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Posts Tagged ‘bible’

God Sent Forth His Son … (December 2025 Update) 

In Galatians 4:4-6, Paul gives us a summary of the Christmas story: “In the fulness of time, God sent forth His son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His son into your hearts, crying ‘Abba, Father.’” When we think of Christmas, we often turn to familiar stories surrounding the birth of Jesus. But here, Paul reminds us that Christmas is more than just a “babe in a manger.”   

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Thankful Hearts … (November 2025 Update)

We watch a lot of old movies in our family. Since we are studying about the time just before World War I in homeschool, we watched one of my all-time favorites: Fiddler on the Roof. This movie is actually based on a series of stories called “Tevye the Milkman” by a Jewish Ukrainian author, Sholem Aleichem. We love all the songs, especially “L’Chaim” (“To Life”). One verse in the song sums up the biblical attitude that we should have toward thankfulness. Tevye sings: “God would like us to be joyful even when our hearts lie panting on the floor; How much more can we be joyful, when there’s really something to be joyful for.” 

As believers, we have so much to be thankful for – even when things are not going well. In his book, The Godly Man’s Picture Drawn with a Scripture Pencil, Thomas Watson says, 

Praise and thanksgiving is the work of heaven and he [the godly man] begins that work here which he will always be doing in heaven. The Jews have a saying – the world subsists by three things: the law, the worship of God and thankfulness. As if where thankfulness was missing, one of the pillars of the world had been taken away and it was ready to fall.

The psalmist says, “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so” (Psalm 107:2) and “it is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord” (Psalm 92:1). As we approach this Thanksgiving holiday, it is good for us to think biblically about our thankfulness. Here are some thoughts from Thomas Watson about thankfulness that may help us to have truly thankful hearts, “even when our hearts lie panting on the floor.”

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Special Revelation, Part 1 … (October 2025 Update) 

When a preschool Sunday School teacher told her students to draw a picture of love, all the children excitedly went to work with their pencils and crayons. Some drew pictures of their parents with them. Others drew pictures of their favorite pets. One boy had a wildly abstract blur of colors. When the teacher asked Johnny what he had drawn, he replied, “It’s God.” The teacher said, “But the Bible says that no one has ever seen God.” Johnny replied, “They have now!” 

Throughout the history of mankind, many people have painted many pictures of God. Some “gods” have been in the image of animals. Others painted God as volcanoes or mountain tops. Still others made God as majestic humans. If we painted our pictures of God, we would probably all come up with different images. But would any of these pictures be accurate? How would you know which picture was really God? The only way we could know would be if God revealed Himself to us. That’s why we need special revelation.  

Over the last few months, we have examined General Revelation. If you remember, general revelation focuses primarily on the Creation and upon the Conscience of Man.  It is general because it comes to all men in general and because it only gives us a very general picture of God rather than any specific instructions.  The content of this revelation is general. It is helpful in showing us that God exists. But the content is general. We know there is a God, but general revelation tells us very little specifically about this God and about what this God specifically desires from us. That’s why we need Special Revelation.  

Without special revelation, general revelation might lead us to worship certain animals as God or to decide that this God wants us to sacrifice our children to the volcano to satisfy his wrath. Without special revelation, how could one even say that those pictures of God are wrong? But in Special Revelation, God Himself reveals Himself to us. That’s why Special Revelation is so essential. Without it, we are left “in the dark” to paint our own pictures of who God is and what God wants! 

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The Heavens Declare, Part 3 … (September 2025 Update) 

Over the last 3 updates, we have been looking at General Revelation. We have seen that there are two main ways we can learn about God. The first, is through what is called General Revelation. The other is called Special Revelation. Special revelation is primarily through God’s Word. General Revelation is primarily through creation.  But there are also other ways that God provides “general revelation” for everyone. 

Technically, there are two main Loci or locations where we can see General Revelation. We can divide these into two areas. The first group of locations is External – what we can see outside of ourselves. The second group is Internal – what we can observe from looking at human nature itself, that is, what we can see inside of ourselves. 

The external locations of General Revelation include Creation, History and Anthropology. In Creation, we can look at the cosmos and know many things about the existence of God. We saw this in Psalm 19 that we looked at last month. In History, we can see how God has been at work in history. This is especially true when we are looking at prophecy. In Anthropology, we can see that all cultures everywhere have some belief in the existence of God. 

The Internal locations of General Revelation are seen when we look at humanity and human nature itself. First, we can see that everyone has a Conscience as Paul points out in Romans 2:11-15. Secondly, we can look at aspects of Human Nature. Since man is created in the image and likeness of God, we can see how man is different from the animals, and this gives us clues to some of the attributes and nature of God. For example, when we see the Moral nature of man, we can conclude that the one who created humans must be moral also. This is an internal aspect of General Revelation. 

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The Heavens Declare, Part 2 … (August 2025 Update) 

How can we know about God? Theologians tell us that there are two main ways we can learn about God. The first, is through General Revelation. The other is called Special Revelation. When we talk about God’s revelation, we say that God has revealed Himself in two ways – through General Revelation and through Special Revelation. General Revelation is primarily through creation. Special revelation is primarily through God’s Word. We will focus on special revelation another time. But, for now, let’s compare and contrast these two ways God reveals Himself. 

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