Monday, May 21, 2007
Monday, May 14, 2007
10 Suggestions for a Better Marriage
- Never consider divorce as an option (Gen. 2:18-24; Mat. 19:1-9).
- Learn to forgive & forget (Col. 3:13).
- Do not be hypercritical (Pro. 19:11; 1 Cor. 13:5, ASV).
- Learn to communicate (Jas. 1:19; Pro. 18:13).
- Keep outsiders outside (Mat. 5:28).
- Learn to trust (Pro. 19:20).
- Do not compare your mate to others (2 Cor. 10:12).
- Give positive reinforcement (Pro. 12:25).
- Pray for your marriage (Phi. 4:6).
- Center your marriage on the Bible (Psa. 119:105).
(Modified from an artice by Dan Flournoy)
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
God's Mercy Poured Out
"I want to extend my deepest, sincerest, and most profound sympathies to the families of these victims ..."
I am sure that all who read this will have read, heard, or even seen the tradegy of Virginia Tech on Monday, April 16 2007 and like me did so with affright, abhorrence and anathema. We extend, with Mr. Steger, not only our sympathies but our prayers rise to the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort (2 Cor. 1:3) and the Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all (Eph. 4:6) give you aid in this hour of need.
"Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast" (Psa. 57:1).
-- Virginia Tech President Charles W. Steger
I am sure that all who read this will have read, heard, or even seen the tradegy of Virginia Tech on Monday, April 16 2007 and like me did so with affright, abhorrence and anathema. We extend, with Mr. Steger, not only our sympathies but our prayers rise to the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort (2 Cor. 1:3) and the Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all (Eph. 4:6) give you aid in this hour of need.
~ rick (for the staff of Reflections)
"Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast" (Psa. 57:1).
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
The Prayer of a Righteous Woman Availeth Much
[Note: because of the questions and discussion on the former post, I thought that this article might serve to help in the area of prayer, providence and miracles ~rlp].
She was a godly woman as far as the scriptures say, and she was married to a godly man. But like her forebear, Sarai, she went for many years without bearing any children for her beloved Elkanah.
Some have recently called upon the story of Hannah as evidence or proof that God works supernatural deeds today. Never mind the fact that the events of 1 Samuel 1 occurred during the days that God admittedly worked through supernatural acts, are the events recorded about the conception and birth of Samuel examples of God's supernatural intervention in human affairs? Regarding most of the events detailed the answer to this question is no.
The story of Hannah should encourage every faithful child of God to fervently pray for God's blessings, but it does not teach that God always answers prayers supernaturally. In fact it teaches the opposite view: God's answers to prayers are usually (today always) answered by His working through the natural laws He ordained at the beginning of time.
Samuel records the events that led up to his birth in the first chapter of 1 Samuel. Hannah was one of Elkanah's two wives. The other wife, Peninnah, had no difficulty bearing children for her husband, but despite Elkanah's greater love for Hannah, she bore him none.
Samuel writes that "the Lord had shut up her womb" (1 Sam. 1:5). We do not know if this means that the Lord specifically caused Hannah to be barren, or (more likely) if it simply means that God allowed her to be so (cf. Job 2:3). Whatever the proper interpretation, however, there is no reason to assume that God employed supernatural power to cause her to be without child. The scriptures often describe things done by the Lord that must be accomplished through natural means (Acts 16:14).
During one of her annual pilgrimages to Shiloh to worship with her husband, Hannah bowed herself in fervent prayer to God that He might grant her request for a son. Eli, the high priest and judge over Israel at the time, at first thought she was drunken and rebuked her, but when he learned her true state of mind, he proclaimed, "Go in peace: and the God of Israel grant thee thy petition that thou hast asked of Him" (v. 17).
This grant gave Hannah peace after many long years of concern, so she was no longer sad. Though it would still be a little while before Samuel was conceived, and even longer before she had any physical evidence of that conception, she believed the words of Eli, and was comforted (v. 18).
Next we read that "Elkanah knew Hannah his wife; and the Lord remembered her" (v. 19). Then, just as Eli said, "when the time was come about after Hannah conceived," Samuel was born to the faithful woman who prayed a fervent prayer.
Now, just what events in this story give evidence of God working supernaturally? Must God work a miracle to answer her prayer?
As mentioned above there is no reason to believe that it was supernatural that Hannah's womb was closed for so many years. Many women have gone without the ability to have children, and there are commonly recognized natural reasons for such to occur.
Was Hannah's prayer endued with supernatural power? Surely not! The prayer she offered differed little from prayers we might hear ordinarily every day.
How about Samuel's conception; was it supernatural? Not according to the text—it occurred in the ordinary way when Elkanah and Hannah shared the marriage bed. But someone might say that in Hannah's case it must have been supernatural, because she had gone so long without the ability before. There are thousands of documented cases, however, where this occurs naturally today. There is no reason to assume a supernatural event, and since the presumption is always in favor of natural law, we should not assume anything other than that.
Was there anything supernatural about Samuel's gestation? Again the answer is no. Samuel was born "when the time was come about" just as every other healthy human child is born.
The only supernatural act that occurred in this story in as far as the record is concerned is the pronouncement of Eli that Hannah's prayer had been granted even before Samuel was conceived. How was it that Eli could know this? Only by the supernatural (miraculous) power of God that worked within him.
All of the other events occurred in complete conformity with nature's laws.
What does this mean fohe knowledge that God can and does work within the laws of nature to answer our prayers. "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man [… or woman] availeth much" (Jas. 5:16).
~ Gil Yoder http://www.letusreason.com/
She was a godly woman as far as the scriptures say, and she was married to a godly man. But like her forebear, Sarai, she went for many years without bearing any children for her beloved Elkanah.
Some have recently called upon the story of Hannah as evidence or proof that God works supernatural deeds today. Never mind the fact that the events of 1 Samuel 1 occurred during the days that God admittedly worked through supernatural acts, are the events recorded about the conception and birth of Samuel examples of God's supernatural intervention in human affairs? Regarding most of the events detailed the answer to this question is no.
The story of Hannah should encourage every faithful child of God to fervently pray for God's blessings, but it does not teach that God always answers prayers supernaturally. In fact it teaches the opposite view: God's answers to prayers are usually (today always) answered by His working through the natural laws He ordained at the beginning of time.
Samuel records the events that led up to his birth in the first chapter of 1 Samuel. Hannah was one of Elkanah's two wives. The other wife, Peninnah, had no difficulty bearing children for her husband, but despite Elkanah's greater love for Hannah, she bore him none.
Samuel writes that "the Lord had shut up her womb" (1 Sam. 1:5). We do not know if this means that the Lord specifically caused Hannah to be barren, or (more likely) if it simply means that God allowed her to be so (cf. Job 2:3). Whatever the proper interpretation, however, there is no reason to assume that God employed supernatural power to cause her to be without child. The scriptures often describe things done by the Lord that must be accomplished through natural means (Acts 16:14).
During one of her annual pilgrimages to Shiloh to worship with her husband, Hannah bowed herself in fervent prayer to God that He might grant her request for a son. Eli, the high priest and judge over Israel at the time, at first thought she was drunken and rebuked her, but when he learned her true state of mind, he proclaimed, "Go in peace: and the God of Israel grant thee thy petition that thou hast asked of Him" (v. 17).
This grant gave Hannah peace after many long years of concern, so she was no longer sad. Though it would still be a little while before Samuel was conceived, and even longer before she had any physical evidence of that conception, she believed the words of Eli, and was comforted (v. 18).
Next we read that "Elkanah knew Hannah his wife; and the Lord remembered her" (v. 19). Then, just as Eli said, "when the time was come about after Hannah conceived," Samuel was born to the faithful woman who prayed a fervent prayer.
Now, just what events in this story give evidence of God working supernaturally? Must God work a miracle to answer her prayer?
As mentioned above there is no reason to believe that it was supernatural that Hannah's womb was closed for so many years. Many women have gone without the ability to have children, and there are commonly recognized natural reasons for such to occur.
Was Hannah's prayer endued with supernatural power? Surely not! The prayer she offered differed little from prayers we might hear ordinarily every day.
How about Samuel's conception; was it supernatural? Not according to the text—it occurred in the ordinary way when Elkanah and Hannah shared the marriage bed. But someone might say that in Hannah's case it must have been supernatural, because she had gone so long without the ability before. There are thousands of documented cases, however, where this occurs naturally today. There is no reason to assume a supernatural event, and since the presumption is always in favor of natural law, we should not assume anything other than that.
Was there anything supernatural about Samuel's gestation? Again the answer is no. Samuel was born "when the time was come about" just as every other healthy human child is born.
The only supernatural act that occurred in this story in as far as the record is concerned is the pronouncement of Eli that Hannah's prayer had been granted even before Samuel was conceived. How was it that Eli could know this? Only by the supernatural (miraculous) power of God that worked within him.
All of the other events occurred in complete conformity with nature's laws.
What does this mean fohe knowledge that God can and does work within the laws of nature to answer our prayers. "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man [… or woman] availeth much" (Jas. 5:16).
~ Gil Yoder http://www.letusreason.com/
Thursday, November 02, 2006
Anvil Sparks
THE ANVIL AND THE HAMMERS
Last eve I paused beside the blacksmith's door,
And heard the anvil ring the vesper chime.
Then looking in, I saw on the floor,
Old hammers worn out with beating years of time.
"How many anvils have you had," said I,
"To wear and batter all these hammers so?"
"Just one," said he, and then with twinkling eye,
"The anvil wears the hammers out, you know."
"And so" I thought, "The anvil of God's word
for ages skeptic blows have beat upon;
Yet, though the noise of falling blows was heard,
The anvil is unharmed, the hammers gone."
John Clifford
A FEW ANVIL SPARKS
"It is hard to find a Scriptural way to do an unscriptural thing."
"Some one said to a church, 'Nothing is so small but that you can have trouble over it if you want to, and no trouble is so large but that it can be settled if you want to.'"
"If Absalom were living today, he would be in great demand, for he was a great mixer in the kingdom."
"In chruches, as in nations, peace at any price generally results in war at any cost."
Notes taken from Doctrinal Discourses by R.L. Whiteside
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