By Bob Flynn on
7/30/2009 7:07 AM
He who has not spared his own son, etc. As it greatly concerns us to be so thoroughly persuaded of the paternal love of God, as to be able to retain our rejoicing on its account, Paul brings forward the price of our redemption in order to prove that God favors us: and doubtless it is a remarkable and clear evidence of inappreciable love, that the Father refused not to bestow his Son for our salvation. And so Paul draws an argument from the greater to the less, that as he had nothing dearer, or more precious, or more excellent than his Son, he will neglect nothing of what he foresees will be profitable to us. (John Calvin)
|
By Bob Flynn on
7/29/2009 6:19 AM
The subject discussed having been sufficiently proved, he now breaks out into exclamations, by which he sets forth the magnanimity with which the faithful ought to be furnished when adversities urge them to despond. (John Calvin)
|
By Bob Flynn on
7/28/2009 6:17 AM
So we keep on praying for you, asking our God to enable you to live a life worthy of his call. (2 Th 1:11 NLT)
Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God. (Eph 4:1 NLT)
|
By Bob Flynn on
7/27/2009 6:26 AM
He then shows, by the very order of election, that the afflictions of the faithful are nothing else than the manner by which they are conformed to the image of Christ; and that this was necessary, he had before declared. There is therefore no reason for us to be grieved, or to think it hard and grievous, that we are afflicted, unless we disapprove of the Lord’s election, by which we have been foreordained to life, and unless we are unwilling to bear the image of the Son of God, by which we are to be prepared for celestial glory. (John Calvin)
|
By Born4Battle on
7/27/2009 3:46 AM
Do you catch some flak because you are a Christian? Do other folks seem uncomfortable around you because you'd rather discuss spiritual matters than the latest 'reality' show? Feel like you're stuck in your career because of your faith?
|
By Bob Flynn on
7/26/2009 8:52 AM
This promise is not for everyone, only for those who love God and have answered his call. But for these it is an all-inclusive promise, covering the good and the bad, the bright and the dark, the sweet and the bitter, the easy and the hard, the happy and the sad. The promise can be depended on in prosperity and poverty, in health and sickness, in calm and storm, in life and in death.
Willmington, H. L. (1997). Willmington's Bible handbook (671). Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers.
|
By Bob Flynn on
7/25/2009 5:53 AM
This is a remarkable reason for strengthening our confidence, that we are heard by God when we pray through his Spirit, for he thoroughly knows our desires, even as the thoughts of his own Spirit. (John Calvin)
|
By Bob Flynn on
7/21/2009 6:25 AM
There is no reason why we should faint under the burden of afflictions, seeing that prayers minister to us a most sure help: which cannot be frustrated, seeing that they proceed from the Spirit of God who dwells in us. (Geneva Bible Translation Notes)
|
By Bob Flynn on
7/20/2009 6:04 AM
Whether it be the hour of death, or the second coming of Christ, or the resurrection of the dead, and eternal glory; all which are unseen by us, and to be hoped for… (Dr. John Gill)
|
By Dan Cartwright on
7/16/2009 5:27 PM
"Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth (wanders), and one convert him (brings him back); Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins." James 5:19-20 (KJV, emphasis mine)
|
By Dan Cartwright on
7/15/2009 4:58 AM
How often do you take out the household garbage, especially the sort in the kitchen that usually holds a lot of stuff that stinks? As for me, for the non-stinky stuff like old papers in the downstairs office, the trip to "Big Blue" occurs when the trash can is full. For kitchen garbage, it can be when 1) it's full or 2) when it gets too smelly. For some of us, the second instance is directly proportional to the keenness of our olfactory nerves.
|
By Bob Flynn on
7/13/2009 7:26 AM
By hope (τῇ ἐλπίδι) Better in hope. We are saved by faith. See on 1Peter 1:3. Hope - not hope. Here the word is used of the object of hope. See Colossians 1:5; 1Timothy 1:1; Hebrews 6:18.
1Pe 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he gave us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, (NET)
Col 1:5 Your faith and love have arisen from the hope laid up for you in heaven, which you have heard about in the message of truth, the gospel (NET)
1Ti 1:1 From Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope, (NET)
Heb 6:18 so that we who have found refuge in him may find strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us through two unchangeable things, since it is impossible for God to lie. (NET)
|
By Bob Flynn on
7/10/2009 6:03 AM
The world is one where beauty fades and loveliness decays; it is a dying world; but it is waiting for its liberation from all this and the coming of the state of glory. (William Barclay)
|
By Bob Flynn on
7/6/2009 6:07 PM
For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now — If for man’s sake alone the earth was cursed, it cannot surprise us that it should share in his recovery. (A Commentary on the Old and New Testaments by Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown)
|
By Bob Flynn on
7/5/2009 2:05 PM
We sometimes fail to see the fragility of life. One minute man or beast draws breath and has life while the next the enemy called death casts a vale over what was one bright and beautiful.
|
By Bob Flynn on
7/2/2009 10:00 PM
The creation itself (autē hē ktisis). It is the hope of creation, not of the Creator. Nature “possesses in the feeling of her unmerited suffering a sort of presentiment of her future deliverance” (Godet). (WORD PICTURES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT by Archibald Thomas Robertson)
|