Christian Living / obedience

The Value of Religious Activities

Matthew 15.11 defines, it’s not what goes into your mouth that defiles you; you are defiled by the words that come out of your mouth.image

The Muslims are wrapping up their holy week most characterized by fasting from sunup until sundown. Fasting has been used by religious people of all stripes from all time as a means to appease the gods and or garner their attention.

Christians have used fasting historically not so much for these purposes but to discipline the flesh so that we obey the Spirit. (more…)

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July 5, 2016
Christian Living / obedience

What Good Works Should Do.

Matthew 11.20 records, Jesus began to criticize openly the cities in which he had done many of His imagemiracles, because they did not repent.

When God came to earth He did much good. God fed people, thousands of people. God healed people, lots of people. God raised people from the dead returning children to brokenhearted parents.

All that God did when He lived among us as one of us in Jesus the Savior was good but He didn’t come to do good works for our temporary benefit. (more…)

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June 27, 2016
Christian Living / obedience / Suffering

Living Our Best Life Now

Deuteronomy 11.26-28 offers, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing if you take to heart the commandments of the LORD your God that I am giving you today, and the curse if you pay no attention to his commandments and turn from the way I am setting before you today to pursueimage other gods you have not known.

God gets blamed for most of the bad things that happen in the world but if we thought about it very long we would recognize that most of the evil occurs because one human chooses to harm another human. (more…)

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June 8, 2016
Christian Living / heaven / obedience

What it Takes to Serve God

John 12.25 promises, those who love their life in this world will lose it. Those who care nothing forimages their life in this world will keep it for eternity.

Mohammad twisted this promise from God reinterpreting it to mean that his followers whose suicide kills others will automatically qualify for heaven. What kind of a god would make this offer? Only one whose true mission is to steal, kill and destroy. (more…)

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May 30, 2016
obedience

Restoring Hope to the World

Isaiah 26.18 describes, we, too, writhe in agony, but nothing comes of our suffering. We have not givenimage salvation to the earth, nor brought life into the world.

This observation recorded more than 3000 years ago is a perfect description of the Church in the Western Hemisphere and possibly beyond. (more…)

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May 27, 2016
Christian Living / heaven / Judgement

What Are We to Think About Evil?

1 Peter 3.12 promises, the eyes of the LORD watch over those who do right, and his ears are open to imagetheir prayers. But the LORD turns his face against those who do evil.

This promise is what we would expect from a God Who is good. It makes sense to us that a good God would watch over those who do good and hear their prayers. It also makes sense to us that God would oppose those who do evil in the world.

There is a disconnect however from this logic and some of our experiences. Evil in the world is a problem for people. (more…)

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May 16, 2016
evangelism

How to Effect World Peace

Psalm 46.10 proclaims, be still, and know that I am God! I will be honored by every nation. I will be imagehonored throughout the world.

God is at work in the world making Himself known, working to reconcile the world to Himself. When men are at peace with God men are at peace with each other.

It is the enemy of God who comes to steal, kill and destroy thus motivating the havoc we experience in families and nations. (more…)

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May 3, 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