Tag Archives: Following Christ

Sons Not Slaves

Before I can ever teach you this Scripture, I have to explain something that used to be normal and expected, but in America today has become as foreign as speaking Martian. In the ancient world great civilizations were built by pagan cultures. The longest lasting Empires were:

The Egyptian Empire lasted 3000 years (3100 BC – 30 BC)
The Assyrian Empire lasted 1300 years (2025 BC – 609 BC)
The Babylonian Empire lasted 1351 years (1890 BC – 539 BC)
The Roman Empire lasted 1480 years (27 BC – 1453 AD)

Though not classified as an “Empire”, the Spartan city-state Lacedaemon (pronounced lass-e-demon) lasted 1000 years. All of these empires – along with Lacedaemon – grew to greatness because children were trained to be good citizens – not entertained. We live in a day where children are coddled. When Paul was writing the Church at Galatia, he was speaking to what all parents and adults knew. … Continue reading

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Do Lord

Over the past few years I’ve heard a lot of complaining about our Presidents from both sides, Democratic or Republican. I have to admit, I’ve done my fair share of complaining. But the Scripture reminds us that – rather than complaining – we should rely on prayer and on the sovereignty of God. God can and does control the human heart. God can control the heart of the King, whether the King is a believer or a non-believer. The Bible is full of examples of this.

When the cupbearer to King Artaxerxes, Nehemiah, heard that the walls of Jerusalem were destroyed and the city was in disarray, he was very upset. But rather that grieve and despair, Nehemiah went to God in prayer. Nehemiah’s prayer shows how a believer should pray to change the heart of a king.

Nehemiah 1:4-7 (ESV) {Nehemiah said} I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven. 5 And I said, “O LORD God of heaven, the great and awesome God Who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love Him and keep His commandments, 6 let your ear be attentive and Your eyes open, to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before You day and night for the people of Israel Your servants, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against You. Even I and my father’s house have sinned. 7 We have acted very corruptly against You and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, and the rules that You commanded Your servant Moses.

Nehemiah did not blame God nor the enemies of Israel … Continue reading

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Order Of The Family

Exodus 20:12 (ESV) Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

The Bibles doesn’t command that we like our parents, or even that we love our parents, but that we show them honor, respect because they are our parents. Our parents may make bad decisions. All are flawed by sin. But God tells us that long life is promised to those who honor their parents. The Apostle quotes this text in the New Testament:

Ephesians 6:1-3 (ESV) Children, OBEY your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 HONOR your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), 3 that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.

I came across this quote from a child psychology site:

“The family unit often acts as society in miniature. When families are strong and stable, they contribute to a thriving community. Conversely, when families struggle, the ripples can be felt throughout society, potentially leading towards breakdown and decline. Today, perhaps more than ever before, the family structure appears weakened, with a significant number of children growing up without a father present in their lives. … Children benefit immensely from exposure to both maternal and paternal approaches. As … research suggests, distinct contributions from both male and female parents seem fundamental to human development. The idea that parenting is gender-neutral doesn’t align with the evidence; fathers offer something unique and irreplaceable.” Continue reading

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The Law Was Added – Why?

God loved Adam, and proved it by what he did. But Adam doubted the love of God, and proved that by what HE did. He disobeyed God. He hid from God. He blamed God. This is THE Transgression (1 Timothy 2:14). And yet, God loved him anyway, and gave Adam life for death. Death reigned on the earth from Adam to Moses. Why? It wasn’t because people ate of the forbidden fruit as Adam did (for no one could get into Eden).

Death reigned because people rejected the love of God, choosing instead love of self and by extension love of sin. The wages of sin is death, and God is life. There was no law, and man embraced death while rejecting God.

When Jesus Christ came to this earth, He came to mediate a New Covenant, to bring us, through the Gospel, into a loving relationship with God. The Bible says: Continue reading

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Bible Doctrine Matters

Here’s a question: You’re a Christian without a Church. What should you look for in a Church? The National Association of Evangelicals asked that question, and people said that the most important things were:

1. Friendliness (19 %)
2. Children’s Programs (19 %)
3. Worship Music (16 %)
4. Sermons (14 %)
5. Likability of the Pastor (12 %)

How does this match up with the Church that Jesus, through the Apostles, formed? Let’s look at the beginning, the Book of Acts. We read:

Acts 2:40-47 (ESV) … {Peter} bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” 41 So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. 42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

The Apostle Peter’s message was separation, not union Continue reading

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We All Need The Lord

It’s all the fashion now to get on the Internet through your “smart phone”, then to rant and rave over the phone via a video – usually about politics. I had to laugh out loud at a young black woman in her car. She went to a drive up ATM at bank, and got $60 in cash out (three 20 dollar bills). She suddenly had what my mama called a “conniption fit” because someone had stamped on the back of one of the 20’s, right over the picture of the White House, in red letters “Trump Lives Here”. She said she was so mad she wanted to throw the money away. I support that. Throw the money MY way.

The Internet has amplified self righteousness & virtue signaling. God says no one is clean

I know a lot of people do not like Trump, but he’s the President of the United States whether you like it or not. Yes, he lives in the White House. President Trump has his failings, but also his good points. Beloved, no one makes themselves clean. Shouting into your phone doesn’t make you clean, but stupid looking. If this nation was settled not by White Europeans, but Black Africans, I suspect we’d STILL have had a problem with slavery – only in reverse. We’re all a mess.

The heartbeat of Christianity is that “all sin, all fall short of God’s glory” (Romans 3:23). King Solomon wrote:

Ecclesiastes 7:20 (ESV) Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.

It is a sign of a deluded person who thinks they are righteous and perfect, but all others have flaws. Sadly when that young lady screamed and hollered about nothing, all this proved was that she is delusional. Those who are deluded stay in a perpetual child-like state. They never mature, and often become those in Continue reading

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Paul’s Second Amen

To be honest with you, there are parts of the Bible that I skim through, parts that I find difficult to read. Those parts are what I call the phone books of the Bible. Younger people have no idea what a “phone book” is, but when I was growing up you had phone books. These were thick, alphabetized books where everyone who had a phone number was placed in it. Unless you paid the phone company extra, everyone had access to your phone number. It was in the Phone Book!

As you go through the Bible, there are lists of names, often hard to pronounce, written in the Book. You find lists like this in Genesis, Exodus, Chronicles, Nehemiah, Matthew and Luke. One of the greatest lists of names is in the Book of Numbers. Name after names is listed, like: Continue reading

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The Curse Of The Law

The Mosaic Law did not bring a blessing to God’s Israel. In fact, it wasn’t supposed to bring a blessing. God has never ruled His people by Law, but by Promise and by Love. The Law was not given until Mount Sinai, and it was given to Israel to show them that they needed the love of God.

Galatians 3:10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.

Paul is quoting the Bible of his day, from

Deuteronomy 27:26 (ESV) CURSED be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

The Law demanded compliance, or else the curse. God told Israel:

Deuteronomy 28:15-21 But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these CURSED shall come upon thee, and overtake thee: 16 CURSED shalt thou be in the city, and CURSED shalt thou be in the field. 17 CURSED shall be thy basket and thy store. 18 CURSED shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep. 19 CURSED shalt thou be when thou comest in, and CURSED shalt thou be when thou goest out. 20 The Lord shall send upon thee CURSED, vexation, and rebuke, in ALL that thou settest thine hand unto for to do, until thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly; because of the wickedness of thy doings, whereby thou hast forsaken me. 21 The Lord shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee, until He have consumed thee from off the land, whither thou goest to possess it.

The Law had to be kept perfectly, something that no one but Jesus Christ has ever done. The Law did not bless, but CURSE every aspect of your life. Continue reading

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Paul’s First Amen

As I stated when we began the Book of Romans, this Book is called the “Constitution of Christianity”. Throughout the Book our Lord explains the Christian way of life.

In the first 11 chapters God establishes that all are born physically into this world in need of the Savior. Because of Adam’s sin, we are born the first time separated from God, spiritually dead. We are absolutely unable to make ourselves physically born. We are also absolutely unable to make ourselves spiritually born. We must be born again.

Romans 3:10-12 (KJV) As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: 11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

In order to accomplish new birth for the spiritually dead us, God sent His Son Jesus Christ to this earth to first show us the Way of God. Jesus then went to the Cross. Dying for our sins, He made payment to God for us, a payment we could not make. Jesus offers this salvation to whosoever will receive Him as Lord and Savior.

Romans 3:24-26 (KJV) {We can only be} justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; 26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.

The first 11 chapters speaks of our need for salvation and what God did to offer it. The last 5 chapters tells us what God saved us for. He didn’t save us just for Heaven (which is what many believe). He saved us to bring Heaven to us. To make us into children of God. To use us as light in this present fallen world.

This section of Scripture is what I call “Paul’s Three Amens”. From Romans 15:14 till the end of the Book Paul uses examples of those who are saved, and how they live their lives. Paul ends each section with an AMEN. Today we look at Paul’s First Amen, which deals with how the Grace of God changed the Apostle’s life. Continue reading

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Bewitched Believers

Galatians 3:1-5 O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? 2 This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? 3 Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? 4 Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain. 5 He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

One of the social media sites I sometimes visit is called Linkedin. Recently I was intrigued by an article entitled “What Is The Worst Thing That Can Happen On A Sunday Morning?” from Church Growth Magazine. I rarely read these articles, because much of what people are doing to grow the “Church” is man-made, not Bible inspired. The article started out good:

“In the push to execute Sunday morning services, it is easy to forget the basics: churches grow when people receive Christ, and people receive Christ when they’re invited to receive Christ. Read the story of a church that has mastered the basics.”

So I thought, “Okay! I believe that. Salvation comes by RECEIVING Christ as He is. Let me see what this Church is doing.”

The article went on to say that this Church was growing so fast, they couldn’t keep up with all the new people coming in. The writer said:… Continue reading

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