I’d like to share a story with you about compassion or rather the lack there of. This is a true tale with a twist. It’s an experience where it turns out the person you thought you knew so well turns out to be completely different. Revelations come to light and your whole world changes. It’s about compassions lost.
After all these years of giving exhortations I’ve finally come up with a good one. Well, really, the only reason it is a good one is because it is full of good Greek words like euodia, eusebia, eulogeo and eucharisteo. You’ll notice that all these words start with the sound “yoo”, the letters “eu”. The Greek language has several of these prefixes that when added to a normal word change it, amplify it and give it a deeper meaning. Adding the letters “eu” to the front of a word gives the added meaning of being “good” or “well”.
Christadelphians have been using the word “ecclesia” in place of church for a long time and for good reasons. It is a special word with a lot of meaning for us, yet I wonder if it is becoming too commonplace. We get used to a word and it can lose its vitality. How do you look at your ecclesia?
In Hebrews 12:18-24 the writer compares the ecclesia to the children of Israel before mount Sinai.
I’ll admit that I’m an introvert. Somebody who’d rather be alone. Completing some task by myself. I enjoy being that way but at other times I wish I was more of an extrovert. Somebody who is naturally friendly and needs companions. To be that someone who people feel comfortable to confide in and get advice. Therefore, in the mold of a typical introvert, I found it interesting to read on the subject of friendship.
Prayer is a very powerful thing in the hands of a righteous man. It can change events. God will listen to a request and grant it if the person is righteous. James says in chapter 5:16,
"Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."
or as the RSV says,
“The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects.”
Are you a Millennial? (Maybe you’re asking yourself, “What is a Millennial?”) If you were born somewhere between 1980 and 2000 you are classified as part of the Millennial generation (a.k.a. Generation Y). You’ve grown up in a very different time and place then your parents and it has shaped the qualities and personality of you and your peers. It happens to every generation. Every generation has its own characteristics.
In Romans 10:13, Paul tells us that, "whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." At first glance this might seem like an easy thing to do so that we might be saved. Some might mistake it to mean that this is all we need to do to be saved. It makes it sound like such a trivial venture. But the aspect of calling upon the name of the Lord is a phrase loaded with powerful and weighty implications for us. It is not a trivial thing and we must seriously consider what it means in a Biblical context.
"Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof; When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?" (Job 38:4-7)
During the ministry of Christ, he directly quotes Hosea 6:6 not once but twice. “I will have mercy, and not sacrifice.” Quoting a verse more than once is rare for Jesus. He must be putting emphasis on this verse as a key to what God had sent him to do. It is a passage that strikes at the nub of the problem with the Pharisees way of thinking. In typically fashion, Christ provides a short succinct passage expecting the hearer to go search out its fuller meaning. The first instance is in Matthew 9:9-13,
Up to this point, we have looked at practical considerations of Hosea’s marriage to Gomer and his preaching in different parts of the country. We will now turn our attention to the prophetical aspects of Hosea that really point forward to the Lord Jesus Christ. There are four places in the New Testament where Hosea is quoted directly.
