Christian Living / Judgement / obedience / Theology

What You Think Determines How You Live

Ephesians 2.1-6 describes, it wasn’t so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It’s a wonder God didn’t lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.

We have to decide what we believe about ourselves and God for what we believe about these things determines how we live, and how we live, if there really is a God, determines our eternal destiny. (more…)

2 Comments
October 2, 2018
heaven / Theology

Access to God is Easy But Limited

Jonah 2.8 observes, those who worship worthless idols forfeit the mercy that could be theirs.

It appears offensive to some for others to claim that there is only one God in the universe. It makes sense that only one God exists. If there were two gods wouldn’t they battle it out to see who really was GOD? The definition of the word assumes supremacy over all.

Religion is the access point to God. False religions lead to false gods. Offense occurs when a person’s religion is deemed false. (more…)

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November 24, 2017
Theology

Jesus is God

John 14.9 records, the person who has seen Me has seen the Father! How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

Jesus is the only ‘prophet’ Who claimed to be God. It was this claim that made Him so hard to believe in by those who lived with Him during His three years of ministry. All of us would no doubt similarly struggle were a friend we had known for 30 years suddenly leave his skilled trade to enter ministry claiming to be God. It really wasn’t until His resurrection from the dead that the disciples finally ‘believed.’ (more…)

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June 1, 2017
Christian Living / Theology

Giving and Receiving To and From God

John 17.10 records, Everything I have belongs to You, and everything You have belongs to Me.

In this passage of Scripture Jesus is wrapping up His ministry on earth with a prayer that He has allowed to be recorded for posterity that we might better understand the heart, mind and will of God. In this prayer Jesus reminds the Father that everything He has belongs to Him..pause. What does Jesus possess at this time in His prayer? (more…)

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March 27, 2017
evangelism / faith / Theology

Are the Bible and the koran the Same?

Joshua 8.18 records hold out toward Ai the curved sword in your hand, for I am handing the city over to you.

I was listening to two men discuss religion today. The first commented that the Muslims are a real world problem, their book commands them to kill everyone who isn’t one. The second guy commented that the Bible says the same thing so it and its adherents are just as bad.

The first guy rebutted his friend by stating now we live by the teachings of Jesus so Christians are better. This didn’t convince the second guy that there is any difference between ISIS and Baptists. Do both of these books record God telling His people to kill everyone? (more…)

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March 21, 2017
faith / heaven / Judgement / Theology

Why Should We Please God?

2 Corinthians 12.21 records, I will grieve for many of those who previously sinned and have not repented of the impurity, sexual immorality, and licentiousness that they have practiced.

The knock on Christianity from adherents of other religions is the ease by which Christians are able to get to heaven. Christianity is the only religion that claims it’s means to heaven is the receiving of it freely from God as a gift imparted by God’s grace through faith in His love and kindness. (more…)

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March 13, 2017
heaven / Theology

Everything Depends Upon the Resurrection

Acts 25.19 describes several points of disagreement with him about their own religion and about a man named Jesus who was dead, whom Paul claimed to be alive.

Herein lies the rub Christianity has with every other religion. The founders of every religion except Christianity are dead and their adherents agree those founders are dead. What separates Christianity from the rest is that it claims Jesus, it’s founder, is not dead but alive having risen from the dead after being crucified by men. (more…)

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January 25, 2017
Christian Living / Suffering / Theology

God isn’t the Problem, We Are!

Nehemiah 9.33 proclaims, You are righteous with regard to all that has happened to us, for You have acted faithfully. It is we who have been in the wrong!

When things go badly for us our propensity is to blame God. Our thinking goes something like, ‘if He loved me He would do good to me.’ “Since He is all powerful He can keep the bad from happening.” “Since I am a good person God should want good for me.” “Since bad is happening to me anyway either God is not good or God is not all powerful.” (more…)

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January 19, 2017
Christian Living / obedience / Theology

The Source of Truth

Genesis 3.4 observes, the serpent said to the woman, surely you will not die. You would think that if God said something it would be taken seriously and believed wholly. After all, it only makes sense that if there really is a God He would be honest, truthful and trustworthy.

(As an aside, no other religion beyond Christianity makes such claims about their god. All of the other gods from those of the Indians to the Muslims portray him or them as deceitful, conniving and manipulative). (more…)

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January 3, 2017
Christian Living / Judgement / Theology

How to Know God Personally

Hosea 6.3 laments, Oh, that we might know the LORD! Let us press on to know Him. He will respond to

Retro key and opened book
Retro key and opened book

us as surely as the arrival of dawn or the coming of rains in early spring.

When we think of God what do we think of? Our experience of Him personally combined with our teaching about Him will determine the thoughts we have about God as well as our behavior toward God.

The word God means, He Who is above all, the One Who is to be revered, honored and obeyed because He is perfect, wonderful and responsible for all that is, was or ever will be. Does that definition of God seem congruent with our thoughts about God or our behavior before God? Most likely not. (more…)

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November 1, 2016