Author Archives: Stephen Nielsen

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About Stephen Nielsen

I'm an author, a self publisher, and a painting contractor. I live in beautiful Minnesota, USA . Welcome to my blog site.

Understanding God’s Forgiveness: 5 points

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Stephen Nielsen's avatarPrayer A to Z

Here’s another post from my book Prayer A to Z.

1. His forgiveness is rooted in His unconditional love.  Though God does not always forgive everyone—He forgives only those who will repent of their sins—He does love everyone unconditionally.  And that unconditional love is what draws sinners to repent so that He can forgive them.  Thus, forgiveness is always contingent on repentance; but that doesn’t mean that He doesn’t always love us.  He has always loved us and He always will, because that is His nature; God is love; it comes out of His own righteous and merciful character (Titus 3:4).  God loves the whole world and He desires all to repent so that He can forgive them (2 Pet. 3:9).

2.  His forgiveness was costly for Him.  God purchased our forgiveness by the blood of His own son Jesus.  Ephesians 1:7 says, “In Him [Jesus] we have…

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Poor Logging Cleanup

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I recently went to visit relatives in southern Missouri. Where I stayed they contracted loggers to come and harvest their large trees–they had many acers of forest land. Well, what I saw was horrifying to me. They had cut down and hauled away just what they wanted and left the rest. There was very little clean-up of the land. It looked like a tornado hit it–you can see from the pictures. I’m not sure what the laws are in Missouri, but what was done is just wrong. You just can’t take want you want and leave the rest. I thought of when the buffalo poachers would kill so many buffalo just for their hides and leave the the dead buffalo lying all over on the prairie. (I saw this in the movie, Dances with Wolves).

The Fourth Seal — Revelation 6:7-8

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Stephen Nielsen's avatarStudying Bible Prophecy

In the breaking of the fourth seal John looked up and saw an ashen horse; and its rider’s name was Death; and one called Hades was following him.

An ashen horse. The ashen horse and its rider give us an image of death—or of dead bodies. And the one who follows him, Hades, tells us that all who die will soon stand before God and will be given a judgment of eternal hell. Thus, we may be sure that those who die under this seal are not believers; for when believers die, they will go straight to heaven to be with the Father.

What kind of death is this? First of all, we know that the rider (Death) and his follower (Hades) has the authority (or the power) granted to them from God to bring death to a fourth of the earth. Hence, death to around one billion people will…

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Five Wrong Reasons to Fast

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Stephen Nielsen's avatarPrayer A to Z

In a previous blog post I gave twelve good reasons to fast, and I invite you to look at that post. In this post I want to bring to you the wrong reasons to fast, just to make sure we aren’t inclined to fast that way.  Here are five wrong reasons to fast.

1. As a form of religion or ritual. Arthur Wallis, in his book, God’s Chosen Fast, notes that in the history of the church, what was at first a matter of custom, such as the practice of fasting each Wednesday and Friday, became a matter of obligation.12  Be careful not to let this happen to you.  Fasting should always be a matter of love to God, never of religion or ritual.

2. To punish the body for sin. Some have believed that the body is evil, and in order to secure the purity of…

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The Third Seal — Revelation 6:5-6

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Stephen Nielsen's avatarStudying Bible Prophecy

In the breaking of this seal John looked and saw a black horse; and the one who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand.

A Black Horse

Most commentators would agree that the black horse is a symbol of famine, and some would add disease. I agree, because the hunger of famine is caused by a food shortage; and that food shortage—particularly fresh fruits and vegetables—would cause sickness and disease.

A Pair of Scales

The scales here, used to weigh food items, indicates to the reader that there will be a scarcity of food that will need to be rationed. Moreover, the voice that is heard in the center of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius [a day’s wage], and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not damage the oil and the wine,” gives us a true…

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Fasting: Three Categories of Fasts

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Stephen Nielsen's avatarPrayer A to Z

 

When you pray, sometimes it is beneficial to fast. There are all kinds or types of fasts. Here are three categories of fasts.

 Fasts That Depict the Degree of the Fast

Normal fast.  This is a fast from food and drinks, but not from water.  It is the normal way to fast, and how Jesus fasted for forty days.

Absolute fast.  This is a fast from food and drinks, including water.  It is how Moses fasted for eighty days on Mount Sinai, and how Elijah fasted in the desert (both were miraculous feats).  There were other absolute fasts not miraculous, but were not much over three days.  For no one can naturally live for much over three days without food and water.

Partial fast.  In a partial fast, you would eat only fruits and (or) vegetables—like Daniel did.  If you have health problems, if you are concerned…

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The Second Seal (Revelation 6:3-4)

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Stephen Nielsen's avatarStudying Bible Prophecy

The second seal was broken by the Lamb just as the first one was, and John again heard another living creature (the second living creature) say, “Come and see.” Notice that in the first four seals all of the four living creatures (or cherubim) are involved. That is, in the second seal the second cherubim speaks; in the third seal the third cherubim speaks; then in the fourth seal the fourth cherubim speaks. So it seems that they all have their parts, one for each seal.

A red horse. The blood-red horse is a symbol of war. It is what Jesus spoke of in Matthew 24:6-7. And from the language of the text, that the rider was granted to “take peace from the earth, and that men would slay one another,” this indicates that after a short time of peace, suddenly peace was taken away through war—war all over the…

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3 Reasons Why Most Christians Don’t Fast

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Stephen Nielsen's avatarPrayer A to Z

I would say that most Christians these days don’t fast.  Here are three reasons why:

We have reacted against extremism.  Those whom we have read about in the Bible who have fasted, most of those in the early church who have fasted, and all the others we have talked about, I think were quite sincere and dedicated Christians; and I think their fasting was with right motives.  But I suspect that there were some that were off base, that is, they were extreme and legalistic.  Perhaps there were even some who were saying that you have to fast regularly in order to gain God’s acceptance.  I think this is why many people have revolted against fasting—because they don’t see the good side of it, only the negative side.  And so, because of those extremists, many have thrown it all out.  They say fasting is all bad, or it…

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