God created man in His image, and for four basic purposes:

1. to have fellowship with,
2. to cultivate the garden,
3. to be fruitful and multiply, and
4. to rule over the earth and all that is in it.

Man’s restoration will not be complete until all four of these purposes have been recovered. Our personal restoration will not be complete until all four of these purposes have been recovered. Before these can be applied rightly to the rest of mankind, they must first be recovered by the church. Now let’s look at how...

World War II remains the most devastating and costly conflict in human history. Including the war in China there were as many as one hundred million people who died in it. The physical damage is far beyond our ability to calculate. It was motivated by the some of the cruelest evil to ever manifest itself in mankind. Even so, as both the Lord Jesus and Paul explained, the things that will come upon the world at the end will be like birth pangs when a woman in labor. It is the nature of birth pangs or “contractions” to become both...

For the last few weeks we have been examining what has been the basic purpose of God for nearly six thousand years, which is restoration. God is going to restore man and the earth from all of the consequences of the fall. Understanding this is basic to understanding the purpose of God in anything. Understanding God's purpose for this will give us hope for anything - any relationship, any church, and any problem. Then, as we see Him restore, we will grow in faith for bigger needs and bigger problems. By the end, His people will believe Him for the...

One of my favorite quotes is from Peter Lord, “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” Many people get distracted from the River of Life by little tributaries that feed it. This leads to the overemphasis of teachings, which leads to extremes, as well as the worst deception of all—the pursuit of a doctrine over the Lord Himself.

We need to often hear this as a reminder to help keep us on track. It is much better to know the Lord, and learn to abide in Him every day and not know a thing about...

Last week we briefly addressed a few basic principles needed to understand the biblical prophecies of our times. One principle that we need to address in more depth is the fact that most biblical prophecies are very general in nature. Why didn’t the Lord make them more specific?

Most prophecies in Scripture, including most of the Messianic prophecies, were so ambiguous, couched in the middle of seemingly other unrelated text, that they were not understood by even the most devoted students of prophecy until after they had come to pass. It is because of this that many students of Scripture...