evangelism / obedience

Who Is In A Spiritual Battle?

Revelation 12.17 describes, so the dragon became enraged at the woman and went away to make war on the rest of her children, those who keep God’s commandments and hold to the testimony about Jesus.

Spiritual warfare is a topic usually resigned to a fringe element of the Christian spectrum. While orthodox Christianity would acknowledge it’s reality most avoid the topic, fewer describe what it is or looks like and even less actually enter into such a world as least as far as men can enter into spiritual warfare. (more…)

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December 21, 2017
Christian Living / faith

What Does It Mean to be Born Again?

John 3.3 records Jesus replying, “I tell you the solemn truth, unless a person is born from above, he
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cannot see the kingdom of God.”

In the 1970’s the evangelical Christian Church spoke much about being born again. So much, that those words began to create negative emotions toward the Church and it’s Christ. Yet, being born again or born from above or being born of the Spirit is what God in human form, Jesus, stated was required for entering into His eternal dwelling place. Why? (more…)

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December 13, 2017
Christian Living / heaven / Judgement

More Thoughts About Being Good

2 Chronicles 12.14 observes, he did evil because he was not determined to follow the LORD.

This past weekend I noticed some friends on Facebook taking a quiz that determined whether or not they would get to heaven. They all succeeded to earn their hoped for destination having their good deeds outstrip their sins by more than ten fold. No doubt this quiz was meant to be fun but it reinforces a couple of subtle but widely held beliefs. (more…)

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December 11, 2017
Uncategorized

Salvation is Free But Owning it Costs Everything

Luke 13.24 commands, exert every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to.

Consider God’s words about the cost of belonging to Him:

Matthew 6.15 But if you do not forgive others, your Father will not forgive you your sins.

Luke 9.24 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.

Luke 14.26 If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his own father and mother, and wife and children, and brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.

Luke 17.33 Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve it.

John 6.53 I tell you the solemn truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. (more…)

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November 30, 2017
Christian Living

The Only Real Solution to Solving The World’s Problems

Hosea 12.6 commands, you must return to your God, by maintaining love and justice, and by waiting for your God to return to you.

Almost daily we are bombarded with tragic news. Senseless killings. Natural disasters. Awful accidents. The world is broken. The obviousness that something is terribly wrong is overwhelming. We want solutions but are we looking in the right place for the answers? (more…)

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November 8, 2017
Christian Living / evangelism / faith / obedience / Titus

What Does Godliness Look Like?

Titus 1.1 records, Paul, a slave of God and apostle of Jesus Christ, to further the faith of God’s chosen ones and the knowledge of the truth that is in keeping with godliness.

In this opening sentence in Paul’s letter to his friend Titus, he gives an insight into the true meaning of godliness. When most people think of godliness they think of people like Mother Theresa or Billy Graham. They also think of character associated with godliness like goodness, honesty, kindness, love, generosity.

I suppose everyone has their own list. No doubt most of us would consider ourselves somewhat godly. (more…)

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November 2, 2017
Christian Living / Suffering

Turning Things Around in the World

2 Timothy 2.25-26 encourages, perhaps God will grant them repentance and then knowledge of the truth and they will come to their senses and escape the devil’s trap where they are held captive to do his will.

The world is going crazy because people are increasingly doing crazier things. Granted, 24-hour negative news brings to our attention more crime, more violence and more human atrocity than we ever had before but still, does it seem like the world is running amok at a greater rate than ever?

The world has been in tough places before. It would have been hard times to be on the wrong side of Alexander the Great or Genghis Khan. It would have been hard times during the black plague. It was hard times during both world wars. It is hard times for those living wherever ISIS rules or seeks to rule. (more…)

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October 30, 2017
Christian Living / evangelism / heaven / Judgement

Who Are You Trying to Please?

1 Thessalonians 2.4 observes, just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we declare it, not to please people but God, who examines our hearts.

The demise of Christian influence in western culture can be attributed in large part to the failure of Christians to consistently and Biblically, present God’s point of view of man, history and Himself. This failure has been facilitated by a desire to not offend people but rather to build bridges with people until people are willing to listen to our message. (more…)

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October 16, 2017
Christian Living / heaven / Judgement / Suffering

What is the Goal of YOUR Religion?

Philippians 3.10 claims, my aim is to know Him, to experience the power of His resurrection, to share in His sufferings, and to be like Him in His death.

What is the goal of your religion? To get to heaven? This was not the goal of arguably the greatest Christian who was not also God. Perhaps the secret to his Christianity was the fact that he made his understanding, practice and experience of God now, not future. (more…)

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October 9, 2017
Christian Living / obedience

Discipline and the Christian Life

Ephesians 6.4 commands fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but raise them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

While this verse is geared toward fathers and their role as spiritual leaders of their home, the commands can be applied more broadly to both our personal lives and the work all Christians are to engage of disciple making.

Specifically the disciplines and instructions we are to live and teach others. What does the discipline of the Lord even mean? (more…)

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October 6, 2017