a worker who does not need to be ashamed,
rightly dividing the word of truth."
Welcome to the Word of Truth Ministries website. This website is dedicated to producing and providing the Christian family with accurate, trustworthy, and affordable resources to enrich and elevate the believers relationship with the Father and his fellow man through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Featured Resource
A great resource that we provide a link to here at Word of Truth is an online ministry called Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry (CARM for short). I utilize this sight when dealing with doctrinal issues, and especially when dealing in apologetics.
This sight is basically a place to sharpen your skills in defending the Christian faith against heretics and their bogus doctrines and attacks on the Church. An article I read today is titled: "The Law and the Gospel" and can be found here. The article is a must read for those who, like myself, have been approached by or actually tangled up in the so-called "Messianic" or "Hebrew Roots" Movements and are looking for truth.
You can also read my own articles on this website concerning the Messianic/Hebrew Roots Movement; such as "The New Covenant", or "The Old Renewed Covenant?" on the Archives page, and "Was the New Testament Originally Written in Hebrew?" found on the Articles page.
Featured Article
Elijah and The Kingdom
By: Jeff Huddleston
“The Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence
From fervent love, and from that living hope
That overcomes the divine will;
Not in the guise that man overcomes man,
But conquers it because it desires to be conquered,
And conquered, conquers by loving-kindness."
(Dante)
In First Kings 18:46-19:21 we encounter a helpless and dejected Elijah describing to God the terrible spiritual wasteland of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, home of the Ten Tribes. God brings Elijah to Mount Sinai and in this manner appears to him:
Then He said, "Go out, and stand on the mountain before the LORD." And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice. So it was, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. Suddenly a voice cameto him, and said, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" (1Ki_19:11-13; nkjv)
Like so many of us today, Elijah was looking for God in earth shaking manifestations. While it is true that God sometimes appears in this manner He most often appears in much subtler ways.
Spurgeon laments:
"This same lesson has to be learned over and over by us all: let us repeat it, 'Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord.' (Zec_4:6; kjv)
It is to be lamented that…most…professors [of Christ] obstinately cling to the fatal error of looking for displays of power of one kind or another. I hear that a certain church is seeking for a very clever man: she thinks that God is in the wind . . . That still small voice will be hushed and silent, while the boastings of your wisdom resound like a howling wind or a thunder unaccompanied by rain.
Because the success of Carmel melted like the morning mist, [Elijah] thought that his career had been a failure all along, and that he had brought no one to reverence Jehovah; but he was reading with the eyes of unbelief, and his imagination was leading him rather than the facts of the case. Here are seven thousand people scattered up and down the country to whom God has blessed Elijah's testimony. If He had not blessed his big things as he had desired, yet his little things had prospered greatly. It was Elijah's daily conduct rather than his miracles which had impressed these seven thousand and led them to hold fast their integrity." (Spurgeon)
No doubt the wind, earthquake, and fire were very impressive moments, so why did God choose to appear in a soft whisper?
A possible answer is that Elijah was looking for a sudden large-scale transformation of the people of Israel. "Surely the dramatic display of power at Mount Carmel would turn the people back to pursue the plan and purpose of God," thought Elijah, "Or maybe the radical display of God's judgment against the priests of Baal following the vindication at Mount Carmel will change the hearts of the nation." Neither of these worked.
This example is important for Christian leaders today. It shows that displays of power and preaching God's anger don't necessarily win hearts or change minds. Instead, the still small voice of God speaking to the human heart is actually more powerful than outward displays of power or displays of God's judgment.
God’s response was:
"My voice will begin to be heard and effect change in very quiet and small things..." (Guzik)
The advancement of the Kingdom happens with little things first...
Look for people to hear God's voice in the little things, an expression of unconditional/agape love, or an act of selfless generosity...a "widow's mite" here and an "alabaster box of ointment" there... But in Kingdom reality these are not little things, because the full presence of God continues to speak through each one of these events.
If we can hear the small voice, and through the Spirit respond, and present a model of faith/hope/love walking in the Kingdom — we will then be joined to, and saturated by, the fullness of both the power and love of God; only then can we exhibit a form of the Christian faith worth propagating to the nations.
As a great glacier continues to advance while never losing ground...claiming and carving the landscape and splitting mountains...so does the Kingdom advance in a great display of super-natural power under control(the very definition of "meekness"). And via experiential knowledge, gained through relationship with the Father, the Body of Christ seizes upon the Kingdom with tremendous zeal, enraptured by the holy passion aroused through a still small voice, a gentle caress...climaxed in fiery intercourse with her Husband...and thus "the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force." (Jesus - Mat_11:12; nkjv)
Resources:
Our Resources page features Word of Truth e-Sword modules and various sites that offer free Bible study resources.
NEW!!! Jeff has recently completed and posted the e-Sword Bible module "The Transliterated LXX-BYZ- The Septuagint (LXX/Greek Old Testament) and the Majority Text (Greek New Testament): The New Testament in the Original Greek, Byzantine Textform; Edited by Maurice A. Robinson and William G. Pierpont. Transliterated and keyed to Strong's Numbers with complete parsing information." You can find the link to download this file on the Resources page.
Articles:
Jeff has posted a new article:
Excerpt: "...when we come upon a "difficult" passage of scripture that seems to say that "Christ is the end of the law", or, "ye are not under law, but under grace", it is always helpful to be able to tweak a few words to change the meaning of what is clearly being said in the Greek (it must be nice to change the rules as you go in a game you want to win)..."--Read full article in the Articles page.
and:
Excerpt: "This week we are going to be looking at another one of those difficult passages of scripture that has no doubt kept many a Christian awake at night wondering, "Did I blaspheme the Holy Spirit when I…"--Read full article in the Articles page.
Archives:
23.02.2009 "The New Covenant", or, "The Old Renewed Covenant"? A closer look at the core doctrine of the Messianic Movement.
Excerpt: "Many in the Messianic Movement contend that the "New" Covenant is just the "Old" Covenant (the Law of Moses, i.e., Torah) renewed. April and I spent a year and a half learning, living, and teaching the Messianic perspective. After much prayerful study of the Word of God we have left the Messianic Movement, and have fully returned to our Christian family and Church home, having come to the following conclusion..." Read full article in the Archives page.
"Elijah and The Kingdom"
Excerpt: "...Look for people to hear God's voice in the little things, an expression of unconditional/agape love, or an act of selfless generosity...a 'widow's mite' here and an 'alabaster box of ointment' there... But in Kingdom reality these are not little things, because the full presence of God continues to speak through each one of these events."--Read full article under Featured Article on this page.More Articles:
