Maintaining Integrity with God

image1 Chronicles 10:13-14 explains, Saul died because he was unfaithful to the Lord; he did not keep the word of the Lord and even consulted a medium for guidance, and did not inquire of the Lord. So the Lord put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David son of Jesse.

Imagine being hand chosen by God to be the first king over His people. Pretty high honor. You would also think the vetting process would have been the best. Yet, like the first man created, Adam, this first king was a failure. (more…)

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A Christian Definition of Courage

Proverbs 28.1 describes the righteous (being) as bold as a lion.image

When we think of courage we think of near death experiences where some type of threat is about to take our lives but we somehow fight, resist or escape to avoid the intended result. We also think of those who went into such an event knowing they probably would not return and many didn’t. Our soldiers live in this category as do Christians who remain in hostile countries.

Certainly these are accurate descriptions of courage but maybe there is a more mundane description that all of us can and should embrace if we are going to live courageously. (more…)

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Believe, Receive and Cleave to Get to Heaven

Colossians 2:6 commands, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in imagesHim. What makes a person a Christian?

The debate has long raged because unlike all of the other religions, there are no ‘3 steps’ to making oneself a Christian. There are however 3 principles that if not evident in our lives should cause us much concern about our belief that we truly are Christians. (more…)

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What the World Needs is Love

Ephesians 5:1-2 commands we become imitators of God, by walking in love.image

Love is so hard and yet so easy. It is so hard to love others but so easy to love ourselves.

God is love. He loves everyone.

This belief is unique to Christianity and not shared by Muslims or Hindus. This is why they can murder mindlessly and keep people in oppressive Castes. (more…)

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God Wants to Give Power

Ephesians 1:19 promises His incomparably great power for us who believe.image

Power, most everyone wants it but few have ever managed having it well.

God promises power to His people, at least that is what the Apostle prays God’s church would know and understand.

The power God wants His people to experience is the same power that God exhibited when He raised Himself in Jesus from the dead. What is His power for? (more…)

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What does Freedom Really Mean?

Galatians 5.1 declares it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Freedom to the Apostle, to God, does imagenot mean the same thing as we use the word freedom to mean.

We use freedom to mean doing anything we want without constraint. This was the freedom our forefathers wanted when they rebelled against God because they didn’t want to submit to His one limitation for their lives.

We continue to want this freedom over our lives; no rules, no constraint, no God. (more…)

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Winning the War of Ideas

2 Corinthians 10:5 proclaims we demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against imagesthe knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

We are in a war.

This war has been occurring since one man and one woman began living together in the perfect environment of Eden. This war is the war of ideas, the war of truth and lies, the war of trust leading to obedience or doubt leading to self preservation. (more…)

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Made by God to Serve God

2 Corinthians 3:18 expects we all, are being transformed into His image with ever-increasing glory,image which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

We were made by God for God to serve God. It takes a degree of humility on our part to accept this reality. If there is a God, and we are not Him, then we must be the creation and He the Creator.

If we are the creation then we are subject to the will of the Creator. The Bible declares the will of the Creator to be all of His creation glorify Him. (more…)

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Being a People of Influence

Ezekiel 14.14 declares even if these three men—Noah, Daniel and Job—were in it, they could save onlyimage themselves by their righteousness, declares the Sovereign Lord.

The end is near God told Ezekiel. He was about to destroy Jerusalem through the army of the Babylonians because His people had for so long refused to obey His commands. God’s disgust was so high that He declared even if three great saints were present and alive in that city, only they would be spared but not the city itself.

Sometimes God spares whole communities based upon the righteous deeds of one. Sometimes He doesn’t. (more…)

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