Christian Living / Judgement / obedience / Suffering

Getting Help from God

Psalm 91:14 promises, because he loves Me, says the Lord, I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he imageacknowledges My Name.

While we live our lives most of the time without interest in God’s interference, frequently enough we experience life outside our control and want God’s help. Some have denied the existence of God or His goodness because during these times He did not show up in the way they wanted or felt they needed.

Like the small child who has a tantrum when told no are those who curse God when He fails to behave according to their desire. So what does it take to move God favorably upon our behalf? (more…)

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June 16, 2015
Christian Living / faith / obedience

How to Know God Better

Isaiah 43.10 describes ‘You are My witnesses,’ declares the Lord, and My servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe Me and understand that I am He.image

How do we get to know God better and more personally is the universal question among those who truly believe in God. Religion provides a means to that end sometimes and in some ways. The disciplines of Bible reading and prayer are certainly helpful to knowing God better.

God wants us to accomplish our objective so has given us two clues for knowing, believing and understanding Him. (more…)

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June 11, 2015
heaven / Judgement

Who is God?

Isaiah 33:22 describes the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; it is Heimages Who will save us.

How do we see God? What role does He play in our lives?

The great prophet Isaiah working in a culture similar to ours many years ago reminds Israel that God acts in four ways in our lives. (more…)

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June 1, 2015
Christian Living / heaven / Judgement / obedience

Spiritual Development

2 Peter 1.10 exhorts us to make every effort to confirm our calling and election.images

Most evangelical Christians define a person’s salvation by whether or not they believe they are going to heaven if they were to die today.

The answer they are looking for is the confession that the person invited Jesus into their lives to forgive their sins and believe His promise to receive them into His heaven forgiven because of His gracious pardon obtained through His shed blood. Satisfied they believe a person is saved because they made the proper confession they move on never to think again about this salvation we or they supposedly obtain. (more…)

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May 19, 2015
heaven / Judgement / obedience

Motives Matter

Numbers 22.32 observes I have come here to oppose you because your path is a reckless one beforeimage Me.

When God’s not happy ain’t nobody happy!

The problem with the One True God is that He cares as much about how and why we do something as He does with what we do. This makes sense actually if there really is a God.

All the other religions, including Islam, place all of their emphasis upon outward behavior without regard for the motive of that behavior. In reality, we all have this propensity. (more…)

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May 13, 2015
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
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 / work

Being Salty Christians

Mark 9.50 encourages have salt among yourselves.image

The modern translation of God’s admonition to have salt in ourselves might be, ‘suck it up buttercup,’ or ‘cowboy up,’ or ‘man up,’ or any of a number of sayings that mean stop being a sissy and own the solution to whatever problem we are facing. The wussification of the current culture is over the top.

Everyone has a malady, no one is responsible for their problems, blaming others is common and looking to big brother for meeting our needs is the new norm. Our grandparents shake their heads at us as they endured the great depression, rationing of basic necessities and the effects of two world wars. (more…)

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April 9, 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