When Rome went from being pagan to Christian under Constantine, they had to find a replacement for the great mother of paganism. It was not until the time of Constantine that anyone began to look at Mary as a goddess. Since Mary was the mother of Jesus Christ, she was the most logical person to replace the pagan mother goddess. The pagans could continue their prayers and devotion to the mother goddess, only they would call her Mary. The pagans worshipped the mother as much or more than her son and this is exactly what the Roman Catholicism does. True Christianity teaches that Jesus Christ is to be worshipped – not his mother. The fact remains that Jesus never hinted at the idea of Mary worship nor did any of the apostles. Worshipping the mother goddess along with her child took place centuries before Jesus Christ was ever born in many different parts of the world. In 431 A.D. Mary worship became an official doctrine of the church in at the Council of Ephesus.
Sunday, August 29, 2021
Monday, August 16, 2021
Saturday, August 14, 2021
Tuesday, August 10, 2021
Psalm 32:1-11
Most scholars agree that this Psalm and Psalm 51 were responses to David’s sin with Bathsheba (2 Samuel ch. 11). For a while, David did not ask God to forgive him. When he asked forgiveness from God, and He forgave David. David repented to God.
David uses three words to describe disobeying God: Disobedience, sin, and doing bad things. These three words describe all the ways we disobey God.
Next, David uses three words for what God does: God forgives, God covers, and He does not hold our sin against us: He will save us from going to hell for doing it.
In verses 3-5 we see where David asks God’s forgiveness. A burden was lifted from David when he asked for forgiveness from God and he was once again happy. God always forgives us if we ask Him no matter what we have done.
In verses 6-7 we see that David now feels different. He now feels free from sin. He tells everyone “Pray to God” He means if you sin ask God to forgive you; do not wait”. God was David’s hiding place. God will hide us from the bad times that are sure to come. He will keep us safe.
Verses 8-9 is God speaking now. God will always show us what we should do if we will ask Him. We should be people God can talk to, not like the animals.
In verses 10-11 we see that the people who trust God will not be sad. The only real way to be happy is to ask God to forgive you for your sin. You will have a clean heart then. It will be as though you have never sinned.
Sources: https://www.easyenglish.bible/psalms/psalm032-taw.htm
Death
God is sovereign. Everything that happens must at least have been allowed by Him. At the outset, we must recognize that we cannot fully understand God’s purposes and ways. The book of Job deals with this issue. Job was a righteous man (Job 1:1) yet he suffered much. God allowed Satan to do everything he wanted to Job except kill him (Job 13:15). Job did not understand why God allowed these things to happen but he did know God was good and continued to trust in Him.
Bad things may happen to good people in this world but this world is not the end. God uses those bad things for ultimate lasting good.
These scriptures will help you with this.
John 11:25: Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,
Psalm 115:16: Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.
Romans 14:8: For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.
Psalm 34:18: The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.
James 4:14: Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.
Psalm 23:1-6: A Psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. …
There are many more verses on this website. I would suggest that you go to this website and read the many verses. https://www.openbible.info/topics/death_of_a_loved_one Another good article to read is at https://www.gotquestions.org/bad-things-good-people.html
Monday, August 9, 2021
Matthew 16:18 “And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
“Upon this rock”: The word for “Peter”, “Petros, means a small stone (John 1:42). Jesus used a play on words here with petra which means a foundation boulder (7:24-25).
Since the New Testament makes it abundantly clear that Christ is both the foundation (Acts 4:11-12; 1 Cor. 3:11), and the head (Eph. 5:23), of the church, it is a mistake to think that here He is giving either of those roles to Peter. There is a sense in which the apostles played a foundational role in the building of the church (Eph. 2:20), but the role of primacy is reserved for Christ alone, not assigned to Peter.
So Jesus’ words here are best interpreted as a simple play on words in that a boulder-like truth came from the mouth of one who was called a small stone. Peter himself explains the imagery in his first epistle. The church is built of “living stones” (1 Peter 2:5), who, like Peter, confess that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Christ Himself is the “corner stone” (1 Pet. 2:6-7).
The word “church” is a translation of ekklesia, meaning “called out” or “assembly.” In the New Testament, it usually refers to a local group of Christians.
In this sense a church is an assembly of baptized believers under the discipline of the Word of God. They are organized to carry out the Great Commission, the administration of New Testament ordinances, and the exercise of spiritual gifts.
When a group of Christians today follows this example, it is a church in the biblical sense of the word. In the New Testament, Christians assembled as churches for fellowship, instruction, and worship and to carry out the Great Commission.
Perhaps the best-known New Testament churches were at Jerusalem, Antioch, Thessalonica, Philippi, Corinth, Ephesus, and the other six cities mentioned (in Revelation 2 and 3).
Every Christian should follow the example of New Testament believers by identifying with a local church, and getting involved in its ministry.
In this, Jesus was telling Peter that His church would be built on the foundational rock of truth, which had just issued from Peter’s mouth. All the blessed (believers in the Lord Jesus Christ), have this truth from the Father.
Jesus promises that the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church. The phrase “shall not prevail”, should be understood as meaning “shall not stand against.” The imagery would then picture the church as being on the offensive against the gates of hell.
While Jesus’ resurrection certainly will overcome the sting of death, it will also enable His church to aggressively and offensively attack the gates of hell (usage as Satan’s kingdom in Job 38:17; Isa. 38:10; Psalm 107:18); by snatching out victims from darkness into His glorious kingdom of light. The church is on the offensive here and hell is on the defensive.
Verses 19-20: The Lord promises to Peter and the other apostles “the keys of the kingdom.” This means that Peter will have the right to enter the kingdom himself, and preaching the gospel would be the means of opening the kingdom of heaven.
The Book of Acts shows us this process at work. By his sermon on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:14-40), Peter opened the door of the kingdom for the first time. The expressions “bind” and “loose” were common in Jewish legal phraseology, meaning to declare forbidden or to declare allowed.
Peter and the other disciples (see 18:18), were to continue on earth the work of Christ in preaching the gospel and declaring God’s will to men, and were armed with the same authority He Himself possessed.