Posts filed under ‘Religious – Christian – Theology’
Sanctification: Memorizing Scripture
Paul is so good about getting to the heart of the issue, isn’t he? We can all relate to what he is stating. We want to do what is right, what pleases God, but we are too often bound by our sin nature. It seems to control us way too often. Yet, Paul, while pointing out how bad things can be for him within, looks to Jesus as the only true Redeemer. Jesus, through the empowering of the Holy Spirit, will create within us truly clean hearts, hearts given to serving God, not our sin natures. But of course, our job is to actually go to Him during those times when we are torn and being dragged toward fulfilling the desires of our sin nature. It truly is a battle and the battle is won in our minds when we deliberately turn our backs on our sin natures and the temptations promoted by it, instead, looking to Jesus as our true Source of strength. He will overcome in our lives if we deliberately turn to Him. Sometimes, all we can do is plead with Him to help us and He will follow through.
Cooperating in Sanctification
The opposite of being disciplined is being lazy. There’s too much of that going around, even among Christians today. Paul could have just coasted. After all, he was saved, right? Why did he work so hard to bring about the change in his life that God wanted? By that I mean why did he make the strong effort to cooperate with God the Holy Spirit in order to become the person God wanted him to become? The answer is much more simple than the process itself. Paul did this because he wanted to bring glory to God and he understood that whatever he was going through, it was because God ordained it and in every situation, he wanted to respond in a way that pleased God. Because of that, he literally disciplined himself – his thoughts, his actions and his words – so that he relied heavily on the power of the Holy Spirit to create in him (Paul), what was good for edifying others and glorifying God. This meant constant growth and change for Paul.
God Has No Choice
Ultimately, God looks upon individual believers through the eyes of pity or compassion. He certainly understands our frame and remembers we are simply dust. At the same time, He will do what is needed in our life to bring us back to the narrow road that leads to life eternal when we fail to stay on that road. This is the difference between Israel and the Church. With Israel, God often dealt with those people as one nation. If the leaders were corrupt, He would bring judgment eventually onto the entire nation. Though some within that nation might be spared from the true harshness of His judgment because of their individual loyalty to God, ultimately, He was judging that nation. Where the Church is concerned, God deals with individual Christians within the Church who go astray or require judgment for sins undealt with that keep them from fellowship with God.
Continue Reading October 20, 2025 at 10:57 AM Leave a comment
Hosea: Punishment and Promise
In spite of how bad things looked for Israel during Hosea’s time as a prophet to that nation, God continued to hold out hope. He always pointed them to the day when Israel, as a nation, would return to Him, embrace Him wholly and live for Him as well as they had lived apart from Him prior.
Continue Reading October 10, 2025 at 2:04 PM Leave a comment
October 7th…
Several things are important about today’s date, October 7, 2025. First, it is the two-year anniversary for the horrible Hamas terrorist invasion of Israel and massacre of innocent Jewish people enjoying the music at a music festival, who were completely unarmed. Second, today is the revised day that the Rapture is supposed to occur, after the first date setting came and went without incident.
I Purposefully Waited…
While it is very good to long for and expect the coming of the Lord, we cannot stop living and simply wait for Him to return on some appointed day at some appointed time as “revealed” by some believer somewhere. To me, this is very reminiscent of people on YouTube who claim to have been taken to heaven and talked with our Lord. These people go on and express much detail about what they saw and what they heard. In some cases, they claim that the end times is very different from what is in Scripture. In other cases, they tell us that salvation is also different from what the Bible reveals.
Continue Reading September 25, 2025 at 1:14 PM Leave a comment
Losing the Battle, Winning the War
Reading through the Old Testament and even the New, it is clear that Satan hates those who stand with God against malice, hatred and all manner of sinful corruption that plagues much of humanity. The apostles did not die quietly from old age. Many were brutally murdered. The prophets of old did not retire and draw from their pensions while living in relative ease. They were often treated brutally and even martyred for daring to speak God’s Words to people, words that those people found offensive.
Jeremiah: God’s Call to Repentance
So once leaders turn their backs on truth, advocating lies, this results in that society exhibiting and experiencing far more wickedness, bitterness and hatred ending in a growing callousness toward one another. Eventually, sin ceases to be called sin. It is embraced as good and that society begins living a Romans 1 life. Even while doing that, it still often sees itself as “innocent” of being evil in spite of the many examples from that society that exist on a daily basis. These become actually willfully indulged in by many to most within that populace. Once the rejection of God’s morality is complete, there is little left except for God to judge that nation.
Continue Reading September 16, 2025 at 12:29 PM Leave a comment
Babylonizing America
One thing this has taught me is that Babylon and its proponents play for keeps. It appears to be coming to a point where Babylon is not going to put up with pesky conservatives/Christians much longer because there is too much for them to lose. Babylon isn’t playing to lose. Of course, the Bible tells us that at one point, during the coming Tribulation, that the system of Babylon will be killed, as it will no longer be needed (Revelation 18). Of course, God is allowing all of this for His purposes and glory regardless of how difficult that is for us to accept. The momentum is building, giving Babylon its growing power. That power will attempt take down anyone who stands in its way.
Continue Reading September 11, 2025 at 2:54 PM Leave a comment
Introduction to Jeremiah
Jeremiah is made up of 52 chapters and represents one of, if not, the longest book in the Bible regarding text. Below are some facts surrounding the prophet Jeremiah and the book he is known for writing.
In the coming weeks, as we go through the book of Jeremiah, we will most likely cover a number of chapters together, rather than go over one chapter per week since it would take a year to do so. This look at Jeremiah will be a bit cursory, but will cover major aspects of the book and we’ll find out how it applies not only to the nation of Israel but to believers today as well.
StudyGrowKnow 