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"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God" (Matt. 5:9). God’s peace cushions the soul during difficult times. I remember reading about what is called "the cushion of the sea." The ocean surface is often greatly agitated, but as you descend, the water becomes increasingly calm. At its greatest depths the ocean is virtually still. Oceanographers dredging ocean bottoms have found animal and plant remains that appear to have been undisturbed for hundreds of years. Similarly, Christians can experience a cushion of peace in their souls regardless of their troubled surroundings. That's because they belong to...

Continuationism is not a non-essential doctrinal issue Posted on April 19, 2016 By Fred Butler I am becoming convinced more and more every day that continuationism/charismaticism is not just a non-essential doctrinal issue for Christians. My thinking about this started shortly after the Strange Fire conference as I engaged continuationist critics on social media. .... In fact, with what I was seeing, the TBN and Sid Roth style charismatic continuationists are the standard majority, whereas the ‘balanced,” sober-minded continuationists were the true fringe.

“On each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: the first living creature like a lion, the second . . . like an ox, the third . . . with the face of a man, and the fourth . . . like an eagle in flight. . . . Each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within” (vv. 6b–8a). - Revelation 4 It would be hard to underestimate the interest that people in our day have in the book of Revelation. There exist countless prophecy seminars,...

April 21, 2016 Thursday of the Fourth Week of Easter Reading 1 Acts 13:13-25 From Paphos, Paul and his companionsset sail and arrived at Perga in Pamphylia. But John left them and returned to Jerusalem. They continued on from Perga and reached Antioch in Pisidia. On the sabbath they entered into the synagogue and took their seats. After the reading of the law and the prophets,the synagogue officials sent word to them,“My brothers, if one of you has a word of exhortationfor the people, please speak.” So Paul got up, motioned with his hand, and said,“Fellow children of Israel...

This is like nothing I’ve ever written before. It’s an open plea for prayer, an open window into my heart and that of my wife, Sarah, and an open last-ditch effort to reach out to a cherished young Jewish woman in New York City who finds herself in a desperate situation. Most importantly, it’s a frantic attempt to save a life – the precious life of a precious person whom, though we’ve never met, we already love. Let me explain. I was thumbing through my Twitter feed the other night and came across a tweet that immediately caught my eye....

“And many women were there looking on from a distance, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to Him” (Matthew 27:55). The women who supported Jesus’ ministry all the way to the cross are fine examples of compassionate loyalty. Caring, consistent loyalty is a wonderful characteristic of godly women. This trait is probably more evident in them than it is in godly men. The women by the cross were the main group of believing eyewitnesses to Jesus’ crucifixion. They also showed incredible loyalty in the face of ridicule and danger. This courage contrasted with the disciples who, except for John,...

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" (Matt. 5:8). You have a part to play in becoming pure in heart. Purifying a heart is the gracious and miraculous work of the Holy Spirit, but there are some things we must do in response to His prompting. First, we must admit we can't purify our own hearts. Proverbs 20:9 says, "Who can say, 'I have cleansed my heart, I am pure from my sin?'" The implied answer: no one! Next, we must put our faith in Jesus Christ, whose sacrifice on the cross is the basis for...

Since her humiliating defeat in the 2014 Texas gubernatorial race, Wendy Davis has not backed down from her abortion-fueled fame. On the contrary, she has double downed on her commitment to promoting abortion, referring to advances in the pro-life movement as getting “knocked down, but by God, we can get back up and we fight to see a new day.” Reading Jezebel’s new interview with the pro-abortion Texan, it is clear that getting clobbered in an election does not make Davis any less of a progressive darling. Jezebel lovingly describes Davis during her filibuster of a Texas pro-life law as...

It is the nature of Satan to be deceptive. Scripture says he has been a liar from the beginning. His first appearance in Scripture comes under the guise of a serpent. The credentials of this malevolent creature are announced in his introduction: “Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made” (Gen. 3:1). These words fall as a sudden intrusion into an otherwise glorious account of God’s majestic work of creation. With the words “Now the serpent,” the whole atmosphere of the biblical record changes dramatically. A sudden and ominous sense...

April 20, 2016 Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Easter Reading 1 Acts 12:24—13:5a The word of God continued to spread and grow. After Barnabas and Saul completed their relief mission,they returned to Jerusalem,taking with them John, who is called Mark. Now there were in the Church at Antioch prophets and teachers:Barnabas, Symeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene,Manaen who was a close friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said,“Set apart for me Barnabas and Saulfor the work to which I have called them.” Then, completing...

SATIRE (Or is it?) HOLLYWOOD, CA—Fresh off recent blockbusters such as Noah and Exodus: Gods and Kings, multiple Hollywood studios confirmed Thursday that they are looking forward to creating even more terrible Christian movies featuring wild inaccuracies and an offensive departure from the truth as presented in the Bible. “We love what we do,” Warner Brothers Vice President Lance Metriculo told reporters. “Take the movie Noah. Originally, we tested a very ‘blah’ movie, without a misanthropic, baby‐hating Noah, drug‐addled Methuselah, or stone golem Nephilim. Boy did we dodge a bullet there, we laughed, after we made all those changes! Then...

“Now the centurion, and those who were with him . . . became very frightened and said, ‘Truly this was the Son of God!’” (Matthew 27:54). The testimony of the soldiers after Jesus’ crucifixion demonstrates the sufficiency of His death for all sinners. Most of the time our daily activities are dictated by the routine responsibilities of our jobs. That’s how it was for the Roman soldiers who stood at the foot of the cross when Jesus gave up His life. They were there simply out of duty, to make sure the crucifixion was carried out properly and without interference....

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" (Matt. 5:8). The way you think determines the way you behave. God is concerned about the way you think. That's why Paul said, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect" (Rom. 12:2). In Philippians 4:8 he instructs us to think about that which is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, of good repute, excellent, and praiseworthy. When Jesus spoke of a pure heart...

“[Jesus] said to them, ‘Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there. And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them’ ” (vv. 10–11). - Mark 6:7-13 Though rejected by most of the people in the town of Nazareth (Mark 6:1–6), Jesus did not end His mission in Galilee. Instead, there is a real sense in which He extended it. As we see in today’s passage, after His time in Nazareth, Jesus sent...

April 19, 2016 Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Easter Reading 1 Acts 11:19-26 Those who had been scattered by the persecutionthat arose because of Stephenwent as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch,preaching the word to no one but Jews.There were some Cypriots and Cyrenians among them, however,who came to Antioch and began to speak to the Greeks as well,proclaiming the Lord Jesus. The hand of the Lord was with themand a great number who believed turned to the Lord. The news about them reached the ears of the Church in Jerusalem,and they sent Barnabas to go to Antioch.When...

ChristianMingle Partners With Megachurch The Potter's House in Dallas to Help Single Members Find Lifelong Partners LOS ANGELES, CA--(Marketwired - Apr 18, 2016) - ChristianMingle® announced today its newest partnership under its co-branded church initiative with one of the fastest growing churches in the nation, The Potter's House in Dallas, TX. Since launching this initiative in late February, ChristianMingle has been enabling single Christians within congregations to easily connect with one another on ChristianMingle through dedicated search capabilities, discounted membership fees and exclusive personalized customer service offerings. "With four large campuses and a growing swell of on-line members and weekly...

The twentieth century was the start of the age of high technology. The technological advances of our age have eclipsed all previous generations. It was the nineteenth century that evoked an unprecedented spirit of human optimism. The Enlightenment concluded that man no longer needed the God-hypothesis to explain his origins and purpose. An optimistic humanism was born that promised a coming utopia. Education, science, and technology would produce the acme of evolutionary development. Peace would prevail and poverty, disease, crime, and war would be banished by the modern techniques of government, economics, and education. World War I temporarily burst the...

“My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46). God always must turn His back on sin, even if that meant for a short time severing fellowship with His Son. The Reformer Martin Luther is said to have gained no insight at all when he secluded himself and tried to understand Jesus’ temporary alienation from the Father at Calvary. But in the secrets of divine sovereignty, the God-man was separated from God at Calvary as the Father’s wrath was poured out on the innocent Son, who had become sin for all those who believe in Him. Forsaken means...

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" (Matt. 5:8). There are basically only two kinds of religion in the world: those based on human achievement and those based on divine accomplishment. Religion comes in many forms. Almost every conceivable belief or behavior has been incorporated into some religious system at some point in time. But really there are only two kinds of religion: one says you can earn your way to heaven; the other says you must trust in Jesus Christ alone. One is the religion of human achievement; the other is the religion of divine...

April 18, 2016 Monday of the Fourth Week of Easter Reading 1 Acts 11:1-18 The Apostles and the brothers who were in Judeaheard that the Gentiles too had accepted the word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalemthe circumcised believers confronted him, saying,‘You entered the house of uncircumcised people and ate with them.” Peter began and explained it to them step by step, saying,“I was at prayer in the city of Joppawhen in a trance I had a vision,something resembling a large sheet coming down,lowered from the sky by its four corners, and it came to me....