We need to appreciate the essential nature of the local congregation as the Lord designed it, and beyond that, value our connection to “the brotherhood” (1 Peter 2:17; 5:9) — a relationship bigger than the affairs of our own local assembly.
Confessing our faith is simply a matter of being genuine and authentic. I call it “courageous sincerity.” We are not to hide the truth about who we really are. When questioned — or even threatened — we should be willing to confess our real beliefs.
As Robert Louis Stevenson said, “Sooner or later everyone sits down to a banquet of consequences.” Ultimately, there are only two paths available. It’s time to clear up our contradictions. Let’s choose the path that goes where we want to end up.
Sin is no ordinary problem, and its cure will not be ordinary either. Only Jesus Christ, the very embodiment of God Himself, has the power to get rid of the condemned person we used to be and bring to life a new person, fit for eternity with God.
If our present position is that we have said no to Christ, we’re on the side of the enemy. But Christ invites us to change our minds and obey the gospel. He will makes us His friends and treat us as if we had never left the rule of God at all.
Fervent and faithful, at least to the best of his understanding, Apollos needed to be shown “the way of God more accurately” (Acts 18:26). And to his credit, when Priscilla and Aquila showed him where his understanding had been lacking, he changed.
As Paul reminded Timothy, the Scriptures are able to make us “wise for salvation” (2 Timothy 3:15). Whatever may seem right to us, we would do well to listen humbly to what God has said and accept His plan not only obediently but gratefully.
“There are two freedoms: the false, where man is free to do what he likes; the true, where a man is free to do what he ought.” Freedom is not the absence of any limits; it is being governed by God — within limits that help us do what is right.
Paul described the Christian’s new life in Colossians 3:1-17. We have new goals, thoughts, and habits. With Christ as our Lord, we live under a new authority. And having been forgiven of the sins that separated us from God, we have a new hope.
That which could never have been known about God, it is now possible for us to know. Of course, Jesus did not by His bodily characteristics show us what God ...
Jesus said, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). So it is a colossal truth that Paul presents when he says that in Christ “the whole fullness of deity ...
Can God be known? Yes, He can. God has, in Jesus Christ, made it possible for us to know Him (John 1:18; 17:3). Sin robbed us of the truth about ...
The portrayal in Isaiah 53 of Jesus’ silent, lamb-like suffering is part of the depiction of what would happen to the Messiah as He underwent the punishment for our sins. ...
All of the phrases in Isaiah 53 say what many other Scriptures affirm: the Messiah’s death was vicarious. He suffered FOR us — substituting Himself on our behalf at the ...
When God entered the world as a human being, He did so in very lowly circumstances. He wanted those who would be attracted to the gospel to be people who ...
Immersion in water wouldn’t produce the forgiveness of sins if somebody did that in a rote, mechanical way, with no genuine penitence or faith in Christ. Nevertheless, Peter says that ...
In Acts 8:34-36, the Ethiopian saw that Jesus fulfilled Isaiah 53. Then he concluded that Jesus, as the Messiah, was his Savior. Next, he listened to how the gospel must ...
We don’t know why God linked baptism to the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38; 22:16) — nor why He required faith and repentance. But those are the requirements that He ...
If we believe our hands can achieve anything our minds can conceive, we’re telling ourselves a horrible lie. We’re not invincible, and and we’re not the masters of our destiny. ...
While life lasts, we are free to change paths (and that’s what the gospel implores us to do), but when we die, it will be too late. God’s judgment will ...
If the Scriptures are correct, a day is coming that will be the greatest of all judgment days (Acts 17:30,31). Until then, the worst mistake we can make is thinking ...