Be Thankful to God “Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 Lord How We Thank Thee.. Let Us Count The Why’s Here are ten reasons why we thank the Lord.. #1. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should…
The Structure of the Body of Christ In this second part of our study on misconceptions about “the church”, we’ll focus our attention on the “structure” of the assembly of the saved, and we’ll talk about the individual members who make up the body. And remember this important fact. “Groups” of people, such as religious “denominations”, do NOT make up the body of Christ! Individuals make up the body. 1…
The Truth About The “Church” We already have an article here on the website titled, WHAT IS THE CHURCH ? But because of the many misconceptions regarding the nature of this entity, another article is appropriate. I would like to begin by addressing the very word, “church”. The New Testament was originally written in the Greek language. And the Greek word that is generally translated “church” in…
Jesus Knows Our Deeds! In the second and third chapters of the book of Revelation, Jesus Christ dictates seven letters, to seven churches located in Asia (present day Turkey). And He tells His apostle John to write down what He says. There’s a statement that is common to five of those letters. And that statement is.. “I know your deeds..” In the other two letters, Jesus says, “I know your tribulation..” …
The Word “Tribulation” There is a Greek word that appears 22 times in the original text of the New Testament, and it’s always translated “tribulation” in our English bibles. The word is “thlipsis”, and it means “pressure, affliction, anguish, persecution, trouble, tribulation”. The word is used in reference to various tribulations that have occurred to various different people. Some of these tribulations are specific to certain groups of people,…
Do You Have God’s Authority ? One day while Jesus was teaching the people in the temple, the Jewish chief priests and scribes and elders came to Him and said, “Tell us by what authority you are doing these things?” Luke 20:8 We all recognize that in establishing a teaching or doctrine, or in other words in establishing “rules”, we must have the authority to do so….
Is There a Balance Between Sin and Repentance ? One of the questions that I received here on the website was, “How do we balance our repentance with the level of our sin?” I’m sure the thought behind that question is that if you have sinned a lot, you must repent a lot. And vice-versa; If we only sin a little, we only need to repent a…
What Does The Bible Say About The Burning of Bodies? There’s a story in 1 Samuel chapter 31 about how King Saul, the first King of Israel, and his three sons were all killed in a battle with the Philistines. And the Philistines, being a ruthless and godless people, found the body of Saul, and they beheaded it and fastened the body to a wall. I suppose…
What Does the Bible Say About Burial and Cremation ? Actually, the bible gives very few specifics about burial and it says nothing about what we know as cremation. So to gain an understanding of how God feels about these subjects, we need to look at the few examples that we are given, and also look to what God tells us about the physical body and about death. We also need to…
He Who Believes Shall be Saved The bible says in several places, that it’s the person who believes, that will be saved. In the previous lesson titled WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BELIEVE, I gave several verses of scripture that say that very thing. That lesson began with these six verses.. John 3:16, John 3:18, John 6:29, John 6;40, Acts 19:4, and 1 Cor 1:21. And all those…
Reverence For The Word Of God The bible affirms again and again, that it is in fact the very word of God. For example the bible states in 2 Tim 3:16, “All scripture is inspired by God (the words “inspired by God” literally mean “God Breathed”) and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be adequate, equipped…
Bible Interpretation The question of how to understand the bible is really a matter of how we interpret the bible. As with almost any subject, there will always be some people who tend to go to extremes. With the bible, there are some who want to interpret everything literally. And then there are some who want to interpret everything figuratively. And of course there are those who…
Whoever Believes In Him The bible says a lot about believing. Probably the most well-known verse in the bible is John 3:16 which says, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” But there’s lots of other verses as well.. For instance, John 3;18 “He who believes…
Enter By The Narrow Gate The bible does confirm that most people will be lost. Isn’t that a sad thought? It’s very sad, but the bible says it’s true. And because of that truth, most people will spend an eternity in Hell. Jesus has told us, in Mathew 7:13, “Enter by the narrow gate” And here’s the reason that He said that.. “For the gate is…
Where Does God Keep Fallen angels? There are two specific verses of scripture that tell about angels sinning. One verse is on Jude, verse 6. The other verse is in 2 Pet 2:4. Here are those two verses.. Jude V-6, “And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds, under darkness for the judgment of the…
Did God Create Satan, And Is Satan An Angel ? We’ve had two previous lessons on the subject of Satan. And we’ve learned several things. Just for a quick review, let me list what we’ve already learned from the bible. #1. “Names” given to Satan. The bible refers to Satan as the “devil”, and the “serpent of old”, in Rev 12:9. God also refers to Satan as “the prince of…
Three Questions About Satan There were three questions that we were left with in our previous lesson titled IS SATAN AN ANGEL ? One question is; Is Satan indeed an angel? Another is; Did God create Satan? And the last one is this; Is Lucifer another name for Satan? I mentioned that the name Lucifer was used one time in the bible, but that it does…
Who or What Is Satan, And Where Did Satan Come From ? There are lots of questions that people have about satan, but the bible doesn’t answer them all. There’s a lot of figurative and symbolic language used in certain parts of the bible, and many times, people get the wrong impression, thinking that certain passages of scripture that use this symbolic language, are talking about…
The Bible Teaches Faith In the last couple of posts, we’ve been looking at how God uses examples to teach us. I’d like us to look at some examples of faith from the bible, but before we do that, I want us to learn some things about faith itself. The first verse of Hebrews chapter 11 gives us a short definition of what faith is. Here’s the verse.. “Now…
Spiritual Thoughts In our previous “Spiritual Thoughts” lesson, Jesus made it perfectly clear, that there are obviously things that we MUST DO, to get to heaven. He Asked in Luke 6:46, “Why do you call Me Lord, Lord, and not DO what I say?” Obviously those who where calling him, Lord, Lord, did in fact believe in Him. But Jesus said, “That’s not enough just to BELIEVE,…