Unwell

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I’ve been sick for over a month now. Since August, my asthma has been overly sensitive, then I got a cold and can’t seem to fully recover. I’ve cough so much I nearly pass out because I can’t stop—and actually have passed out (once last year when I had RSV, and the other night. I started coughing then woke up on the ground). Laughing causes the same result so I must be careful. My head hurts from coughing all the time.  Since breathing is compromised, I have zero energy. I have a nice stool at work on which to sit but getting things done around the house is nearly impossible. Taking the trash up and back absolutely winds me. I have one day off, like today, and all I want to do is sleep.  “ . . . to die, to sleep; No more; and by a sleep, to say we end The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks That Flesh is heir to? 'Tis a consummation Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep, To sleep, perchance to Dream; aye, there's the rub, For in that sleep of death, what dreams may c...

The First-born

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Among all the titles given to the Lord Jesus perhaps none other has caused more heated theological discussion than "First Born." With Christ in mind, Paul wrote, "He is the image of the invisible God, thefirst-born of all creation" (Colossians 1:15).

Many cults have latched on to that verse to say that Christ was a created being himself. After all, doesn't "first-born" imply, or even state outright, that Christ was"born"? Hence, he was the first creature made by the Father. The title is used in other portions of the Bible to indicate the first born of a family and rules out earlier children (Genesis 4:4; Exodus 4:22, 23).

The fallacy of this argument that "first-born," when used of Christ meant a creature and not the Creator, is not difficult to see. The argument assumes that the phrase "first-born" always means a starting point. Actually, the title also assumed the idea of "exalted one." Note the Psalmist's use of the term when speaking about David. "I also shall make him [David] My first-born, the highest of the kings of the earth"(Psalm 89:27). David was the youngest of Jesse's sons, not the oldest. He became the first-born of God which meant a title of exaltation.

(ht: Dr. John Williamson)

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