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When a Captive Church is set free, what can it do? Better yet, what will it do?

My previous post was about Biblical Cyrus' mandate to judge ancient Babylon and I considered the parallel with Trump's role in doing the same thing to our modern-day Babylonian system. Cyrus had another role to play which was to set God's people free from the captivity they were in. That is what this post is about. What does it mean that the Church is being set free? What should we be doing if in fact a modern-day Cyrus is being used by God to free us from things that have had us captive? That have been holding us back? So, let us get back to our Biblical character of Cyrus. Imagine we are in the 6th century BC and God's people have been under judgment during their 70 years of Babylonian captivity. For all those decades, faithful Jews within Babylon were crying out to Yahweh for deliverance AND for God to judge the very ones who God was using to judge them. And then the deliverer came. Cyrus the PAGAN Persian emperor basically took over the entire Middle East and beyond

The HUMILIATION of Babylon - a modern fulfillment of Isaiah 47

To review a key chapter in Biblical History, God's people came under judgment in 586 BC when the southern Kingdom was conquered by the Babylonians and they were taken into captivity in Babylon for 70 years as was prophesied. Also prophesied was that one day they would be freed from their captivity and allowed to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the Jewish Temple. A great story - faith-filled, inspiring and yet sobering. Disobedience leads to judgment. And God ultimately delivered His people. God has never changed and "everything that was written in the past was written to teach us" ( Romans 15:4 ). An aspect of the story however that only recently seems to have been re-considered is that God raised up a PAGAN king, King Cyrus, to judge the PAGAN Babylonians. While God judged His people for their disobedience of His commandments, He also judgment upon the pagan "tool", the Babylonians, that He used to first judge the People of God. Cyrus is mentioned in several pas

Pharisaical Tendencies - I might be a Pharisee if...

Recently I gave a message entitled "Confessions of a Modern-Day Pharisee". I believe that the reason over 20% of the Gospel of Matthew involves the Pharisees (and other Jewish religious leaders) is because we would struggle with our own "Pharisaical Tendencies". God knew we would struggle with the same things Jesus confronted them about. I know I do.  I came up with a Pharisee version of Tim Hawkin's "You Might be a Redneck if..."  I MIGHT BE A PHARISEE IF... …IF I AM THE SELF-APPOINTED CORRECTOR OF EVERYONE ELSE'S DOCTRINE   IF I THINK THAT THE " SPEAK THE TRUTH " PART OF "SPEAK THE TRUTH IN LOVE"  IS THE "KEY" TO THAT VERSE…   …IF ONE OF MY FAVORITE VERSES IS "THE SPIRITUAL MAN JUDGES ALL THINGS" (1 Cor. 2:15)   IF PRAYING THE IMPRECATORY PSALMS MAKES ME OUTRAGEOUSLY HAPPY…   …IF I THINK THE “GIFT OF DISCERNMENT” MEANS KNOWING WHAT IS WRONG IN EVERYBODY ELSE'S LIFE   IF I AM SITTING HERE THINKING ABO

God's Will and Suffering

This past week as we are teaching through the Epistle of First Peter  we came across what I believe to be one of the most challenging verses for modern Western Christians because somehow we have been taught and believed that we can somehow live a Christian life that won't include suffering. And I know many Christians that when suffering came into their lives, that teaching/belief, led to the shipwreck of their faith ( 1 Timothy 1:19 ). Some of that has been the result of being Christians in the Western First World (be that North America, Western Europe and/or Australia/New Zealand). We haven't faced a lot of the suffering that is far more common in other parts of the world. As to those that TEACH this idea, that has come from a radical misunderstanding of God's covenants, taking promises out of the Old Testament that were EXCLUSIVELY and ONLY for Israel as a NATION under the Mosaic Covenant (i.e. Deuteronomy 28:1-14 ). This is a false teaching and tragically has destroyed t

Sometimes a meme says it all

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The Gospel must be in BOTH Word & Spirit

I just attended a conference with some of the world's leading apologists and polemicists in the area of Muslim Evangelism. The material presented was incredible, persuasive and intellectual. I was attending with a friend who himself is a former Muslim. What was sadly lacking however was an emphasis on presenting Muslims the Gospel along with the power of God.  It isn't that the those who were presenting didn't believe in the miraculous, as I am sure all of them know how critical things like visions, dreams and other miraculous demonstrations of God's power are in the bringing Muslims to Christ. The stories of such things are impossible to deny.  However, most of the people at this particular conference would probably relegate such things to God's initiative exclusively and minimize the ways evangelists can be learning and growing in ministries that are more supernatural in nature.  This is the tragic oversight. We can and do grow in ministering in divine healing. Th

Abortion and the Covid Vaccines (further evidence)

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