The Parable of the Mark and the Whore

Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great!

… for He has judged the great prostitute

who corrupted the earth with her immorality,

and has avenged on her the blood of His servants (Revelation 18:2, 19:2 ESV).

Any person, culture, organization, or even religion that sells out principles for control or power is participating in the spirit of Babylon. This spirit can be seen all around us today and it is detestable before the Lord.

Babylon is a spirit of arrogance and of whoredom.

The Mentality of Faith: Sarai and Hagar

Last time, we introduced a man named Abram and his wife Sarai. Those of you familiar with the Bible know them more affectionately as Abraham, the faithful and obedient man, and Sarah. (And those of you who aren’t familiar I encourage you to read along a little. Not forgetting the people I pass by as well.) We’ll look at some of Abraham’s most defining moments of faith next time I think, if not read about them anyway and remind yourself of the good!

The Parable of The Mark and The Orphanage

No one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name (Revelation 13:17).

Our time, effort, and funds reflect our heart condition. This is what worship truly is. What you spend your time, effort, and money on is what you worship. We choose to worship ourselves, we choose gods and idols to worship, or we choose to worship selfless love. The choice is made in the heart, but reflected through the stewardship of these things.

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The following parable was written by Joshua Noel as part three of five in a parable series, called "The Mark".

In the town like any other,

Book Review: The Celtic Way of Evangelism

One of the services I’ll be providing for New Life’s blog is book reviews. I have several in the works, but I’m very excited about this first one.

While I spend a lot of time reading comics and working with my kids, I also have an intellectual side that craves knowledge. That craving for knowledge led me to teach Church History. There are so many things that have been lost to the Church, primarily because those in charge (first the Roman Catholic Church, then whatever arm of Protestantism was prevalent in your region) silenced their competition by banning and burning books and sometimes people…okay, usually people along with the books.

The Parable of the Mark and the Three Friends

And to it (the beast) the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority…. They worshiped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, ‘who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?’ (Revelation 13:2b & 4)

Many think of friendship as a virtue or a purpose. Few think of it as anything but necessary and good. True friendship can be many things: it can be gold; it can be sack cloth; it can be tar.

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The following parable was written by Joshua Noel as part two of five in a parable series, called "The Mark".

The Parable of The Mark And The Quarterback

Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God…. (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 ESV)

How To Read Revelation

We have been doing this “How To Read Your Bible” series for a while now! Sense the beginning of this page, in fact. In this series, we have covered “Context”, “Subjects V Objects”, and all kinds of major literary genres found in the Bible. Now, I want to take the time to look at our strategies in reading the Bible to help make sense of “How To Read Revelation,” because the understanding of this book will prove to be the accumulation of everything we have learned together in this series thus far. This is the most confusing book to attempt to understand for a lot of people when reading their Bibles.

Revelation is unique in that it is prophetic literature, poetry literature, and it is seven different letters all at once! So, almost EVERYTHING we have discussed before in this series is applicable in the reading of this book.

The Mentality of Faith: The Created Man

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Do you ever read the Bible and just feel like the people are more like stories, fables, or just flat boring historical figures than real, living, breathing, thinking people like you see every day? I know the Bible is a true account of real people, facing real problems, and dealing with a real, intimate, loving God; but sometimes, honestly, I don’t read it that way. Sometimes the story just overshadows the people.

Wibbly Wobbly, Bible-y Wible-y

The letters of the Bible tend to be the most straightforward of the Biblical Literary genres. This can make it easy to get lost in complacent reading without taking the due diligence to research what one is reading. Many people do not even know that the Epistles (the letters of the New Testament) include instructions to not let women speak in church, not to eat medium-well meat, nor do people understand why there is so much talk about “clean” and “unclean” foods in the letters of the Bible. There is much to consider when reading these letters, but perhaps the most important thing to note is that the whole Bible (including these letters) is interwoven with itself. You see, most people think of the Bible as a strict progression of stories and events, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint – it’s more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly, Bible-y wible-y stuff!

Letting Go of Hope

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I’ve heard it said many times that the point of Christmas is hope. But…. what does that mean? What is hope? I believe hope is a blind, spiritual desire. Christian hope is then also a godly desire and it is the act of looking to the future to see a better tomorrow. When God spoke to Isaiah about a coming Messiah, the prophecy was one of hope, given to a generation that was about to undergo great judgement. But, we miss the point of hope when we don’t learn to let it go!