The road to Damascus shows us God’s overt, stunning power to convert the heart at the beginning of the journey. The road to Emmaus shows us God’s covert, subtle power to realign the heart after disillusionment sets in further into the journey. So grateful Jesus walks both roads. - DA Kistner

Stories gain their meaning from their conclusions, and it is the same with our lives. - Dale Allison Jr.

Eschatology drives discipleship.

Israel's suffering or humiliation at the hands of enemies does not imply God has abrogated the covenant and the promises made to Israel...calamitous events are a sign of divine displeasure, but not of divine disfavor.  -Pamela Eisenbaum

 Our Fall 2021 Video

 

Mike Rizzo

 

You come out to save your people, to save your anointed. You crush the leader of the house of the wicked and strip him from foot to neck. Selah... You pierce his head with his own spears; his warriors storm out to scatter us, gloating as if ready to secretly devour the weak. (Habakkuk 3:14)

Advent marks the beginning of the church calendar and is a time of expectant hope, both as the season leading up to the celebration of Jesus’ birth (the Incarnation) as well as the anticipation of the return of Jesus as King (the Parousia.) 

The dual focus of the season is perfectly captured in the word “Maranatha” (מרנאתא). This Aramaic word is a combination of two smaller units of meaning. “Mar” means “lord” and a form of the verb “ata,” which means “to come.”There has been some question as to what the proper segmentation of the compound word is—should it be understood to mean “maran atha,” (“Our Lord has come”) or “marana tha” (“Lord, Come!”)?

The Advent season would perhaps answer that both potential Maranatha meanings are necessary for a robust gospel understanding. The assurance of the gospel of Christ crucified is inseparable from the hope of the gospel of the kingdom. Jesus came to first-century Israel as a humble man, God incarnate, and bore the sins of many. He will come again in his glorious, resurrected frame to judge the living and the dead, establish an everlasting reign of righteousness, and put an end to this evil age.

This future kingdom is the hope we wait for with patience. God, in demonstrating his faithfulness to promises past, graciously assures us of keeping promises yet unfulfilled. Every step in salvation—from the covenants of Israel, to the Cross, to the Messianic Kingdom—makes known the manifold wisdom of God to the powers of heaven and confirms the commitment of the Lord to his people.[Ephesians 3:8-10] In light of this unimaginably glorious mandate to bear witness before heaven to the manifold wisdom of God and in the tension of living between two arrivals of Messiah.

-Devon Phillips

Being a man-pleaser is incompatible with godly leadership. (Gal. 1.10)

Being divisive and contentious is incompatible with godly leadership. (Rom. 16.17)

The only way to lead in a godly manner is to make it our aim to fear and please the Lord. (2 Cor. 5.9; 8.21) -BA Purtle

"I find God fading out of my life to the degree that prayer fades out. The fading out of God-consciousness is the greatest tragedy and loss that this generation has sustained. Prayer will rediscover it." - E. Stanley Jones

"I refuse to settle into a powerless life and an impotent Christianity when I have the fire of a billion suns and beyond burning deep within." —David Sliker

My teaching on the birth story of John the Baptist. Audio 1. Audio 2. 

I am content to wait till the judgment day for the clearing up of my reputation; and after I am dead I desire no other epitaph than this, “Here lies G.W. What sort of man he was, the great day will discover.”

-George Whitefield

Biblical eschatology is too rich to be reduced to "optimistic" or "pessimistic" categories. Scripture is clear:

1. The Church will be persecuted until Christ returns. 2. The Gospel will advance gloriously in every nation. Don't merely be optimistic or pessimistic. Be Biblical. -BA Purtle

Every single one of the early church writers who discussed the end times believed that the church would face the antiChrist. There is absolutely not a single early church writer who believed in a pre-tribulation rapture.

-Joel Richardson

The Olivet Discourse reference to the Coming of the Son of Man being like "lightening" flashing "from the east to the west" is actually a poor translation. Jesus is speaking of the light of the morning sun. Lightening doesn't shoot in any particular direction. The sunrise does.

The Coming of God shining like the morning sun is actually a very clear and common theme found throughout the Old Testament.

“The LORD will come from Sinai, and dawn on them from Seir; He will shine forth from Mount Paran, and He will come from the midst of ten thousand holy ones..." (Deuteronomy 33:2)

"God will come from Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran. His splendor will cover the heavens, the earth will be full of His praise. His radiance will be like the sunlight..." (Hab 3:3–4)

“Arise, shine; for your light has come. The glory of the LORD has risen upon you. For behold, darkness will cover the earth, deep darkness the peoples; but the LORD will rise upon you. His glory will appear upon you." (Isaiah 60:1–3)

Behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace. All the arrogant and evildoers will be chaff. The day coming will set them ablaze,” says the LORD... But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings..." (Mal 4:1–2)

Ἀστραπή: “Lightning,” also “beam of light” (Lk. 11:36) “Ἀστραπή,” ed. Gerhard Kittel, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1964–), 505.

-Joel Richardson

 

The only hope for our age is a great, marvelous outpouring of the Spirit of God. There is no other answer, there is no other way. You can’t cure the human heart. There’s nothing we can inject into man which is going to make him saintly. -Leonard Ravenhill

 

“In days to come Jacob shall take root, Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots and fill the whole world with fruit.” - Isaiah 27:6

As a powerful return to the scriptures, the Reformation should have meant a rediscovery of the biblical message of the kingdom. In fact, this is not true...

- BT Viviano, The Kingdom of God in History

“The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”

The apostle that denied being a follower of Jesus three times knows a thing or two about grace and mercy. -TJBSewob

 "The preaching of grace can only be protected by the preaching of repentance." —Bonhoeffer

If there was anything that characterized the life of the Apostle Paul it was fearlessness. He feared no men, he feared no devil. - Leonard Ravenhill

Jesus cannot simply be liked--you either must reject him utterly or crown Him King of your life. - Timothy Keller

God's power in Genesis 1 is in His ability to speak life-giving words that create light from darkness. The Serpent's power in Genesis 3 is in his ability to speak manipulative words that create chaos. The juxtaposition implies a question to the reader: who do you want to be like? -Travis M Snow

“The earliest Christology was already the highest Christology.” -Richard Bauckham

In the same way there is no individual salvation apart from the Messiah binding himself to a physical body with Jewish flesh, in the Age to Come there will be no restoration of the earth apart from the Messiah binding himself to the physical land promised to the Jewish patriarchs. -Travis M Snow

And in case you’ve forgotten, do you know what Jesus did for thirty years? Cut up bits of wood, got to the end of the day, brushed the sawdust off his legs and got the bits of wood out of his toes and went home. The Son of God did that for thirty years? - Leonard Ravenhill

In the Tanakh, Gentiles were enemies of Israel’s God and the covenant he made with them. The “unity” Paul fights for is a reversal of this enmity while still maintaining the unique roles of Jew and Gentile within Abraham’s family. Jews remain Jews, Gentiles remain Gentiles.

-Joshua Hawkins

 My teaching on Psalm 49. Notes. Audio1. Audio2

My chemistry teacher in high school often answered our questions with a single word: "February". When February came, we learned critical details that made sense of the questions we had asked.

I do the same thing to my students learning the Biblical storyline now. "Deuteronomy". -Joshua Hawkins

Some people say, “If you have a TV you’re a sinner,” or “if you don’t wear a tie you’re not sanctified”. When the Pharisees lost the anointing and the glory of God they put emphasis on external things, and some people’s idea of sanctification is always on external things. -Leonard Ravenhill