Μαθθαῖος φιλοσοφία
Based on an actual conversation.
Based on an actual conversation.
What you fail to notice may be dangerous. The Christian life isn't meant to be one of solitude.
Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. (James 4:14) Daniel chapter 10.
Every elder looks at the young and shakes their head. Every youngster looks at the elderly and shakes their head. Few look at themselves and shake their head.
"Every year, every citizen of Smyrna had to burn incense to Caesar. There was as great altar there – Caesar’s altar – and you had to go every year and burn incents to Caesar, and receive then a certificate that you had done that. Without a certificate, you would be persecuted because you were violating the highest law in Smyrna. To be without a certificate, as must have been the case for Christians who would not say Caesar is Lord, but only Jesus is Lord, was to risk discovery and death." Though this poem isn't about the Revelation church of Smyrna, this excerpt from John MacArthur serves as a reference point for this poem.
Normalness in the Christian life is often bitter, often sweet. Failure and success often hinge on motivation.
"He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved." — Ephesians 1:5-6
Bitter age gives way to glory, but we live in this present bitter age and it has tainted me, and probably you too.
How close would you want to get to understanding the full depravity of the son of destruction? This is as close as I dared go.
— 1 Corinthians 3:12-15 "Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire."