Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘God’

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.”   

(more…)

Read Full Post »

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.”

(more…)

Read Full Post »

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. 

(more…)

Read Full Post »

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. 

(more…)

Read Full Post »

The Heavens Declare … (July 2025 Update) 

One of the ways we can know about God is through what is called General Revelation. The other way is through Special Revelation which is the Bible.  Through Special Revelation, God specifically reveals His will for us. General Revelation can tell us about the existence of God, but it cannot tell us what that God requires of us. General Revelation shows us that all that exists has come from the hand of a creative God. But General Revelation cannot tell us if that God condemns murder and adultery. That’s why we need Special Revelation. That’s why the Bible is so important! 

But General Revelation is also important. General Revelation is how God reveals Himself to us through creation and through our consciences. But the primary way we know about the existence of God is through creation. That’s why the psalmist puts it this way: “the heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hand. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech; they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world (Psalm 19:1-4). 

(more…)

Read Full Post »

Older Posts »