Truth Be Told: A Blog by Pastor Bill Alderson

                           And he said, "Hear me, brethren and fathers! The God of glory [ doxa – superior reputation,                          splendor, perfection] appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he                lived in Haran .                            Acts 7:2 So Moses and Aaron said to all the sons of Israel, “At evening you will know that the Lord has brought you out of the land of Egypt; and in the morning, you will see the glory [ kabod – weighty, splendor, noteworthy, impressive] of the Lord, for He hears your grumblings against the Lord; and what are we, that you grumble against us? ”  Moses said, “This will happen when the Lord gives you meat to eat in the evening,...

                That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born [ gennao – received from God a new,           spiritual life] of the Spirit is spirit.                     John 3:6 In the context of John 3 and Jesus's conversation with Nicodemus, the above verse is not restricted to the believer's new position as a child of the King, but it also addresses his experience in walking with his Lord. According to Olshausen, “That which is begotten partakes of the nature of that which begat it.” Flesh is not the mere material body, but all that comes into the world by birth, the entire man. The flesh is opposed to the Spirit, denoting humanity in its corrupted, depraved condition, in entire subjection to the law of sin and death. (Romans 8:2). Even if a man could enter a second time into his mother's womb and be ...

               But we ourselves have had the answer of death in ourselves and at this time still have that                             experience, in order that we should not be trusting in ourselves but in the God who raises the                     dead; who delivered [ rhuomai – snatched from danger – past tense] us out of so great a death                     and will deliver [present middle indicative – does deliver – present tense] us, on whom we have                placed our hope and right now still maintain that attitude of hope that also He will yet deliver us                [future tense] , you also helping together on our behalf by your suppli...

Now it came about after the death of Joshua that the sons of Israel inquired of the Lord, saying, “Who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites, to fight against them?” The Lord said, “Judah shall go up; behold, I have given the land into his hand .”                           Judges 1:1-2 The people of Israel had become a very disorganized, loose confederacy after their conquest of Canaan under Joshua. Therefore, without leadership, they repeatedly fell into idolatry, foreign political domination, intermarriage with pagans, and other major sins. They were in a general state of spiritual confusion. Two verses that characterized this period are Judges 17:6 and Judges 21:25: In those days, there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes . The nation of Israel was in disarray; they needed help from God. This period represented some o...