Archive for February, 2016
Is Jesus Our Heavenly Handyman?
The best thing I can hope for in this life is that God will grant me the ability to see what I can control regarding my own quality of life (health). I can’t eat whatever I want to eat and believe that God is responsible for “healing” me. Poor health can contribute to depression, anger, anxiety, and a host of other things, including the constant pain and inflammation of Fibromyalgia. God is under no obligation to fix these things and they should not necessarily be part of the gospel presentation. Certainly, God wants us as healthy as possible but our health is often in our own hands.
Continue Reading February 29, 2016 at 9:35 AM Leave a comment
Bible Warns of Apostasy and Persecution, Part 2
Aside from mockers who come mocking the idea of Jesus as God returning to claim what is His, there is also the general tone of society that will exist during the end times and we will see it worsen as things lead directly up to the physical return of Jesus at the end of the coming Tribulation period. One thing to remember is that the Bible is a complete book. It must be allowed to interpret itself because even though there are roughly 40 human authors, physically writing their own book within a book over a period of approximately 1,600 or so years, the reality is that God is the main Author. He chose individuals to write down parts of His book, but it was God Himself who oversaw the writing of each book. The Bible is the only book that can claim this. No other comes close.
Bible Warns of Apostasy and Persecution, Part 1
I don’t want to get into setting dates, times, days, or hours. That’s not the point of this short series of articles. The point is for us to understand God’s prophetic timetable in light of society and it appears that it comes together. Can we…should we look for anything? If so, what? Should we become so preoccupied with the subject of the end times that we wind up being so focused on it that we fail to realize when we stop evangelizing and therefore fulfilling the Great Commission? Should our study of the end times cause us to want to be even more involved in the Great Commission? I think so. The way I look at it is that we are all one breath away from death anyway. No one alive now knows when they will die. That’s God’s department. If the study of the end times brings us to a greater awareness of just how close death is to everyone and helps us to lose the “ballast” in our lives that keep us from walking closer to God, then it has served it’s purpose (1 John 3:2-3). If we – on the other hand – tend to study the end times to simply gain “knowledge” and become puffed up, then it would be far better for us to not study that subject. I cannot emphasize how important this is for all to understand.
Portraits of Fellowship, Part 5: Moses
Folks, it is very difficult at times to “see” through the darkness into the future to the point where God actually provides an answer to the situation we are undergoing. We are often surrounded by circumstances that God is using for our growth and His glory. Satan wants those very same circumstances to weaken our faith and destroy our fellowship. We need to be like Moses, not Israelites. We need to trust God in spite of what we cannot see. That is not only how we enter into fellowship with Him but it is how we remain in fellowship with Him.
Continue Reading February 24, 2016 at 7:40 AM Leave a comment
Portraits of Fellowship, Part 4: Moses
Moses focused on God for His solution. Isn’t this what God tells us in Psalm 55:22? God echoes the same sentiment in 1 Peter 5:7, when he tells us to “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” Moses knew that casting his cares and concerns on the Lord would yield good results. Relying on himself would yield nothing good at all and and to react in a way that evidenced a failure to trust God would be sin.
Portraits of Fellowship, Part 3: Moses
Isn’t it wonderful to know that God uses ordinary people like Moses for His glory and their growth? In this particular case, in spite of his fear, Moses did everything correctly. He did not take out any fear he might have felt on the Israelites. Instead of becoming angry back at them for their lack of faith, he pleaded with them to trust the Lord. They felt overwhelmed and Moses could have felt the same way. Instead, he did what all of the Israelites should have done; trusted the Lord. As my pastor said in delivering his sermon on aspects of Moses’ life, Moses took the high road in spite of any fears he may have felt. He trusted God and God overcame in and through him.
Not All Jews Believe in Any God
Fellow Christian, it is not going to get easier. It is going to become more difficult. Life will separate immature, carnal Christians from those who take fellowship with God seriously. If you are not walking in fellowship with God, you are not being empowered to stand against the evil that is becoming openly prevalent today. Without being in fellowship with God, you will see people as “enemies” instead of as people who need the only salvation that is available today, in Jesus. They are not our enemies. They are enemies of the cross, but even so, our job is to present to them the gospel that saves.
Continue Reading February 19, 2016 at 10:27 AM Leave a comment
It’s Political Season in Case You Aren’t Aware
Satan is the god of this age (2 Corinthians 4:4). He is the ruler of the powers of the air (Ephesians 2:2). With God’s permission, he has designed a system for which he will one day gain full control and insert his spiritual son into the mix as the final lawless ruler of the fourth revised Roman Empire, as seen in Daniel 2, 7, 9, and 11. It is bound to happen. There is nothing we can do to stop it as it is written in the “stone” of God’s Word.
Portraits in Fellowship, Part 2
We live in a world with a system that has been fully corrupted and crafted by Satan. He has designed this system such that its main goal is to pull people away from God by snaring them with all sorts of baubles and riches, which will ultimately perish. Satan has created this world system, which will one day become a globally united system of governance headed up by his spiritual son (Antichrist), in order to achieve greatness and fulfill his own promises found in Isaiah 14. He seeks to be like the Most High (Isaiah 14:14) and God is allowing him to try to achieve that end. That is his goal and he has designed a world system to take him there. He needs absolute control of this planet and God will allow for a short period of time in the future. That is called Daniel’s 70th week of Daniel 9 (see also Revelation 6 – 18).
Continue Reading February 17, 2016 at 5:53 PM Leave a comment
Transformed to Have Fellowship
Christians who have salvation do not necessarily have fellowship. They have the potential for it and the right to it, but there is no guarantee that each and every Christian will enjoy fellowship with God. When we become saved, our legal status is changed by God from unrighteous to righteous (2 Corinthians 5:21). This status can never change back to that of being unrighteous again as a legal standing before God. Certainly, if Christians are not careful, they can (and too often do) live carnal, immature lives before God because they fail to realize that they are supposed to actually pursue fellowship with God. It is not automatic.
Continue Reading February 17, 2016 at 8:09 AM Leave a comment
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