It’s Not What We Do But What We Say That Offends People

John 16.33 records, I have told you these things so that in Me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous! I have conquered the world.

Be courageous. What does this mean for us as Christians? How about, be willing to identify with Jesus before men regardless of what they might do to us, but especially when they persecute us. They persecuted Jesus, Himself God, when He lived among us. Why did they persecute Him? (more…)

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Who We Seek to Please Determines What We Do

Galatians 1.10 asks, am I now trying to persuade people, or God? Or am I striving to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.

Paul identifies the root cause of our problem in the America Church. The culture has become increasingly distant from the person, character and work of Jesus Christ. The culture has now reached the place of hostility toward the Church. (more…)

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How Comfortable Are You in Your Body?

2 Corinthians 5.6 observes, we are always confident and know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord.

Paul is speaking about our physical body though he is encouraging us about our future body. Paul reminds us that while we live on earth we are not at home with the Lord. Our true destiny, our true residence, our true happiness, is with Jesus where He is living bodily; with Him forever. (more…)

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How Does God Communicate to Us?

1 Corinthians 2.12 observes, now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who comes from God, so that we may understand what has been freely given to us by God.

God wants us to know Him. That makes sense if there really is a God. Why would God want us ignorant of Who He is or what He requires of us? Of course He doesn’t! It behooves us then to know God so we can know His will. God has given us the two things we need for accomplishing this objective. (more…)

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How Do We Know What is Good?

Romans 16.19 commands, I want you to be wise about what is good, and yet innocent about what is evil.

How do we become wise about what is good? We have to know what good is. In our arrogance, we all think we know what good is. We look into ourselves and create a self-centered, self-preserving, self-gratifying definition. If it works for us then it is good. (more…)

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Seeing God Most Clearly

Luke 24. 28-31 records, they came to the edge of the village where they were headed. He acted as if He were going on but they pressed Him: Stay and have supper with us. It’s nearly evening; the day is done. So He went in with them. And here is what happened: He sat down at the table with them. Taking the bread, He blessed and broke and gave it to them. At that moment, open-eyed, wide-eyed, they recognized Him. And then He disappeared.

We take God so lightly, in our narcissism we believe Him to be all about us. As our Creator, we are to be all about Him and He treats us that way! (more…)

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Living Lives of Significance

Amos 5.6 urges, seek GOD and live! You don’t want to end up with nothing to show for your life But a pile of ashes, a house burned to the ground. For God will send just such a fire, and the firefighters will show up too late.

It is natural for men to want to live a life of significance. All of us want to leave a legacy and be remembered for doing good. But what does it mean to live a life of significance? (more…)

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Everyone is a Priest

Hosea 4.8 observes, you can’t tell the people from the priests, the priests from the people. I’m on My way to make them both pay and take the consequences of the bad lives they’ve lived.

One of the major doctrinal shifts that came out of the Reformation is the empowerment of all Christians to live and serve God as priests – the priesthood of all believers. This teaching throughout the New Testament and modeled by God in Jesus whose twelve disciples were not from the religious class but from the working class, was finally implemented during the Reformation after a long hiatus beginning around 300AD. (more…)

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Effective Prayers

Daniel 9.15-17 laments, Master, you are our God, for you delivered your people from the land of Egypt in a show of power—people are still talking about it! We confess that we have sinned, that we have lived bad lives….We know it’s our fault that this has happened, all because of our sins and our parents’ sins, and now we’re an embarrassment to everyone around us. We’re a blot on the neighborhood….Act out of Who You are, not out of what we are.

Daniel read God’s word so he could know God’s will, then he prayed for God’s people to be restored to God’s will as described in God’s word. Daniel understood from God’s word that God’s people were disobedient to God’s will which explained their current calamity. (more…)

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