Louis Lapides's Blog, page 3

Make America Good Again

During this presidential election cycle, it is important we understand from Proverbs 14:34 what really makes our country tick . . . and what will make it good again.

How to Win Friends and Not Lose Self-Respect

Solomon questions whether we avoid friends going through financial hardships since they may expect us to rush to their aid. In contrast, we may gravitate more towards the well-to-do because of how they may benefit us.

Need a foolproof map to guide your life?

When we look under the hood of a wise person to check his decision making process, we find godly character as the engine that drives his life and careful thought as the drive shaft that transfers forward motion to his steps.

Do You Know When To Keep Your Lips Zipped?

Speech management is a theme threaded throughout the Book of Proverbs. Solomon continually warns his listeners one area where we demonstrate either wisdom or foolishness is the control of our tongue.

Do You Think Before You Act or Just Act?

In Proverbs 13:16 Solomon contrasts the wisdom of taking time to think before one takes action with the foolishness of taking active steps without thinking through one's options.

Proverbs for Living Skillfully

Today we place more value on our frantic efforts to solve an issue than on the wisdom involved in "knowing where to tinker." Anyone can offer a reasonable guess regarding the nature of a problem we face. However, it takes wisdom to know how to get past speculation and make a wise choice that leads to a resolve. This wisdom is found in the timeless sayings of Solomon in the Book of Proverbs.

Do We Need to Repent To Be Forgiven?

What disappointed me most when I asked followers of Yeshua about their beliefs concerning forgiving others, it was rare they would support their position from the Bible. When I dug a little more, I would get answers such as, "Well, it makes sense to forgive someone even if they do not repent?" "I learned through many years of therapy that forgiving another person whether or not they admit their wrongdoing provides me the freedom to love them." I soon discovered Christian beliefs about forgiveness can be mostly traced back to a therapist's well-meaning advice more than a pastor's exposition of the Word of God.

The Disappearing Palestine Map

In the booklet Zionism Unsettled published formerly available in the store on the PCUSA website, we find a map of Israel/Palestine that has been used by Israel's critics to demonstrate how Israel has slowly taken over the territories allotted to the Palestinians. However, the map is a clever distortion of the history of the land of Israel as it relates to Arab inhabitants within the land.

Did Those Six Million Jews Die for You?

In "That Jew Died For You" Yeshua is shown carrying a cross up into the gates of Auschwitz. Next Jesus stands before a Nazi guard who assigns Him to be exterminated. The Nazi officer says regarding Jesus, "He's just another Jew." The thesis in the JFJ video of Jesus suffering in a Nazi concentration camp is powerful, but is filled with errors and creates more confusion than clarification.

Not All Israel Is Israel Part 3

Most followers of Jesus are not even aware of the various Christian theologies regarding the Jewish nation. Yet when uninformed evangelicals are exposed to such anti-Israel beliefs such as Replacement Theology (the view that Israel is no longer God's elect people but replaced by the Church), these Christians are conflicted over what they are hearing and what the Bible teaches.