Passing the Eternal Test

2 Corinthians 13.5-9 challenges, test yourselves to make sure you are solid in the faith. Don’t drift along taking everything for granted. Give yourselves regular checkups. You need firsthand evidence, not mere hearsay, that Jesus Christ is in you. Test it out. If you fail the test, do something about it. I hope the test won’t show that we have failed.

In every endeavor where we measure performance we test. From academia to sports to the lab we test in order to determine strength, truth or ability. In Christianity, we tend not to test. (more…)

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How Hard Are You Working?

1 Corinthians 15.58 invites, don’t hold back. Throw yourselves into the work of the Master, confident that nothing you do for him is a waste of time or effort.

This is our mission, the Great Commission. We are to conduct this mission with our whole heart, throwing ourselves into this work, knowing that eternal reward awaits when we face our God and give account for the life we lived on this earth. (more…)

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The Best Way to Love God and Love Our Neighbor

Luke 12.8-9 commands, stand up for Me among the people you meet and the Son of Man will stand up for you before all God’s angels. But if you pretend you don’t know Me, do you think I’ll defend you before God’s angels?

One of the evidences for the truth of Scripture, that the Lord alone is God and that Jesus is the God-Man, the only Savior of the world, is the difficulty we have in identifying with Him before men. (more…)

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Sharing Jesus With People Can Get You Hurt

Luke 10.3 warns, On your way! But be careful—this is hazardous work. You’re like lambs in a wolf pack.

I find it ironic our God would say, be careful. Our prayers are offered in hopes that we wouldn’t need to be careful, that He would be watching over us to protect us so that nothing bad happens to us. Isn’t that the point of our prayers? Especially, when the prayer and the work is centered around doing His will! (more…)

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How Do You Measure Obedience To God?

Jeremiah 13.8-11 mourns, GOD explained, “This is the way I am going to ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem—a wicked bunch of people who won’t obey me, who do only what they want to do, who chase after all kinds of no-gods and worship them. They’re going to turn out as rotten as these old shorts. Just as shorts clothe and protect, so I kept the whole family of Israel under my care— GOD ’s Decree—so that everyone could see they were my people, a people I could show off to the world and be proud of. But they refused to do a thing I said.

God’s description of Israel is certainly apropos to many in the Church today. We don’t obey God, we do what we want to do, we chase after and worship no-gods. (more…)

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What Does YOUR God Require From You?

Joshua 4.23-24 observes, Yes, GOD, your God, dried up the Jordan’s waters for you until you had crossed, just as GOD, your God, did at the Red Sea, which had dried up before us until we had crossed. This was so that everybody on earth would recognize how strong GOD ’s rescuing hand is and so that you would hold GOD in solemn reverence always.

Holding God in solemn reverence always. What exactly does that mean? It certainly means honoring Him. How do we honor God? (more…)

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What Do You Think About Who God Is?

John 20.30-31 records, Jesus provided far more God-revealing signs than are written down in this book. These are written down so you will believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and in the act of believing, have real and eternal life in the way he personally revealed it.

Most conversations about God begin with, ‘I think.’ Everyone has an opinion it seems about Who God is, if God is and how God operates. Where do these ideas come from and how do we know they are true? (more…)

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Intimacy With God Occurs Where He Is

1 John 4. 15-16 describes, everyone who confesses that Jesus is God’s Son participates continuously in an intimate relationship with God. We know it so well, we’ve embraced it heart and soul, this love that comes from God.

Doing the work of God keeps us in intimacy with God. The work of God is this: to make known the Father and the Son in Whom we receive forgiveness of sins and life forever. (more…)

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What Is Eternal Life?

John 17.3 records,this is the real and eternal life: That they know You, The One and only true God, And Jesus Christ, Whom You sent. I glorified You on earth By completing down to the last detail What You assigned Me to do. And now, Father, glorify Me with Your very own splendor, The very splendor I had in Your presence Before there was a world.

Most Christians would define eternal life as living with God in heaven. The particularly biblically astute might even add living with God on the new earth. Neither would be correct. (more…)

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What Priority Does Church Have For YOU?

Ephesians 1.23 observes, the church, you see, is not peripheral to the world; the world is peripheral to the church. The church is Christ’s body, in which he speaks and acts, by which he fills everything with his presence.

Oh that we as the Church, the people who claim Jesus as Savior,  would embrace this truth: the Church is not peripheral to the world but the world is peripheral to the Church. (more…)

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