Mark 11.17 describes, My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations . But you have turned it
into a den of robbers!
What is the purpose of Church?
If the Church is the world wide ‘body’ of Christ, the faithful followers of Jesus, then it’s mission is the Great Commission. If the Church is the local building where the followers of Jesus gather then…..it gets a bit more nebulous, at least to the followers. (more…)
Romans 7.4 states because you are united with the One who was raised from the dead, we can produce
a harvest of good deeds for God.
Everyone wants to do good. Its in our nature to want to do good deeds that generates recognition of our goodness. We have this nature because we were created in the image of God Who is good.
Our original design was for us to always do good for the glory of God but now that we have been corrupted through generational disobedience to God we seek to do good to obtain esteem from one another. What we recognize is this inherent need and desire to do good. (more…)
Romans 4.25 describes that He was handed over to die because of our sins, and He was raised to life to
make us right with God.
Religion is the attempt to make people right with God. Performance is essential for success.
Even the agnostic plays this game by convincing themselves they are essentially good people deserving of heaven if there proves to be a god in the end. Being right with God by the agnostic and the religious is defined as doing more good in life than bad.
But what is good? (more…)
Acts 26.20 records Paul’s message to the Gentiles, that all must repent of their sins and turn to God—and prove they have changed by the good things they do.
One of the knocks on Christianity is how easy it is to be ‘successful’ in the religion, if success is defined as going to heaven. All of the other religions require great effort and sacrifice if the adherent is going to earn their eternal reward but Christianity promotes itself as a free gift only to be received in order to become an eternal member. (more…)
Matthew 21.22 promises, you can pray for anything, and if you have faith, you will receive it.
This verse makes many Christians nervous because on the surface it appears God is promising us anything we ask for in prayer. This is what we want His words to mean for there are many things we wish we had but don’t have but if having them was only a matter of asking for them then that would be awesome.
Our experience however tells us this is not what He meant for we have all asked God for things in prayer and did not receive them. So what does this verse mean? (more…)
Matthew 18.3 demands unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never
get into the Kingdom of Heaven.
Many people are familiar with this requirement God gives for getting into heaven. The difficulty is understanding what it means.
Some extrapolate that it means we must be pure like little children. (more…)
Acts 13.39 observes everyone who believes in Him is declared right with God—something the law of
Moses could never do.
The One True God has made entrance into His eternal dwelling place quite easy really: repent, believe and receive. Every other religion including atheism and agnosticism, are trying to accumulate enough good works so that God is forced to accept them. (more…)
Nehemiah 1.11 is the prayer; O Lord, please grant me success today by making the king favorable to
me. Put it into his heart to be kind to me. In those days I was the king’s cup-bearer.
Things were bad in Nehemiah’s day, real bad. The nation of Israel, the people of God, were no longer living free under their own rule but were disbursed and distributed to the nations around them to live as slaves and servants of their captors. But some still had hope in God. (more…)
2 Corinthians 13:5 commands test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you –unless indeed you fail the test?
A new year, a new beginning, a new opportunity for being more and doing more than we have ever done before. What should be our focus as we begin the new year? We instinctively know the answer to this question: God, family and work but not necessarily in this order. Yet this is indeed the order that matters most spiritually, emotionally and eternally.
Before we take a step forward we must assess where we are by looking backward. (more…)
John 14.31 reminds us that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what My Father
has commanded Me.
When Jesus was wrapping up His earthly visitation He summarized His work as a world-wide example of love. Love for the Father and love for the people of the world past, present and future was to be how His work is defined.
What did this love look like? (more…)
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