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Showing posts from April, 2019

Darnel

Since I've moved to S's church, I've been reading D.James Kennedy's Evangelism Explosion for their evangelistic training class. In his book, he provided an explanation of the parable of the wheat and tares that is extremely epiphanic. He wrote: "The church in this world is always a mixed multitude of believers and unbelievers. In the parable of the wheat and tares, Jesus indicated that this condition would continue to the end of time. In the world to come, at the judgment, the distinction will be made. It is interesting that Jesus draws a contrast between wheat and darnel. The darnel looked exactly like a wheat through all stages of growth until the time of harvest. Then it had no "fruit". Perhaps there is the implication here that those who do not bear fruit are not true believers." I really am no agricultural expert and perhaps listening to this parable in a non-agrarian society means we are unable to appreciate the comparison. This has happ...

Sinking in the Mud (Jeremiah 38)

I was reminded just a week ago that Scripture contains "golden nuggets" if we would spend the time to look into the details. Here is one discovered just today - Jeremiah being thrown into the cistern. Background: Jerusalem on the verge of being invaded by Babylon. Jeremiah preaches to King Zedekiah to surrender to Babylon. The King did not take this message well and decides to throw Jeremiah into a waterless cistern filled only with mud. "So they took Jeremiah and cast him into the cistern of Malchiah, the king's son, which was in the court of the guard, letting Jeremiah down by ropes. And there was no water in the cistern, but only mud, and Jeremiah sank in the mud ." (Jer. 38:6) Jeremiah is then saved by the unlikeliest of sources - Ebed-melech the Ethiopian. Scripture would go on to describe his faithfulness (Jer. 39:15-18) After Jeremiah is out of the cistern, the King meets with him secretly at the temple (Scripture is oddly specific that this was done...