evangelism

The Natural Progression of our Religion

Acts 22.14-15 describes, the God of our ancestors has already chosen you to know His will, to see the Righteous One, and to hear a command from His mouth, because you will be His witness to all people of what you have seen and heard.

Paul’s description of how he came to know the one true God summarizes how all of us come to know the one true God. We enter the world estranged from God. It is not inherent to the human species at birth to recognize or serve God. From infancy, we humans are self preserving and self seeking. (more…)

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August 4, 2017
Christian Living / evangelism / Judgement / obedience / Suffering

Who Is Willing to Suffer for Jesus?

Acts 5.41 records, they left the council rejoicing because they had been considered worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name.

The Church was able to grow from a handful of believers in Jesus into a world wide religion because it has been willing to suffer dishonor for the proclamation of Jesus as the only God and Savior of the world. When the Church has lost influence it has been the result of those who profess Jesus as Savior privately being afraid to do so publicly lest they suffer for proclaiming His ways. (more…)

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July 18, 2017
heaven / obedience

Who is Going to Heaven?

Matthew 22.14 reports, many are called, but few are chosen.

Who God is and Who we think He is are often in-congruent. What we expect God to do or be like often conflicts with how He acts or describes Himself in the Bible.

Bible reading and study is the critical discipline necessary for aligning our opinion of God most closely to the true nature, character and ways of God. Today’s verse is a case in point over Who God really is and what we normally think God is like. (more…)

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July 12, 2017
Christian Living / Judgement / obedience

What Is A Christian?

Jeremiah 3.13 commands, you must confess that you have done wrong, and that you have rebelled against the LORD your God. You must confess that you have given yourself to foreign gods under every green tree, and have not obeyed my commands,’ says the LORD.

Somehow the definition of Christian has become those people who live perfect lives and attend Church. Of course no one lives a perfect life. The impossibility of living perfectly is why Christians are called hypocrites and what is often used by non Christians to justify their continued lifestyle of defiance against God. The premise however is all wrong. (more…)

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July 8, 2017
Christian Living / evangelism / obedience / Uncategorized

Are We Focused on God’s Interests?

Matthew 16.23 observes, He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me, because you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but on man’s.”

What are God’s interests? Do we really believe God has interests? Do we think those interests are simply that we be good?

The size of our god will determine the belief we have in that god’s interest in our life and in the world. If our god is small, distant and aloof, then that god will have only a minor interest in the world and what is going on. If our god is small then he will only be concerned with our moral behavior, setting the standard at our doing our best to be good. (more…)

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July 6, 2017
Judgement / obedience

What We Do Proves What We Believe

Matthew 3.8 commands. produce fruit that proves your repentance.

To the religious, to those who think they are approved by God, to those who know they are ‘right’ theologically; God says, ‘produce fruit that proves your repentance.’ This command is offensive because we like to be measured on our knowledge and intentions rather than the result of our actions.

Indeed, this command was offensive to the religious leaders who first heard it. (more…)

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June 23, 2017
heaven / Judgement / obedience

If God Is Real Then Shouldn’t We Listen To Him?

Revelation 22.19 records, if anyone takes away from the words of this book of prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city that are described in this book.

If there really is a God doesn’t it make sense that He gets to make the rules for how we should live? This is important if our concept of God includes a day of accountability before this God. This accountability would seem to be a review of our life’s deeds compared to the rules or commands this God made for people to follow. (more…)

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June 20, 2017
heaven / Judgement

What’s the Worst That Could Happen?

John 5.14 records, after this Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “Look, you have become well. Don’t sin any more, lest anything worse happen to you.”

What could be worse than being paralyzed for 38 years? What could be worse than living in a prison while watching everyone else around you enjoy freedom? Jesus found this prisoner and asked him if he wanted to get well. (more…)

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May 23, 2017