Maintaining Integrity with God

image1 Chronicles 10:13-14 explains, Saul died because he was unfaithful to the Lord; he did not keep the word of the Lord and even consulted a medium for guidance, and did not inquire of the Lord. So the Lord put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David son of Jesse.

Imagine being hand chosen by God to be the first king over His people. Pretty high honor. You would also think the vetting process would have been the best. Yet, like the first man created, Adam, this first king was a failure. (more…)

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A Christian Definition of Courage

Proverbs 28.1 describes the righteous (being) as bold as a lion.image

When we think of courage we think of near death experiences where some type of threat is about to take our lives but we somehow fight, resist or escape to avoid the intended result. We also think of those who went into such an event knowing they probably would not return and many didn’t. Our soldiers live in this category as do Christians who remain in hostile countries.

Certainly these are accurate descriptions of courage but maybe there is a more mundane description that all of us can and should embrace if we are going to live courageously. (more…)

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Aligning our Prayer with God’s Purpose

Matthew 26.39 records, He fell with His face to the ground and prayed, My Father, if it is possible, imagemay this cup be taken from Me. Yet not as I will, but as You will.

The goal of our prayer should be for the wisdom and strength to do God’s will. True prayer seeks God for the resources to do God’s will because doing His will always exceeds our resources.

God promises to always be with those who do His will because we need Him to complete His will. (more…)

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Truth Hurts

2 Thessalonians 2:10 observes, they perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.image

Truth hurts. Most of us don’t really like the truth because it has a nasty way of disagreeing with the way we want things to be.

Truth is not swayed by our will or wishes; it doesn’t change because we cry or scream. We become deceitful and lie in order to create an illusion of truth so that we get what we want.

God says He is truth. (more…)

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Earning Eternal Wages

John 4.36 promises the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life.image

God warned us, while living among us, as one of us, not too place our life pursuit upon things that didn’t last like houses, clothes and money. God might have added cars to this mix had they been invented while He lived among us.

These are the very things most of us pursue for defining our success and significance in the world. God is not opposed to working for reward. (more…)

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Believe, Receive and Cleave to Get to Heaven

Colossians 2:6 commands, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in imagesHim. What makes a person a Christian?

The debate has long raged because unlike all of the other religions, there are no ‘3 steps’ to making oneself a Christian. There are however 3 principles that if not evident in our lives should cause us much concern about our belief that we truly are Christians. (more…)

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What the World Needs is Love

Ephesians 5:1-2 commands we become imitators of God, by walking in love.image

Love is so hard and yet so easy. It is so hard to love others but so easy to love ourselves.

God is love. He loves everyone.

This belief is unique to Christianity and not shared by Muslims or Hindus. This is why they can murder mindlessly and keep people in oppressive Castes. (more…)

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God Wants to Give Power

Ephesians 1:19 promises His incomparably great power for us who believe.image

Power, most everyone wants it but few have ever managed having it well.

God promises power to His people, at least that is what the Apostle prays God’s church would know and understand.

The power God wants His people to experience is the same power that God exhibited when He raised Himself in Jesus from the dead. What is His power for? (more…)

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Winning the War of Ideas

2 Corinthians 10:5 proclaims we demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against imagesthe knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

We are in a war.

This war has been occurring since one man and one woman began living together in the perfect environment of Eden. This war is the war of ideas, the war of truth and lies, the war of trust leading to obedience or doubt leading to self preservation. (more…)

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God is Working on Our Behalf

2 Samuel 14.14 observes, like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be recovered, so we must die. But that is not what God desires; rather, He devises ways so that a banished person does not remainimage banished from Him.

What a great description of God.

This description is not found in any other record book about God except the Bible. The Muslims don’t record such a description. The Hindus don’t record such a description. No other book records that God does not desire human death but devises ways to restore people to Him forever.

So why do people die? (more…)

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