Acts 16:34 describes he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God.
What’s the difference between being happy and having joy?
I would suggest happiness is a result of circumstances and joy is the result of attitude. Feelings tell me whether I am happy or not but conviction tells me I have joy.
Interestingly, God promises joy but not happiness. (more…)
Matthew 13:11 Jesus taught the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to 
them.
With an ideology that God loves everyone so everyone is welcome in heaven, the idea that God is withholding information about heaven from some and revealing it only to others is frightening.
Certainly the Creator loves everyone He has created. Absolutely God wants everyone in heaven.
Regrettably, He never gives the impression that everyone will be in heaven despite His love or desire. (more…)
Matthew 12:30 observes whoever is not with Me is against Me, and whoever does not gather with Me
scatters.
On occasion in the gospels, Jesus, God Who has become man, throws down the gauntlet and demands we choose sides. This passage is one of those times when Jesus invites us to separate ourselves into wheat or chaff.
What does it mean for us when God demands we choose but we refuse to even engage the discussion? (more…)
Matthew 7:14 warns small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
This generation finds offensive God’s instruction that He has only one way for entering heaven. It seems more fair, more loving, more gracious for all religions to be acceptable to God so that all people can get to heaven.
The problem with this thinking is that it ignores the love of God and the sacrifice God made for saving people. (more…)
Matthew 6:19 commands ‘Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.’
When God lived among us He said, ‘do not store up for yourselves treasure on earth.’ We need to read that again slowly, thinking carefully about His words. God said, ‘do not store up treasures on earth.’
Yet most of us ignore Him. We are like the Israelites we read about in the Bible who constantly ignore God’s commands so we find ourselves shaking our heads at their disobedience and subsequent negative consequences. (more…)
Matthew 2:11 records they opened their treasures and presented Him with gifts of gold, frankincense
and myrrh.
The Christmas story ends with pagan god believers giving gifts to Him Who is the One True God.
As we prepare for a new year, what gift will we who love God offer Him?
At one level, we are free from the burden of having to come up with some sort of elaborate offering to appease our God. Our God is not so vain that He requires gold, silver or any other material thing for He Himself needs nothing from anyone. (more…)
Malachi 2:6 describes he passed on to the people all the truth he got from me. He did not lie or cheat; he walked with me, living a good and righteous life, and turned many from their lives of sin.
In this description of one of God’s favorite people, Levi, He is describing the role of the priest. At least among the Protestants, the belief is held that all Christians are now priests. The tribe of Levi has been replaced with the Spirit filled people of God who walk by faith and obedience under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. (more…)
John 14:23 reveals I will only reveal Myself to those who love Me and obey Me.
God loves everyone but God does not treat everyone the same.
God loves everyone as He demonstrated by coming to earth as a man to die as a sacrifice so that all humanity might be pardoned for all their evil done against God and one another. Yet not all of humanity will receive God’s pardon nor will all recognize Jesus as God the Savior while they continue in this life living selfishly and ignoring the commands of God.
It is only those who love God as demonstrated by obedience to God that see God and experience His presence in their lives. (more…)
John 12:25 warns if you love your life down here—you will lose it. If you despise your life down here—you will exchange it for eternal glory.
For a long time I understood this instruction from God to mean I was to despise the way I lived in disobedience to Him. I thought if I was really connected with God my disobedience to Him which is so consistent, would grieve me to such a degree that I would despise myself.
My logic flowed from understanding the opposite of this thinking. Those who ignore God have a good time doing those things that displease God without regret or concern (much of the time), so the opposite must be true as well. Those who seek to please God but find themselves constantly falling short must despise themselves for their poverty of godliness. (more…)
Luke 1.35 proclaims the child to be born will be called the Son of God.
Christmas is the Christian holiday of celebrating the arrival of God to earth as a man in order to become the human sacrifice for God.
The original sin, and all sin since then, can be boiled down to the single issue of man wants to be god. Our anger is a direct reflection of this inherent bent for our angry feelings reflect our unhappiness with the fact that all is not going according to our sovereign will.
Buddhism, Hinduism and Mormonism all have as their end game the divinity of their adherents if they are faithful to follow their religious teachings. This is the ultimate expression of that inherent desire to be god; the all controlling, all powerful, all worshiped, all adhered to, all envied being we wish we would become. (more…)
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