Who Is Willing to Suffer for Jesus?

Acts 5.41 records, they left the council rejoicing because they had been considered worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name.

The Church was able to grow from a handful of believers in Jesus into a world wide religion because it has been willing to suffer dishonor for the proclamation of Jesus as the only God and Savior of the world. When the Church has lost influence it has been the result of those who profess Jesus as Savior privately being afraid to do so publicly lest they suffer for proclaiming His ways. (more…)

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Toughen Up, You Got This

Proverbs 24.10 If you faint in the day of trouble, your strength is small!

God has recorded for all posterity that He created humanity in His image, in the image of God, He made both male and female. Christianity and Judaism are the only religions with such an opinion of both men and women, but I digress.

God’s view of humanity is that we are made in His image. Therefore, we are great thinkers, awesome problem solvers, and working together capable of almost anything (Genesis 11.6). (more…)

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Persecuted, Suffering or Hiding?

Philippians 1.29 reminds us that, it has been granted to you not only to believe in Christ but also to suffer for Him.

Fox News recently reported that Christians are the most persecuted religious group in the world, again (HERE).

When we think of suffering however we think only in terms described in this article. In North America, under this definition, we don’t suffer because we are not persecuted. Not wanting to be left out of the suffering conversation, we in North America broaden suffering to include our difficulties: divorce, bankruptcy, cancer etc. (more…)

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Stop Watching, Start Doing

Luke 23.49 observes, Jesus’ friends, including the women who had followed Him from Galilee, stood at a distance watching.

A lot of people are standing from a distance watching for God to do something.

Sometimes we are waiting for Him to rain hell fire upon our enemies because we know how much they deserve it. Sometimes we are waiting for Him to heal us or our friends because we know how much He cares for us. Sometimes we are waiting for Him to bless us because we know how much He loves us. We wait, we hope but….. (more…)

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What Cost For Change Will We Pay?

Acts 5.41 observes, the apostles left the high council rejoicing that God had counted them worthy to image
suffer disgrace for the name of Jesus.

When the Church started it was considered a badge of honor to suffer for being a Christian. Today, we cower at being maligned for Jesus’ sake.

This fear of man has become greater than our fear of God with the result that most have not heard from Christians that all people must repent and be born again if they are to enter into eternal life. (more…)

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Blind, Deaf and Disobedient?

Acts 28.27 describes this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand imagewith their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.

Who is God describing in this quote? His religious followers.

The result of His people ignoring His word was their missing His work among them through the promised Messiah Jesus. (more…)

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What it Takes to be Good

Matthew 23.26 commands first clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be
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clean.

Chaos puts us into panic causing us to desire control. In a society that means getting the state to use its power to stop the chaos. When the state implements its power freedom suffers. Many are willing to sacrifice freedom for control or less chaos.

Our world is moving toward greater chaos. (more…)

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Getting Help from God

Psalm 91:14 promises, because he loves Me, says the Lord, I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he imageacknowledges My Name.

While we live our lives most of the time without interest in God’s interference, frequently enough we experience life outside our control and want God’s help. Some have denied the existence of God or His goodness because during these times He did not show up in the way they wanted or felt they needed.

Like the small child who has a tantrum when told no are those who curse God when He fails to behave according to their desire. So what does it take to move God favorably upon our behalf? (more…)

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Perfect through Suffering

Hebrews 2.10 claims Jesus, God as man, was made perfect through what he suffered.image

When we think of God suffering we think of the cross upon which He was crucified as the sacrifice for our sins, the payment God the Father required in order to pardon all who love God from their disobedience toward Him.

No doubt the greatest suffering occurred at the separation of God the Father from God the Son when the sins of humanity were all transferred to the perfect One. A mystery difficult for us to understand. (more…)

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Feeling Forsaken

Matthew 27:46 About three o’clock, Jesus shouted, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”image

Have you ever felt forsaken by God? Most of us have. If so, we are in good company.

The Son of God, Himself God, somehow in the mystery of the Trinity, was also forsaken by the Father, Who is God. We accept Jesus being forsaken for we understand it was the process by which He took upon Himself all of our sins, all of the sins of humanity from and for all time, so that we could be forgiven for all time for all the evil we have ever done.

God, the perfect One, was forsaken so that the imperfect could be reconciled to the Father. If God was forsaken should we not also at least feel the same way on occasion?

TV Christianity promotes a God loves you and wants to bless you no matter what image of God but that is not the reality the Bible portrays. All of the great saints in the Bible suffered at various times. (more…)

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