The Faith of Elijah and the Widow

1 Kings chapter 17 illustrates some things about God’s character and his promise of provision, and our role in receiving from him. It is the story of the prophet Elijah and a widow in Zarephath.

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Confession: Uprooting vs Burying Sin

Pretending like temptation doesn’t exist in order to avoid engaging it just makes it harder to resist and it just makes you miserable, but calling it out directly and acknowledging it really changes things. Confession can be a form of therapy.

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What is the context of “Binding and Loosing”?

Some have taught that Jesus said that Christians are supposed to bind and loose things on earth and in heaven. Especially financial power, praying for political victories, and demons. This teaching is based on Matt 16:19 and Matt 18:18. What does this mean and more importantly what does it mean in context?

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Et (Aleph Tau) in Genesis 1:1

Some people have taught that there are 7 words in the Hebrew version of Gen 1:1 and the word “Et” is a special word that points to Jesus. “Et” is spelled with “את” (aleph and tau) the first and last letter of the Hebrew alphabet. They say this word is untranslated because the Jews forgot the meaning, and that it points to Jesus because says he is the “alpha and omega” in Revelations 1:8 which references the first and last letter of the Greek alphabet. This gets connected to John 1:1 which says “In the beginning was the Word [Jesus], and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” It sounds so romantic but this is not true.

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God’s Protection Promise

There is a lot of fear-mongering going around. How are Christians supposed to react to things that are out of their control? If the food supply is poisoned or if mass inflation is happening, can Christians count on God?

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What is Testing God?

What does it mean to test God? In Matt 4:5-7 when Satan is tempting Jesus he tells Jesus to jump off of the Temple and says that God should protect him. Then Satan quotes Psalms 91:11-12, which says, “It is written: ‘He will order his angels to protect you. And they will hold you up with their hands so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.’” Jesus responds in verse 7 by saying, “It is also written: ‘You must not test the Lord your God.”

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God’s Image is Not God’s Likeness

Gen 1:26-27 says that all of humanity from the beginning was made in the image and likeness of God. We are all made in the image of God, but our likeness has changed because of the failure of humanity to keep God’s commands (Gen 3:1-24). God’s solution to make us like him again, is to pour out his spirit on us and give us a new spirit/heart that will make us like him again. It’s the holy spirit that was promised to circumcise our hearts (Deut 30:6, Jer 4:4, Ez 36:25-27, Joel 2:28-32, Acts 2:16-21, Rom 2:29, and Col 2:11) and give us the power to overcome sin nature so that we could accomplish the task of keeping God’s commands so that we can be his likeness.

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The Context of Supernatural In The Bible Pt.1

This essay is part one of a two-part series responding to a meme. The meme in question suggests that since supernatural and ritualistic elements are in the bible, magic and witchcraft can’t be sinful and that the bible is contradictory. Part 2–>

This image is an attempt to gaslight Christians by referencing things in the bible that are found in religious practices from various cultures, in order to say it is hypocritical for bible believers not to be syncretic and open with their beliefs.

God was completely against people using gemstones as charms because it was deceptive. Deuteronomy 18:9-12 makes it clear that God was against, fortune-telling, sorcery, looking for omens, witchcraft, casting spells, or functioning as mediums or psychics calling forth the spirits of the dead. In Ezekiel 13:18-21 God curses those who use these things to deceive his people. Revelation 21:8 and 22:14-15 both have a list of sins that will prohibit people from inheriting the kingdom and among them are sorcery, witchcraft, and such. Most of the other things listed are completely out of context or the result of bad denominational theology.

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