John 12.45 describes the one who looks at Me is seeing the One who sent Me.
Jesus is unique among all historic figures and religious leaders for He declared Himself to be God. Here Jesus says when we look at Him we see God.
Jesus is God visible. Jesus is God tangible. Jesus is God recognizable. Jesus is God identifiable.
What do we see when we look at Jesus? (more…)
Luke 18.42 comments your faith has healed you. God begins His teaching in this section by telling us to
pray with perseverance.
When Jesus makes His comment it is to a man who persevered in crying out to Him despite rebuke and demands to stop, in the end, His perseverance was rewarded. What’s interesting is that God said it was the man’s faith that healed him. Jesus did not say it was his persevering prayer or the power of God but faith that caused his healing. (more…)
Luke 16.31 warns if they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if
someone rises from the dead.
Jesus rose from the dead. This is the most fundamental and crucial teaching of the Christian faith. It separates Christianity from all other religions. (more…)
Romans 16.26 describes the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all the
Gentiles might come to the obedience that comes from faith.
Tolerance is the new desire among those who speak about world religions. The espoused perspectives are that God cannot really be known and that all the religions basically teach the same things.
This worldview leads to every person creating their own religion, their own perspective of Who God is and what God requires. The result of tolerance is ignorance, disobedience and confusion.
God is tolerant. (more…)
1 Samuel 3.21 The Lord continued to appear at Shiloh, and there He revealed Himself to Samuel
through His word.
Knowing God’s will is not complicated.
The difference between the Christian God and all other gods, including Allah, is the clarity by which He makes Himself known and what He requires. This only makes sense if God is truly loving and just.
A God Who desires a relationship with humanity must by virtue of the desire reveal as clearly as possible His personality, intentions and will to those with whom He desires a relationship. (more…)
Judges 6:14 records, The Lord turned to him and said, Go in the strength you have and save Israel out
of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?
Amazing that God does not say, go with the strength I will give you. Instead God encourages Gideon to use what little he has to accomplish the overwhelming task God has set before him.
Why? (more…)
Judges 3:2 explains He did this only to teach warfare to the descendants of the Israelites who had not had previous battle experience. God left people in the promised land for the Israelites to remove by
force.
It seems like God would simply send a plague to these inhabitants then Israel could just easily walk into the promised land and occupy it as their new country. Instead, God made Israel strap on a sword, grab a shield and go daily into battle if they were going to realize His promise for them.
Why did God do this? (more…)
Isaiah 43.10 describes ‘You are My witnesses,’ declares the Lord, and My servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe Me and understand that I am He.
How do we get to know God better and more personally is the universal question among those who truly believe in God. Religion provides a means to that end sometimes and in some ways. The disciplines of Bible reading and prayer are certainly helpful to knowing God better.
God wants us to accomplish our objective so has given us two clues for knowing, believing and understanding Him. (more…)
1 John 4.3 declares every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of
the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.
The new god of this age is the god of tolerance. This god is intolerant of anyone who fails to pay homage to it. Yet if we think carefully and critically we know how weak this god really is. (more…)
John 6.29 describes the work of God is this: to believe in the One He has sent.
One of the knocks on Christianity is it’s easy entry to heaven. Some believe going to heaven is as easy as believing in Jesus, after all, isn’t that what He just said? Its fair to say what He meant by belief and what we understand by belief are not the same.
If what we understand belief to mean, simply believe, then the devil and all the demons would go to heaven since they certainly believe. In the gospel it is only the evil spirits who consistently identify Jesus correctly as the Christ the Son of God. I don’t think they will live with God forever though they believe. (more…)
