“O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord”. - Ezekiel 37:4
“There is a modern day fascination with the City of Jerusalem. It is even called “The Holy City” and Israel “The Holy Land”. The truth is that Jesus described that nation as murderous vinedressers. Jesus told His disciples to leave Jerusalem and go to the ends of the earth with the Gospel. Jesus told His disciples that outside of Israel, in the Gentile nations, they would find people willing to receive the Son and bear fruit for Him.”
The following is a great, even foundational, brief introduction and defense for the reformed doctrines. The original article can be found at:
http://www.desiringgod.org/…What_We_Believe_About_the_Five_Points_of_Calvinism/
Preface
We love God. He is our great Treasure, and nothing can compare with him. One of the great old catechisms says, “God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.” That is the One we love. We love the whole panorama of his perfections. To know him and to be loved by him is the end of our soul’s quest for eternal satisfaction. He is infinite; and that answers to our longing for completeness. He is eternal; and that answers to our longing for permanence He is unchangeable; and that answers to our longing for stability and security. There is none like God. Nothing can compare with him. Money, sex, power, popularity, conquest - nothing can compare with God.
The more you know him, the more you want to know him. The more you feast on his fellowship, the hungrier you are for deeper, richer communion. Satisfaction at the deepest levels breeds a holy longing for the time when we will have the very power of God to love God. That’s the way Jesus prays for us to his Father, ” . . . that the love with which You loved Me may be in them.” That is what we long for: the very love the Father has for the Son filling us, enabling us to love the Son with the very love of the Father. Then the frustrations of inadequate love will be over.