Advice from Above

“Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.” When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. So he left them and w...

           Edward Estlin Cummings, or better known as E.E. Cummings, was a 20th-century artist most known for his innovations in style and structure to his poetry. [1] His father was a pastor and professor so from a very early age, Cummings and his sister, Elizabeth, were taught to love the Lord. [2] Through biblical allusions, and having God as a central idea to his poems to begin with, readers can see this love and knowledge about God and His word, come throughout Cumming’s poetry as it continues to spread the message of the gospel.             In poems such as “if there are any heaven my mother will (all by herself) have,” “i am a little church (no great cathedral),” “i thank You God for this most amazing,” and “when god decided to invent,” all have Christ, or a direct aspect about Christ, as the central idea to the poem. Something that is worth noting about the style of Cumming’s poetry is the ...

Setting New Year’s Resolutions are great! Better yourself is great! Doing it on your own strength? Not so great. Depending on God and leaning into what he has for you is the only way to have lasting change in your life . God wants to see you fulfill the desires of your heart and be the best version of yourself. Let’s break down some steps when it comes to setting goals for the New Year. 1.      Trust yourself. Setting goals in the New Year can be intimidating but you must believe in yourself to move forward in reaching your goals. Know that you have forfeited more potential than the devil will ever steal . 2.      Trust what God is calling you towards in the New Year and this season of your life. The whole year is ahead of you with unlocked potential and opportunities. Trust that still small voice and what He is calling you towards. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways subm...

            For someone who didn’t grow up in church, the term Molinism sounds like a word Webster Dictionary just made up. However, once you spend some time in a church setting, this term or the idea surrounding it may eventually come up. So, what is Molinism and how does it relate to the bigger picture?             There are two main elements to Molinism; “God has middle knowledge of counterfactuals of creaturely freedom and agents are possessed of libertarian free will.” (Smith & Limanto) To break that down in even simpler terms, middle knowledge means between natural and free knowledge regarding God’s creative process. A counterfactual is simply a conditional statement and when referring to “creaturely or agent,” the author is referring to living things. Libertarian free will is not referring to political beliefs but is the “conjunction of a rejection of compatibilism along with the claim tha...

There is something about sitting next to someone on an airplane that makes me feel like I must talk to the people around me. On one particular flight, I had a conversation with a traveler who had been physically “soul searching” and traveling for years. This blew my mind. The experience of traveling and seeing the world must have been so cool, but to be looking for something for so long and not find it could have also been exhausting. The world likes to try and come up with answers to these questions, but they don’t compare to the infallible word of God. Everyone has a God-shaped hole in their heart that they try to fill with other things but only God himself can fill that void . We might not do this to the scale of traveling the world for years physically “soul searching” but how often do we throw ourselves into other things, hoping to find fulfillment or satisfaction from something other than God? No amount of “soul searching” will do the trick. Thankfully, God is pursuing us ...

          Robert Lee Frost claimed to be an atheist. [1] However, if a reader were to look closely at his work, there are many allusions to the Bible and Christianity throughout the timeline of his poetry. If someone is truly an atheist, they do not believe God exists. If someone is agnostic, they do not know if God exists. [2] For Robert Frost to truly not believe in God, he sure does mention him frequently and alludes to someone that supposedly, doesn’t exist. It leads a person to question why? Is this a way of expressing Frost’s questioning of the faith? While living from 1874-1963 was Frost simply trying to attract a certain audience for the time period? [3] Or is it merely background knowledge coming to light in his work? There is no way of knowing for sure, but let’s start by taking a deeper look, into the biblical allusions in Robert Frost’s poetry.             Perhaps the most obvious example o...

I am currently in my sophomore year of Bible college studying towards an associates degree in Christian Ministries. I am on track to graduate in the spring and have the pleasure of being enrolled in “Acts and the Early Church” this semester. One assignment was to write a paper on eight of the main conversion accounts in the book of Acts, followed by a simple paragraph on how to become a Christian. I found this assignment helpful in outlining some main events in the book of Acts and thought I would share it. What conversion account do you find to be the most powerful? Do you agree with the paragraph at the end of how to become a Christian? Who comes to mind that you can share this good news with? The Jews on Pentecost Acts 2 When everyone was all together, a strong wind filled the house and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. This enabled them able to speak in tongues and it caused quite a scene. Many people thought they were drinking but Peter used this as an opportunity...