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Tag: Christian faith
Happy Resurrection Day!
Resurrection Sunday is my favorite of all the Christian holy days of the year, because it commemorates Jesus’ victory over sin and the grave. Without Jesus’ resurrection from the dead the Christian faith is futile and meaningless. The Apostle Paul even said, “And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!” (1 Corinthians 15:17 NKJV). That sounds to me like believing in Jesus’ resurrection is a requirement for salvation. Paul wrote similarly to the church in Rome “. . . that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9 NKJV). What does it mean to “believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead”? I believe it means to be absolutely convinced of it, just as we believe in our heart that the sun will rise again in the east tomorrow.I pray that if you are a Christian you will observe this day in honor of Jesus and what He did for you. Don’t get caught up in the worldly observance of candy, bunnies, and coloring, hiding and hunting Easter eggs, neither of which has anything whatsoever to do with Jesus or His sacrifice and resurrection. I must admit that before I learned of the truly pagan origin of Easter, Easter bunnies, and Easter eggs I, too, was a big proponent of coloring, hiding and hunting Easter eggs. I no longer participate in that practice and I also now try to avoid calling the day of Jesus’ resurrection “Easter Sunday”, since the origin of the word Easter comes from the Babylonian goddess Ishtar on whom the whole pagan holiday is based. I urge you to focus instead on worshiping the risen Lord Jesus and honoring Him by attending corporate public worship and setting aside this day to rest and reflect on the goodness of God.
I pray that if you are not a Christian that you will consider what Jesus did for you by dying in your place on a cruel Roman cross so you wouldn’t have to be punished for your sins. Of course, if you don’t accept what Jesus did for you then His sacrifice won’t atone for your sins and you will have to pay for them yourself in an everlasting place of torment called Hell. If you want to escape the punishment of Hell and accept Jesus’ payment for your sins with His own atoning blood, then admit you are a sinner like everyone else who has ever lived on earth (except Jesus, of course), agree to leave behind your lifestyle of sin, and ask for His forgiveness and salvation. Then begin living for Him for the rest of your life. It really is just that simple.
If you’d like to know more about who Jesus is and what He did, I invite you to read the page “Who Is Jesus Christ?” on my Website. You may also contact me via email to express your questions or just leave a comment below. I wish you a most blessed and Happy Resurrection Day!
A Matter of Faith
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1 NKJV).
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“But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6 NKJV).
Many Christians can quote these Bible verses with ease, but they tend to miss the meaning wrapped up in them. Because of Hebrews 11:1, faith is perceived as some nebulous, intangible idea that one must accept in order to be a believer, but it is so much more than that. It is true that one cannot be a true believer without putting one’s faith in God, but how do we really put our faith in God? Until you can answer that question satisfactorily, you will find yourself faithless, lost, and at the mercy of adversity in your life.
Basically, faith is having full confidence in someone or something. “Full confidence” means having no doubt that someone or something can do what is promised. We put full confidence in the furniture we sit on or lie on, in the machines we use to achieve our goals and desires, and sometimes in the people we respect as capable of doing what they say.
So, what does it mean to have “full confidence” in God? Well, it means that we take Him at His Word and do not doubt His capability to perform what He promises in His Word. There’s where the real rub comes in, because so many people claim to have faith or full confidence in God and His Word without even knowing what His Word promises or without giving His Word the respect it deserves. If you truly believe that it is impossible for God to lie (Hebrews 6:18; Titus 1:2), then when you read in God’s Word (The Holy Bible) that He will do a certain thing, you will have no doubt that He will do what He has said. There are times in God’s Word where He puts a contingency on a promise, such as in John 15:7, so if it appears God is not keeping His promise, we need to re-examine the circumstances to see what is preventing God’s promise from being fulfilled. It is certainly not God Who is faithless in such cases, but we are the faithless ones!
One of the biggest hurdles many people have to overcome, whether they are professing Christians or unbelievers who are seeking for truth, is whether to accept The Holy Bible as God’s written Word inspired by His Holy Spirit. It all comes down to a matter of faith. Since the Bible has never been disproved on even one point, but rather it has been proven time and again by people who start out to disprove something in it, only to become fully convinced of its truthfulness in the end, is it worthy of our full confidence? Granted, there are some translational vagaries that have crept into the various translations of the Bible over the centuries which have diluted its truth in some places, but a diligent search of the original languages in which the Bible was written will clarify any of these points. With such marvelous technological inventions as the computer, you don’t have to know Hebrew or Greek in order to search out these points. All you need is an electronic Bible with the words in your native language linked to the words in the original Bible language to compare meanings. One excellent electronic Bible that is also FREE is e-Sword by Rick Meyers.
Accepting the Bible as Personally-inspired by God’s Holy Spirit is the first step to securing your faith in God and His promises. After all, where are the promises of God found, other than in The Holy Bible? If you’ve been visited by some spirit being claiming something contrary to what the Bible says, then you know you are dealing with an evil spirit which is not to be believed. If you’ve listened to a preacher or teacher anywhere who is telling you something different from what the Bible says, you know you are dealing with an evil spirit which is using a human being as an instrument of evil. This does not necessarily mean that such a preacher or teacher is evil or has evil intentions, because it is possible for preachers and teachers to be misled or to misinterpret Scriptural statements or to be ignorant of certain aspects in God’s Word (compare this idea with what happened in Matthew 16:13-23 and Acts 18:24-26). So, we need to be very cautious about either trusting a preacher or teacher blindly or condemning him or her as a false teacher based on one erroneous presentation. If after we’ve tried to correct them about something they still reject the truth, however, then we should distance ourselves from them.
The Bible even tells us how to discern when evil spirits are attempting to deceive us. John tells us: “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world” (1 John 4:3 NKJV).
Accepting The Holy Bible as the Personally-inspired Word of God is just the first step to securing your relationship with Jesus Christ and your place in His eternal Kingdom. The next step is trusting everything the Bible commands us to believe and do, including such fundamental truths as the creation story (no, God did not combine evolution with His created order and then leave everything to its own devices). Rejecting what the Bible says about anything is tantamount to calling God a liar. As the Apostle Paul wrote, “… Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar….” (Romans 3:3-4 NKJV). The Apostle John even goes so far as to say, “… he who does not believe God has made Him a liar….” (1 John 5:10 NKJV). While John is writing specifically about faith in Jesus’ atoning sacrifice for our sins, I think we can rightly extrapolate this truth and apply it to anything else God has said, including how the world was created and such supernatural events as Jonah being swallowed by a great fish for three days and the Red Sea parting for 2-3 million Israelites to cross over on dry land, and many other astounding facts from the Bible narrative. Whether or not to accept all this and put our full confidence in it as TRUTH really is a matter of faith.
Now, are you a true believer? Do you accept The Holy Bible as the inspired Word of God and believe everything it says happened exactly as it says? It’s one thing to have questions about how these things could have happened as the Bible depicts them, but it’s another matter entirely to discount them because they’re impossible in the natural. That’s the whole point! God is supernatural, so most of His wondrous deeds as described in the Bible are supernatural, too! If you can’t accept and put your full confidence in such things as this, how can you believe in a God you’ve never seen? Jesus asked Nicodemus this question: “If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?” (John 3:12 NKJV). Good question!
God wants to be believed. The salvation of our very souls depends on whether we believe what God says. As Paul recounted the story of Abraham’s faith, he wrote, “For what does the Scripture say? ‘ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS ACCOUNTED TO HIM FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS’” (Romans 4:3 NKJV). In fact, I recommend you read the entire Book of Romans in the Bible, but Romans 4:1-5:2 is particularly apropos to my point here. Put your trust in God by believing what God says in His Word, The Holy Bible. Not only is it a matter of faith, but it’s a matter of everlasting life and everlasting death!
New Title Released by Parson Place Press
Life can sometimes catch you off-guard and knock you to your knees with a forceful blow. For Heather Wanamaker and her husband, Scott, that blow came with the agonizing reality that their firstborn son, Bradley, was born with extreme oxygen deprivation, which resulted in cerebral palsy and severe impairments. Lessons from Bradley: Discovering God’s Blessing in All Things is Heather’s personal story of faith in God and triumph over trials and suffering through one of the greatest challenges of her life. Coping with tragedy, grief, and suffering of all kinds can jeopardize one’s hopes and dreams, marriage relationship, and faith in God. Read Heather’s story now to learn her secret to success in becoming an overcomer.Lessons from Bradley: Discovering God’s Blessing in All Things is currently available in the Parson Place Press Bookstore, Amazon.com, and BarnesandNoble.com with more to follow. Just search on the book’s ISBN (9780988852815) at any retailer you choose to purchase from your favorite bookstore. Purchase from the Parson Place Press Bookstore now and save 20% on S/H until 31 March 2013!
Will December 21, 2012, Really Be”TEOTWAWKI”?
What? You haven’t heard of “TEOTWAWKI” yet? Actually, TEOTWAWKI is an acronymn for “The End Of The World As We Know It”. According to all the “doomsdayers”, TEOTWAWKI is supposed to happen sometime tomorrow, 21 December 2012, based on the fact that the Mayan Long Calendar ends on that date with no new calendar to succeed it. Is the world really going to end tomorrow?
Well, I have some Good News for everyone and some Bad news for a vast number of people. Do you want the Good News first? Okay, the Good News is that I can guarantee you with 100% certainty that the world will NOT end tomorrow, whether it is “the world as we know it” or the world in general. How can I be so sure? Well, I am so sure because I trust a source that has never been proven wrong on even one single point. What source is that? It’s the Holy Bible, and the Bible says that “the earth abides forever” (Ecclesiastes 1:4 NKJV).
You may say, “But wait a minute! Doesn’t the Bible say the world will end with the great Battle of Armageddon?” Actually, no. The Battle of Armageddon doesn’t end the world, it simply ends an age or era, the Era of Human Government. In that sense, it really will be the end of the world as we know it, but not the end of the world’s existence. Furthermore, if the world was supposed to end with the Battle of Armageddon, since that hasn’t happened yet, we can rest assured the world won’t end tomorrow, nor could it happen tomorrow, because there are still a lot of Bible prophecies that haven’t yet been fulfilled, and based upon the nature of their fulfillment, they simply couldn’t all be fulfilled in one day! Therefore, you can all take a collective breath and exhale now; the world is set to continue as it is for at least another 1,007 years from today. Why 1,007 years? Well, earth and humankind still have to endure the Seven Year Tribulation Period, which ends with the great Battle of Armageddon when Jesus Christ returns to the earth, plus another 1,000 years of Jesus’ initial reign as King. What happens after that? Well, that’s where the Bad News comes in for a vast number of people.
Are you ready for the Bad News now? Well, the Bad News is that if you have not accepted Jesus’ offer of salvation ON HIS TERMS (as stated throughout the Bible), then you will not be allowed to enter His eternal Kingdom and live with Him in joy and peace forever. At the end of the initial 1,000 year reign of Christ, the Bible tells us that God will judge all unsaved humanity (those without a saving relationship with Jesus) from creation till the time that the initial 1,000 year reign of Christ concludes (Revelation 20:11-15). This judgment is called The Great White Throne Judgment, because God sits upon a great white throne to enter into judgment with the unbelieving and/or unrepentant world. Those who are judged at this judgment throne will be cast into the Lake of Fire (Hell) and suffer eternal torment and separation from God without the hope of ever being pardoned or released. You see, the time for being pardoned will have passed, because one must accept this offer of salvation which Jesus extends to us while one lives in his or her life, that is, before dying physically. Once one has died physically, whatever he or she has decided about Jesus’ offer of salvation is settled forever at that point.
So, how can you accept Jesus’ offer of salvation and avoid this Great White Throne Judgment? It’s really very simple. First, believe that what the Bible tells you about Jesus and the way to be saved is true, that is, that God entered into our world through the birth of Jesus (which we celebrate, supposedly, every Christmas), that He lived a life completely without sin so that He could die for ALL sin on the cross as an atoning sacrifice. In other words, Jesus kept all of God’s commandments without ever failing once so that He could swap His righteousness for our sinfulness in a simple act of faith on our part. Second, if we believe that Jesus did all that the Bible says He did for us, that He rose from the dead (that is, that He came back to life after being crucified), and that He is Lord of all forever, then God has promised to save us from eternal damnation. If we truly believe these facts (and they are indeed facts, whether we believe them or not), then we will change our thinking and behavior (what the Bible calls repentance) and strive to live as righteously as we can, understanding all the while that we are not saved by our own keeping of God’s commandments but by our faith in Jesus’ keeping of God’s commandments. It really is just that simple!
Now, if you have never fully believed these truths so that you changed your thinking and behavior regarding obedience to the commandments of God, then I invite you right here and now, right where you are, to humble yourself before God, confess your sins, ask for God’s forgiveness, and begin striving to live the rest of your life for Christ, however long that may be.
While the Good News is that the world will never end (though it will be renovated — see Revelation 20:11 and Revelation 21:1), the Better News is that we who have put our faith in Jesus Christ to save us from eternal damnation in Hell will receive resurrected bodies like His that will never again grow old or get sick or die, and we will live and reign with Christ forever (Revelation 22:5). If you want to be a part of that everlasting Kingdom of Christ, now is the time to act. As the Bible says, “… Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2 NKJV). Don’t put it off even for a moment, for none of us has any guarantee that we will draw our next breath.
If you make this commitment, understand that this is not something you can try out for a while and quit if you don’t like it or if it gets too difficult to do. Jesus used an analogy to make this point when He said, “… ‘No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God’” (Luke 9:62 NKJV). This is a forever commitment, and to demonstrate your commitment to Him and your love for Him, you should strive to obey His commandments to the best of your ability. When you fail to obey Him, as every believer does on occasion, know that He is waiting patiently for you to return to Him in humility to ask Him to forgive you and restore your temporarily broken relationship with Him.
Next, find a good local church who practices the love of Christ toward everyone and who preaches and teaches the unaltered Word of God as given in the Bible and worship with them every week. Give of your resources (your wealth, your time, and yourself) to bless others, both in that local church and wherever you may learn of a need you are able to meet. This is what it means to be a true believer in and a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ.
Feel free to contact me with any additional questions you may have about living and practicing the Christian faith. I look forward to seeing you in the Kingdom!
