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
Christian Living / Judgement

Are we ‘all-in’ for God?

Luke 3:7 proclaims you are trying to escape hell without truly turning to God!image

If we are honest this is the state of most of us, we want to go to heaven but we don’t want interference from God over how we run our lives. We take the minimalist approach to God trusting that He is loving like grandma and giving like Santa Claus.

The reason for this hypocrisy is because we really want to be god, totally in control without accountability, for everything we do, think and say. This reality says a lot about us and little about God. If we knew God better we would think more highly of Him and live more trusting of Him.

What kind of a God are we worshipping Who finds acceptable our minimalist effort at pleasing Him? (more…)

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November 19, 2014
Christian Living / obedience

Getting Better

Hebrews 5:14 encourages we become better Christians and learn right from wrong by practicing doing right.image

The assumption Scripture makes about those who claim to have placed their faith in God as their Lord and Savior is that they will be faithful to obey His commands. Somehow a disconnect between belief and obedience has crept into the Church allowing people to believe in God without surrendering to God’s will for their lives.

When God lived among us as Jesus He commanded that those who would be His disciples, those who would believe in Him as Messiah/Savior, would take up their cross and follow Him. The taking up of the cross is the surrender of self-will in order to perfectly obey the will of God.

This was what God modeled for us as man in Jesus, the absolute surrender to the will of God over the will of self epitomized by Jesus’ statement in the garden, ‘not My will but Your will be done.’This statement is to be the refrain of every Christian. (more…)

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November 10, 2014
Christian Living / heaven / Judgement

God is not Bad

Hosea 11:9 declares I am the Holy One living among you, and I did not come to destroy.images

God is good but we don’t always think so. We like the freedom to make our own decisions, to do what we want but we don’t always like the consequences of those decisions or the choices others make which impact our lives.

We blame God for the bad things that happen without considering that most of those bad things are the result of our own or other human choices. We want a god who will intervene in our lives to keep us from injury but not to command us to do good.

When bad things happen not as a result of human choice we still blame God for it feeling that He is disinterested in our affairs. This is not the picture the Bible paints of Who the One True God Who is love in character, nature and ways.

The God in the Bible is the God Who is full of compassion, abounding in mercy and unlimited in love. (more…)

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November 5, 2014
Christian Living / obedience / Titus

The Importance of Good Works

Titus 2:1 teaches that there is right living that goes along with true Christianity.image

One of the problems with Christians defining themselves as ‘believers’ is the disconnect that occurs with the responsibility to live ‘rightly’ as a result of right belief. This disconnect is furthered when we discuss our acceptance by God through grace by faith and not by our good works.

While true, it wasn’t that no good works occurred giving humanity the opportunity to be forgiven, Jesus Himself earned our pardon through His perfect obedience to all the will of God. Without His good works we would have none appropriated to us for us to be forgiven. (more…)

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November 3, 2014
Theology

Who is this Jesus?

2 Timothy 2:8 describes Jesus Christ a man, born into King David’s family; and God, as shown by the fact that He rose againimage from the dead.

The Trinity is wholly unique within Christianity. No other religion, not Islam, not Hinduism, not the Jehovah Witnesses, not Mormonism nor Buddhism make that claim that God Himself became and is both God and Man.

Why is this one truth so important to Christianity and so despised by Muslims, Witnesses and Mormons particularly? (more…)

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October 30, 2014
Christian Living / evangelism / obedience

What is Your Purpose?

2 Timothy 1:3 declares my only purpose in life is to please Him.image

Why was one man so productive in the work of God? He had one aim.

This shouldn’t be surprising to any of us. Many people are successful in this world for the same reason. The Olympic athlete and the billionaire business man are probably the best examples of having a singular focus combined with dogged determination to produce the desired end.

Most of us just aren’t that committed.

We are content to be weekend warriors and living comfortably. In the things of God too many are content to attend Church weekly and try to be good during the week, whatever that means. (more…)

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October 29, 2014