Three Days and Three Nights?

For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth" - Matthew 12:40 (ESV)

In this brief post, "Good Friday...or was it Wednesday or Thursday?" Walter C. Kaiser Jr. explains what the biblical writers meant by three days and three nights.

The Origin of Love

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him (1 John 4:7-9, ESV).

According to John, love originates from God. Without God, love would not exist in the world because "love is from God." Furthermore, John says that "God is love." While God is more than love--He is also holy, just, merciful, etc.--He is certainly not less than love. And the greatest news about God's love is the fact that His love has been made known to us through His only Son. In his Gospel, John put it this way:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16, ESV)

In order for us to know the love of God, we must know Jesus: "All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him” (Luke 10:22, ESV).

So, do you know the love of God that has been manifest in Jesus?

"I am the chief of sufferers also."

It's been a couple of weeks since my last "name that quote" post, so I though that it was about time for another. If you know where the following quote comes from, place your answer in the comment section. The winner will receive an all-expense-paid cruise for two from Anderson, SC to Due West, SC. Here's the quote:

"You must suffer me to go my own dark way. I have brought on myself a punishment and a danger that I cannot name. If I am the chief of sinners, I am the chief of sufferers also. I could not think that this earth contained a place for sufferings and terrors so unmanning."

Those Who Help Themselves

So, where do you think that the phrase--"Heaven helps those who help themselves"--comes from?

While quite a few people would guess that it comes from the Bible, such a guess would be incorrect. The phrase is actually derived from the fable "Hercules and the Wagoner," one of Aesop's Fables. In the fable, a man's wagon gets stuck in the mud. So, the man begins to cry out for Hercules to help him. Eventually Hercules shows up and says, "Put your shoulder to the wheel, man, and goad on your horses, and then you may call Hercules to assist you. If you won't lift a finger to help yourself, you can't expect Hercules or anyone else to come to your aid." (Aesop's Fables, #102)

The Difficulty of Defining "Love", Part II

As I mentioned in a previous post, "love" is a difficult word to define for a number of reasons. At times we define love as though it is simply an emotion. At other times we equate love with sex (i.e. "making love"). Yet, definitions such as these tend to be reductionistic and/or misguided. So

Instead of attempting to give a single definition of love, in my up-coming posts I plan put forth some of what the Bible says about the subject of love. By doing so I hope to stimulate our thinking about the nature of love. The Bible has much to say about what love is. We'll begin our exploration soon.