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Showing posts from October, 2009

Self Examination and Repentance In Different Stages of Life

One of the spiritual disciplines is self-examination. This discipline designed to promote spiritual growth by making one aware of his or her sins, confess those sins, and repent of those sins. Making the Christian aware of sin is difficult because we have blind spots. The Christian may not see certain sins due to a hardening of the heart. Another reason one might find sins difficult to observe is that the Christian has properly repented of the sins of his youth and grown to feel that sinning for the most part except for small sins was mostly indicative of those sins of his or her youth. As a child or a youth one commonly has a different set of temptations than an adult. The adult Christian who has moved beyond childhood temptations or youth temptations may feel that there is relatively little wrong in his life. The secret though is that at the new maturity level, there is a new set of temptations. Having recently gone through a season of my life that was marked by religious pri

The Heart Of The Matter: Another Look At The New Perspective On Paul

Reposting this from my website. By Terry L. Pruitt Introduction An anachronism is something or an idea that is placed outside its time. In recent years, re-enactors of medieval history have developed an organization called the Society for Creative Anachronisms. This society purposely creates hand made items and events (i.e. jousts) from another time. At other times people stumble in writing a story and place an anachronism in it unintentionally. Some classical scholars believe that some of the cultural items written in Homer's Odyssey are anachronisms. One history scholar claims to find it difficult to enjoy the mystery books and subsequent television series Brother Cadfael because of the anachronistic use of the scientific methods, especially forensic science, which would have been out of character and world view of a medieval monastery. Examples of unintentional anachronisms abound. At one Bible conference the speaker constantly referred to his trip to Israel, and then made the m

A Story About An Emerging Future

This is a continuation of posting from my website that is going away. Some of the issues addressed in this post are a little dated at this point, but much of it still stands. A Story About An Emerging Future July 12, 2004 By Terry L. Pruitt Introduction: Predicting The Future Of The Church Futurology is a study of current trends in technology or society and how those trends will play out. Writer's like Alvin and Heidi Toffler in Future Shock and Power Shift take an academic look at the possibilities of what is the logical conclusions to certain trends that currently exist. The trend is usually predicted to continue when it comes to technology and social change. Some futurologists would predict that technology like the bar code and scanner system in grocery stores will expand to be included in you future kitchen so that the grocery list can be automated. You could keep an accurate inventory of your refrigerator and cupboard contents in a object-oriented database w

The Christian Canon Was Authoritative From Its Inception By Terry L. Pruitt

This is a reposting from my website which is going the way of all flesh. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown is the main source of information for many in this post-modern generation regarding how the Bible developed. One of it's themes is that those who held power in the church choose the books of the Bible to support their power base. Browns charge against the church, though couched in a work of fiction, is serious. The Bible itself gives strong warnings against such power plays.1 Deuteronomy 4:2 says, "You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you." And the book of Revelation "I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book," calls for faithfulness to the book. (Rev 22:18) The list of the books that rightly belong in the Bible is called the canon.2 The canon is not strictl

Commentary on 2 Timothy 2:11-13 By Terry L. Pruitt

This is a repost to my blog of content from my website. My website is being decommissioned. I will be putting several pages here in the next few days to preserve them as the Geocities pages get nixed. “This is a faithful saying, If we have died with Him, we will live with Him, If we endure, we will reign with Him, If we disown Him, then He will also disown us, If we are faithless, then He remains faithful. For He is not able to deny himself.” --Terry's Own Translation Paul is writing his young disciple Timothy to encourage him in his ministry and walk with the Lord. As he does, he encourages Timothy to remain faithful to the Lord during trials. Paul gives Timothy several examples which he is to follow in the first half of 2 Timothy chapter two. He first tells Timothy to emulate Paul's ministry by passing on to other faithful men the doctrines Timothy learned from Paul. Timothy is then to emulate a soldier who is able to suffer. The example of the soldier also shows how Timot