In popular literature of varying sorts, the Antichrist is going to be the figure at the end of the world who unites the forces of evil against the forces of good, and who must be defeated to avoid the end of the world. Read the rest…
“Then the high officials and the satraps sought to find a ground for complaint against Daniel with regard to the kingdom, but they could find no ground for complaint or any fault, because he was faithful, and no error or fault was found in him.” (ESV – Read the chapter)
Daniel was now in the service of the third king and of two different nations, all in the same place. You don’t achieve such a thing unless you have a reputation that precedes you by a long, long way. Indeed, Daniel had a reputation for wisdom, character, and integrity that was far above anyone else in the whole of the kingdom. In fact, when his enemies determined to take him down because of their jealousy of his power and position, the only possible basis they could find for accusing and condemning him was his faithfulness to God. Read the rest…
“And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.” (ESV – Read the chapter)
Just a little note here on the defense of the Bible. Some critics have argued that the writings of the New Testament “became” Scripture gradually. It was the result of a power play by men seeking power for themselves and these writings were a convenient way to get it through the levers of religion. But, when they were written no one considered them Scripture. Except for this… Read the rest…
The Nexus 