The Truth About The Christ

/ Holly Stoner / Leave a comment

Who is the person we call Jesus? Where did he come from? What was his purpose? Where is he now? What is his name and what is the significance? These and other questions will be answered in the best way that I can say it, with the help of scripture and the Holy Spirit. Let’s study the life, death, resurrection and purpose of the 2nd person of the trinity, God’s son. During this study I hope you will learn the truth, put aside your traditions and your presuppositions and just focus on the truth as the scripture tells it. Say a prayer and ask the Holy Spirit to guide you in your understanding and your thoughts so that you can know the real truth and worship the true the Son of God.

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Fear or revere God?

/ Holly Stoner / Leave a comment
1–2 minutes

First off, I apologize for no new post last week. My cat is ill and has been taking up a lot my time with caring for her. She’s nearing 16 and we may be looking at the end for her but in the meantime trying to keep her comfortable and medicate the symptoms the best we can. Just seeing if she can recover this time. If you ever had an aging or ill animal you know the stress and exhaustion (and expense) it can bring. Posts may be sporadic temporarily. Don’t give up on my blog. I appreciate anyone who visits here.

Now for the topic at hand, should you fear God, or should you revere God? Is there a difference? The short answer is, yes, there is a difference. I often hear people say you should “fear God” and by the way they describe this fear is they are fearing what God will do to them. They fear that God will strike them down with a fatal illness, or just end their life abruptly. Some fear that God will punish them if they don’t live up to some standard they created in their hand or when they make a mistake. There are people that fear they are not “saved” and God that will reject them. Finally, some people fear that they just aren’t doing enough for God, as in works.

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How to Study the Bible

/ Holly Stoner / Leave a comment
1–2 minutes

Today’s post is late and not looking at scripture but how to study it. I’ve been dealing with an illness for myself and my 15 year old cat (2 different things) so I haven’t been able to focus enough on my notes and current Bible study to get a post written but I wanted to get something out today. I did some blog maintenance as well. If you’re a repeat reader, thank you so much for coming back. If you like what you’re seeing can you please share this blog with others? My homeschool portion of the blog, according to my analytics, remains to be the most popular and that is expected because it was out there a lot longer until I shifted gears and also I knew blogging about the Bible would probably not be as popular but it is something I felt I was supposed to do.

I’m not a theologian, I didn’t go to seminary, so I guess I’m not what you call an “expert”, if there is any such thing when reading scripture. However, I can read, I like to study, research, learn and truth matters to me as does getting the true gospel message out there without the confusion, mis-interpretations, and mis-handling of scripture. I may not get everything right and you may not agree, but my goal is for you to dig deeper into your own studies and focus on what the Bible says, in context, and not what people, including me, tell you it says. It’s my opinion the Bible is not really hard to read but people make it hard by adding a whole lot of things to it that it doesn’t actually say. God is not a God of confusion and wouldn’t give us something that we need “experts” to help us understand. Be careful about the “experts” you choose to listen to. Pay attention to how they are using scripture for a specific topic or narrative. Don’t be deceived. Search the scripture for the truth in context.

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“The Good Samaritan”

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Let’s look at this parable told by Jesus today. What was he saying? How can we apply this? What is the deeper meaning, if there is one? Read Luke 10:25-37. This parable starts out with a man described as being an expert in the law (religious law this would mean) asking Jesus what he must do to obtain eternal life. Jesus asked this man to tell him what the law says and the man replied with,“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,” and “your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus tells him that he is correct. But then the man asks Jesus to tell him who a “neighbor” is. The motive behind these questions is not clear in the text but we see it read, “to justify himself” which could indicate selfish reasons. Jesus answered him with a parable about a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho and encountered robbers who robbed him, beat him and left him for dead.

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The Rich Man

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Luke 16:19-31 Read the passage

This passage of scripture Jesus is telling the parable of the rich man and a man named Lazarus (this is not the Lazarus he rose from the dead). This Lazarus is described as a poor man covered with sores, compared to the rich man who dressed in purple and fine linen (purple symbolized royalty or wealth). Both men died in this parable but Lazarus was said to have gone to Abraham’s side, a place of comfort, while the rich man went to Hades, a place of torment. So why did these 2 men go to different places and what are these 2 different places? What was the reason Jesus told this parable?

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