heaven / Judgement

What Does it Mean to be Good?

Romans 4.25 describes that He was handed over to die because of our sins, and He was raised to life toimage 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…)

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February 2, 2016
faith / obedience / Suffering

Faith is Working With God through Difficult Circumstances

Esther 4.16 comments, If I must die, I must die.image

One of the heroes of the Bible is the young woman Esther. An oft quoted statement from the book in her memory is ‘perhaps you were made queen for such a time as this.’

The story of Esther is one of tragedy and triumph, of faith and courage, of God’s faithful work behind the scenes when people risk all for His purposes. (more…)

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January 28, 2016
Christian Living / heaven

What Christianity Looks Like

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.image

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…)

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January 26, 2016
faith / Prayer

Receiving What We Want in Prayer

Matthew 21.22 promises, you can pray for anything, and if you have faith, you will receive it. image

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…)

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January 22, 2016
heaven / Judgement

How Hard is it to Get to Heaven?

Acts 13.39 observes everyone who believes in Him is declared right with God—something the law of imagesMoses 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…)

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January 13, 2016
evangelism

All In for God

Nehemiah 1.11 is the prayer; O Lord, please grant me success today by making the king favorable toimage 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…)

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January 11, 2016
Christian Living / evangelism

Goals for 2016

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?image

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…)

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January 4, 2016
Christian Living / evangelism

Living Like Jesus Lived

John 14.31 reminds us that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what My Father imagehas 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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December 24, 2015
heaven / Judgement

God’s Judgement and Getting into Heaven

Revelation 9.20-21 records the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not imagesrepent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood—idols that cannot see or hear or walk. Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts.

While most people believe if there is a God that He is loving and good, and He is, they extrapolate from this that He will not punish people for their disobedience against His will. Nothing could be further from the truth, at least the truth recorded in the Bible.

God appears to allow us to get away with our disobedience today because He desires us to ask His forgiveness and reconcile ourselves to Him before we die. It is God’s desire to restore us not condemn us but failure to seek Him for restoration in this life will result in eternal separation from Him in the life to come. (more…)

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December 18, 2015