The One Thing We Must Do Before We Die

Ecclesiastes 12.13 summarizes the whole story. Here now is my final conclusion: Fear God and obey his commands, for this is everyone’s duty.image

Biblically speaking the wisest person to ever live was king Solomon. He was made wise by God in response to his request of God for ruling over the people of God.

The book of Ecclesiastes is king Solomon’s observations from a long life guided by wisdom. His conclusion is the summary verse for today: fear God and obey His commands. (more…)

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Living Differently Than Everyone Else

Leviticus 18.3-4 commands, do not act like the people in Egypt, where you used to live, or like the people of Canaan, where I am taking you. You must not imitate their way of life. You must obey all My imageregulations and be careful to obey My decrees, for I am the LORD your God.

The other day I was accused of not being very Christian. The accusation was from a person who did not claim to be a Christian. This person, who didn’t use the ‘product’ seemed to know how the ‘product’ was to be used and according to him, I was doing it wrong.

While I wont get into the details the point is that people, in addition to God, expect Christians to live differently. Christians too believe this but struggle to differentiate their words, behaviors or habits from the rest of their culture. (more…)

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Closing the Gap to God

Mark 12.34 observes, realizing how much the man understood, Jesus said to him, You are not far fromimage the Kingdom of God.

Knowing and doing are not the same. We inherently know this in our dealings with people, especially family. We know our spouse loves us but sometimes their actions are hurtful. We know our children know what they are to do but they often fail to do what they have been made responsible to do.

On and on it goes in our experience of the gap between knowing and doing, both in our own lives as well as the lives of others. (more…)

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Holiness Defines Sexual Morality

1 Thessalonians 4.3 describes God’s will is for you to be holy, so stay away from all sexual sin.image

An obvious difference between Christians and non Christians is or should be, behavior. This is so because our predisposition and the natural behavior of the non Christian, is to do whatever we want to do.

If we claim to be followers of God, servants of God, children of God then we will begin to conform our behavior to the will of God. The will of God is a reflection of the character of God. (more…)

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Passing Judgement

1 Thessalonians 1.10 promises, Jesus is the one Who has rescued us from the terrors of the coming imagesjudgment.

Recently I was listening to a man describe why he rejected his Christian upbringing. He served as a soldier in Vietnam and couldn’t understand how a good God could allow so much suffering. He has since become a Muslim. I didn’t understand how switching ‘gods’ helped him especially to one who doesn’t describe himself as love. (more…)

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The Work We Are Destined To Do

Colossians 1.28 explains, we tell others about Christ, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all the wisdom God has given us. We want to present them to God, perfect in their relationship to Christ.image

This verse most succinctly defines the occupation or purpose of every Christian: to bring people to Jesus and help them know His will.

When God lived on earth He began His work by inviting men to follow Him so that they could become fishers of men. When God left the earth entrusting His work to the care of men He commanded them to go and make disciples. (more…)

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Are Love and Tolerance the Same?

John 13.34 records God saying, I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you shouldimage love each other.

The current definition of love is to tolerate any belief or behavior by another individual even if that belief or behavior is offensive to the first person. The person engaged in the offensive behavior is not considered unloving when they continue in their behavior that is offensive to the first party.

Love seems to mean toleration today but only for those engaged in non-traditional behaviors. Those holding traditional values are not to be loved by those not holding such values as demonstrated by curbing their behavior when with the ‘traditionalists.’ It is the traditionalists who need to change their thinking if they are to be loving. (more…)

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Believing God Hears Us

John 11.41 observes Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “Father, thank you for hearing me.”image

One of our hindrances to prayer is our belief that God hears us. God the Son had no such hindrance with believing that God the Father heard His prayers. Why? (more…)

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The Key Work for Beating Temptation

Luke 22.46 challenges, get up and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation. image

God takes sin seriously. Sin is everything we do that defies the will of God.

This defiance is measured by God by our words, attitudes and actions toward Him and others. God has demonstrated His commitment to punish sin since humanity began their rebellion against God. (more…)

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The Difference Between Christianity and Islam

The article below describes some Muslim militias attacking and killing some nuns and their patients in a nursing home in Yemen. This story is a microcosm demonstrating the magnitude of difference between imageChristianity and Islam.

Those who believe all religions are the same and lead to the same end are sorely misguided as this story illustrates as well. (more…)

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