Paisley United Methodist Church

02/18/2023

Dear God, I experience many moments of weakness in my daily life. I thank you that I can totally rely on your strength to move forward and do the work you have called me to do. I take glory in my moments of pain and weakness, because you give me the strength and resolve to carry on, the same way you did for the apostle Paul and the rest of the believers who proclaimed the gospel. I choose not to give up because I know you are always with me. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.

02/14/2023

We are going to suffer terriblu, unlike at any time in our history. We need to get ready for next world war.

On Tuesday's "Wake Up America," Gordon Chang reacts to the balloon and 3 "objects" shot down and says, "He thinks China and Russia are working together."Visi...

02/14/2023

Numbers 6:24-26 (KJV) The LORD bless thee, and keep thee:
The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:
The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace. TV

02/13/2023

It’s easy to cry out to God when things go wrong. We call out asking Him to defeat our enemies, to heal our illnesses, and to overcome our trials. But what motivates our cry? Is it simply our own desperation, or do we want others to know that our God is the One True God? Let us call on the Lord knowing that the glory is His and that our lives are living testimonies to His greatness.

02/12/2023

Acts 1:8
But ye shall receive power,after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

02/12/2023

Acts 2:36
Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.

02/12/2023

02/12/2023

Father God, I confess that all too often I choose my way over Yours. Help me to put away all of the desires, priorities, and pride of my old sinful nature, to crucify my old self. Fill me instead with a new life lived in step with You, empowered by Your victory so that I may walk in obedience as I follow wherever You lead me. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

02/11/2023

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Biblical StudiesGeneral Biblical StudiesThe Covenants
What is the difference between the old covenant and the new covenant?
Derek Thomas & 2 others
2 Min Read
Play: Video
THOMAS: One answer would be what John says in his prologue: “The law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). What does John mean? Does he mean there was no grace in the Old Testament? Does he mean there is no law in the New Testament? Obviously not; he is making a relative contrast. I think John Murray said that John is making a relative contrast in absolute terms. There was so much law under the Old Testament that it appears as though the old covenant added laws relative to the state of Israel as an infant and a teenager.

I remember when I first allowed our children to be home alone. My wife was at a Bible study, and I was at home with the children. They were in their early teens, and an emergency happened. I had to go to the hospital. I told my children four hundred things they were not allowed to do until their mother came home, but the number one thing was, “If someone knocks, do not answer the door.” My children are now in their forties. I don’t give them any laws at all, but I do expect them to live in relative obedience to some standards. That’s a way of saying that the old covenant was an administration for teenagers and the new covenant is an administration for adults.

PARSONS: I’m going to add one important thing that took me years to understand. The Old Testament does not equal the old covenant. The old covenant, technically speaking, is the Mosaic covenant. The Mosaic covenant is the law, as Derek was saying and as John makes clear in his prologue.

We did a Tabletalk issue a few years ago titled “What’s So New about the New Covenant?” In that issue, we tried to help people understand what is new and unique about the new covenant, as well as the continuity between the old and new covenants. That is just a point of clarification, but it’s an important one.

GODFREY: It’s important to remember that our theologians have used the word covenant to describe a lot of different relationships. There is not only the old covenant and the new covenant, but there is also the broader framework in Scripture of the covenant of works that was given to Adam, in which he was to maintain his relationship to God with perfect obedience. Then there is the covenant of grace, and both the old covenant and the new covenant are administrations of the covenant of grace.

The Mosaic economy, as an administration of the covenant of grace, has a particularly legal cast. Part of the function of the Mosaic law, as Paul says over and over again, is to teach the reality of sin. It’s difficult to keep all the law of Moses, so it impinges on the people of God to know their sinfulness and their need of mercy.

THOMAS: That function of the Mosaic law is the reason why Paul, in 2 Corinthians, speaks of the old covenant as an administration of death and the new covenant as an administration of glory. It’s a relative contrast in absolute terms, but clearly, one of the aspects of the old covenant was to reinforce our inherited depravity. By maximizing the laws, they revealed sin.

This transcript of Derek Thomas', Burk Parsons', and W. Robert Godfrey's answers given during our If the Foundations Are Destroyed: Escondido 2022 Conference and has been lightly edited for readability. To ask Ligonier a biblical or theological question, just visit Ask.Ligonier.org or message us on Facebook or Twitter.

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Are you looking for answers to your questions about the Bible or theology? Each week, Nathan W. Bingham submits questions from listeners like you to one of Ligonier Ministries’ Teaching Fellows or a special guest.

02/11/2023

Hebrews 8:1-13 (KJV) Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens;
A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.
For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices: wherefore it is of necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer.
For if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law:
Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.
But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.
For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.
For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:
Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.
In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.