obedience

Christianity is More Than Believing, It’s Doing

Ephesians 6.13-18 commands, be prepared. You’re up against far more than you can handle on your own. Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued, so that when it’s all over but the shouting you’ll still be on your feet. Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation are more than words. Learn how to apply them. You’ll need them throughout your life. God’s Word is an indispensable weapon. In the same way, prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare. Pray hard and long. Pray for your brothers and sisters. Keep your eyes open. Keep each other’s spirits up so that no one falls behind or drops out. MSG

 

Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation are more than words. Learn how to apply them. This is the command of God, how diligent are we to ‘apply’ these words? To apply them we must think about them, we must consider them, and we must pursue them with the Church for in the family of God is wisdom and accountability for not only knowing but for taking action upon these things God has commanded.

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October 21, 2021
evangelism / Judgement

The End Isn’t Coming Soon

Ezekiel 30.1-5 warns, God, the Master, spoke to me: “Son of man, preach. Give them the Message of God, the Master. Wail: “‘Doomsday!’ Time’s up! God’s big day of judgment is near. Thick clouds are rolling in. It’s doomsday for the nations. Death will rain down on Egypt. Terror will paralyze Ethiopia When they see the Egyptians killed, their wealth hauled off, their foundations demolished, And Ethiopia, Put, Lud, Arabia, Libya —all of Egypt’s old allies— killed right along with them. MSG

 

So many believe the end of days are near. So many hope Jesus will return soon. I suppose the latter is Biblical for Paul himself appears to have prayed the same when ending his letters ‘Maranatha.’ This ‘end times’ belief drove Paul to share Christ with the nations. (more…)

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October 12, 2021
evangelism / Suffering

Persecution is for Promulgation of the Gospel

Mark 13.9-10 warns, watch out! They’re going to drag you into court. And then it will go from bad to worse, dog-eat-dog, everyone at your throat because you carry my name. You’re placed there as sentinels to truth. The Message has to be preached all across the world. MSG

 

The purpose of persecution among God’s people is the promulgation of the gospel. It is when men drag us into court that the Holy Spirit comes into us to speak through us for spreading the gospel by us to all men everywhere.

 

 

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September 28, 2021
Christian Living / obedience

How Do We Know What Is Right And Wrong?

1 Corinthians 5.1-2 records, I also received a report of scandalous sex within your church family, a kind that wouldn’t be tolerated even outside the church: One of your men is sleeping with his stepmother. And you’re so above it all that it doesn’t even faze you! Shouldn’t this break your hearts? Shouldn’t it bring you to your knees in tears? Shouldn’t this person and his conduct be confronted and dealt with? MSG

 

Why was this activity wrong? Where did the Lord Jesus condemn such actions? We have to turn to Paul’s Bible, what we call the Old Testament, to find this behavior of a man sleeping with his stepmother immoral. But we are under the New Covenant, why should this apply to us?

 

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September 8, 2021
evangelism / Judgement / Theology

Do You REALLY Believe These Are The End Times?

Romans 13.11-14 warns, make sure that you don’t get so absorbed and exhausted in taking care of all your day-by-day obligations that you lose track of the time and doze off, oblivious to God. The night is about over, dawn is about to break. Be up and awake to what God is doing! God is putting the finishing touches on the salvation work He began when we first believed. We can’t afford to waste a minute, must not squander these precious daylight hours in frivolity and indulgence, in sleeping around and dissipation, in bickering and grabbing everything in sight. Get out of bed and get dressed! Don’t loiter and linger, waiting until the very last minute. Dress yourselves in Christ, and be up and about! MSG

 

So many Christians believe these are the last days, that we are in the end times. So what are they doing? Waiting for Jesus to burst through the skies and end all the misery and suffering in the world? What should they be doing? Paul says here, God says in His word, we should be working not watching. We should be laboring not waiting. (more…)

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August 23, 2021
Christian Living

Do You Really Know God?

Luke 13.23-27 asks, Master, will only a few be saved?” He said, “Whether few or many is none of your business. Put your mind on your life with God. The way to life—to God!—is vigorous and requires your total attention. A lot of you are going to assume that you’ll sit down to God’s salvation banquet just because you’ve been hanging around the neighborhood all your lives. Well, one day you’re going to be banging on the door, wanting to get in, but you’ll find the door locked and the Master saying, ‘Sorry, you’re not on My guest list.’ “You’ll protest, ‘But we’ve known You all our lives!’ only to be interrupted with His abrupt, ‘Your kind of knowing can hardly be called knowing. You don’t know the first thing about Me. MSG

God is given the best possible question for telling us His heart, His future plans for humanity, His purpose for His work on earth. Will only a few be saved? Almost the entire church would answer, NO! Most of the church and the rest of humanity would answer, everyone will be saved because God is love. Yet that is NOT how God answers the question. (more…)

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August 18, 2021
Christian Living / Judgement / obedience

What It Means To Believe In Jesus

Acts 24.24-26 records, “A few days later Felix and his wife, Drusilla, who was Jewish, sent for Paul and listened to him talk about a life of believing in Jesus Christ. As Paul continued to insist on right relations with God and his people, about a life of moral discipline and the coming Judgment, Felix felt things getting a little too close for comfort and dismissed him. “That’s enough for today. I’ll call you back when it’s convenient.” At the same time he was secretly hoping that Paul would offer him a substantial bribe. These conversations were repeated frequently.” MSG

 

In his sharing of the gospel, the Apostle Paul tells us a few key elements of what it means to believe in Jesus. First, is the insisting upon a right relationship with God and His people. A right relationship with God must come through Jesus the Savior. Reconciliation to God comes by faith in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Apart from faith in Him, there is no peace with God. (more…)

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August 9, 2021
Christian Living

How To Interpret Your Circumstances

Jeremiah 24.4-10 says, God told me, “This is the Message from the God of Israel: The exiles from here that I’ve sent off to the land of the Babylonians are like the good figs, and I’ll make sure they get good treatment. I’ll keep My eye on them so that their lives are good, and I’ll bring them back to this land. I’ll build them up, not tear them down; I’ll plant them, not uproot them. “And I’ll give them a heart to know Me, God. They’ll be My people and I’ll be their God, for they’ll have returned to Me with all their hearts. “But like the rotten figs, so rotten they can’t be eaten, is Zedekiah king of Judah. Rotten figs—that’s how I’ll treat him and his leaders, along with the survivors here and those down in Egypt. I’ll make them something that the whole world will look on as disgusting—repugnant outcasts, their names used as curse words wherever in the world I drive them. And I’ll make sure they die like flies—from war, starvation, disease, whatever—until the land I once gave to them and their ancestors is completely rid of them. MSG

 

The good figs, the blessed by God, were those taken as prisoners from Israel. They were the ones who walked in chains to far off Babylon. Nothing about that event could have felt like a blessing. Yet they were the ones God said were blessed, the ones He was watching over, the ones whose hearts He would return to Himself and eventually would have their ancestors return to the Promised Land.

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August 2, 2021
evangelism

What It Means To Serve God

Jeremiah 1.9-10 records, God reached out, touched my mouth, and said, “Look! I’ve just put My words in your mouth—hand-delivered! See what I’ve done? I’ve given you a job to do among nations and governments—a red-letter day! Your job is to pull up and tear down, take apart and demolish, And then start over, building and planting. MSG

 

We have been called by God to serve God. All of us who claim to be Christians have been chosen by God to be a kingdom of priests. The priesthood of all believers is core to being a Protestant Christian. The priest has been given God’s Word. Indeed, all of humanity has been given the Word through the record and availability of the Scriptures.

 

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July 16, 2021
evangelism

Preparing For God’s Return

Isaiah 62.10-12 commands, walk out of the gates. Get going! Get the road ready for the people. Build the highway. Get at it! Clear the debris, hoist high a flag, a signal to all peoples! Yes! God has broadcast to all the world: “Tell daughter Zion, ‘Look! Your Savior comes, Ready to do what he said He’d do, prepared to complete what He promised.’” Zion will be called new names: Holy People, God-Redeemed, Sought-Out, City-Not-Forsaken. MSG

 

What is our job as God’s laborer? Do you see yourself as His laborer, His servant? We are to go, to get the road ready, to build the highway, to clear debris from the road, to lift high a flag, a signal for all peoples. Why? So when God calls the nations they know the way to go. (more…)

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July 9, 2021