Engaging and Encouraging You
16 “Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.”(ESV)
Esther 4:16
The Bible is not sex or pleasure negative. And you see that in Proverbs 2. And so, you can't really look at this issue of sexual sin without thinking about the theology of pleasure in Scripture. It's not necessarily godly to deny pleasure because God, in His wisdom, created a gloriously pleasurable world for us.
Well, if you are reading the Proverbs and you don't leave understanding the seriousness of sexual sin, you just haven't been paying attention. It’s one of the cardinal themes of this book. In fact, the way Proverbs deals with sex is one of the things Proverbs is known for, and there's a level of seriousness that is so important in this generation that we’re in.
Remove and replace means to remove and dispose of an existing item or building component and to provide and install a new item or building component in its place.
One of the principles of Christian growth is called the “put off and put on” principle (see Eph. 4:22–24). Behind the principle lies the fact that there are always sinful attitudes and actions we need to put off, and there are always positive traits of righteousness we need to put on more firmly.
When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.
Growing in love is a very conscious choice. It’s like you’ve taken a boiling pot and let it simmer. There is a constancy to growing in love that falling in love can’t give you. The lid isn’t ready to blow off every few minutes because you’ve taken all that power and learned how to concentrate it in order to create something with the power to last without burning itself up.
The New Testament word for gift (charisma) has often been translated as grace. All God’s gifts reflect His grace, and the fact that they are gifts means that they are free and cannot be earned. The New Testament’s theology of grace is rooted in the Old Testament idea of God’s favor, which is shown to those who do not deserve it and cannot help themselves.
Today, many Christians are turning back to the puritans to, “walk in the old paths,” of God’s word, and to continue to proclaim old truth that glorifies Jesus Christ. There is no new theology. In our electronic age, more and more people are looking to add electronic books to their library – books from the Reformers and Puritans – in order to become a “digital puritan” themselves.
Jesus answered: "Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, `I am the Christ, ' and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.
