All Blog Posts (3,428)

The Wrap All our activities (ultimately and ideally) are related to God creating His Body/Bride. Evangelism, discipleship, loving one another etc. all add to bodybuilding activities and therefore strengthen the Body. Only if we see a CLEAR relationship between God's ultimate goal (the Body/Bride) and our actions are we able to do God's will (This is "vision") As we keep the goal in the back of our heads we will be able to discern correctly and…

Connections Now we all know that a physical body needs all parts to have connections with each other to live and be useful. A hand separated from the body is useless and will die quickly. In a similar way, God's children and disciples need to be connected to each other to actually form a "real" body. This is so basic many seem to miss this completely. Yes, most of us are interested in being connected in a close fellowship, but beyond that the…

Bodybuilding, anyone? Ever wondered about the strange fact that nowhere in the NT is there a single place where believers come together to "have a worship service"? Yet this is what everyone everywhere does nowadays. Isn't worship important? Certainly, but for the first century believers worship was a way of life, a lifestyle, not a special event at a special place at a certain time. You see, "worth-ship" is the act of showing how much…

The Big Picture What is God's ultimate plan for humanity? Answers to this question usually focus on evangelism, discipleship or maybe worship etc. Well, salvation is very important, but in God's plan it is only the beginning. Next comes discipleship, then (hopefully) maturity and usefulness, but that's still not the "end product". What we are talking about is that God is working on creating the Body of Christ, the Bride of Jesus. This is His…

Unity in God's "church", the "ekklesia"...

Why Unity? Jesus' longest prayer was all about unity, The NT has it as one of the major themes, either directly, implied or in pictures. If God puts such importance in it, shouldn't we also?

What Unity? Good question. When we look around, we can't see much of it in "Christendom". A "pastor" once explained this by saying that the unity is…

Christian religious tradition taught me it is important to repent - repent to get saved, repent to be forgiven by God I was very sincere in my repentance over the years.

But then I learned what 'man' translated as 'repent' is not even the meaning of the Greek word in scriptures! Boy, has that been part of discovering more truthfully the work of the cross! If you are interested to read more, click here.

We’ve all seen the comical examples of someone carrying around a sign, “Repent! The End is near!” There are all kinds of doom-sayers out there—some have even accused me of being one. That's right. They say I focus too much on repentance and sin and all of the negative things. I remember the old preacher, J. Vernon McGee talking about that. He said that all teachers and preachers are going receive all kinds of praise and salutations--at the same time, they will receive complaints and…

The Bible says that we are now the temple of God—that He lives in us. He no longer lives in a building, it’s now our own flesh and blood! Cool! That is exciting and all, but do you want to know what is the most important aspect of our being His temple? I think we can answer that with a real simple phrase: We now have access with boldness and confidence . . . What do you think? Is that a reasonable observation?

Paul said that in Christ, “we have boldness and access with…

Have you ever considered that what we think of as “the norm” is typically only cultural?  A number of things in the last few weeks have stirred those thoughts up for me again:

• We were at an auction where people were paying big bucks for antiques, primitives, etc.  In the midst of all of this was a gentleman who spotted an “invaluable” used game that he thought his grandchildren would like.  When he won the highest bid of $1.00,…

Jesus is living and active and He is infinite in power and effectiveness being fully human and fully divine.  He is able to discern my soul from my spirit and is capable of understanding all my emotions, mind, and physical abilities even to the making of blood.  He can read all my thoughts and knows my intentions and the motivations of my inner being.  All His creation is visible to Him, there is no hiding from Him and there is nothing that can hide me from Him. …

As Christians, we seek to be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ through the leading of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Christian living is not just about going to church once a week for a service but rather living a life for Christ on a daily basis and allowing ourselves to grow from within. We have to turn from the world’s way of thinking to God’s way of thinking on issues.

But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the…

The Bible tells us that there is something we call “a fear of the Lord” that every believer can cultivate. Maybe this is another example of the problem with King James. You see, when we mention "the fear of the Lord," we are not talking about a trembling, oh-woe-is-me. kind of fear; that this humungous God will crush me under his thumb . . . No, true fear of God includes an awe and respect--that this big awesome God is able to crush me under his thumb, but because…

I have addressed this issue many times, and I sure hope you don't mind me repeating this, but I truly sense someone out there has to hear it again . . . and I realize most everyone has heard about or probably read the story they call the “Prodigal Son.” I also bet you have heard every take on that story possible. Now although my mother hates the story—I love it. I love every part of it. Do you remember how one of the sons said some nasty things to his dad and then took off to enjoy…

God is a jealous God who very much dislikes us worshiping other gods before him. In fact, after reviewing many scriptures where people worshiped other gods, you can see that the Lord gets downright angry. When we give our worship to another Lord, it is comparable to a person committing adultery with someone other than their spouse. It is spiritual adultery. Blocks of wood and carved images cannot save. The creation is not a Savior, only God. If we are to walk with him, we need to make sure…

thru 7 years helping to parse a global prayer list, I've not before seen such a flood as has already come forward out of destruction this week in Oklahoma. Remembering also the ekklesia there; the saints of God One in Christ, carrying the compassionate and healing virtue of Christ in them; knowing the mystery of death and life; knowing the God was not in the wind; enabled to lift a world right-side-up.

     ekklesia at Midwest City

     ekklesia at Oklahoma City

    …

Yesterday I was discussing the time when Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life (John 8:12),” and “In him was life, and that life was the light of men . . . (John 1:4). but then I tried to figure out how we could incorporate that “life’ into our own lives?

Now I want to throw a little twist in this. You see, Jesus also said, “You are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14).…

Many years ago, I was doing a Christian radio program and my brother-in-law asked what I was going to share? I gave him the same title I used here, and he derisively said, "Well, that's original . . ." Well, maybe so, but I was thinking of a time when Jesus was meeting with the people and said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life” (John 8:12).

Jesus was, and, by the way, still…

All of us know people—it could be a family member or a friend or maybe a co-worker—who are far from Christ or, if they have made a decision for Christ, there is no "sign" of it . . . what I mean is that they don’t seem to be growing or maturing in their faith. With that in mind, let me ask you something. When you size that person up, are you using your own concept of Christ for their lives? Have you drawn your own circle around what it means to be a true follower of Christ…

Once again, someone was arguing, excuse me, disussing with me, why King James Version was the only reliable Bible translation. I of course, did not agree. There are hundreds of different Bible translations and paraphrases, and yes, some hold that one translation is far superior to another. For me, the "proof of the pudding" is whether you can understand it and benefit from the reading. If not . . . it is not worth reading.

As usual, this person was…

Yeah, I am one of those who looks at the current state of our nation--and the whole world, as a matter of fact, and it appears, at least in my limited view of things, that the proverbial "clock" is running out. It seems as though the hands on the clock are telling us the moment of our Lord's return is imminent.

Now, I'm not the only one, but this has been said since the beginning of the Church. As a matter of fact, the Christians in Paul’s day were sensing the…