Nearer my God, to Thee, nearer to Thee ... begins the hymn Sarah Adams wrote in the 1800s. 

   Life's rough patches caused Adams to question her faith. Why did God seem so far away?

   But she learned, even through difficult and painful farewells, that Christians can draw near to God. Her life included a cross, darkness, stony griefs and woes, yet she overcame. 

  Our Pursuit of His Presence  

   
   God is nearer than our soul, than our secret thoughts.

   Do we draw near to him by analyzing doctrines to the finest point? 
By solving all mysteries and prophesies? We can become amateur theologians without becoming saints.

   If Sarah Adams found God through her storms, we can too. But, God doesn't toss his gifts our way like cheap beads at a parade.

   We repent. We surrender. We search our Holy Bible for truth and guidance.

   We receive. We respond, and respond to his love - with love. 

   This (love) then is how we know that we belong to the truth, 

and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever 

our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, 

and he knows everything. 1 John 3:19:20 

   

   Your's truly - a slow learner. We spent our formative years attending Sunday school and church, while supposing God is up there somewhere, far far away.   

😕

  Our Pursuit of His Presence  

   We'll take the rap for our ignorance. Our first love was sports and other games. 

But it might have helped if someone had led me to David's Psalm 139:7-10: 

   If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me...

   Or David's son, Solomon: 

   The heavens, even the highest heaven cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built! 1 Kings 8:27

   Jacob may have been a slow learner, until finally understanding, Surely the Lord is in this place. God had told him, I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go. Genesis 28:15-16 

   Taught by the Spirit, Paul wrote: 

   God made every nation of men...so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though He is not far from each one of us. 

For in him we live and move and have our being. We are his offspring. Acts 17:27-28 

   Now that Jesus has taken our punishment and has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ ... Ephesians 1:3 ... and sent the Spirit to impart life to us, who would dare say that God is far, far away? 

   For Christ did not enter a man made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; He entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God's presence. Hebrews 9:24 

I come to the garden alone,  
While the dew is still on the roses,  
And the voice I hear falling on my ear,  
The Son of God discloses.  

                                            ___________Our Pursuit of His Presence  

And He walks with me and He talks with me,

And He tells me I am his own;

And the joy we share as we tarry there,

None other has ever known.

   This is the first verse and refrain from In The Garden, the favorite hymn of my wife's father. Will the Lord walk with you? In your garden? 

   Adam and his wife in their garden heard God ask, 

"Where are you?" "What is this you have done?"      ...and they were afraid.

   In another garden, Mary of Magdala stood crying outside an empty tomb. She saw a man, thinking he was the gardener. "Sir," she said, "if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him and I will get him."

   Jesus said, "Mary."

   "Teacher!" she cried out. Mary instantly knew the joyous, miraculous truth. And today, we know the truth, that Adam's fall has been atoned. The Lord invites us to believe and to fellowship with him, in our quiet place. 

   That final, frightful night, Jesus told his disciples, He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him. John 14:21

   On Pentecost, Peter quoted David (Ps. 16) who wrote on behalf of the Messiah, you (the Father) will fill me with joy in your presence. Peter also quoted Joel 3, that the Spirit would be poured out, making his presence knowable to all believers. 

Rocky Times   

   While they debate controversial and expensive solutions to mass shootings, a few words - along with honor for the One who spoke them - along with hope of heaven and fear of hell - could prevent some of our mayhem and heartbreak.

   And these words don't cost a penny.

   We don't claim that words alone will suffice in cases of mental issues. However, our nation - under God? - has kept these and other character-shaping words out of public schools for decades. (Early schools used Bibles to teach reading.) 

   What's so politically incorrect about...

You shall not murder

Exodus 20:14

Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you

Matthew 5:44

In everything, do to others what you would have them do to you

Matthew 7:12

?

Looking Ahead to Monday    

   That last, frightful night, Jesus told his disciples:

   He who loves me will be loved by my Father,
   and I too will love him and show myself to him.  

   In a garden?  

                    John 14:21

Today, we punt

   We were too busy Friday to study the mass shooter problem, as we intended. 
Rather than throw something together for the sake of our daily schedule, we will punt the ball and look for something nice to publish Sunday.

     Jimmy 

Priorities 

   Paris has three chefs for every lawyer. Washington, D.C. has 15 lawyers for each chef. Washington also has 10 economists for every member of the clergy, while our national debt has climbed to $21 trillion.

- - -

   Rachael Denhollander, the first woman to go public against molester Larry Nassar, wrote:

   "A battle is raging over evolution today, but it is not confined to the scientific arena. Like ripples on a pond, the effect of an ideology in one area of life spreads to each area, and the consequences are never neatly contained...

   "The time has come when Christians must either acknowledge God's lordship in every area...or very possibly suffer permanent defeat." 

Marvin Olasky

Silencing the Guns

   We're working on solutions to the mass-shooter problem. Hope to have it all solved by tomorrow. Read all about it exclusively on Views by the Sea.

 
     Jimmy

       Now
           in
         His
      presence
            forever
                          
                                                         

God spoke to Moses out of a burning bush.

A pillar of fire led the exodus at night.

Fire glowed between the wings of the cherubim. 

At Pentecost, the Spirit descended in tongues of fire.

Our Pursuit of His Presence

   We say, none of the above fires resulted in damage or harm. Beware the collector who charges admission to see pieces from the burnt bush, or other (fake) relics from Bible times. The Lord used his own flames to show himself for his purposes. 
   If you don't believe me, fire and brimstone for you!   😉
   
   Today, He speaks to us through his inspired Word, other people, creation, circumstances ... and do we believe in the still small voice?

   God opened the way, by Jesus, for us to see with spiritual eyes the wonder of himself, his holy presence. In Martin Luther, author Eric Metaxas wrote that the reformer wanted people to deepen their relationship with God personally. That was a new - or rediscovered - idea in the 16th century. 

Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim you,

who walk in the light of your presence, O Lord.

Ps. 89:15

   Now, the only veil remaining is the one covering our own hearts, the self-life. When we surrender, God removes what needs to be removed.

Therefore brothers, since we have confidence to enter into 

the Most Holy Place, by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way...

Hebrews 10:19-20

"You have formed us for yourself, 

   and our hearts are restless till they find rest in you."    

   
   That was Augustine, referring to Scripture about God creating us for his own pleasure. He provided a way that He and we can enjoy each other, as He and Adam did for a time.          

          Our Pursuit of His Presence

   Due to Eve's disobedience, then Adam's and all the rest of us, the intended relationship became impossible. God could have destroyed his creation right there in Eden. It is only by his grace that we even exist.

   In our ignorance we cut the life cord. But God chose to restore those willing to believe. He alone could and did redeem us, dealing with our sins. When Christ finished his work, the veil between us opened, providing reconciliation, the possibility of his presence.

   A.W. Tozer wrote that God's presence burns away our impurities. Funny, but during my former struggle with God, I used the word burn while begging him to destroy the garbage within me. And that work continues.  

   

You have set our iniquities before you, 

our secret sins in the light of your presence.

Ps. 90:1

Tomorrow: He uses fire

Our Pursuit of His Presence    😊

   We were happy to see that as of this morning, 59 people had read about "fugitive" Martin Luther's historic translation of the New Testament for the benefit of common Germans. We hope it was more than our photo of Wartburg Castle that hooked you. 

   It's worth repeating Luther: "...faith is a living, daring confidence in God's grace...so certain that a believer would stake his life on it a thousand times. (It) makes men glad and bold and happy...without compulsion ready and glad to do good...to serve...to suffer...out of love and praise to God."

   That is the essence of this series of blogs. Personally we need to allow God to gift us with even more victorious faith, and we hope many of you desire that as well. 

   David described his rescue from death in 2 Samuel 22: Out of the brightness of his presence, bolts of lightning blazed forth. (Maybe we can get by without the bolts.)

   After meeting Jesus by the Spirit, Paul himself expressed a burning desire after Christ.

   For Luther, burning might have been physical. He returned home in 1521, leaving his fate in God's hands. The pope died the same year. The (Spanish) emperor would be distracted by his wars with France and Italy, and the Muslim threat from Turkey, for the rest of the decade. Unwittingly, his edict of death resulted in several months of a "castle vacation" for Luther, who used it to translate the NT.

   Young readers: Live each day for its own sake. 

But, you can look forward to aging, if God wills, 

 when the pursuit of many interests isn't so satisfying...

 when human-based religious habits aren't so fulfilling...

 when you know you can't take it with you...

 and when all you need is God himself.

   

   One Thing Leads to Another...and Another...   

  Wartburg Castle  

While Emperor Charles V and Pope Leo X wanted him burned at the stake, 

here in 1521 Martin Luther translated the New Testament into German 

in 11 short weeks, making it available to common people.

Luther also wrote a preface to each book. 

These in English are the first lines of his introduction to Romans:

Faith is a divine work in us which changes us and makes us to be born anew of God.

Faith is a living, daring confidence in God's grace, so sure and certain that 

the believer would stake his life on it a thousand times. 

In May 1738, John Wesley heard this read aloud, 

and experienced the "warm feeling" he spoke of. He preached the 
same Gospel as did Luther, and a Methodist revival ensued.

This led to the conversion of William Wilberforce, 

who would battle Parliament to end the slave trade in the British Empire. 

And the ministry and preaching of George Whitefield in the American 
colonies helped them unite, which led to you know what. 

The American Experiment was/is based on the same belief in 

human equality that free Germans adopted in the 16th century.

   Luther's preface continued...

This knowledge of and confidence in God's grace makes men glad and bold and happy 

in dealing with God and all his creatures. And this is the work which the Holy Spirit
 performed in faith. Because of it, without compulsion, a person is ready and glad

to do good to everyone, to serve everyone, to suffer everything out of love 

and praise to God who has shown him this grace. 

Alexa, I Have a Sore Throat   

   Following up on the healthcare announcement by Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase, a few experts in the field are speculating about what may come of it. Here are two of them:

Dr. Eric Topol, San Diego. "Amazon could assume drug distribution. They could use voice platforms, like Alexa, to help discuss symptoms and get feedback, to coordinate hospital post-op care through voice-activated artificial intelligence." 

Douglas Hoey, National Community Pharmacists Assn. "It seems like a logical next step for self-insured companies to administer the health benefit themselves. You could...still make the providers whole and cut out much of the red tape and bureaucracy. The providers' masters are those intermediaries - the health plans, the pharmacy benefit managers. This is a way for companies to be the new masters." 

$20 million
   The amount the IRS paid private debt collectors in 2017 to collect $6.7 million in back taxes. So much for eliminating waste, fraud and abuse. 

Coming Monday:

What Old Testament King David and New Testament Paul had in common.

       Jimmy

Let's Face It      
It's a Two-Edged Sword    

   You probably use Facebook, as do we and more than 2 billion others around the world. 

   We like photos by family and friends, and we gain a few more readers by posting some of our daily Views. There is more to Facebook than grandchildren and selfies, however.

   A former vice president for user growth has expressed "tremendous guilt" over his role in eroding "the core foundations of how people behave (with) each other." Speaking to the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Chamath Palihapitiya - let's refer to him as CP - said, "I think we created tools that are ripping apart the social fabric of how society works."

   CP is a venture capitalist and part owner of the Golden State Warriors of the NBA. He now sees "The short-term feedback loops that are destroying how society works: no civil discourse, no cooperation, misinformation, mistruth." 

   He adds, "...you don't realize it, but you are being programmed." 

   "Bad actors can manipulate people. We get rewarded - hearts, likes, thumbs-up - and we conflate that with value...and truth." "What it is," CP thinks, "is fake, brittle popularity." 

   Other former Facebook investors and employees are also expressing regret. Sean Parker became a "conscientious objector" to social media's exploitation of "a vulnerability in human psychology." 

   Facebook also has been criticized for how it regulates - or doesn't - the ads, especially thousands of Russian ads created to influence voters in 2016. 

   Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently apologized "for the ways my work was used to divide people rather than bring us together."

Washington Post

      Jimmy

   No man can come to me except the Father who sent me draws him.   

______________________

Our Pursuit of His Presence

  

   We sang "I Surrender All" in church, knowing full well we had not surrendered all. If we aren't hearing his quiet drawing, He sometimes, lovingly, speaks through trouble.

   The trouble was partly my own doing, though not intentional. Clueless, maybe. God permitted something He hates.

😡

   It didn't compute, so we dared to challenge God to show me that He is real. During two sleep-deprived months of wrestling, it was me who needed to show something. He had me on the mat, confessing everything from soup to nuts. I was as low as they go. Perfect.  

  Then, one Sunday night after church, in the parking lot as we opened the car door, a great, wonderful emotion came over me. It's good nobody saw me both laughing and crying while driving up the interstate toward my apartment.

   This began a three-week period that we now suppose was the manifest presence of the Spirit. Several Bible verses stood out, especially in Psalms, as if meant for me. 

   We had our answer in five vivid words:

 Jesus Christ is the Truth!    

   The glow left as quickly as it came; we would have traded the rest of our life for just five more minutes of him. 

😊

   We will never be the same. Still, daily life has a way of crowding God out. So, we keep pursuing, not just on Sundays, not just when we feel like it. 

   The Reformation that followers of Martin Luther sparked gave the least of us the same access to God as has anyone on earth. There is no one between us and our loving Savior, and He wants us to know him personally.  

Who can stand in the Presence of the Lord, this holy God?

1 Sam. 6:20

---------------------------

Note: Don't think I'm saying you must have the same experience. That was me, decades ago. You are you. I wrote this for encouragement, nothing else.    Jimmy

   It works like this, doesn't it? Young kids want to be in the presence of their parent(s), and any siblings. Gradually they seek school and other friendships, which come and go, and make less time for parents. 

   More often, all these relationships take second place to the presence of one special person, which may or may not last a lifetime.

__           ________________   

Our Pursuit of His Presence   

   The above - seeking and finding - often occurs without real awareness of the greatest love available, that of our unseen God.

Seeking God doesn't narrow one's life,

but raises it to the level of highest fulfillment. 

   So wrote the late A.W. Tozer, author of The Pursuit of God, which motivated us to study and write. Today, before we go further, here are some pursuits Tozer does not recommend:

   He noticed that "many teachers of the doctrines are satisfied, unaware of the absence of the presence of God, nor is there any difference in their lives." 

   "Have we built the altar and prepared the sacrifice," he asked, "only to count the stones and rearrange the parts, with no sign of fire?"

   Tozer added, "Sound Bible exposition is a must, but exposition can be carried on without delivering spiritual nourishment. Words alone don't nourish the soul; God himself does." 

   Also, "The Bible is not an end in itself, but a means to an intimate and satisfying knowledge of God...to delight in his presence. Taste and know the sweetness of God in the core of the heart."

😋

Put the bread of the Presence on this table to be before me at all times.

Exodus 25:30

Tomorrow: God hid; we went seeking

   Our Pursuit of His Presence   

   Part 1   

   Remember our introduction, two weeks ago? People filing out of church, looking more like they had been to the dentist? Color me guilty.

   Remember King David disrobing, leaping and dancing for joy along the road as they carried the ark of God to Jerusalem? To his mortified wife, Michal, David said, "I will celebrate before the Lord. I will become even more undignified than this..." And Michal never bore children. 2 Sam. 6.

   We've seen joyful fellow saints. Others of us sit there like it's a lecture on moon rocks. (Granted, nothing wrong with being still, knowing that the Rock is Lord). 

   Okay. There is a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance. Eccl. 3:4. We'll leap and dance when our Lord returns.

   Until that glorious appearing, He offers the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5), including joy. Like other fruit, joy is a gift from God. It's called, the joy of the Lord.

   We can't conjure up the fruit. So...?

   God chooses to dwell by the Spirit within human hearts - not rocks - as we believe, repent and live by faith in Christ. Our hearts are reserved for God alone. Jesus went to the heart of the matter; see Matt. 16:24-25.

   If we don't harden our hearts (Ps. 95; Heb. 3 & 6), we already are and remain citizens of the Kingdom.

   Joy!   😇

   The more we pursue him, the more we gladly deny ourselves, accept suffering if it comes, and follow him, knowing him and the fruit He provides.

   You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand. 

Ps. 16:11

by David, the king who danced for joy

   

   It Never Gets Old   

   Gettysburg Address   

   "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. 

   "Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

   "But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate - we cannot consecrate - we cannot hallow - this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. 

   "The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. 

  "It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us - that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain - that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom - and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

   Abraham Lincoln

    November 19, 1863 

   The Smear   

 How Shady Political Operatives 

 and Fake News CONTROL 

 What You See, What You Think, 

 and HOW YOU VOTE. 

 by Sharyl Attkisson 

   Since we can't violate Copyright laws - assuming we lowly bloggers are obliged - we're suggesting you get this informative book by award-winning, investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson.  

   She wouldn't mind if we tell you what's in it. Everything written or said is for a purpose, an agenda, she writes.

   She delves into polls ("astroturf"), collusion, Wikileaks, PR firms, super PACs, nonprofits, communications strategists, fake-news purveyors, 9/11, Sandy Hook, Olympic banking, Baltimore, Rolling Stone and political operatives posing as journalists.

   How about some names: Goebbels, JFK, Dan Rather, Hillary Clinton, Michael Brown, Brian Williams, Ben Rhodes, Barack Obama, George Stephanopoulos, Jeff Bezos and - don't miss this guy - David Brock. 

   There's more: Russian interference, media sins, Fusion GPS, donor money, Google, false blogger names (like Jimmy Donut?), Snopes, the internet, Twitter and Facebook. 

   Attkisson points out that a lie told a thousand times becomes truth.

 * * *

Tomorrow in Views: A few words from the president...Lincoln that is.

Monday: Our Pursuit of His Presence, Part 1

   You have made known to me the path of life; 

you will fill me with joy in your presence, 

with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

Ps. 16:11, by David

      Jimmy

Tax Cuts - Good; Debt - Bad!   

    You remember. We entered the 2016 election period with warnings about national debt. Whichever party held power in 2017 needed first and foremost to tackle the budget.

   We're such poor tacklers.

   A new report shows we might borrow another $955 billion this fiscal year. In round numbers - about a trillion.

   Nonpartisan groups predict a $1 trillion deficit in 2019, and for some years beyond. 

   In 2012 we borrowed $1.2 trillion, and in 2009, $1.79 trillion. The 2009 deal was for shovel-ready projects, which they later admitted were mostly non-existent. 

   Our deficit - the difference between revenue and expenditures in any given year - is already rising, before adding more money for the military, disaster relief and other programs. This year's tax bill, which most of us like, will add $1 trillion or more to national debt - the accumulation of past deficits. And that's after accounting for increased economic growth.

   Who says politicians don't listen to the voters?

   The party that tackles entitlements, our largest annual expense, soon will be out of power. Then the other party might (?) restore full entitlements, stay in charge long term, and allow our debt - and interest payments - to rise as before. 

   Unbiased experts blame both parties. As we've written here before, we seniors have responsibility too. We can't blame "fraud and wasteful spending" solely for trillion-dollar deficits. 

Source: Heather Long, economics correspondent

Washington Post

      Jimmy

Choosing Leaders Who Win 

   Does anyone other than Confederate sympathizers have a problem with Gen. U.S. Grant taking the fight to Lee's army? Grant was a drinker, who would have been overlooked in peacetime. (Although, we did elect this hero president.)

   Does anyone other than Nazis have a problem with Gen. George Patton, the one American general that German officers feared? This vulgar-talking eccentric normally would not have kept his rank.

   We are in a different war, ongoing since the 1960s. The political Left - not centrist Democrats - is engaged in what one author calls "a knife fight," where the only rules are those of the late Saul Alinsky.

   Until now, the Right hasn't engaged the fight. Think George W. Bush, quiet dignity. John McCain, collegiality. Mitt Romney, propriety. 

   They and other Republicans before them received the same blistering attacks. 

   Today, the combative Left cleverly asks if we're not bothered by Donald Trump's lack of decorum, or his remarks which fail the dignity test. (Not that they care.) 

   Evan Sayet, whose July 2017 column is the basis for this blog, says we have tried dignity, decorum and compromise without effect. 

   Does anyone other than the Left have a problem with a fighter in the White House? We saw him as a roughneck during the primaries in 2016. 

   But, like Grant and Patton, he fights for America. The Left fears his undignified backbone.

                            Jimmy

Evan Sayet

 The Hills May Ring With the Sound of Music 

 today... 

  But, Cacophony Will Replace Symphony  

Know what we fear?     😨

   I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. So, because you are lukewarm, I am about to spit you out of my mouth. Rev. 3:14-16 

How about examples of the Lord's terror?    😟

   The Lord removed them from his presence, as he had warned through all his servants the prophets. 2 Kings 17:23

   The mountains quake before him and the hills melt away. The earth trembles at his presence, the world and all who live in it. Naham 1:5 

And promises to come?    😱

   They will be punished with everlasting destruction, and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power. 2 Thess. 1:9

   There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black...the moon turned blood red, and the stars fell to earth. The sky receded like a scroll, rolling up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Rev. 6:13-14

   The fish...the birds...the beasts...every creature that moves across the ground, all the people on the face of the earth will tremble at my presence. The mountains will be overturned, the cliffs will crumble and every wall will fall to the ground. Ezek. 38:20 

Shall we pursue his grace, or suffer his wrath?

Monday the 12th in Views: Our Pursuit of His Presence

Part 1

   

Are We There Yet?

   No. We have a few more thoughts before we begin this series next Monday.

   We left off on Wednesday with the impression this won't be about doctrine. But doctrine is important. We believe that we grow by learning doctrine and striving to know our God. 

   Paul told Timothy to, command men not to teach false doctrines...nor devote themselves to endless genealogies...meaningless talk and controversies. Rather, Paul promoted God's work...by faith...love...a pure heart and a good conscience...by proclaiming the original faith as taught by Christ and the apostles. 

   A.W. Tozer said the supreme goal is not Bible knowledge in itself, but a moral transformation expressing itself in love, purity of heart, a clear conscience and faith without hypocrisy. Teaching and learning is not primarily to impart knowledge, he wrote; it is to produce holiness and a righteous lifestyle. 

   The late Adrian Rogers, a Baptist, taught that the Bible is the Logos, the Word for our minds, speech which God then uses by means of the Spirit to speak to our hearts. God speaks to everyone, he claimed, though many refuse to receive it, and "are guilty of the worst sin, unbelief." 

   Meanwhile, in Revelation the apostle John passed on to us the Lord's urgent call: Long for His presence and His return. 

Tomorrow: Tribulation    😨

    

   

One Lord, One Holy Temple     
   
   If you missed it, the 1960s were somewhat chaotic. Happy Days (for some of us) gave way to nuclear scare, assassinations, war, civil unrest, free love, hippies, outlawing prayer in public schools, and more. 

   Beyond the news, more than 100 distinguished Bible scholars from several countries and many denominations took on a task. They produced the New International Version of the Bible, translating Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek into clear English as accurately as possible. 

   These believers who worshiped the same Lord, but never together, united in a common purpose. 

   We partly understand why different denominations have formed. And why some of them have departed "sound doctrine" altogether. 

   How about your doctrine?     😉 vff
       
      Is it strict election, or does God want everyone to be saved?
      Are you pre-trib or mid-trib? 
      If once saved, are we always saved? 

   Our new series on Views - coming next Monday - asks: 
                       Can we make the main thing the main thing?

   Can we - using our Bibles and prayer - pursue God for himself, without majoring in elective courses? Can we be people of faith and also live with certainty that God exists? Many in the Bible did just that.

   He is real. He may surprise us with his presence. Or, He might be silent, then a day comes when we realize He was and is looking out for us.

Tomorrow: Why the Holy Bible?