Seven Letters to Seven Churches: Thyatira
on Nov 20, 2009 in 1 Kings 2 Kings Galatians Hosea John Matthew Psalms Revelation Titus bronze dark ages faith gregory I gregory vii hildebrand jezebel judgment love millennium perseverance purgatory repentance romanism Satan service thyatira This entry is part 5 of 5 in the series Seven Letters to Seven ChurchesWe previously looked at Jesus' third letter he wrote to the church at Pergamum, "the pagan church." Pergamum resumed the theme of the first letter to Ephesus, with both words of c...

Seven Letters to Seven Churches: Pergamum
on Nov 18, 2009 in 2 Peter Ephesians Hebrews John Jude Numbers Revelation Romans balaam balak covetousness manna pagan pergamum Satan sword This entry is part 4 of 5 in the series Seven Letters to Seven ChurchesThe martyred church of Smyrna was the last letter we studied. Like Ephesus, Smyrna was one of the better churches. Smyrna, however, did not receive any word of condemnation. Jesus...

Seven Letters to Seven Churches: Smyrna
on Nov 16, 2009 in Matthew Revelation hope martyr myrrh Persecution smyrna suffering trials This entry is part 3 of 3 in the series Seven Letters to Seven ChurchesJesus' first letter was written to the apostolic church of Ephesus. That church had a word of commendation from Jesus as well as a word of condemnation. Although the church wasn't...

Seven Letters to Seven Churches: Ephesus
on Nov 13, 2009 in Genesis Revelation ephesus love Marriage nicolaitans perseverance repentance tree of life This entry is part 2 of 2 in the series Seven Letters to Seven ChurchesLast time, we talked about how each of the seven letters in Revelation presents a panoramic view of church history. Today we will study the first of Jesus' letters: the letter to...

Seven Letters to Seven Churches: Introduction
on Nov 11, 2009 in Matthew Revelation angels ephesus lampstand laodicea light pastors pergamum philadelphia sardis smyrna stars thyatira This entry is part 1 of 2 in the series Seven Letters to Seven ChurchesThe book of Revelation has earned a reputation for being difficult to understand. This is partly due to the symbolic language used and the fierce visions it conjures up. We're sta...

Taking Up Your Cross
on Nov 9, 2009 in Christian Living Mark cross Persecution sacrifice salvation suffering And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me." --Mark 8:34. It's unfortunate that these passages in Mark seem to be overlooked and downpl...

Friday Friends Open Thread
on Nov 6, 2009 in Announcements illness twitter For the last couple of days, I've been suffering from either a flu bug or food poisoning. I think it's the former. Praise God I'm finally starting to feel better. My head was pounding so much because I couldn't keep anything down for two days. As a r...

Afflicted and in Pain
on Nov 4, 2009 in Encouragement Hosea Matthew Psalms faith hope joel osteen suffering trials work It's been a tough week and it's only Wednesday. My wife and I have both spent some time this week in our local "governmental offices" and neither of us have enjoyed the experience. Quite to the contrary, we both have walked out in tears. But I have...

Jesus Won’t Let You Go
on Nov 2, 2009 in Ephesians John faith grace predestination salvation Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one [...

We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties
on Oct 31, 2009 in Announcements organize series Folks, UPDATE 11/01/09 @ 5:00 p.m. PST: All is well! With Darren's help and a member of his support forums, it was a simple fix. Again, if you have a WordPress blog and need a plugin to manage series posts, then Organize Series is for you. Plus Darre...