Tag Archives: true faith

Running Well

The children of Israel were mocked by the line of Ishmael, the Arabs, from the time that Isaac was born. The Bible tells us that Ishmael, the son of Hagar the Egyptian, mocked Isaac while a baby (Genesis 21:9-10). God promised that He would bring Israel – the nation by whom He would send the Messiah to the world – 430 years before the Exodus. The promise was made to Abraham, to Sarah, and through Isaac.
God keeps His promises.

The clock started ticking with the birth of Isaac. The nation of Israel would not actually be fully built until Jacob’s twelve sons became the twelve tribes of Israel. God led Joseph to Egypt, and Israel grew in Egypt from twelve families to twelve tribes. The children of Ishmael persecuted the children of Jacob. Israel suffered as a nation of slaves to Egypt. The Bible says that they suffered until Israel cried out to God:

Exodus 2:23-24 (ESV) … the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. 24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.

God raised up Moses, and did mighty miracles among the Egyptians saying “Let My people go!” But Pharaoh would not let them go, and beat them harder with the whip. Then Moses told them what God said do. … 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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Guarding Against False Teachers

What can we do to preserve our fellowship, and honor our God? Remember that we are His Beloved. Remember that God has warned that the mixed multitude will come among us, spiritless and unsaved people who will walk following themselves as idols. Let us pray, let us grow, let us stay true to our God.

More on this next week. May God touch your hearts with his Word! Amen Continue reading

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Judgment Day Is Coming

The Apostle addresses the “beloved of God”. The word “BELOVED” is the Greek agapētos, which certainly means “BELOVED”, but it means also “those well favored, those worthy of love”. The believer in Christ is worthy of love because he is a believer in Christ. Jesus Christ is God’s “BELOVED Son” (Matthew 3:17). God told the Prophet Isaiah of the Lord Jesus, saying:

Matthew 12:18 Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall shew judgment to the Gentiles.

When you receive Jesus as Lord and Savior you are “BELOVED” for His sake. You are “called to be SAINTS” because Christ’s sacrifice is reckoned to your life. As father Abraham believed on and received Christ, we do as well. Christ’s righteousness is “imputed to us, if we believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; Who was delivered for our offenses, and raised for our justification”.

But as we come to Romans chapter two, the Word of God does not address the Church, but the lost world. We read:

Romans 2:1 … Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man …

Romans 2:3 … And thinkest thou this, O man …

Word Study: It is not the “BELOVED” that is addressed, but “MAN”, the Greek anthrōpos which means “human being, whether male or female”. The Beloved of God, the Christian is to “let your light so shine before MEN (anthrōpos), that they (the lost) may see our good works, and glorify our Father Who is in Heaven” (Matthew 5:16). Continue reading

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We Keep His Commandments

1 John 2:3-6 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. 4 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5 But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him. 6 He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.

Opening: Yet another Church falls from the light of God. Last week the Church of England (Anglicans) decided it would bless “civil marriages and partnerships of same sex couples”. As with many other mainline denominations, compromise with the error of our age will not bless but divide the Church. The Archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America noted:

“the Church of England is moving a step at a time to fully accept the practice of homosexuality as part of the life and practice of the English Church. … We have lived through this with other Western Anglican Provinces that continually wavered on the ‘faith once delivered’ (Jude 3) and now outright deny the doctrine of biblical anthropology regarding gender identity and moral behavior. Those in the secular press and culture will argue that these are matters of justice, but God’s justice can never contradict God’s righteousness, and we know these changes attack the very core of biblical authority. Have the Scriptures been clear on human sexuality through the centuries? Yes, they have. The majority of Anglicans around the world have concluded the same. And yet, now, the Church of England has authorized the blessing of sin and declared that sin is no longer sin.”

When sin is normalized, no one wins. … Continue reading

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