Elliott's Muses

The Bible is a unified story.  It is as some would say a collection of writings over several thousand years of time that were brought together and called the Bible.  The Bible is a unified story.  The Unifying factor of the Scriptures (which is a word I prefer over the word Bible) is that it is the story of how God redeems a sinful world through the death, burial and resurrection of his Son, Jesus Christ. "The Bible is a book that not only do we seek to understand, but a book that so clearly understands us." - Alistair Begg The more we value the story of Jesus' redemption for us, the more we understand what God is doing, and what God wants to do in our lives.  Salvation is not the END, it's merely the beginning of LIFE in Christ Jesus.  Romans 8 reminds us that God has a much bigger picture in mind for what salvation is meant to do. Romans 8:28-30 28  And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called ac...

This last Sunday I had hoped to finish the Old Testament portion of this series of teachings I've entitled "From Garden to Glory" - a Big Picture look at the story of the Bible.  Alas, the weather turned ugly with blowing snow and ice and it shut down church services for a large part of southern and central Wisconsin...even well into the northern parts of the state.  The last part of our Bible is from the Minor Prophets.  They are not called Minor because are as important as the Major Prophets; but they are called Minor because of their length - both in terms of writing as well as history.  These Prophets served God as spokespeople to the nation that had decidedly stepped away from their covenant with God. Now, lest you say this is all OLD stuff, and therefore it is of little value to us today; I would point out that they are people whose words are timeless....it's as if they could have written it today.  It was Paul Simon who wrote in music:  "The w...

My twin brother Ed (Edward) is retiring this month after 20 years of Missionary work, and 35+ years of Ministry.  I'm very proud in a human way of having him to be not only my brother but a friend.  We fought and played with each other as kids growing up; and after I came to Christ he went into the military for a number of years.  Yet at some point we talked about the Gospel and he came to know Christ as his Savior.  That began almost 40 years ago.  Now after 35 years of serving Christ in ministry he is going to retire, but knowing Ed that just means he'll stop receiving a salary for what he does. He often writes papers on important subjects related to theology and Bible.  He just completed his most recent one and I decided to reproduce it here...not because I don't want to write this week, but because I want to honor him.  I hope you enjoy it: Christ in You, the Hope of Glory!  by Edward Pollasch I went through “confirmation” in the Luth...

No other Prophet in Scripture quite scares me as much as Ezekiel.  As a little boy growing up in Fox Lake, I use to venture out on my bike almost daily.  There was one house at the intersection of two streets...a corner house...that had a couple who were "Scary".  The couple weren't bad, or angry, or bothersome...but they dressed weirdly and acted even more weird.  Ezekiel was a Prophet God sent to speak to the nation both before and after the EXILE.  A little history is in order:  Babylon attacked and took captive a number of Jews from Judah (Jerusalem) in three stages:  First in 605 b.c., then 8 years later in 597 b.c., and finally 11 years later in 586 b.c. it was completed - the walls of Jerusalem torn down, the temple destroyed.  Among the people in the Exile was Ezekiel. While in Babylon, Ezekiel has numbers of Visions...often strange visions.  Besides that God tells him to use graphic imagery, symbolic acts, and words that show that...

This week we turn our attention to Jeremiah - sometimes called "the weeping Prophet".  Of all the Prophets, Jeremiah - in my opinion - is the easiest to understand...which doesn't mean his message is easy to take in.  But, to understand his message, a little history is in order. Israel - the 10 northern tribes - had one King after another who proved unfaithful to God's Covenant.  They disobeyed with religious idolatry that descended into despicable actions such as burning children as sacrifices, cultic prostitution, and injustice towards the poor.  Isaiah (read blog before) had prophesied warnings and judgement against the Northern Kingdom; and sure enough, in 722 b.c. Assyria attacked the northern Kingdom and took many of the Israelites into Captivity.  The only part of the nation left was the southern Kingdom that was called Judah and was centralized in Jerusalem. You would think that people in Judah would notice when this unfaithfulness to God in the Nort...

R.C. Sproul wrote a book entitled, "Who is Jesus?".   As he talks about Jesus, he inevitably gets to the issue of the Resurrection.  What he says is so profound when it comes to Easter that I felt it necessary to let him speak, instead of letting me speak for him. The life of Jesus follows a general pattern of movement from humiliation to  exaltation. The movement is not strictly linear, however, as it is interspersed with vignettes of contrast. The birth narrative contains both ignominy and majesty. His public ministry attracts praise and scorn, welcome and rejection, cries of “Hosanna!” and “Crucify Him!” Nearing the shadow of death, He exhibited the translucent breakthrough of transfiguration. The transition from the pathos of the cross to the grandeur of the resurrection is not abrupt. There is a rising crescendo that swells to the moment of breaking forth from the grave clothes and the shroud of the tomb. Exaltation begins with the descent from the cros...