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“He who observes the wind will not sow; and he who regards the clouds will not reap.”—Ecclesiastes 11:4
What does the Preacher mean by these words? That watching the wind is wrong? That considering the clouds is a highly impractical activity when carried to excess? Certainly a good farmer keeps his weather eye open even as he sows and reaps.
Scripture repeatedly commands us to look, to watch. Observation and evaluation are essential—especially when winds are icy and clouds ominous. But if our careful analyses lead us to inaction, we underestimate the God who makes clouds His chariot, winds His …
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Now I want you to take special notice of the words written in Jeremiah 36:17, “Ah Lord God! Behold, Thou has made the heaven and the earth by Thy great power and stretched-out arm, and there is nothing too hard for Thee.”
I think the Lord was pleased with this prayer of Jeremiah, for He responds to him in the twenty-seventh verse, “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh: is there anything too hard for Me?” God likes to have His people believe that there is nothing too hard for Him. We talk about Frederick the Great, …
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God’s holiness is unmatched. He responds to sin not only with grace, but also with holy judgment. When we observe the nature of sin and punishment in the Old Testament, the prophets record that God treats sin harshly. Sin affects more than merely the perpetrator, it spills over into the community, especially the family. Thus, God speaks of visiting and punishing sins to the third and fourth generation (Exodus 20:5, Numbers 14:18, Lamentations 5:7). Achan and his family’s punishment is one extraordinary example of God’s tenacity for purity, but it should not be considered as a normal response (Joshua 7). …
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Throughout the world, many have described personal visions and near-death experiences, including conversations with Jesus, meetings with deceased loved ones, and even tours of heaven or hell. Such experiences are possible, but subject to deception and wishful delusions.
God did utilize visions in the Old Testament (Genesis 46:2; Numbers 12:6, 24:16; Psalm 89:19; Daniel 7:1-15; Isaiah 6:1-8), and the New Testament is abundant with examples as well (Acts 11:5, 16:9, 18:9; 2 Corinthians 12:1-4). The prophet Joel even speaks of the expanding frequency of visions in relation to the Day of the Lord (Joel 2:28-32). But visions were not to …
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Osama bin Laden is dead, but...
Yes, we all were relieved to learn Osama bin Laden was killed by US forces. We all remember the video of him laughing about how the September 11, 2001 attacks went even better than planned. He took delight in all of the evils he planned and perpetuated.
But are we really “winning the war on radical Islam?” Just because we have not had a successful terrorist attack since 9/11, does not mean we have nothing to fear from the incursion of Islam into our country.
Andrew McCarthy, former Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney—a man certainly …
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“For that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first.” —2 Thessalonians 2:3
There are also four or five verses in the eighth chapter of Jeremiah that I want to use as a backbone of the things I wish to say to you. I want to show how we “lose out”; how we “fall away.”
I want to talk very tenderly—as tenderly as I know how, by the power of the Holy Spirit, about the grave danger that is surrounding your life—the danger in the day in which we live of your losing the rich things of …
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“Thus saith Jehovah, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.”—Jeremiah 6:16
Periodically it does us good to look back, to remind ourselves of the mighty movings of God in the past, but we must not remain there. We must in some way under God relate what has happened in the past to that which can and must occur in the present if we are to know the touch of God upon us.
It seems to me that there …
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A Sermon Preached by Dr. Herbert Lockyer at The Moody Church in 1939
In the book of the prophet Jeremiah, chapter 18, we have the incomparable record of the potter and the clay. “The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again another …
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Sin brings conflict. Soon after Adam and Eve sinned, we have the account of Cain’s murderous behavior toward Abel. Without the presence of sin and evil, war and conflict would be foreign to us, as they will one day be when we enter the new heaven and the new earth (Revelation 21:4). That being said, should Christians ever be involved in a war in which the enemy is being mercilessly killed?
That God commanded the Israelites to go to war to kill their enemies is clear enough, but does this justify present-day believers to fight for their country? Are we …
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The subject of trust, or rather lack of trust, is in the headlines these days. I’m writing at a time when new allegations of sexual abuse by priests are being reported every day. Hundreds of people are coming forward to say that someone they trusted — indeed, someone who supposedly represented the highest degree of integrity — deceived them.
We’ve all heard of the Enron debacle. We are told that when the wealthy knew the ship was sinking, they bailed out on well-endowed life rafts and left the common investor to float on the open sea. One retiree said that …
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