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 / Judgement / obedience / Suffering

It is Difficult to Be Faithful

Judges 14.17 describes, she cried on his shoulder until the party was almost over. Finally, on the seventh day, he told her because she had nagged him so much. Then she told the young men the solution to the riddle.

Nagging has a way of wearing us down. That explains why children use it most often because it is so effective at moving their parents to give them their way. God rewards faithfulness and even warns that only those who remain so until the end will be rewarded. Faithful until what end? Ours or the world’s I suppose. (more…)

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July 31, 2017
evangelism / faith / obedience

Christian Holy War is Still Necessary

Judges 3.2 describes, God left those nations simply because He wanted to teach the subsequent generations of Israelites, who had not experienced the earlier battles, how to conduct holy war.

The idea of holy war is not a very positive one today. While it’s quite an old concept the Muslims have made the idea immensely unpalatable. The Muslim version of holy war involves using women, children and the handicapped, in addition to men without other options for gaining heaven, through the means of suicide, for accomplishing their objectives. Their holy war is the destruction of the infidel or the conversion of the infidel through terror and fear. The god they serve is abusive, terrible and unattractive in every way. Yet holy war predates Islam. (more…)

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July 20, 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
Christian Living / obedience

How to Bring More Love Into the World

Matthew 24.12 observes, because lawlessness will increase so much, the love of many will grow cold.

It’s hard to do good when everyone else is doing wrong. Its hard to do good when everyone else seems to be advocating doing bad.

Our hearts and minds are shaped by someone or something. If we saturate ourselves with Bible reading, listening, memorizing and meditating we will think about things more like God thinks about things. If we listen mostly to the radio, internet and television while attending public schools and working in a secular environment we will think and thus act, more like those around us. (more…)

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July 14, 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 / 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
Prayer

How Can We Pray More Effectively?

Matthew 6.8 observes, your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. So why pray?

Knowing everything is an integral character quality for being God. Since God knows everything why should I pray? The God-Man, Jesus the Savior, makes this observation. So why pray?

We really can’t help but pray. We will pray. Everyone prays. We don’t have to live long on this earth before realizing we need someone greater than ourselves to be in control and to gain control of this world. In our darkest hours all people pray. (more…)

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June 27, 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