I don’t know if the American Church can ever truly move forward in love until we’re willing to give up what we want for someone else’s need.
There is more biblical support for Christians visiting those in prison that being responsible for putting them there.
Only God can take a life that is but a breath and make it sing for eternity.
Peace.
God teaches that righteousness leads to prosperity. Modern social thought presumes prosperity is necessary for righteousness.
When God causes our idols to fall on their face before Him, why do we set them up again?
Don’t fight in armor that’s not been tested. Don’t let the enemy determine your strategy. The staff, sling, and stones were enough before. They will work again if you come in the name of the Lord.
An action carries with it a certain amount of risk. Risk of failure, criticism, even persecution, oppression, or . It is the rfear of this risk that keeps many Christians inactive or subservient to someone else’s cause. This fear produces organization and bureacracy. Therefore, Timothy is told we have no spirit of fear but of power, love and sound mind. There is no reward for the soldier who will not fight, the farmer who will not plant, or the runner who will not race. Let them say and do what they will, call me what they will, but let them know I feared God over any other, whether by my word or deed.
Peace.
Judging by how many Christians view following the Lord, the Israelites, after passed over them, would have stayed in Egypt.
Perhaps it is not my understanding of the Bible that needs to change. Perhaps it is me.
I don’t have to worry about more of God. My job is less of me.
Peace.
God made light first, saw it was good, then separated it from the darkness.
We are to bear fruit; the seed of fruit is within itself; in order for fruit to reproduce, it must fall and die for the seed to be exposed.
Abraham’s father could only take him so far.
God is looking for a people who will say, “We would rather die in the wilderness than go back and serve the Egyptians.”
Peace.
It takes iron to sharpen iron. Any discipleship that bypasses placing Christians in direct, vulnerable, and intimate relationship with one another only leads to dullness and rust … if it is even Christianity at all.
Our deist traditions allow us to believe that “God helps those who help themselves.” We then take responsibility for our own provision and consider it an important aspect of Christian citizenship. Then we wonder why we don’t have the faith to raise the dead … either that or we treat actual miracles as some sort of mythology … regardless, we only prove how paralyzed we are spiritually by our unbelief than anything else.
You want more faith? It doesn’t happen without prayer and fasting. Most of us aren’t concerned with our lack of faith … we’re more concerned with our lack of worldly things.
If we really knew the power of prayer, I believe we would have meetings where the prayer took an hour and the message lasted five minutes.
Peace.
All goats think they’re sheep. Sheep have other things to occupy their mind.
It’s not about what we do. It’s about what we do.
When we sin, we point to God’s love. Ah, yes, in God’s boundless and endless forgiveness we see a window into His love. However, I have this strong sense that if we truly knew the boundless and endless nature of His love, our confidence would not flow to sin but to obedience.
Taking pride in our humility is not humility at all.
God teaches us discipline not because the disciplines have any power unto themselves. Rather, God’s calls to sacrifice are really pleas to enter into the truth that His power overcomes our weakness. In so doing, we realize the power of God evident in our life, and that sets us free from the powers of this world. Therefore, discipline is meant to further set us free, or perhaps realize the freedom we say we already have in Christ. Any discipline that does not set us free is another form of bondage.
Peace.
Nothing can be more prideful than saying we have been saved by God’s perfect mercy and grace and then treating another human being as an enemy.
Too many Christians are waiting on God to move before they’re fully committed. God, however, awaits a fully committed people so He can move.
What does it mean to be His temple? In order for mankind to see God, they must meet Him in His preferred dwelling place: the Church. We can only worship Him and hear from Him in His temple, His people. Why then is His temple hidden behind doors and under steeples? We act like His disciples before the resurrection: scared, isolated, and ineffectual. We are to be His Resurrected Body: bold, visible, loving, vocal and persecuted. Hmn. Maybe that’s why we act this way.
You have to leave the old place before you can step into a new one. Only God can be in two places at once.
God doesn’t even concern Himself with the old wineskins. Why do we? He is in the business of new wineskins and new wine. He set it up that way. It’s the only way it works. We spend so much time patching up the old wineskins while the new wine tries to break free. It is an endless cycle that can only be remedied by repenting of the old wineskin, throw it away, and fill up the new. This is too much for many, they feel, and so they rather live a Christian life discouraged, depressed and diseased.
Peace.
If Paul had believed our modern understanding of grace, he would have continued killing Christians.
If we were as concerned with protecting the unborn as we are about smoking, God would smile.
Our modern call to discipleship is to do what we want, stay where we are, give up nothing, and thank God for being so understanding about it all.
Adolescence is a lie. There is no such thing. You are either a child or a man. There is no inbetween. As a result, we have a whole generation of people who are given the rights of manhood without the responsibility. They become men without putting away childish things.
Peace