Archive for January, 2016
Can Authentic Christians Deny Jesus? Part 3
But the very important question that we must answer is how do we abide in Christ? How do we live our lives in such a way that causes us to continue abiding in Christ? First, we need to understand that when we read the term abide in Christ, it is almost always referring to being and remaining in fellowship with God. What keeps us from fellowship with God? Only one thing: sinful behavior. Sure, we can break that down into many areas and lots of examples, but in the end, it is all sin. Any and every sin will break off our fellowship with God. When we sin deliberately, we cease to fellowship with God.
Continue Reading January 12, 2016 at 8:09 PM Leave a comment
What Does John Mean by Knowing God in 1 John, Part 2
John notes that if a person says he/she has come to know God, but doesn’t keep God’s commands, then that person is clearly lying. To emphasize the point, John says that the person in question is devoid of truth. Truth does not reside in that person because they are living a lie.
Continue Reading January 10, 2016 at 8:57 PM Leave a comment
What Does John Mean by Knowing God in 1 John, Part 1
People who become born again or born from above (cf. John 3) are still required to make the decision to enter into fellowship with God on a daily basis. When we choose not to fellowship with God, the world seems far more appealing.
Jesus’ Life was Not Easy By Any Stretch
If we truly love the world, we will continue to speak the truth because the truth of the gospel is what saves people. If we are cowed into silence, then we will be guilty of loving ourselves more than we love the lost. That is something we must avoid at all costs, in spite of what the world might throw at us because of the conviction of our position.
All the World’s a Stage and So Much of It is Absolute Vanity
Because of the misplaced value of too many in society, things that have no real eternal value are lifted up and adored, while the things that have eternal value are denigrated or ignored. This is sadly true even among Christians. It’s all about what we “accomplish” for God whether it’s His will or not. It’s all based on how things look on the outside, things we can brag about or put our faith in.
Christ, Our Fellowship, Part 20
Look, if Satan can’t keep a person from gaining salvation (he can’t), he will do whatever he can to keep us from fellowship with God (he can). In essence, this is what he accomplished in the Garden of Eden through his temptation to eat of the forbidden fruit. He knew that succumbing to that temptation would cause the fellowship that Adam and Eve enjoyed would be broken. The final result was death, spiritually and physically. Satan knows that he cannot keep people from gaining salvation so his next best thing is to keep them from fellowship.
Christ, Our Fellowship, Part 19
There has been tremendous confusion among believers (myself included), over this whole issue of eternal security. I believe, along with Kelley and many others, that salvation is absolutely something that we can never lose once we actually have it. Fellowship with God, on the other hand, is something that can be broken and even destroyed because it is conditioned, as Kelley notes, upon our behavior. Though God will never cast us out of His Kingdom, He will not continue to fellowship with us when we involve ourselves in sin. It’s that simple. Though all of our sin – past, present, and future – is forgiven by God, we still need to confess it as we are made aware of it because it is that sin that dampens and breaks our fellowship with God. Once we realize that we have sinned, confessing it restores that fellowship with God.
Is Perfect Peace Attainable and What Does It Mean?
The goal then of the Christian is to continue to mature in Christ and to be a witness for Him on all fronts while in this evil world. We’ve noted previously in an article the fact that all in life is really vanity, and that it is so because of our outlook. We constantly plan and run to and fro because we have things “to do” and it seems that we place a very high prize on accomplishments. Yet, it is clear – or should be – that in reality, it really shouldn’t matter what a person does to make a living (provided of course, the means by which is not in the immoral realm), but whatever a person’s lot in life is, the overriding goal is not found in the job or career itself, but in the evangelism. This world is heading toward its own death and multitudes with it.
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