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At the base of those ancient fortifications lie five or six courses of massive, squared blocks, 'the wonders of the world yet; well jointed, well laid, well cemented.' These represent gold, silver, and precious stones—the solid verities of Christ proclaimed...
Maclaren observes that this righteous man embodies the very purpose God pursued through millenniums of providential dealing and inspiration.
Two essential requirements emerge for realizing this ideal.
As Maclaren observes, this Roman official embodied the practical man's contempt for mere ideas, the statesman's faith in visible force and authority alone.
Yet the psalmist's reply contains crushing power: "Our God is in heaven; all that he pleased he has done." Consider the contrast Martin Geier illuminated with surgical precision.
He means it with deliberate, reiterated assurance to that handful of poor, ignorant fishermen who knew Him so dimly.
Man's untamed spirit spurns the Redeemer's love, and no truer picture of the altogether intractable exists than this creature traversing the desert according to its own nature alone.
These phases repeat with such regularity that he compares them to *the white and red lights and darkness reappearing in a revolving lighthouse lantern, or figures recurring in a circulating decimal fraction*.
How could the man who saw the descending dove and heard the voice proclaim 'This is My beloved Son' ever waver?
Neither Ezra nor Nehemiah originated this gathering—they obeyed "a popular impulse which they had not created." This is extraordinary because Ezra, who had labored thirteen years in Jerusalem fighting corruptions among the returned captives, had never before promulgated the law...
Rocky Balboa is not the most talented boxer—he knows it, everyone knows it. But he has something fear cannot defeat: heart. "It ain't about how hard you hit.
For thirty years, under the guardianship of the High Priest Jehoiada, the king remained faithful to his conscience and duty.
The Sanhedrin spoke solemnly of 'putting down error' and maintaining doctrinal purity, yet their true motive was *zelos*—jealousy, not genuine zeal.
His counsel to leave the apostles unmolested was not born from sympathy with Christian truth, but from a shrewd political calculus: the Pharisees and Sadducees were locked in bitter theological combat over the resurrection, and these Galileans preaching *anastasis* (resurrection)...
He uses a striking geographical image: 'The springs lie close together up in the hills, the rivers may be parted by half a continent.' What begins as unity at the source becomes division at the mouth.
The gifts are not separate from grace; they are its direct offspring, its cognates.
They possessed nothing—no influence, no numbers, no world support.
First, recognize what we desperately need: the King of Glory dwelling within.
The Holy Spirit recorded a mystery of consolation: healing came through the *pistis* (faith) of others.
In The Impossible, the Belon family is separated by the 2004 tsunami. Maria and Lucas are swept miles away; Henry searches with the younger boys. Against all odds, they reunite. What survived the wave? Not their possessions—family, love, determination to find each other.
The accumulation of light things becomes overwhelmingly ponderous.
These unnamed men, bearing no vision, no command from Jerusalem, no precedent to guide them—only truth in their minds and the impulses of Christ's love in their hearts—solved the question that had vexed the apostles: whether salvation belonged to Gentiles.
Exell's *Biblical Illustrator* offers three principles for this conquest.
This is no mere coincidence of timing, but the visible sign of a profound spiritual principle: unbelief seals the mouth; faith unlocks it.