What is the home town of the apostle Paul?
Anonymous Quiz
12%
Anitoch
2%
Lystra
72%
Tarsus
15%
Damascus
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Elijah stayed with a widow in this city:
Anonymous Quiz
27%
Sidon
8%
Jerusalem
6%
Bethlehem
59%
Zarephath
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Thanks for playing Bible trivia today! I hope you have a wonderful day full of joy and peace! ❤️
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Forwarded from Thieves of Wonders & Friends channel🍀 (Jasmina)
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Compassion 🙏❤️
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“He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of his saints. Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path.”
Proverbs 2:8-9 KJV
Proverbs 2:8-9 KJV
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Forwarded from The Narrow Gate
C. H. Spurgeon's
Evening Reading
(April 8th)
"I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me." — Psalm 23:4
Behold, how independent of outward circumstances the Holy Ghost can make the Christian! What a bright light may shine within us when it is all dark without! How firm, how happy, how calm, how peaceful we may be, when the world shakes to and fro, and the pillars of the earth are removed! Even death itself, with all its terrible influences, has no power to suspend the music of a Christian's heart, but rather makes that music become more sweet, more clear, more heavenly, till the last kind act which death can do is to let the earthly strain melt into the heavenly chorus, the temporal joy into the eternal bliss! Let us have confidence, then, in the blessed Spirit's power to comfort us. Dear reader, are you looking forward to poverty? Fear not; the divine Spirit can give you, in your want, a greater plenty than the rich have in their abundance. You know not what joys may be stored up for you in the cottage around which grace will plant the roses of content. Are you conscious of a growing failure of your bodily powers? Do you expect to suffer long nights of languishing and days of pain? O be not sad! That bed may become a throne to you. You little know how every pang that shoots through your body may be a refining fire to consume your dross-a beam of glory to light up the secret parts of your soul. Are the eyes growing dim? Jesus will be your light. Do the ears fail you? Jesus' name will be your soul's best music, and His person your dear delight. Socrates used to say, "Philosophers can be happy without music;" and Christians can be happier than philosophers when all outward causes of rejoicing are withdrawn. In Thee, my God, my heart shall triumph, come what may of ills without! By thy power, O blessed Spirit, my heart shall be exceeding glad, though all things should fail me here below.
Evening Reading
(April 8th)
"I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me." — Psalm 23:4
Behold, how independent of outward circumstances the Holy Ghost can make the Christian! What a bright light may shine within us when it is all dark without! How firm, how happy, how calm, how peaceful we may be, when the world shakes to and fro, and the pillars of the earth are removed! Even death itself, with all its terrible influences, has no power to suspend the music of a Christian's heart, but rather makes that music become more sweet, more clear, more heavenly, till the last kind act which death can do is to let the earthly strain melt into the heavenly chorus, the temporal joy into the eternal bliss! Let us have confidence, then, in the blessed Spirit's power to comfort us. Dear reader, are you looking forward to poverty? Fear not; the divine Spirit can give you, in your want, a greater plenty than the rich have in their abundance. You know not what joys may be stored up for you in the cottage around which grace will plant the roses of content. Are you conscious of a growing failure of your bodily powers? Do you expect to suffer long nights of languishing and days of pain? O be not sad! That bed may become a throne to you. You little know how every pang that shoots through your body may be a refining fire to consume your dross-a beam of glory to light up the secret parts of your soul. Are the eyes growing dim? Jesus will be your light. Do the ears fail you? Jesus' name will be your soul's best music, and His person your dear delight. Socrates used to say, "Philosophers can be happy without music;" and Christians can be happier than philosophers when all outward causes of rejoicing are withdrawn. In Thee, my God, my heart shall triumph, come what may of ills without! By thy power, O blessed Spirit, my heart shall be exceeding glad, though all things should fail me here below.
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When the book of Jonah begins, the movement is immediate.
“The word of the Lord came to Jonah…
‘Arise, go to Nineveh…’” (Jonah 1:1–2).
Then the response is just as direct.
“But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish
from the presence of the Lord” (Jonah 1:3).
At first reading, the reason seems assumed.
He was sent to a great and dangerous city.
Nineveh was known for its violence.
It would be natural to conclude
that Jonah ran because he was afraid.
But the text itself does not say that.
It tells us where he went.
It tells us how far he was willing to go.
He went down to Joppa.
He found a ship.
He paid the fare.
He went down into it.
The repetition of movement matters.
He is not hesitating.
He is not uncertain.
He is deliberate.
He is moving in the opposite direction.
The explanation comes later.
After the storm,
after the fish,
after Nineveh repents,
Jonah finally speaks plainly.
“O Lord, is not this what I said
when I was yet in my country?
That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish” (Jonah 4:2).
Then he gives the reason.
“For I knew that you are a gracious God
and merciful, slow to anger
and abounding in steadfast love,
and relenting from disaster.”
The statement is clear.
Jonah did not run
because he doubted God’s power.
He ran
because he understood it.
He knew what might happen
if Nineveh heard the message.
He knew that God might forgive them.
That is where the meaning begins to press further.
Jonah is not avoiding danger alone.
He is resisting mercy.
Nineveh was not a neutral city.
It represented violence,
oppression,
and the suffering of others.
To bring a message of warning to them
was also to open the possibility
of their repentance.
Jonah did not want that outcome.
The text shows this in how he reacts
when it actually happens.
Nineveh repents.
God relents.
And Jonah is displeased.
“It displeased Jonah exceedingly,
and he was angry” (Jonah 4:1).
The reaction is not subtle.
He does not question the result.
He objects to it.
The mercy of God,
which had preserved him in the storm
and in the fish,
is the same mercy he resists
when it is extended to others.
That is why he fled.
Not because God was absent,
but because God was as He is.
Theologically, the book does not present
Jonah’s running as simple fear.
It reveals a tension
between knowing God
and accepting how God acts.
Jonah knows God’s character.
He can describe it accurately.
But he does not want that character
applied in this direction.
Reading the passage carefully,
Jonah’s movement away from Nineveh
is not only geographical.
It is relational.
He is not only going to Tarshish.
He is moving away
from participating
in what God intends to do.
The storm interrupts him.
The fish contains him.
Nineveh receives the message.
But the struggle remains.
Jonah’s resistance is not resolved
by the success of the mission.
It is exposed by it.
The book does not end
with Jonah’s obedience.
It ends with God’s question.
“Should not I pity Nineveh…?” (Jonah 4:11).
The question is left open.
And in that openness,
the reason for Jonah’s flight
becomes clear.
He was not running
because he was afraid
of what might happen to him.
He was running
because he did not want
what might happen
to them.
~Undaunted Disciple
“The word of the Lord came to Jonah…
‘Arise, go to Nineveh…’” (Jonah 1:1–2).
Then the response is just as direct.
“But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish
from the presence of the Lord” (Jonah 1:3).
At first reading, the reason seems assumed.
He was sent to a great and dangerous city.
Nineveh was known for its violence.
It would be natural to conclude
that Jonah ran because he was afraid.
But the text itself does not say that.
It tells us where he went.
It tells us how far he was willing to go.
He went down to Joppa.
He found a ship.
He paid the fare.
He went down into it.
The repetition of movement matters.
He is not hesitating.
He is not uncertain.
He is deliberate.
He is moving in the opposite direction.
The explanation comes later.
After the storm,
after the fish,
after Nineveh repents,
Jonah finally speaks plainly.
“O Lord, is not this what I said
when I was yet in my country?
That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish” (Jonah 4:2).
Then he gives the reason.
“For I knew that you are a gracious God
and merciful, slow to anger
and abounding in steadfast love,
and relenting from disaster.”
The statement is clear.
Jonah did not run
because he doubted God’s power.
He ran
because he understood it.
He knew what might happen
if Nineveh heard the message.
He knew that God might forgive them.
That is where the meaning begins to press further.
Jonah is not avoiding danger alone.
He is resisting mercy.
Nineveh was not a neutral city.
It represented violence,
oppression,
and the suffering of others.
To bring a message of warning to them
was also to open the possibility
of their repentance.
Jonah did not want that outcome.
The text shows this in how he reacts
when it actually happens.
Nineveh repents.
God relents.
And Jonah is displeased.
“It displeased Jonah exceedingly,
and he was angry” (Jonah 4:1).
The reaction is not subtle.
He does not question the result.
He objects to it.
The mercy of God,
which had preserved him in the storm
and in the fish,
is the same mercy he resists
when it is extended to others.
That is why he fled.
Not because God was absent,
but because God was as He is.
Theologically, the book does not present
Jonah’s running as simple fear.
It reveals a tension
between knowing God
and accepting how God acts.
Jonah knows God’s character.
He can describe it accurately.
But he does not want that character
applied in this direction.
Reading the passage carefully,
Jonah’s movement away from Nineveh
is not only geographical.
It is relational.
He is not only going to Tarshish.
He is moving away
from participating
in what God intends to do.
The storm interrupts him.
The fish contains him.
Nineveh receives the message.
But the struggle remains.
Jonah’s resistance is not resolved
by the success of the mission.
It is exposed by it.
The book does not end
with Jonah’s obedience.
It ends with God’s question.
“Should not I pity Nineveh…?” (Jonah 4:11).
The question is left open.
And in that openness,
the reason for Jonah’s flight
becomes clear.
He was not running
because he was afraid
of what might happen to him.
He was running
because he did not want
what might happen
to them.
~Undaunted Disciple
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"For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 KJV
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 KJV
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