evangelism

The Reason for God’s Empowerment

2 Timothy 1.7-8 explains, God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, andimage self-discipline. So never be ashamed to tell others about our Lord.

A lot of Christians know the first verse but don’t understand its connected to the second verse. The purpose of the promise is to equip Christians for their mission.

The work of God is the bringing of His Kingdom to earth as it is in heaven. Step one is for every knee to bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Savior and Lord of all. (more…)

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April 19, 2016
Christian Living / Judgement / obedience

Living Differently Than Everyone Else

Leviticus 18.3-4 commands, do not act like the people in Egypt, where you used to live, or like the people of Canaan, where I am taking you. You must not imitate their way of life. You must obey all My imageregulations and be careful to obey My decrees, for I am the LORD your God.

The other day I was accused of not being very Christian. The accusation was from a person who did not claim to be a Christian. This person, who didn’t use the ‘product’ seemed to know how the ‘product’ was to be used and according to him, I was doing it wrong.

While I wont get into the details the point is that people, in addition to God, expect Christians to live differently. Christians too believe this but struggle to differentiate their words, behaviors or habits from the rest of their culture. (more…)

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April 14, 2016
heaven / Judgement / obedience

Closing the Gap to God

Mark 12.34 observes, realizing how much the man understood, Jesus said to him, You are not far fromimage the Kingdom of God.

Knowing and doing are not the same. We inherently know this in our dealings with people, especially family. We know our spouse loves us but sometimes their actions are hurtful. We know our children know what they are to do but they often fail to do what they have been made responsible to do.

On and on it goes in our experience of the gap between knowing and doing, both in our own lives as well as the lives of others. (more…)

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April 12, 2016
Christian Living / obedience

Holiness Defines Sexual Morality

1 Thessalonians 4.3 describes God’s will is for you to be holy, so stay away from all sexual sin.image

An obvious difference between Christians and non Christians is or should be, behavior. This is so because our predisposition and the natural behavior of the non Christian, is to do whatever we want to do.

If we claim to be followers of God, servants of God, children of God then we will begin to conform our behavior to the will of God. The will of God is a reflection of the character of God. (more…)

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April 7, 2016
heaven / Judgement

Passing Judgement

1 Thessalonians 1.10 promises, Jesus is the one Who has rescued us from the terrors of the coming imagesjudgment.

Recently I was listening to a man describe why he rejected his Christian upbringing. He served as a soldier in Vietnam and couldn’t understand how a good God could allow so much suffering. He has since become a Muslim. I didn’t understand how switching ‘gods’ helped him especially to one who doesn’t describe himself as love. (more…)

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April 4, 2016
Christian Living / evangelism

Living Like Jesus

John 20.21 defines the Christian destiny, as the Father has sent Me, so I am sending you.images

Jesus, God, left His message and work of reconciling the world to Himself through Jesus the resurrected Savior, in the hands of His followers.

What are Christians supposed to give their lives to? Making disciples. How are Christians supposed to do this work? As Jesus did. What does this look like? We are to live as Jesus lived while He lived with us on the earth. How did Jesus live? Simply, humbly and purposefully. (more…)

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March 30, 2016
faith / heaven / Judgement

Working Hard is the Result of Our Faith, Not the Reason

Philippians 2.12 commands, work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep imagesreverence and fear.

Easter has just passed for most Christians: it is the time for celebration of the life, death and resurrection of God in Jesus the Savior. It is a celebration because humanity no longer is required to be perfect in order to get to heaven. It is a celebration because humanity is no longer measured by their own performance for earning heaven. It is a celebration because God is offering a pardon for all disobedience against Him by every person who has ever lived who will simply ask God for His pardon through Jesus the Savior. (more…)

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March 28, 2016
Christian Living / Judgement / obedience

Are Love and Tolerance the Same?

John 13.34 records God saying, I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you shouldimage love each other.

The current definition of love is to tolerate any belief or behavior by another individual even if that belief or behavior is offensive to the first person. The person engaged in the offensive behavior is not considered unloving when they continue in their behavior that is offensive to the first party.

Love seems to mean toleration today but only for those engaged in non-traditional behaviors. Those holding traditional values are not to be loved by those not holding such values as demonstrated by curbing their behavior when with the ‘traditionalists.’ It is the traditionalists who need to change their thinking if they are to be loving. (more…)

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March 23, 2016
Prayer

Believing God Hears Us

John 11.41 observes Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “Father, thank you for hearing me.”image

One of our hindrances to prayer is our belief that God hears us. God the Son had no such hindrance with believing that God the Father heard His prayers. Why? (more…)

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March 21, 2016
evangelism / faith

Speaking of Jesus

John 7.13 observes no one had the courage to speak favorably about Him in public, for they were afraidimage of getting in trouble with the Jewish leaders.

While watching a popular sports talk show yesterday I noticed the interviewee easily referenced his commitment to God but not to Jesus. As he was wearing a cross around his neck I am assuming he would identify with Christianity as his religion.

This comfort with God and discomfort with Jesus is age-old and helps explain why we are so broken in our current culture. (more…)

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March 17, 2016