Christian Living / Theology

Everyone is a Priest

Hosea 4.8 observes, you can’t tell the people from the priests, the priests from the people. I’m on My way to make them both pay and take the consequences of the bad lives they’ve lived.

One of the major doctrinal shifts that came out of the Reformation is the empowerment of all Christians to live and serve God as priests – the priesthood of all believers. This teaching throughout the New Testament and modeled by God in Jesus whose twelve disciples were not from the religious class but from the working class, was finally implemented during the Reformation after a long hiatus beginning around 300AD. (more…)

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October 30, 2018
evangelism / Judgement / obedience

Passing the Eternal Test

2 Corinthians 13.5-9 challenges, test yourselves to make sure you are solid in the faith. Don’t drift along taking everything for granted. Give yourselves regular checkups. You need firsthand evidence, not mere hearsay, that Jesus Christ is in you. Test it out. If you fail the test, do something about it. I hope the test won’t show that we have failed.

In every endeavor where we measure performance we test. From academia to sports to the lab we test in order to determine strength, truth or ability. In Christianity, we tend not to test. (more…)

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September 24, 2018
Uncategorized

How Hard Are You Working?

1 Corinthians 15.58 invites, don’t hold back. Throw yourselves into the work of the Master, confident that nothing you do for him is a waste of time or effort.

This is our mission, the Great Commission. We are to conduct this mission with our whole heart, throwing ourselves into this work, knowing that eternal reward awaits when we face our God and give account for the life we lived on this earth. (more…)

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September 12, 2018
evangelism / Prayer / Suffering

Does Dishonor of God Really Bother Us?

Ezekiel 9.3-4 describes, the Glory of the God of Israel ascended from His usual place above the cherubim-angels, moved to the threshold of the Temple, and called to the man with the writing case who was dressed in linen: Go through the streets of Jerusalem and put a mark on the forehead of everyone who is in anguish over the outrageous obscenities being done in the city.

How many people would be marked by God today who grieve over the dishonor so prevalent against God in our society? So many grumble about the lawlessness. So many shake their heads at the violence but who is in anguish over the godlessness we see in the news daily? (more…)

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September 7, 2018
evangelism

The Best Way For Gaining Influence

1 Corinthians 9.19-23 records, even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized—whoever. I didn’t take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ—but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I’ve become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. I did all this because of the Message. I didn’t just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it!

The purpose of the Christian life, the work we are to do, is to win people to Christ in order for God to accomplish His purpose of not seeing anyone perish but for all to come to eternal life. (more…)

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September 4, 2018
evangelism

Living as Wise as the Thief

Luke 16.8-9 observes, here’s a surprise: The master praised the crooked manager! And why? Because he knew how to look after himself. Streetwise people are smarter in this regard than law-abiding citizens. They are on constant alert, looking for angles, surviving by their wits. I want you to be smart in the same way—but for what is right —using every adversity to stimulate you to creative survival, to concentrate your attention on the bare essentials, so you’ll live, really live, and not complacently just get by on good behavior.

This passage has made Christians wonder for centuries. God praises a thief, a liar, an embezzler. What? (more…)

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August 21, 2018
heaven / Judgement / obedience

Are You Living As Though God Were Not Watching?

Judges 21.25 records, at that time there was no king in Israel. People did whatever they felt like doing.

‭‭There really was a King in Israel, the problem is that He was and is invisible. The invisible King, which also really isn’t true, a better description would be bodiless, for His handiwork is everywhere if we have eyes to see.

The bodiless King is slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness which gives the allusion that our sins are being ignored since the consequences for our disobedience are not immediate. All of this: the invisible King and delayed consequences, resulted in everyone doing what was right in their own eyes. (more…)

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August 9, 2018
Christian Living / Judgement / obedience

The Red Pill Is Not The Answer

Judges 13.25 observes, The LORD’s spirit began to control him in Mahaneh Dan between Zorah and Eshtaol.

We all want the red pill, to know and have the power of the spiritual world in order to better engage this world; from the movie the Matrix.

We who know the frustration and defeat of trying to always please God but falling short, so long for the Holy Spirit to strongly come upon us so that we always do what God desires. The Scriptures record at least three men who were overtaken by the Spirit of God: Sampson in this verse, David who was a friend of God and Solomon who had wisdom greater than all men who have ever lived. (more…)

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August 6, 2018
evangelism / obedience

What Does It Mean To Live As God’s People?

Matthew 21.43 observes, This is the way it is with you. God’s kingdom will be taken back from you and handed over to a people who will live out a kingdom life.

The kingdom life is given to kingdom livers. We do not possess what we do not possess. We do not keep by promise what we do not live by faith. The Father expects His children to live as sons and daughters of God. So what does it mean to live a kingdom life? (more…)

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July 12, 2018
Christian Living / obedience

The Most Appropriate Response to God

Joshua 5.14 observes, Joshua fell, face to the ground, and worshiped. He asked, What orders does my Master have for His servant?

When we encounter God our response to Him is simple, what would you have me to do? It’s not complicated really. He is God, our Creator, our Sustainer, the One Who brought us into His world and allows us to live upon it. If we chaff at this idea of responding to God humbly and obediently it is because we are poor in at least two areas. (more…)

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July 6, 2018