faith / heaven / Judgement

Working Hard is the Result of Our Faith, Not the Reason

Philippians 2.12 commands, work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep imagesreverence and fear.

Easter has just passed for most Christians: it is the time for celebration of the life, death and resurrection of God in Jesus the Savior. It is a celebration because humanity no longer is required to be perfect in order to get to heaven. It is a celebration because humanity is no longer measured by their own performance for earning heaven. It is a celebration because God is offering a pardon for all disobedience against Him by every person who has ever lived who will simply ask God for His pardon through Jesus the Savior. (more…)

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March 28, 2016
evangelism / faith

Speaking of Jesus

John 7.13 observes no one had the courage to speak favorably about Him in public, for they were afraidimage of getting in trouble with the Jewish leaders.

While watching a popular sports talk show yesterday I noticed the interviewee easily referenced his commitment to God but not to Jesus. As he was wearing a cross around his neck I am assuming he would identify with Christianity as his religion.

This comfort with God and discomfort with Jesus is age-old and helps explain why we are so broken in our current culture. (more…)

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March 17, 2016
Christian Living / faith / Judgement

Who Defines Wisdom?

1 Corinthians 3.18-19 commands, if you think you are wise by this world’s standards, you need to imagebecome a fool to be truly wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God. As the Scriptures say, “He traps the wise in the snare of their own cleverness.”

Recently deceased Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia put it this way, ‘God assumed from the beginning that the wise of the world would view Christians as fools…and He has not been disappointed. Devout Christians are destined to be regarded as fools in modern society. We are fools for Christ’s sake. We must pray for courage to endure the scorn of the sophisticated world. If I have brought any message today, it is this: Have the courage to have your wisdom regarded as stupidity. Be fools for Christ. And have the courage to suffer the contempt of the sophisticated world.’

Justice Scalia’s challenge is immensely timely for this generation of Christians. (more…)

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February 16, 2016
faith / obedience / Suffering

Faith is Working With God through Difficult Circumstances

Esther 4.16 comments, If I must die, I must die.image

One of the heroes of the Bible is the young woman Esther. An oft quoted statement from the book in her memory is ‘perhaps you were made queen for such a time as this.’

The story of Esther is one of tragedy and triumph, of faith and courage, of God’s faithful work behind the scenes when people risk all for His purposes. (more…)

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January 28, 2016
faith / Prayer

Receiving What We Want in Prayer

Matthew 21.22 promises, you can pray for anything, and if you have faith, you will receive it. image

This verse makes many Christians nervous because on the surface it appears God is promising us anything we ask for in prayer. This is what we want His words to mean for there are many things we wish we had but don’t have but if having them was only a matter of asking for them then that would be awesome.

Our experience however tells us this is not what He meant for we have all asked God for things in prayer and did not receive them. So what does this verse mean? (more…)

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January 22, 2016
Christian Living / faith / heaven / Judgement

God has Always Preferred Certain Worship

Genesis 4.4 describes Abel also brought a gift—the best portions of the firstborn lambs from his flock.
The LORD accepted Abel and his gift.

The first religious service recorded was of the first two brothers born on earth bringing their offerings to God. God rejected the offerings of the first brother but accepted the offerings of the second brother. This account is immensely instructive on the nature and ways of God considering it occurs on page 5 of His story without any indication that He had previously prescribed certain requirements for worship of Him.

The clear message from this story is that there is a right way to worship God and a wrong way. (more…)

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January 5, 2016
faith / Theology

Who is This Jesus?

John 12.45 describes the one who looks at Me is seeing the One who sent Me.image

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…)

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December 22, 2015
faith / Prayer

Learning to Pray by Watching Your Children

Luke 18.42 comments your faith has healed you. God begins His teaching in this section by telling us toimage 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…)

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December 5, 2015
faith / Theology

Being Convinced of God

Luke 16.31 warns if they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even ifimage 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…)

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December 2, 2015
faith / Judgement / obedience

God is Tolerant but Not Religion

Romans 16.26 describes the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all the imageGentiles 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…)

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August 26, 2015