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எகிப்திலுள்ள வாதைகள் - வெளிப்படுத்தின சுவிசேத்தில்

எகிப்திலுள்ள வாதைகள்,  வெளிப்படுத்தின சுவிசேத்தில் ஒரு படம் போல் சித்தரிக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது. அவற்றை விளக்கமாக பார்ப்போம். ஆண்டவர் மனிதனை நேசித்து, அவனுக்கு எல்லாவற்றையும் 6 நாளில் கொடுத்து,  7ம் நாளில் ஒய்ந்திருந்தார். மகிழ்ச்சியாக இருந்தார். பின்பு, மனிதனை உண்டாக்கியதற்காக (ஆதி.6:3) மனஸ்தாப்பட்டார். பாவம் மனிதனுக்கும்,தேவனுக்கும் இடையில் பெரிய பிரிவினையை உண்டாக்கியது. பாவம் பொல்லாததாயிருந்தது. கர்த்தர்,சோதோம்,  கொமோரா பட்டணத்தை அழித்தார். நோவாவின் காலத்தில் வெள்ளத்தால் மனிதர்களை அழித்தார். பழைய ஏற்பாட்டு தீர்க்கதரிசிகள் மூலம் மனம் திரும்புங்கள், பரலோக இராஜ்ஜியம் சமீபமாக உள்ளது என்று எச்சரிப்பின் தூதைக் கொடுத்து எச்சரித்தார். ஆனால் மனிதன் கீழ்படியவில்லை. பின்பு,  புதிய ஏற்பாடு காலத்தில், அப்போஸ்தலர்கள் மூலமாக நிருபங்களைக் கொடுத்து, கள்ளத்தீர்க்கதரிசிகள், அந்திக்கிறிஸ்து,  பிசாசினால் உண்டாகும் தீமைகளைக் குறித்து எச்சரித்தார். பரிசுத்த ஆவியானவர் மூலமாக வல்லமையின் அபிசேஷகத்தை தந்தார். ஆனால் மனிதன் எதற்கும் கீழ்படியாமல், பார்வோனைப் போல இருதயத்தை கடினமாக்கிய பொழுது...

JEWELRY AS A BLESSING

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I was amazed to find that jewelry is a good thing—a beautiful blessing given by God. The holy, saintly women of the Bible enjoyed it. Christian women can enjoy it today. Here is a summary of a few representative texts that show what the Bible really says about beauty and adornment. Abraham sent jewelery to Rebekah : Genesis 24:47-48 47 Then I asked her, ‘Whose daughter are you?’ She said, ‘The daughter of Bethuel, Nahor’s son, whom Milcah bore to him.’ So I put the ring on her nose and the bracelets on her arms. 48 Then I bowed my head and worshiped the LORD and blessed the LORD, the God of my master Abraham, who had led me by the right way to take the daughter of my master’s kinsman for his son. Joseph wore jewelry: God blessed Joseph greatly because of his faithfulness.  In this passage below, we find Joseph accepting jewelry as a gift from Pharaoh.  If God forbade jewelry, it would seem to follow that Joseph would have rejected this gift because Joseph was faithf...

BREAKING DOWN OUR PREJUDICES

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Peter was staying at Joppa on the Mediterranean coast. It was the city where the prophet Jonah had fled to board a ship to Tarshish. He was trying to run from the Lord’s command to go and preach at Ninevah, the capital city of Israel’s arch-enemy, Assyria. About 30 miles north of Joppa and some 65 miles northwest of Jerusalem, was the Roman provincial capital, Caesarea, where the governor lived. Under his authority were some 3,000 troops, including the Italian cohort. Serving with this unit was Cornelius, a centurion who commanded 100 soldiers. The Jews despised the Roman occupation of Palestine; they hoped that Messiah would come and deliver them from the Roman oppression. And so the stage is set: you have a Gentile Roman soldier, representing the despised occupation of Israel, residing in the main city of the Roman occupation. Thirty miles south you have a Jewish apostle, temporarily residing at the spot where Jonah had taken off in disobedience to his commission to preach to I...

THE QUEEN OF PERSIA - ESTHER

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Over 100 years earlier, Nebuchadnezzar (the king of Babylon) had attacked Jerusalem. He overcame the  Jews and he took many  Jews to Babylon. Almost 70 years after that, the king of Persia defeated the armies of Babylon in battle. Then the people in Persia allowed the  Jews to return to their own country, but not many  Jews did return. When the story of Esther happened, most Jews were still living in the country called Persia. Persian Queen Esther was a Jew from the tribe of Benjamin who grew up as an exile in Persia (492 B.C. – 460 B.C.) Esther was her Persian name. Her Jewish name was Hadassah. (meaning a Myrtle, is a branch that signifies peace and thanksgiving.) The myrtle tree was native to Babylonia, but Jewish exiles who returned to Jerusalem took the tree with them, and it became a symbol of the nation of Israel. The name Esther itself means star and happiness. Esther was the daughter of Abihail, of the tribe of Benjamin.     ...

The tale of the Moabite women Ruth

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In the Bible you will find a book called Ruth. It is a story about a family that lived during the time when Israel had judges. Ruth is a young woman from the land of Moʹab; she does not belong to God’s nation of Israel. But when Ruth learns about the true God, she comes to love him very much. Naʹo·mi is an older woman who helped Ruth to learn about LORD God. There was a great famine in Israel during the time when judges ruled. Many people relocated to foreign lands to find food for their families. A man from Bethlehem named Elimelech took his wife Naomi and his two sons Mahlon and Kilion went to Moab to find food and ended up staying there to live. Elimelech died and Naomi continued to live with her two sons who married Moabite women named Orpah and Ruth. Both sons also passed away leaving Naomi with her two foreign daughter-in-laws. Naomi heard that the Lord helped the people of Israel and food had been provided back home. She decided to go back to Bethlehem i...

Mighty Hand

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My times are in thy hand - That is, I said this in my trouble; when my friends forsook me, and when my enemies came around me and threatened my life. The meaning is, that all that pertained to him was under the control and at the disposal of God. He would "live" as long as God should please. It was His to give life; His to preserve it; His to take it away My times are in thy hand,.... And not in the hand of his enemies; as his time of life and death, which was only by the direction and appointment of God, was in his power, and fixed by him; nor could his enemies take away his life before his time, and without the will of his covenant God: the time of his coming to the throne, and what was gone over him during his reign hitherto, 1 Chronicles 29:30; and all his times of trouble in it; times of prosperity and of adversity; of darkness, desertion, and temptation; and of joy, peace, and comfort; these were all in the hands of the Lord, at his disposal, and ordered by him...

UNSHAKEN

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Thy burden, or what thy God lays upon thee, lay thou it upon the Lord. His wisdom casts it on thee, it is thy wisdom to cast it on him. He cast thy lot for thee, cast thy lot on him. He gives thee thy portion of suffering, accept it with cheerful resignation, and then take it back to him by thine assured confidence. He shall sustain thee. Thy bread shall be given thee, thy waters shall be sure. Abundant nourishment shall fit thee to bear all thy labours and trials. As thy days so shall thy strength be. He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved. He may move like the boughs of a tree in the tempest, but he shall never be moved like a tree torn up by the roots. He stands firm who stands in God. Many would destroy the saints, but God has not suffered it, and never will. Like pillars, the godly stand immoveable, to the glory of the Great Architect.