NCarolinian

On every Sunday, but especially Easter weekend, Christians celebrate Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday. Good Friday is the redemption from sin through Christ's suffering and sacrificial death upon the cross. Resurrection Sunday celebrates that Christ took back His life and defeated death, Hell and the grave so that believers in Him have the complete victory. The payment was made for everyone with Christ's life-blood on Friday and He arose on Sunday morning or the morning of the third day, so what was Jesus doing on The Second Day? Jesus was working, ministering, and loving in the underworld of the afterlife on The Second Day.  Paul, in his letter to the believers in Ephesus, quotes Psalm 68:18 in describing where Jesus was and what He did on The Second Day. "This is why it says: 'When he ascended on high, he took many captives and gave gifts to his people.' (What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? He who descende...

Before Christ suffered and died for everyone, John recorded Jesus saying, concerning the time when He would leave,  "And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever--" (Jn. 14:16) .  The Greek word for "another" in this verse is the word allos . "It means one of the very same kind; same character; same everything; or a duplicate." (Renner, Sparkling Gems, p.195) "Just as Jesus is the exact image of the Father in every way, now Jesus unmistakably tells the disciples that when the Holy Spirit comes, He will exactly represent Jesus in every word. That's why the word allos is used to make this point. It leaves no room for doubt that the Holy Spirit will be exactly like Jesus." (Renner, p.196) "Jesus did only what the Heavenly Father would do, and now the Holy Spirit will do only what Jesus would do. As Jesus' Representative on earth, the Holy Spirit never acts on His own or out of character...

When traveling to certain cities in the U.S., like Knoxville, Tennessee and Chapel Hill, North Carolina - about all you see and hear are things related to the college of that city and their latest endeavors. In Knoxville, almost all you see is the orange and white of the Tennessee Volunteers and talk of their progress in football, basketball and other sports. Same goes for Chapel Hill, except you have the color of Carolina or sky blue and white at every turn and talk on every corner of their past, present and future. I look forward to the day when everywhere one turns we see Jesus and speak Jesus. The pure manifestation of that desire, according to Scripture, is New Jerusalem on the New Earth. Believers will receive a great taste of that concept during the Millennial Reign of Christ. But we can begin practicing right now looking at life with Christ-like perspective and start placing Jesus in our everyday descriptive speech as well. How the believer does that is to run all his/her  ...

Of all people, Christians should be joyous. If ever there was something and someone to be ecstatic about in life, the salvation that Christ provides is cause for celebration. Now-a-days, where is the Christian's true spirit of celebration in Christ? And not just because of His saving grace but because of what Christ has done, is doing and has promised to accomplish in their lives. I witness the enthusiasm, excitement and joy in human celebrations that Christians should be matching and exceeding in their own lives.  Humanity excels at celebrating in wins within sports and even more-so celebrating great plays within a game itself. We celebrate holidays, whether government or religious in nature with great passion. We celebrate birthdays and goals we have met to great ends. In addition, some believers have been desensitized to the miracle of sunrises and sunsets. Today, a miracle from God that eliminates a life-issue seems to be the only fostering of celebration of God in our lives. S...