heaven / Judgement / Theology

Why all Religions Can’t get us to Heaven

Matthew 7:14 warns small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.images

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…)

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January 7, 2015
Christian Living / Judgement / money / obedience

Pursuing Treasure

Matthew 6:19 commands ‘Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.’images

When God lived among us He said, ‘do not store up for yourselves treasure on earth.’ We need to read that again slowly, thinking carefully about His words. God said, ‘do not store up treasures on earth.’

Yet most of us ignore Him. We are like the Israelites we read about in the Bible who constantly ignore God’s commands so we find ourselves shaking our heads at their disobedience and subsequent negative consequences. (more…)

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January 6, 2015
Christian Living

Blessed by God

Matthew 5:3 proclaims blessed are the…image

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…)

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January 5, 2015
Christian Living / Theology

man as God or God as man?

Luke 1.35 proclaims the child to be born will be called the Son of God.images

Christmas is the Christian holiday of celebrating the arrival of God to earth as a man in order to become the human sacrifice for God.

The original sin, and all sin since then, can be boiled down to the single issue of man wants to be god. Our anger is a direct reflection of this inherent bent for our angry feelings reflect our unhappiness with the fact that all is not going according to our sovereign will.

Buddhism, Hinduism and Mormonism all have as their end game the divinity of their adherents if they are faithful to follow their religious teachings. This is the ultimate expression of that inherent desire to be god; the all controlling, all powerful, all worshiped, all adhered to, all envied being we wish we would become. (more…)

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December 22, 2014
Christian Living / Theology

The Purpose of Communion

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.image

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…)

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December 16, 2014
Christian Living / obedience

True Love

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 imagebefore; 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…)

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December 11, 2014
Christian Living

Proving we are Children of God

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 imagethat 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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December 8, 2014
Christian Living

How to Know God

1 John 2.5 promises those who do what Christ tells them to will learn to love God more and more. That is the way to know imagewhether or not you are a Christian.

Imagine taking a test where any answer given is deemed correct. We would not think much of the test nor of the subject. Every teacher expects their students to give them the same answer on their test if they wish to pass the test.

Every team expects all of the players to know the plays and perform them the same way if they are going to be successful. Every company expects their employees to know their procedures and perform them the same way so that everyone can more effectively work together.

God has given to us the Bible so that we can know the correct answers to the questions Who is God and what does He require of us. (more…)

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December 3, 2014
Christian Living

Being Truly Rich

Luke 16.11 observes if you are untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven?images

What are the true riches of heaven? Knowing God deeply and enjoying Him forever is certainly first. God is about relationship not about stuff making the true riches deep joyful relationships.

After we have accumulated a bunch of stuff and put money into our bank accounts we too realize that life is not about what we possess but about the people we love and who love us. (more…)

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December 2, 2014
Christian Living / obedience / Prayer

The Temptations of Jesus

Luke 4.1-13 records the temptations of Jesus.image

These were not His only temptations but while they literally occurred they also represent three areas where we struggle to obey God.

First is the temptation to be independent. Jesus had the power to miraculously feed Himself but He waited on God to supply His needs His way. The Christian life is a process toward dependence upon God and away from being independent rebels. We are to look to God for our provision and direction while daily obeying His every command. Christianity is an evolution of doing what we know while learning to know God more. (more…)

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November 20, 2014