The Periodically

This week in our Wednesday night IMAGE meeting we wrapped up our series on the End Times focusing especially on the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21-22. In this section God shows a return to the Garden of Eden... but better, which gives us great hope for our eternal future. Here I just wanted to highlight a few things that stood out to me from our time. 1) In 21:3 we see that God will dwell with man. His presence will be manifested with us for all time. Even in the perfect garden, Gen 3:8-9 seems to indicate that God's manifest presence came and went from Adam and Eve, not that He was ever not present, but in some way less noticeably so. Our hope in the eternal home we will one day posses is that God's presence will always dwell there never to leave in any way. 2) 21:4 & 22:3 show that not only will the curse due to sin and its painful results be removed forever, but, unlike the Garden of Eden where sin happened, there will never be any chance for sin and its painful con...

As someone who works with youth the issues of modesty and purity seem to come up rather often in conversations. How does one pursue modesty and purity in a self-centered and sexually driven culture? What are they even? How are we as a church to help others pursue these things? There are so many questions in these areas and our culture certainly does not help answer them in any way that honors the Lord or upholds His Word and desires. Thus, it seems good to at least delve into these topics a bit and, if nothing else, hopefully start us thinking and conversing on these topics a little more. I believe it necessary first to define a few terms and to do so Biblically... modesty - choosing to act in such a way as to not draw away attention from Christ or others to oneself. 1 Tim 2:9-10 is not talking about the women wearing too little clothing and needing to put more on in any way, nor is the dress described necessarily seductive in any way in that cultural time. ...