Isaiah 33:22 describes the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; it is He
Who will save us.
How do we see God? What role does He play in our lives?
The great prophet Isaiah working in a culture similar to ours many years ago reminds Israel that God acts in four ways in our lives. (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…)
2 Peter 1.10 exhorts us to make every effort to confirm our calling and election.
Most evangelical Christians define a person’s salvation by whether or not they believe they are going to heaven if they were to die today.
The answer they are looking for is the confession that the person invited Jesus into their lives to forgive their sins and believe His promise to receive them into His heaven forgiven because of His gracious pardon obtained through His shed blood. Satisfied they believe a person is saved because they made the proper confession they move on never to think again about this salvation we or they supposedly obtain. (more…)
Numbers 22.32 observes I have come here to oppose you because your path is a reckless one before
Me.
When God’s not happy ain’t nobody happy!
The problem with the One True God is that He cares as much about how and why we do something as He does with what we do. This makes sense actually if there really is a God.
All the other religions, including Islam, place all of their emphasis upon outward behavior without regard for the motive of that behavior. In reality, we all have this propensity. (more…)
Psalm 68.19 declares, praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, Who daily bears our burdens. God
bears our burdens.
Does that really make any sense? No other religion other than Christianity makes such a claim.
Surely allah doesn’t bear anyone’s burdens. Most gods place burdens on humanity forcing us to get better by their impossible demands.
Our idols have the same burdensome propensity. We beat ourselves because we are not strong enough, smart enough, rich enough or pretty enough so we keep working trying to pacify that voice in our head that is never satisfied. (more…)
Isaiah 6.13 comments , though a tenth remains in the land, it will again be laid waste. But as the terebinth and oak leave stumps when they are cut down, so the holy seed will be the stump in the land.
The Old Testament is a story of man’s continual rebellion against God demonstrated by injustice to one another followed by discipline from the Lord Who withholds His severest rage because He is deeply in love with His people and longs to demonstrate mercy and grace. (more…)
Hebrews 10.17 proclaims their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.
What if seeing God for the first time really was a welcome home party, sort of like when your parents welcome you home after having not seen you for months? What if God really did treat us like He knew nothing of our faults or failures?
How would truly believing these things transform our behavior now? Wouldn’t we begin to treat God like we do that person in our life who just loves us for who we are and cares nothing about our performance?
That is the kind of promise God makes to us; to welcome us into heaven as though we had lived a perfect life having never ever done anything wrong. (more…)
Hebrews 4.13 warns nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and
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…)
Acts 17.31 declares He has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the man He has
appointed. 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…)
Leviticus 5:17 declares if anyone sins and does what is forbidden in any of the Lord’s commands, even though they do not know it, they are guilty and will be held responsible.
God says we are guilty of disobedience to Him, sin, even if we don’t know what He requires. For many, this seems too harsh, unfair and therefore unacceptable to them for giving their allegiance to God.
Why does God take this position, that all will be held accountable to Him for disobedience even if they didn’t know His commands? I think there are three primary reasons. (more…)
Enter your email below to get your free resource, periodic news, and new blog post notifications.
