Christian Living / heaven / Judgement / obedience

Spiritual Development

2 Peter 1.10 exhorts us to make every effort to confirm our calling and election.images

Most evangelical Christians define a person’s salvation by whether or not they believe they are going to heaven if they were to die today.

The answer they are looking for is the confession that the person invited Jesus into their lives to forgive their sins and believe His promise to receive them into His heaven forgiven because of His gracious pardon obtained through His shed blood. Satisfied they believe a person is saved because they made the proper confession they move on never to think again about this salvation we or they supposedly obtain. (more…)

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May 19, 2015
Christian Living / obedience

Alert and Sober

1 Peter 5.8 warns be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion imagelooking for someone to devour.

The Bible tells the story of God and His work in the world. In that story is an enemy, one who wishes to be like God but cannot since he too is created and not the Creator. His frustration results in his attack upon creation, particularly humanity, that part of creation the Creator made in His own image and which He most loves.

This enemy of God is a liar and deceiver, inviting people into beliefs and actions that promise them benefit but always bring remorse. The enemy of God is an integral part of the story for his role allows humanity to reveal their free will to love God on their own. (more…)

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May 18, 2015
heaven / Judgement / obedience

Motives Matter

Numbers 22.32 observes I have come here to oppose you because your path is a reckless one beforeimage Me.

When God’s not happy ain’t nobody happy!

The problem with the One True God is that He cares as much about how and why we do something as He does with what we do. This makes sense actually if there really is a God.

All the other religions, including Islam, place all of their emphasis upon outward behavior without regard for the motive of that behavior. In reality, we all have this propensity. (more…)

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May 13, 2015
Christian Living / Judgement

Living Burden Free

Psalm 68.19 declares, praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, Who daily bears our burdens. Godimage bears our burdens.

Does that really make any sense? No other religion other than Christianity makes such a claim.

Surely allah doesn’t bear anyone’s burdens. Most gods place burdens on humanity forcing us to get better by their impossible demands.

Our idols have the same burdensome propensity. We beat ourselves because we are not strong enough, smart enough, rich enough or pretty enough so we keep working trying to pacify that voice in our head that is never satisfied. (more…)

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May 11, 2015
heaven / Judgement

Welcome Home

Hebrews 10.17 proclaims their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.images

What if seeing God for the first time really was a welcome home party, sort of like when your parents welcome you home after having not seen you for months? What if God really did treat us like He knew nothing of our faults or failures?

How would truly believing these things transform our behavior now? Wouldn’t we begin to treat God like we do that person in our life who just loves us for who we are and cares nothing about our performance?

That is the kind of promise God makes to us; to welcome us into heaven as though we had lived a perfect life having never ever done anything wrong. (more…)

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May 6, 2015
Christian Living / obedience

The Fallacy of Religion

Isaiah 1.13 commands, Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me….I imagecannot bear your worthless assemblies.

The problem with the One True God is that He is not fooled by religion.

Religion is to be a means by which we express our love and worship toward God. Religion is not God, neither does it’s rituals please God, unless the life of the one performing the ritual is consistent in living a life pleasing to God.

We just finished the season of Lent where many Christians perform the duty of sacrifice in an effort to identify with Him Who sacrificed His life for humanity. I am always amazed how we equate giving up chocolate or beer with Jesus’ death on the Cross for sin. The disconnect seems pretty extreme to me. Is this even something God wants or expects from us? (more…)

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May 4, 2015
obedience

How to Please God

Psalm 40.8 declares, I desire to do your will, my God; your law is within my heart.images

Most of us who claim to be seekers of God want to please Him, the breakdown occurs in determining what it takes to please God. It seems only fair that if there is indeed a God that He would make clear what He requires from us.

Fortunately, that is exactly why God had His thoughts, words and deeds recorded and preserved in a book. In this way, all peoples for all time in all languages could know what the One True God requires of us. (more…)

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May 1, 2015
obedience / Suffering

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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April 27, 2015
evangelism / Titus

Attractive Advertising

Titus 2.10 commands we make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.images

The purpose of this command is so that God’s people can participate in God’s work of making Him known throughout the world. The goal is not just that He would be known but that He would be loved by every person on the earth.

God wants His people to live such attractive lives that people around them feel compelled to know God so they too can love Him.

How are we doing? (more…)

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April 23, 2015
Christian Living / Titus

Getting Better

Titus 1.1 claims it is their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness.image

What is the goal of our lives? Personal happiness? Peace? Joy? Fulfilled relationships? Godliness? The last one probably doesn’t make the top ten list for most people because pleasing God is something we think of generally and not specifically.

Sure we want to be good per se but we don’t pursue goodness for ‘goodness’ sake. We are so self absorbed that we believe we are pretty good and that God is pretty happy with us regardless of how much we really check in with Him to see if our belief is true.

So we go about seeking our own definition of importance trusting that if God isn’t good with it He will somehow make that known to us. (more…)

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April 22, 2015