Another Lame Excuse

Assyrian tree of life
Egyptian tree of life
British Museum: King Ashurnasirpal worships at the tree of life
Vatican Obelisk and Christmas tree

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How To Begin The New Year

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   by William MacDonald "This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you .”" (Exodus 12:2) New Year’s resolutions are good but fragile, that is, easily broken. New Year’s prayers are better; they ascend to the throne of God and set answering wheels in motion. As we come to the beginning of another year, we would do well to make the following prayer requests our own: · Lord Jesus, I rededicate myself afresh to You today. I want you to take my life this coming year and use it for Your glory. “Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee.” · I pray that You will keep me from sin, from anything that will bring dishonor to Your Name. · Keep me teachable by the Holy Spirit. I want to move forward for You. Don’t let me settle in a rut. · May my motto this year be, “He must increase; I must decrease.” The glory must all be Yours. Help me not to touch it. · Teach me to make every decision a matter of prayer...
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Marks of Love to Christ

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J. C. Ryle (1816-1900) Let me show the peculiar marks by which love to Christ makes itself known. The point is one of vast importance. If there is no salvation without love to Christ, if he that does not love Christ is in peril of eternal condemnation, it becomes us all to find out very distinctly what we know about this matter. Christ is in heaven, and we are upon earth. In what way shall the man be discerned that loves Him? Happily, the point is one that it is not very hard to settle. How do we know whether we love any person here upon earth? In what way and manner does love show itself between people in this world—between husband and wife, between parent and child, between brother and sister, between friend and friend? Let these questions be answered by common sense and observation, and I ask no more. Let these questions be honestly answered, and the knot before us is untied. How does affection show itself among us? (a) If we love a person, we like to think about him . We do n...
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The Christian and Politics

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“No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.”    2 Timothy 2:4 You would think that after reading a verse like that, no further commentary would be necessary concerning politics or many other matters.  However, in light of increasing involvement of professing Christians in politics it has become necessary to expound more specifically this and other texts related to our subject.       First of all, every true Christian is a soldier and servant of the Lord, and like it or not, is engaged in warfare.  And one reason why so many don’t even show up in the fight, or wage an ineffective spiritual warfare, being unable to “fight the good fight of faith,” is their entanglements.  This world system, (gr. kosmos), organized and headed by the devil, dedicated to the purpose of keeping men happy without God, dangles before Christians various lures of entanglement. Politi...
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