Rebecca Stark is the author of The Good Portion: God, the second title in The Good Portion series.
The Good Portion: God explores what Scripture teaches about God in hopes that readers will see his perfection, worth, magnificence, and beauty as they study his triune nature, infinite attributes, and wondrous works.
Monday, March 21, 2011 at 8:52PM 
Part I: Questions about God, Man, and Sin
26. Q. Who tempted them to this sin?
A. The devil tempted Eve, and she gave the fruit to Adam.
(Click through to read scriptural proofs.)
Sunday, March 20, 2011 at 10:37PM 
And a gift for someone. See bottom of the post for details.
Continuing on where we left off on Friday, quoting from The God Who Is There: Finding Your Place in God’s Story
But the first half of the 1600s witnessed the rise of what is now called Cartesian thought (under the influence of René Descartes and those who followed him). The traditional way of thinking about knowledge changed. More and more people based their knowledge on an axiom that Descartes made popular: “I think, therefore, I am.” Every first-year philosophy student today is still introduced to Descartes’s axiom. Descartes himself thought that this axiom was a foundation for all human knowing. After all, if you are thinking, you cannot deny your own existence; the very fact that you are thinking shows that you exist. Descartes was looking for a foundation that Christians and atheists and Muslims and secularists and spiritual types could all agree was indisputable. From this foundation and other approaches, he then gradually built up an entire system of thought to try to convince people to become Roman Catholics.
But notice how his axiom runs: “I think, therefore I am.” Two hundred years earlier, no Christian would have said that very easily because God’s and God’s absolute knowledge were already givens. Our existence was seen as dependent on him, and our knowledge a mere tiny subset of his. It was very widely thought proper to begin with God, not with the “I” in “I think, therefore, I am.” If we exist, it is because of God’s power. Our knowledge, even our existence, is finally dependent on him. But this side of Cartesian thought, we begin with “I.” I begin with me. And that puts me in a place where I start evaluating not only the world around me but also morals and history and God in such a way that God now becomes, at most, the inference of my study. That changes everything.
But the Bible does not run along those lines. God simply is.
That everything starts with God is one of things that Genesis 1-2 tells us. You’ll also recognize these two posts as an apologetic for presuppositional apologetics. Or, as some like to call it, Biblical apologetics—apologetics that start with God simply is.
I’m giving away one copy of The God Who Is There: Finding Your Place in God’s Story
Sunday, March 20, 2011 at 3:13PM Jesus lives, and so shall I.
Death! thy sting is gone forever!
He who deigned for me to die,
Lives, the bands of death to sever.
He shall raise me from the dust:
Jesus is my Hope and Trust.
Jesus lives, and reigns supreme,
And, his kingdom still remaining,
I shall also be with him,
Ever living, ever reigning.
God has promised: be it must:
Jesus is my Hope and Trust.
Jesus lives, and by his grace,
Vict’ry o’er my passions giving,
I will cleanse my heart and ways,
Ever to his glory living.
Me he raises from the dust.
Jesus is my Hope and Trust.
Jesus lives, I know full well
Nought from him my heart can sever,
Life nor death nor powers of hell,
Joy nor grief, hence forth forever.
None of all his saints is lost;
Jesus is my Hope and Trust.
Jesus lives, and death is now
But my entrance into glory.
Courage, then, my soul, for thou
Hast a crown of life before thee;
Thou shalt find thy hopes were just;
Jesus is the Christian’s Trust.—Christian F. Gellert (1715-1769), Translated by Philip Schaff (1819-1893)
Other hymns, worship songs, sermons etc. posted today:
Have you posted a hymn (or sermon, sermon notes, prayer, etc.) today and I missed it? Let me know by leaving a link in the comments or by contacting me using the contact form linked above, and I’ll add your post to the list.