More About Repentance

  Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivered his first inaugural address to a nation in the throes…

When we are deeply hurt, “Do I HAVE to forgive,” often comes to mind. In three passages, Jesus offers a clear answer and shows us how to forgive. Our struggles with forgiveness are real, but there are also real benefits to forgiveness.

It’s not an overstatement to claim that most folks in American evangelical churches have been…

Speaking in tongues was a miraculous gift given on the Day of Pentecost following Jesus rising from the dead. Though we don't find examples of speaking in tongues in the Old Testament, we do see a consistent pattern: God signified the pouring out of the Spirit by bestowing miraculous gifts. Another interesting pattern emerges: speaking in tongues only happened in cases when the apostles were present.

In the previous two posts we established that everyone has sinned. We also determined that our sin has significant consequences. It leads to spiritual death, and it causes us to be separated from God. The key is that by sinning we have entered into an inescapable situation. We cannot save ourselves! Some claim that a righteous deed will erase a bad deed. But that simply is not true. Isaiah 64:6-7 reads; "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

The men who spent three and a half years with Jesus of Nazareth were compelled to declare Him God’s long-promised Messiah.  The gospel accounts confirm their integrity by painting a brutally honest picture of these men.  That they endured incredible hardships (including gruesome deaths) for the sake of what they believed further demonstrates their conviction.  Though they were initially slow to accept the full meaning of the Messianic prophecies, they were later convinced beyond the shadow of a doubt that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ.  Lord willing, over the next few posts, I plan to look at some of the prophecies that convinced these men and that have in turn convinced me of Jesus’s identity.

Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? (Acts 19:2).

Paul encountered in Ephesus a group of disciples who believed in Jesus, but they had not received the Holy Spirit.  Today’s conventional teaching on the reception of the Holy Spirit and salvation in Jesus’s name rests on the assumption that both are bestowed when one believes in Jesus.  

You’ve heard the gospel, but have you heard all of it? Maybe not.  In fact, many people have never heard the whole truth about Jesus. Time has certainly taken its toll on the truth. Not that the truth can be changed, but it can be forgotten. This article explores some of the most important facts about the Christian faith that are often overlooked or ignored.  

In this post I would like to take a few moments to consider the role that we, as servants of the Lord, play in our own salvation. There is a particular scripture in the Old Testament that has brought this thought to the fore of my thoughts over the past few days. If we look at Numbers 20:8-12 we find a notable event in the course of  biblical events. In this account the children of Israel have "assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron." This story is particularly interesting because the children of Israel are angry with Moses and Aaron because they are without water. If taken in isolation, their complaint would seem justified. For, who can live without water?

We are warned of a day when "Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city. ." (Rev.20:7-9) This prophecy appears to be a more focused view of  ". . .the battle of that great day of God Almighty" - Armageddon. The religious world has a degree of  interest in this. The range goes from active planning  as to what and when Armageddon will be, to a belief that is it way in the past.

There is a belief which maintains God has given sanction to govern mankind in His name. Not to to be confused with governing in acknowledgement of His name, but His personal representation empowered for the sake of peace, prosperity, etc. Such a party of God may identify with Jesus Christ, or, the God of Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob, or Mohammed. Types like this do exist, don’t they? Or perhaps the party might be a Gaia type, blending eco-awareness with hope for the earth. 

Therefore laying aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envyings, and all evil speakings, desire the sincere milk of the Word, as newborn babes, so that you may grow by it; if truly you have tasted that the Lord is gracious."   I Peter 2:1-3 I remember, since it was only 15 months ago, holding my firstborn, a daughter, for the first time and I hope never to be able to forget it. In my arms was a piece of me, sharing obvious genetic traits, probably predisposed to certain desirable and undesirable personality wiring as well. Yet, for all that, she was pure, untainted, more so than she ever would be again. I marveled as I beheld and studied her.