Christian Living

How do you Identify Yourself?

Acts 27:23 proclaims the God to whom I belong and whom I serve…How do you recognize yourself?images

Everyone we meet for the first time asks, ‘what do you do?’ What do you say?

It would be odd for any one of us to say I belong to God and serve Him. This was how the Apostle Paul identified himself when speaking to his captors and other prisoners just before their shipwreck.

Were we to identify ourselves as Paul it would feel weird, besides we know that people are just making small talk by being polite in asking about our work. However I think the real issue is deeper for us. (more…)

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January 28, 2015
Christian Living / obedience

Appeasing God

Matthew 22:36 asks which is the greatest commandment?image

No doubt every religious person from all time all over the planet has asked himself and his god what must I do to please you? Religion is the answer to that question.

Over time and in many places that answer has become quite burdensome to those who seek to please the god of their or others creation.

The One True God made a personal appearance as one of us in Jesus and so the question was asked of Him what must we do to appease You? The answer is simple and immensely difficult. (more…)

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January 22, 2015
Christian Living / evangelism / obedience

God’s goal for 2015

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.images

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…)

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December 29, 2014
Christian Living / obedience

Feeling Bad

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.image

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…)

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December 23, 2014
Christian Living

Proving we are Children of God

3 John 1:11 reminds us that those who do what is right prove that they are God’s children; and those who continue in evil prove imagethat they are far from God.

In Christianity, getting to heaven is easy, at least for us, but living as though we are residents of heaven is hard. God made getting to heaven easy by offering freely a pardon to us through His Son Who sacrificed Himself as payment for us.

It cost God His most precious possession to secure His most precious creation: His Son for you and me. For those of us who believe God, He has given us the right to be declared children of God; forever forgiven and forever sealed for spending eternity with Him in heaven and upon the new earth.

Christians don’t have to do anything because everything that was required for getting into heaven has been done by the Son and has been credited to those who humble themselves before God in submission to the Son of God Who is Jesus Christ the Lord. (more…)

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December 8, 2014
Christian Living

How to Know God

1 John 2.5 promises those who do what Christ tells them to will learn to love God more and more. That is the way to know imagewhether or not you are a Christian.

Imagine taking a test where any answer given is deemed correct. We would not think much of the test nor of the subject. Every teacher expects their students to give them the same answer on their test if they wish to pass the test.

Every team expects all of the players to know the plays and perform them the same way if they are going to be successful. Every company expects their employees to know their procedures and perform them the same way so that everyone can more effectively work together.

God has given to us the Bible so that we can know the correct answers to the questions Who is God and what does He require of us. (more…)

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December 3, 2014
Christian Living / evangelism

Loosing the Warrior spirit

1 Chronicles 19:13 commands be courageous and let us act like men to save our people and the cities of our God.image

Most men like a good fight and are willing to engage one as long as we can win!

There’s something of the warrior spirit deep within the male psyche. Yet we are trained to suppress, deny and eliminate this inherent nature of what it means to be male.

The Bible describes God as a warrior in certain places and many find His actions in and through Israel to be a stumbling block to their better judgment of right and wrong.

Nevertheless, the Bible paints a picture of a universe at war: first the angelic host against God, then man against God, then man against man and finally God against all those who oppose His will being done on earth as it is in heaven. (more…)

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November 24, 2014
Christian Living / Judgement

Are we ‘all-in’ for God?

Luke 3:7 proclaims you are trying to escape hell without truly turning to God!image

If we are honest this is the state of most of us, we want to go to heaven but we don’t want interference from God over how we run our lives. We take the minimalist approach to God trusting that He is loving like grandma and giving like Santa Claus.

The reason for this hypocrisy is because we really want to be god, totally in control without accountability, for everything we do, think and say. This reality says a lot about us and little about God. If we knew God better we would think more highly of Him and live more trusting of Him.

What kind of a God are we worshipping Who finds acceptable our minimalist effort at pleasing Him? (more…)

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November 19, 2014
Christian Living / evangelism

Praising God on Monday

Hebrews 13:15 commands to continually offer our sacrifice of praise to God by telling others of the glory of His name.image

Most people think of praising God in terms of singing songs or giving Him thanks. God describes praise as declaring to others the glory of His Name. It is easy to give thanks and sing songs in church but much harder to declare the need all people have to love God and obey His commands in the marketplace. This is true for a myriad of reasons.

First, we lose focus on Monday from the God Whom we worshiped on Sunday. Like those who don’t follow Jesus we become consumed with the pursuit of success or overwhelmed by the responsibilities to produce at work. We forget the Christian command to work as though Jesus were the boss, because He is for the Christian, which means keeping our focus on honoring Him all day while we do the tasks we are assigned by people. We mustn’t let our desire for success and acceptance overwhelm our neighbor’s need for a Savior. (more…)

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November 18, 2014
Christian Living / obedience / Titus

The Importance of Good Works

Titus 2:1 teaches that there is right living that goes along with true Christianity.image

One of the problems with Christians defining themselves as ‘believers’ is the disconnect that occurs with the responsibility to live ‘rightly’ as a result of right belief. This disconnect is furthered when we discuss our acceptance by God through grace by faith and not by our good works.

While true, it wasn’t that no good works occurred giving humanity the opportunity to be forgiven, Jesus Himself earned our pardon through His perfect obedience to all the will of God. Without His good works we would have none appropriated to us for us to be forgiven. (more…)

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November 3, 2014