The Pattern and History of our Giving I’d like to read the first four verses of 1 Corinthians chapter 16.. “Now concerning the collection for the saints; As I directed the congregations of Galatia, so do you also. Against the first day of every week, let each one of you put aside and save, as he may prosper, that no collections be made when I arrive. And…
How Can We Describe God’s Kingdom? In Mathew 13, Jesus likens the kingdom of heaven to several things. He likens it to a mustard seed, and He likens it to leaven. He compares the kingdom to a treasure hidden in a field, and to a costly pearl, and even to a fishing net that’s cast into the sea. Jesus says in verse 24; “The…
Reverend is His Name Psalm 111, verse 9, says; “He has sent redemption to His people. He has commanded His covenant forever. Holy and reverend is His name.” I think that a lot of people hear that verse, and think that the word “reverend” is a proper name for God. It’s kind of like saying; Bill is his name, or John is his name. When referring…
Physical vs Spiritual There are two major difficulties that people encounter when attempting to understand the scriptures. One of them is differentiating between what is to be taken literally, and what is to be taken figuratively. The other is differentiating between the physical and the spiritual meaning of verses. Differentiating between the physical and the spiritual, is what I will deal with in explaining a few bible verses today….
Salvation The most important question that we could ever ask, is; “What must I do to be saved”. If we don’t know HOW to be saved, it’s pretty much guaranteed, we WON’T be saved. But before we answer the question of HOW we can be saved, let’s consider this question; “What is it, that makes us UN-saved?” To be Un-saved, is to be lost. Jesus said in Luke 19, verse…
Teaching The Truth in Love This writing is in response to the statements made in an article titled “Can a Christian lose salvation”, from the website, gotquestions.org. The belief that a Christian CANNOT lose their salvation, is an incorrect interpretation of the scriptures, resulting from being unaware of some very clear verses on the subject, and possibly by reading into other verses, things that are not actually said. My purpose here isn’t…
Severed from Christ? This question, “Can a Christian lose salvation?”, is asked over and over again. And the reason that it’s asked so repeatedly, is that people have the tendency to listen to the opinions of other people, instead of simply going to the word of God. If everyone would simply accept God’s word, as stated in the bible, the question would be put…
God’s Promise, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob The Lord our God, said to Abraham, in Genesis 12, verses 2 & 3; “And I will make you a great nation. And I will bless you, and make your name great, and so you will be a blessing. And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Abraham was a very special person wasn’t he? God was…
“The Lord Helps those who Help themselves” You might think that saying comes from the bible, but it doesn’t. But I think a lot of times it’s true. Maybe it’s always true. We all have a job to do, if we want God’s blessings. Paul tells us in 2 Thessalonians 3, verse 10; “If anyone refuses to work, neither let him eat.” If we’re literally not able…
Today we’re going to look at a story of love, loyalty, family, and God. But before we get into the story, I want to read to you a quote, that may be one of the greatest statements of love and loyalty and devotion, that any one person ever made to another. The quote is found within our story, and here it is.. “For where you go,…
Understanding the Power Jesus once said; “You are mistaken, not understanding the scriptures, or the power of God.” Mathew 22, verse 29. The question that had been posed to Jesus, was concerning the resurrection. Now, the old testament scriptures are not silent about the resurrection. So therefore, the people that were questioning Jesus had no reason to be ignorant about it. And some of these people…
Sometimes Songs Reflect Truth Let me read to you some of the words to a song called Honesty.. “If you search for tenderness, it isn’t hard to find. You can have the love you need, to live.” “But if you look for truthfulness, you might just as well be blind. It always seems to be, so hard to give.” “Honesty, is such a lonely word,…
Foolishness of God? Listen to, 1 Corinthians 1, verse 25 says, “Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” Maybe you didn’t know that “foolishness” could be attributed to God. And maybe you didn’t know that “weakness” could also be attributed to God. But there you have it in that one verse; The foolishness of God,…
Kingdom of Heaven, on Earth Each congregation of the Lord’s body, is an outpost of heaven, on this earth. The entire church is on a mission trip, gathering souls, to be taken to the Father when He calls. Every church member, is on a “work visa”, where we work while it is day, so that we can receive our “just recompense” at the last day. We’re on…
Let Me Read A Quotation “In proportion as men become worldly minded, provided they haven’t entirely lost the fear of God, do they begin to require “helps” to their devotion. That they could require such “helps” under a dark dispensation, where they were led into the use of symbolic rites, rather than being inwardly illuminated by God’s word and Spirit, is not at all astonishing. But to say…
Father Forgive Me Jesus said in Mathew 6, verse 15; “But if you do not forgive men, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.” That principle is easy to understand isn’t it? In order to be forgiven by God, we must be willing to forgive others. Here’s another verse that pretty much says the same thing. Mathew 6, verse 12. It’s a part of what people…
I forgive You Have you ever forgiven anyone? Has anyone ever forgiven you? What does it mean to forgive? What are you actually doing, when you forgive someone? To forgive can actually mean a few different things. Today I’d like you to consider three things that forgiveness can mean. Here’s the first thing that forgiving can mean; It can mean, to stop blaming. When you blame someone, aren’t you really…
For It Is “Just” Listen please, to this scripture from 2 Thessalonians 1, verses 7 thru 9; “For it is JUST, for God to repay with affliction, those who afflict you.” “And to give relief to you who are afflicted, along with us, when the Lord shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God,…
Words of Salvation Three very important words, that we all need to understand, are righteousness, temperance, and judgment. And we need to understand these words, as the bible uses them. We typically say that “righteousness” is the keeping of God’s commandments. It really means, “to do justice”, but it means to do justice “in the eyes of God”. So then you can see how doing justice in…
Religious Denominations Christian religious denominations have been in existence since the first century AD. Jesus instructed His apostle John, to write a letter, to the congregation of believers in the city of Pergamum, in what is currently the country of Turkey. In that letter, one of the things that Jesus said was this; “Thus you also have some who in the same way, hold the teaching of…