heaven / Judgement / obedience

Preparing for Judgement

Hebrews 4.13 warns nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered andimages laid bare before the eyes of Him to Whom we must give account.

If there really is a God it only makes sense that He would know everything I have ever thought, said and done.

The importance of this characteristic of God is for judging all of humanity after we have finished our test; the life we lived in this world before entering the world to come that is eternal and the reward or else consequence for the life we lived in this world.

It is this judgment where final justice will take place and where the evil doer finally gets the full measure of his consequence. (more…)

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April 29, 2015
obedience / Suffering

Perfect through Suffering

Hebrews 2.10 claims Jesus, God as man, was made perfect through what he suffered.image

When we think of God suffering we think of the cross upon which He was crucified as the sacrifice for our sins, the payment God the Father required in order to pardon all who love God from their disobedience toward Him.

No doubt the greatest suffering occurred at the separation of God the Father from God the Son when the sins of humanity were all transferred to the perfect One. A mystery difficult for us to understand. (more…)

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April 27, 2015
evangelism / Titus

Attractive Advertising

Titus 2.10 commands we make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.images

The purpose of this command is so that God’s people can participate in God’s work of making Him known throughout the world. The goal is not just that He would be known but that He would be loved by every person on the earth.

God wants His people to live such attractive lives that people around them feel compelled to know God so they too can love Him.

How are we doing? (more…)

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April 23, 2015
Christian Living / Titus

Getting Better

Titus 1.1 claims it is their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness.image

What is the goal of our lives? Personal happiness? Peace? Joy? Fulfilled relationships? Godliness? The last one probably doesn’t make the top ten list for most people because pleasing God is something we think of generally and not specifically.

Sure we want to be good per se but we don’t pursue goodness for ‘goodness’ sake. We are so self absorbed that we believe we are pretty good and that God is pretty happy with us regardless of how much we really check in with Him to see if our belief is true.

So we go about seeking our own definition of importance trusting that if God isn’t good with it He will somehow make that known to us. (more…)

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April 22, 2015
Christian Living / Suffering

Created to be Good

Ecclesiastes 7:29 records God created mankind upright, but they have gone in search of many imagesschemes.

The answer to the question about why evil exists in the world always gets pushed back upon God as the culprit. The logic goes that if God were good and loving and all-powerful, He wouldn’t allow bad things to happen to good people.

The Bible portrays a different villain to the age old question; humanity. God made people good, because He is good, and since He made us in His image, male and female, we too were created good like Him (just without all the power). (more…)

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April 20, 2015
Christian Living / obedience / Prayer

Beating Temptation

Mark 14.38 commands watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, imagebut the flesh is weak.

Watch means read the Book, understand what it says so that when you see things happening you can interpret them properly. Pray, so that the Spirit within is able to overpower the flesh without that is unwilling to obey the prescription found in the Book.

While Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for humanity’s disobedience, this was not done to give license to the children of God to disobey the commands of God. (more…)

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April 14, 2015
Christian Living

Why Go To Church?

Leviticus 17.8-9 commands: Any Israelite or any foreigner residing among them who offers a burnt imagesoffering or sacrifice and does not bring it to the entrance to the tent of meeting to sacrifice it to the Lord must be cut off from the people of Israel.

Too many who call themselves Christians profess to love God but despise His Church. God calls His Church His bride so what many Christians declare is that they like the Groom but detest the bride. This attitude makes a relationship difficult. (more…)

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April 13, 2015
Christian Living / obedience / work

Being Salty Christians

Mark 9.50 encourages have salt among yourselves.image

The modern translation of God’s admonition to have salt in ourselves might be, ‘suck it up buttercup,’ or ‘cowboy up,’ or ‘man up,’ or any of a number of sayings that mean stop being a sissy and own the solution to whatever problem we are facing. The wussification of the current culture is over the top.

Everyone has a malady, no one is responsible for their problems, blaming others is common and looking to big brother for meeting our needs is the new norm. Our grandparents shake their heads at us as they endured the great depression, rationing of basic necessities and the effects of two world wars. (more…)

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April 9, 2015
Christian Living / obedience

Why be Holy?

Leviticus 10.3 warns those who approach Me I will be proved holy; in the sight of all the people I willimages be honored.

Our holiness not our happiness is what concerns God most. This is true because God is holy, that is His nature.

Is God happy? Happy is an emotion we feel based upon our circumstances. I doubt God is ever happy.

The Bible commands that we always be joyful. God promises us joy, probably because He Himself is joyful and exudes joy. Joy is a state of contentment, hopefulness and love all bundled together. It is why Paul in prison could say he was joyful and command we be joyful always. It is why God promised us joy though He promised us hard times because joy is possible in difficult circumstances unlike happiness.

Joy focuses on what we have and the relationship we have with God Who is always near regardless of where we are or what we are going through. (more…)

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April 8, 2015
heaven / Judgement

Only His Work Counts

Acts 17.31 declares He has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the man He has imagesappointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising Him from the dead.

The crucifixion marked the end of heaven being earned by good deeds. In the crucifixion of the Perfect One God made clear that all the good deeds of all people were insufficient for getting them to heaven.

All religions and all people from all time have always tried to measure themselves by their good deeds hoping those outweighed their bad deeds by just enough to get them to heaven. God says all of our good deeds are as menstrual cloths to Him, that no one is good not even one. (more…)

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April 6, 2015