Matthew 12:30 observes whoever is not with Me is against Me, and whoever does not gather with Me
scatters.
On occasion in the gospels, Jesus, God Who has become man, throws down the gauntlet and demands we choose sides. This passage is one of those times when Jesus invites us to separate ourselves into wheat or chaff.
What does it mean for us when God demands we choose but we refuse to even engage the discussion? (more…)
Matthew 7:14 warns small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
This generation finds offensive God’s instruction that He has only one way for entering heaven. It seems more fair, more loving, more gracious for all religions to be acceptable to God so that all people can get to heaven.
The problem with this thinking is that it ignores the love of God and the sacrifice God made for saving people. (more…)
Matthew 5:3 proclaims blessed are the…
Most likely there is no one on the planet who doesn’t want to be blessed by God. There is an entire Christian industry claiming wealth and health to all those who know God and have faith in Him (and give generously to His messengers).
The thinking we associate with blessing is always around money, influence and power, not the things God identifies as blessing when He lived among us in the Man, Jesus. God has told us what it means to be blessed by Him.. (more…)
2 Chronicles 36:13 records Zedekiah was a hard and stubborn man so far as obeying the Lord God of Israel was concerned, for he refused to follow Him.
The Bible does a lot of recording of how people finished their lives.
Any of us can run a ten yard sprint. Some of us can run a 100 yard dash but very few of us could run a marathon. What’s the difference? Focus, commitment, training.
Living on earth is a marathon and not a sprint. (more…)
Malachi 2:6 describes he passed on to the people all the truth he got from me. He did not lie or cheat; he walked with me, living a good and righteous life, and turned many from their lives of sin.
In this description of one of God’s favorite people, Levi, He is describing the role of the priest. At least among the Protestants, the belief is held that all Christians are now priests. The tribe of Levi has been replaced with the Spirit filled people of God who walk by faith and obedience under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. (more…)
John 14:23 reveals I will only reveal Myself to those who love Me and obey Me.
God loves everyone but God does not treat everyone the same.
God loves everyone as He demonstrated by coming to earth as a man to die as a sacrifice so that all humanity might be pardoned for all their evil done against God and one another. Yet not all of humanity will receive God’s pardon nor will all recognize Jesus as God the Savior while they continue in this life living selfishly and ignoring the commands of God.
It is only those who love God as demonstrated by obedience to God that see God and experience His presence in their lives. (more…)
John 6:54 promises anyone who does eat My flesh and drink My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him at the Last Day.
We call this symbolic participation in the body and blood of Christ the Eucharist, Communion or the Lord’s Supper. The earliest church practiced this event at every gathering, a tradition still in place by some of the Church.
But what is this eating of His flesh and drinking of His blood?
Many of the first disciples who heard God say this walked away from Him thinking He had lost His mind. Muslims find this teaching barbaric even cannibalistic proving in their minds the falsity of the Christian religion.
So what is God inviting us into when He invites us to supper with Him and He is the main course? (more…)
John 5:17 records “My Father constantly does good, and I’m following His example.”
Whoever claims to live in Christ must walk as Jesus did the beloved Apostle John wrote in his first letter to the church. How did God the Son walk? He followed the example of God the Father.
How should we as the children live? We should follow the example of God the Son. Simple really but not easy for the requirement of putting others first before ourselves is immensely difficult and to know what Jesus did we must be students of Who Jesus is.
God in Jesus set before us the example of seeking God the Father diligently through the Scriptures and through prayer. (more…)
Revelation 2:5 Think about those times of your first love (how different now!) and turn back to Me again and work as you did 
before; or else..
While we all have felt love we all know that love is doing more than feeling.
In romantic love the feelings are overwhelming and they cause us to do many acts of good toward the one we love. When those feelings diminish over time too often the acts diminish as well sometimes resulting in a termination of the relationship.
God describes love in a couple of different ways. (more…)
3 John 1:11 reminds us that those who do what is right prove that they are God’s children; and those who continue in evil prove 
that they are far from God.
In Christianity, getting to heaven is easy, at least for us, but living as though we are residents of heaven is hard. God made getting to heaven easy by offering freely a pardon to us through His Son Who sacrificed Himself as payment for us.
It cost God His most precious possession to secure His most precious creation: His Son for you and me. For those of us who believe God, He has given us the right to be declared children of God; forever forgiven and forever sealed for spending eternity with Him in heaven and upon the new earth.
Christians don’t have to do anything because everything that was required for getting into heaven has been done by the Son and has been credited to those who humble themselves before God in submission to the Son of God Who is Jesus Christ the Lord. (more…)
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