God has No Mother

by Fenter Northern

The Hail Mary, also commonly called the Ave Maria (Latin) or Angelic Salutation, traditionally opens with “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of death.”

When the Pharisees quibbled about Jesus’ age in John 8:57, Jesus shocked them saying he was before Abraham. This makes the Hail Mary prayer impossible. Being God, Jesus did not begin his existence with a mother. She did become mother to a fleshly body which became the temple of God’s Spirit, but she was never considered the Mother of God. Of course she was highly favored but never reverenced as God’s mother.

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Love!

by Jim Mettenbrink

Love! What a word! It is used in so many ways in our society, it is difficult to immediately grasp the meaning as love (agape) used in the New Testament (NT). First John is the one short epistle all Christians should use to seriously examine their own lives to know if they are truly following Jesus. Compared to the other NT epistles, John uses “to know” or “knowing” from two to six times as often, and the word love (agape) from six to 26 times as often, thus making it an ideal epistle for one to examine himself so one can know whether he/she truly loves.

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Qualities of a Sound Church

by David Phillips

The title above is actually copied from a paragraph heading in one of my Bibles at Titus 2:1-15. I like that as a summary statement for that chapter because in it, Paul instructs Titus on duties for 5 different classes of people in the local church. If you’ll read it, you’ll see that he begins with the older men, declaring that they should be temperate, dignified, sensible, sound in faith, in love and in perseverance (v.2).

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Wisdom

by David Phillips

A Broad Term
In Proverbs, the English word wisdom comes from about 4 different Hebrew terms meaning (1) skillful, as an artisan or craftsman; (2) prudent and circumspect, as with common sense; (3) upright, with a moral emphasis; and (4) understanding, implying discretion and patience. These terms are all used variously in the context of this book to impart to mankind the skills we need to live successfully before God in a very sinful world. This task will encompass right relationships with people, the correct response to daily circumstances which will arise to challenge us, the proper application of God’s will to our daily living, and a sensible patience with and tolerance of earthly conditions that must be endured on our way to Heaven.

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