Judgement / obedience

Remaining in God’s Love Part 1

John 15.9-10 warns us to remain in Jesus’ love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, imagejust as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.

It seems odd to hear God command us to remain in His love. We presume that we just always remain in His love without effort or thought on our part. After all, God so loved the world He gave Himself in His Son to reconcile us to Himself.

Why then would I need to remain in His love since He already loves me? Indeed God loves everyone but the experience of His love occurs only in a relationship with Him through Jesus. (more…)

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November 9, 2015
obedience / work

Lessons to be learned from the ‘Greatest Generation’

2 Kings 17.41 observes even while these people were worshiping the Lord, they were serving their idols. To this day their children and grandchildren continue to do as their ancestors did.image

The so called, ‘greatest generation’ were the parents of the children who attended high school in the late 1940’s and 1950’s. These people became the parents of those who attended high school in the 1960’s to 1970’s.

The ‘greatest generation’ was considered such because of the selflessness by which they lived their life. They suffered much and paid much to make the life of their children better. (more…)

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November 5, 2015
heaven / Judgement / money

Building Heavenly Treasure Part 2

1 Timothy 6.19 promises, in this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for imagesthe coming age. God encourages us to create and store treasure for ourselves in heaven. Think of it as the ultimate retirement savings account.

To earn heavenly treasure we have to think in the economics of heaven. We also have to choose which priority we will live for: short term this life existence or long term eternal life existence.

God warns us we cannot love money and God: we will focus on accumulating either the treasure of this world or the treasure of the world to come. In the passage today God lists additional means for us to accumulate heavenly treasure besides working at reconciling people to Jesus as Savior of the world. (more…)

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October 28, 2015
Prayer

Aligning our Prayer with God’s Purpose

Matthew 26.39 records, He fell with His face to the ground and prayed, My Father, if it is possible, imagemay this cup be taken from Me. Yet not as I will, but as You will.

The goal of our prayer should be for the wisdom and strength to do God’s will. True prayer seeks God for the resources to do God’s will because doing His will always exceeds our resources.

God promises to always be with those who do His will because we need Him to complete His will. (more…)

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October 27, 2015
evangelism

Earning Eternal Wages

John 4.36 promises the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life.image

God warned us, while living among us, as one of us, not too place our life pursuit upon things that didn’t last like houses, clothes and money. God might have added cars to this mix had they been invented while He lived among us.

These are the very things most of us pursue for defining our success and significance in the world. God is not opposed to working for reward. (more…)

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October 20, 2015
evangelism / obedience

End Times or Bad Times?

Matthew 16.4 describes a wicked and adulterous generation looks for a sign, but none will be given itimage except the sign of Jonah.

There are many in the Christian camp who believe we are close to the ‘end times.’

This belief has been prevalent in Christianity since its inception almost, the Apostle Paul discusses this issue in his letter to the Thessalonians who seemed to have quit working so they could stand around and watch for Jesus to return. Paul rebuked such behavior. (more…)

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October 16, 2015
Christian Living / heaven / Judgement / obedience / Theology

Believe, Receive and Cleave to Get to Heaven

Colossians 2:6 commands, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in imagesHim. What makes a person a Christian?

The debate has long raged because unlike all of the other religions, there are no ‘3 steps’ to making oneself a Christian. There are however 3 principles that if not evident in our lives should cause us much concern about our belief that we truly are Christians. (more…)

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October 14, 2015
Christian Living / heaven / Judgement

What does Freedom Really Mean?

Galatians 5.1 declares it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Freedom to the Apostle, to God, does imagenot mean the same thing as we use the word freedom to mean.

We use freedom to mean doing anything we want without constraint. This was the freedom our forefathers wanted when they rebelled against God because they didn’t want to submit to His one limitation for their lives.

We continue to want this freedom over our lives; no rules, no constraint, no God. (more…)

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September 29, 2015
Christian Living / evangelism / obedience

Winning the War of Ideas

2 Corinthians 10:5 proclaims we demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against imagesthe knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

We are in a war.

This war has been occurring since one man and one woman began living together in the perfect environment of Eden. This war is the war of ideas, the war of truth and lies, the war of trust leading to obedience or doubt leading to self preservation. (more…)

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September 21, 2015