Month: October 2018
The Great Giver
“He who spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all–how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” Romans 8:32
This verse supplies us with an instance of Divine logic! It contains a conclusion drawn from a premise. The premise is that God delivered up Christ for all His people–therefore everything else that is needed by them is sure to be given.
Here we are told why the Father made such a costly sacrifice: He spared not Christ–that He might spare us! It was not lack of love to the Savior–but wondrous, matchless, fathomless love for us! O marvel at the astonishing design of the Most High! “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son!” Truly, such love surpasses knowledge!
Read more at- The Great Giver
Grow in Christ
Some people want us to just focus on saving people and call everything else worldly. I see it differently.
2 Peter 1:5-8
5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, 6 knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with godliness, 7 godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they will keep you from being useless or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Peter encourages us to equip ourselves with Christian virtues that started with faith, learn how to a dependence on God, knowledge, self-control, endurance, which leads to godliness, brotherly affection, and love. If we do these it will keep us from becoming unfruitful in the knowledge of Christ. While getting saved is the only real essential if you are saved, why would you not want to grow? Growth makes you stand out from the crowd. You don’t have to stand on a soapbox (You can if that is your calling, but it isn’t essential) if everyone around you knows that there is something different about you, and if you follow the guidelines in the Bible how we are supposed to act they will know you are different no matter what you do! Then you can tell them why you are the way you are!
What We’ve Got Wrong About Helping Others
As Christians, we are supposed to help people, but how to best help them is a big conundrum. Often our impulses tell us to just give them some cash or food, but is that really the best answer? Maybe in the short term, but what most people need almost as much as food, is dignity and purpose. If you are not contributing to society, it becomes hard to see your worth. The state welfare system was not designed to help with that. We need the church to step in and actually listen to people, find out what specifically they need to feel like a whole person again, ready to take on the world.
Every individual has different needs and talents, some need specialized child care for their child. Uncle Sam does not know that a retired pediatric nurse lives down the street from you who would love to take care of someone’s child and knows exactly what to do when their heart monitors alarms. Some need an affordable car, and you or someone at your church know where a cheap, but safe and reliable used car can be found. Some need a counselor or a friend…
As a church, we are better able to supply those needs than the state ever could be.
Edit: If I led anyone to believe that the Gospel is unimportant, that was not my intent. It is, the intent of this article was to show that showing them love while we tell them the Gospel is important too.
Well Done
Well Done
I’ve been thinking lately about the parable of the talents in
Matthew 25:14-30, specifically verse 21 where the master says to the slave, “Well done, good and faithful servant … enter into the joy of your master.”
Most of us who have been believers for a while long to hear Jesus speak those words to us: “Well done, good and faithful servant … enter into the joy of your Master.” Although there are no tears in heaven, I have trouble imagining hearing those words and not welling up. To know that He sees us and that our actions have influenced eternity and brought pleasure to Him … is there anything more satisfying?
But I’m rethinking that scene in heaven just a bit. Oh, I still believe that God wants us to be good stewards of what He’s given us, and I believe that He will reward those who follow Him faithfully. But I’ve also been thinking about the reality of heaven. And I wonder …
Read more at Well Done
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