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
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
Christian Living / Suffering

Feeling Forsaken

Matthew 27:46 About three o’clock, Jesus shouted, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”image

Have you ever felt forsaken by God? Most of us have. If so, we are in good company.

The Son of God, Himself God, somehow in the mystery of the Trinity, was also forsaken by the Father, Who is God. We accept Jesus being forsaken for we understand it was the process by which He took upon Himself all of our sins, all of the sins of humanity from and for all time, so that we could be forgiven for all time for all the evil we have ever done.

God, the perfect One, was forsaken so that the imperfect could be reconciled to the Father. If God was forsaken should we not also at least feel the same way on occasion?

TV Christianity promotes a God loves you and wants to bless you no matter what image of God but that is not the reality the Bible portrays. All of the great saints in the Bible suffered at various times. (more…)

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October 27, 2014
Christian Living / heaven / Judgement

The Importance of Believing the Truth

2 Thessalonians 2:10 proclaims they are on their way to hell because they have said no to the Truth; they have refused to imagebelieve it and love it and let it save them.

Jesus, the personal revelation of God in the flesh, promised that by knowing the truth we would be set free. We know this is true for we know of many who have brought great harm to themselves because of the lies they believed about themselves.

When we make a bad purchase, when all the information that was true wasn’t quite revealed, we realize again the truth that knowing the truth will set us free from personal and financial headaches.

There is an ultimate truth, a truth that determines the eternal destiny of everyone. Jesus said He is the Truth and His Truth is that He is God in person, made visible so that we could know God and trust God for the salvation of our souls when we pass from this life into the next.

The modern definition of truth is that each person decides what is true for themselves but the foolishness of such a belief is obvious in math, science, and relationships. We would all be miserable if engineers built bridges and structures based upon whatever truth they believed. So too with doctors.

And just because we believe something to be true doesn’t mean our significant other does and they let us know sometimes how untrue our truth really is! So too if there is a God doesn’t it make sense He would want us to know Who He really is so that we could please Him the way He wants? (more…)

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October 21, 2014
Christian Living

Gaining Wisdom

Proverbs 1:7 instructs how a man becomes wise? The first step is to trust and reverence the Lord!image

Everyone wants wisdom. At least everyone wants to make the right decisions! There is a difference.

We make hundreds of decisions daily but the big ones cause us anxiety because failure to get it right can lead to serious financial loss and personal unhappiness. The root desire for wanting wisdom in this instance is selfish; we want to be happy, we want to be successful and we don’t want pain or suffering.

This is not why God gives wisdom.

The first step toward gaining wisdom is to trust and reverence the Lord.

Wisdom is given so we might know God and how to please Him in everything we do. (more…)

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October 16, 2014
1 Thessalonians / Christian Living

The Importance of Coaching

1 Thessalonians 1:6 observes you became our followers and the Lord’s.image

People need examples, coaches, models, mentors for understanding practically how to live certain principles or objectives. When the Apostle Paul would invest in someone he would invite them to follow him as he followed Jesus. The Lord Jesus, God in the flesh, invited men to follow Him as He taught and modeled how He wanted people to live if they were going to please God.

Inviting others to join us through imitation places a great deal of responsibility upon us for doing the right thing. Perhaps this is why we have diminished this methodology for developing people in recent years.

A couple of premises have to be established for this relationship to work. (more…)

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October 15, 2014
evangelism / Judgement / work

Getting Paid for our Work

Colossians 3:24 reminds us that it is the Lord Christ Who is going to pay you, giving you your full portion of all He owns. He isimages the one you are really working for.

Work is inherent to our existence. If a man will not work neither should he eat, at least not for free from the church doles – we have the government to take care of that!

In all seriousness, it is work that determines a man’s wealth in a free society. And wealth determines a person’s comfort and opportunities.

Work in itself is good and not evil though many have been taught otherwise. God made man then set him to work in His pristine environment that guaranteed success. It was through the rebellion that work suffered a curse and therefore became inherently more difficult by yielding thistles and thorns in addition to good crops instead of just good fruit as God designed.

The real problem with work is the propensity to define ourselves by the results of our work and to use the fruit of our work for our own pleasures and wants. (more…)

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October 13, 2014
Christian Living

Boasting

2 Corinthians 12:9 boasts I am glad to be a living demonstration of Christ’s power, instead of showing off my own power and abilities. When Paul took the opportunity to…

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September 23, 2014