Theology. Politics. Culture. Priesthood. Kingdom. Prophecy.
Joined January 2012
- Tweets35.7K
- Following1.1K
- Followers1.4K
- Likes36.8K
What a friend we have in Jesus. “Friend” in the Bible connotes being in on each other’s plans as allies. That is why God informed Abraham of His plans, why Jesus finally called His disciples His “friends,” and why Herod and Pilate became “friends” over the crucifixion of Christ.
I was on Vision Christian Radio this morning. Live broadcast from The Little Lost Bookshop / The Wandering Bookseller in Katoomba. Talked briefly about my heart transplant, and about how being aware of the structure of the Bible helps us to understand it. …
For God so loved the world (Genesis - Transcendence)
that He gave His only Son (Exodus - Hierarchy)
that whoever believes in Him (Leviticus - Ethics)
might not perish (Numbers - Oath/Sanctions)
but have everlasting life (Deuteronomy - Succession)
Mike Bull - Jedobaptist retweeted
The thing about neo-paganism is that the gods of Norse mythology are hardly admirable figures. They’re not even particularly likeable.
They weren’t worshipped out of love and devotion, but largely out of obligation and self-interest. It was quid pro quo: serve the gods, earn their favour, advance yourself.
That’s why, when Marvel wanted to make Thor a hero, they had to make him less like the cruel, selfish Thor of Norse mythology and more like Christ: humble, self-sacrificial, and willing to lay down his life for others.
The irony is that to make a pagan god admirable, they had to make him less pagan and more Christian.
Mike Bull - Jedobaptist retweeted
Isaiah sees Zion as a grieving “widow” (Isaiah 54:4). But Yahweh is her husband. Yahweh must have died if she is left in her widowhood.
Then he comes back as her ba’al (54:5), making her a Lady, a be’ulah (54:1). This isn’t merely a separation and reconciliation. It is a death and resurrection.
When He returns to her, Yahweh comes as her “redeemer,” her go’el (vv. 5, 8), the one charged with responsibility to raise up children for a dead brother (Deut 25:5-10).
Yahweh does double-duty: He is the first Husband, who dies and leaves Zion a widow; and He is the near kinsman, brother to the first husband, who takes grieving Zion into His keeping and fills her house with children.
Those who have claimed that the 666 man in Revelation was Nero have failed to follow the plot. The reference is to the number of Solomon’s talents of gold, and the referent was the Solomon wannabes, the temple-building Herods.
The natural man is so savvy concerning earthly things that his spiritual blindness has to be a veil over his eyes. God is not hidden at all but clearly seen if one has the serpentine scales removed from his eyes by the Great Healer.
Amen. Now apply that to baptism for “both men and women.” You’ve answered none of my objections. As it was for Noah, the first true covenant head, and for Israel as a nation, baptism is the beginning of ministry. Children are not living sacrifices.
The man was formed from the dry land to mediate between the waters above and the waters below. When mankind failed, the dry land disappeared. In spiritual terms, every moment of the Christian life is the impossible act of walking on water.
The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. That allows Him to give again in a measure beyond our ability to comprehend. That is the lesson of Abraham, of Jacob, and of Joseph: when tested, all were willing to give up the gifts God had given them out of pure allegiance to Him.
Mike Bull - Jedobaptist retweeted
The song of Deborah is merciless to Sisera's mother, who's waiting at home for her little Coriolanus to return victorious (Judg 5:28-30).
Her wise women reassure her that he's delayed because he paused to rape an Israelite "womb" or two.
Well, Sisera found a woman, Jael, but he never penetrated her. Quite the opposite.
(Sisera asks Jael to stand by the tent doorway and tell anyone who asks, "There is no man here." Indeed there isn't: Only a corpse, and an unmanned one at that.
In the Heb, the wise women say there's "a womb, two wombs, for the head (ro'sh) of every warrior."
Whether or not ro'sh has phallic connotations, it's clear Sisera's not going to be doing anything with his shattered head.
Mike Bull - Jedobaptist retweeted
There are certain realities of the pastoral call that come with an occupational hazard, and that hazard, at times, is the gray specter of loneliness. When I was first emerging as a pastor it was a forbidden subject. I would have welcomed conversations with seasoned servants of Christ about those realities. I had to come to them without that help. If there is one thing I can say all these years later, it is this: the loneliness has nothing to do with doing ministry wrong. Knowing that then would have lifted a major weight off my shoulders, and more importantly, off my heart.
“Not everything can be resolved through kindness, which is why angels carry swords, not flowers.”
– C S Lewis
Mike Bull - Jedobaptist retweeted
“Christianity should be twisted in with national constitutions ... the kingdoms of the world should become Christ’s kingdoms, and their kings the church’s nursing fathers ... do your utmost to make the nations Christian nations ... Christ the Mediator is setting up a kingdom in the world, bring the nations to be his subjects.”
-Matthew Henry
The furniture of the Tabernacle of Moses signified a giant Roman cross laid out upon the ground, ready to be bloodied and lifted up in Christ as the throne room between heaven and earth.
Mike Bull - Jedobaptist retweeted
"Christ has created a heavenly host, and 'host' means 'army,' to accomplish His purpose of transforming the world.
"That army does not consist only of 'sharp young single men and women.' Nor does it consist only of ostensibly 'epistemologically self-conscious thoroughly Reformed theonomic postmillennialists.'
"This army includes mentally retarded people, feeble old people, hurt people, suicidal people, weak people, sinful people, people with minds warped by error, and much, much more.
"To the human eye, this army is not much to look at. It doesn’t look very tough compared to the kind of militant activism the communist party can sometimes command ...
"It is, however, the only army God has ever called into being. All the rest are only substitutes and counterfeits.
-James B. Jordan
