Christian Living / Judgement

Living Burden Free

Psalm 68.19 declares, praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, Who daily bears our burdens. Godimage bears our burdens.

Does that really make any sense? No other religion other than Christianity makes such a claim.

Surely allah doesn’t bear anyone’s burdens. Most gods place burdens on humanity forcing us to get better by their impossible demands.

Our idols have the same burdensome propensity. We beat ourselves because we are not strong enough, smart enough, rich enough or pretty enough so we keep working trying to pacify that voice in our head that is never satisfied. (more…)

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May 11, 2015
heaven / Judgement

Welcome Home

Hebrews 10.17 proclaims their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.images

What if seeing God for the first time really was a welcome home party, sort of like when your parents welcome you home after having not seen you for months? What if God really did treat us like He knew nothing of our faults or failures?

How would truly believing these things transform our behavior now? Wouldn’t we begin to treat God like we do that person in our life who just loves us for who we are and cares nothing about our performance?

That is the kind of promise God makes to us; to welcome us into heaven as though we had lived a perfect life having never ever done anything wrong. (more…)

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May 6, 2015
Christian Living / obedience

The Fallacy of Religion

Isaiah 1.13 commands, Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me….I imagecannot bear your worthless assemblies.

The problem with the One True God is that He is not fooled by religion.

Religion is to be a means by which we express our love and worship toward God. Religion is not God, neither does it’s rituals please God, unless the life of the one performing the ritual is consistent in living a life pleasing to God.

We just finished the season of Lent where many Christians perform the duty of sacrifice in an effort to identify with Him Who sacrificed His life for humanity. I am always amazed how we equate giving up chocolate or beer with Jesus’ death on the Cross for sin. The disconnect seems pretty extreme to me. Is this even something God wants or expects from us? (more…)

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May 4, 2015
obedience / Suffering

Perfect through Suffering

Hebrews 2.10 claims Jesus, God as man, was made perfect through what he suffered.image

When we think of God suffering we think of the cross upon which He was crucified as the sacrifice for our sins, the payment God the Father required in order to pardon all who love God from their disobedience toward Him.

No doubt the greatest suffering occurred at the separation of God the Father from God the Son when the sins of humanity were all transferred to the perfect One. A mystery difficult for us to understand. (more…)

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April 27, 2015
Christian Living / obedience / Prayer

Beating Temptation

Mark 14.38 commands watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, imagebut the flesh is weak.

Watch means read the Book, understand what it says so that when you see things happening you can interpret them properly. Pray, so that the Spirit within is able to overpower the flesh without that is unwilling to obey the prescription found in the Book.

While Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for humanity’s disobedience, this was not done to give license to the children of God to disobey the commands of God. (more…)

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April 14, 2015
Christian Living

Why Go To Church?

Leviticus 17.8-9 commands: Any Israelite or any foreigner residing among them who offers a burnt imagesoffering or sacrifice and does not bring it to the entrance to the tent of meeting to sacrifice it to the Lord must be cut off from the people of Israel.

Too many who call themselves Christians profess to love God but despise His Church. God calls His Church His bride so what many Christians declare is that they like the Groom but detest the bride. This attitude makes a relationship difficult. (more…)

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April 13, 2015
heaven / Judgement

Only His Work Counts

Acts 17.31 declares He has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the man He has imagesappointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising Him from the dead.

The crucifixion marked the end of heaven being earned by good deeds. In the crucifixion of the Perfect One God made clear that all the good deeds of all people were insufficient for getting them to heaven.

All religions and all people from all time have always tried to measure themselves by their good deeds hoping those outweighed their bad deeds by just enough to get them to heaven. God says all of our good deeds are as menstrual cloths to Him, that no one is good not even one. (more…)

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April 6, 2015
Christian Living

Managing Conflict

Ephesians 6.12 reports our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly
imagerealms.

Most Christians believe the Bible is absolutely true but few are able to apply its truth absolutely.

While our struggles should be against unseen forces in heavenly places most of us struggle with known forces in our faces! Lately I have been in conflict with some fellow Christians and it hasn’t been pretty. How should Christians disagree? (more…)

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March 26, 2015
Christian Living / faith / heaven

What Does it Mean to Believe?

John 6.29 describes the work of God is this: to believe in the One He has sent.
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One of the knocks on Christianity is it’s easy entry to heaven. Some believe going to heaven is as easy as believing in Jesus, after all, isn’t that what He just said? Its fair to say what He meant by belief and what we understand by belief are not the same.

If what we understand belief to mean, simply believe, then the devil and all the demons would go to heaven since they certainly believe. In the gospel it is only the evil spirits who consistently identify Jesus correctly as the Christ the Son of God. I don’t think they will live with God forever though they believe. (more…)

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March 16, 2015
heaven / Judgement / obedience

The Choice of Evil

Job 40.8 asks would you condemn Me to justify yourself?image

A few weeks ago the papers reported another atrocity of ISIS terrorists murdering children in the name of their god. The story I read, reported by a journalist from Great Britain, ended with his comments of disgust concerning religion and its abuse of people. Correctly, this man had a problem with religion that justifies the murder and maiming of children.

Below the surface was his disdain with the belief in god because if there is a god then he should be good and if he is good then he should stop the killing in his name. (more…)

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March 11, 2015