The 1,500th language is Daasanach, spoken by the Daasanach people in Ethiopia, South Sudan and Kenya. Today, yet another group of people can see and hear the gospel in their own language. To God be the glory! (more…)
Living in God’s Grace
A young woman in a desperate financial situation yielded to temptation and stole from her employer. She was caught and arrested. However, when she came before the judge and told her story, he had compassion for her. He offered to pardon her if she would return the money, which she gladly did. Even though her employer forgave her, and the judge pardoned her, she still had an arrest record that would follow her for life. If the judge had erased the crime from her record, that would have been grace.
When we come to Christ, we are not only forgiven, but because of His grace, our slate is wiped clean. Our record is pure, it’s as if we never sinned. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)
We view sin on different levels. For instance, a little lie is not nearly as bad as murder, which it isn’t. This is a worldview of sin, not God’s view. To God sin is sin. It is black and white. There are no gray areas.
Let me illustrate, If you had a gallon of totally pure water, you would have no qualms about drinking it. In fact, you would probably relish the idea of drinking water that was completely pure.
If you took that gallon of pure water and added one tiny drop of raw sewage, would you still drink it? Probably not, because that tiny drop of sewage would have spread throughout the entire gallon of water. No longer is it a little isolated drop that you can push to one side out of the way.
It is the same with sin. One small sin, no matter how insufficient it may seem, will permeate our entire being. And God being pure and righteous cannot tolerate even the smallest sin.
As humans, it is impossible for us not to sin. “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). Unkind thoughts, envy, pride, prejudices, resentment, and jealousy are just a few of the things that we battle. Our minds are a battleground in the spiritual war that takes place between God’s goodness and the evil ways of Satan.
The devil has had thousands of years to perfect his tactics. We are no match for him. It is only because of God’s grace that we will be able to spend eternity in heaven. We cannot be good enough on our own to deserve heaven.
The disciples asked Jesus “Who then can be saved?” Jesus replied, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.” (Luke 18: 26-27).
Thankfully Jesus paid for our sins on the cross. He redeemed us with his blood. Jesus is our kinsman redeemer. “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace..” (Ephesians 1:7). Because of his blood, our sins are covered. “the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7) “All are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24).
We are washed as white as snow (Psalms 51:7) (Isaiah 1:18).
Our sins are forgiven, never to remembered again. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” (Jeremiah 31:34) (Hebrews 8:12)
It doesn’t matter how good we are or how much good we do. It is only by God’s forgiving grace that we can be saved. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9)
God’s grace is not a one-time whitewash of our sins. It is never ending. We are going to make mistakes. We are going to fail. However, grace is an on-going cleansing process, as we daily surrender ourselves to Christ. It is only by the atoning blood of Christ and the gift of grace that we can come to God. The grace of God is so complete and encompassing that Paul, when speaking to the Roman Christians warned them to not go on sinning, simply to experience more of God’s grace. “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” (Romans 6:1-2)
We must not tempt the Lord by continuingly sinning, knowing that we are justified by God’s abundant grace. Such action would give Satan a toehold in our life and distance us from God.
“For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace” (Romans 6:14).
As Christians, our lives should be joy filled with a sense of freedom in Christ. If our lives are not joy filled, if our Christian walk feels burdensome, then we are probably not living as a free person. Rather, we are living as slaves under the law.
We have been made free of the law. The law no longer has jurisdiction over us. We are dead to the law (Romans 7:4) and free from the law (Romans 8:2). The law could not save; it can only condemn. God sent his son to save us and do what the law could not do.
The law demands perfection. Grace provides perfection.
Thanks to Christ we can live a joy filled life free from the burden of sin and free from the condemnation of the law. Our sins have been washed away, never to be remembered again. Our record is clean.
Thank you God for your amazing grace.
The Prophecies Concerning The Coming of Jesus Left No Doubt, But That He was the Christ.
The Old Testament was written over a period of 1000 years. During that time God gave his prophets over 300 prophecies concerning the messiah’s coming. In the Old Testament, there are 60 major messianic prophecies and 270 minor prophecies or conditions that were fulfilled by one person. That person was Jesus Christ.
We can track the lineage of Jesus in Genesis from Adam to his birth. Genesis and Jeremiah both specified his ancestry; he would be a descendant of Shem, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, from the tribe of Judah, the house of David. In Isaiah 7:14 we’re told that the Messiah will be born of a virgin. In Micah 5:2 we’re told that he would be born in Bethlehem. Isaiah 53 pictures a messiah who would suffer and die for the sins of Israel and the World. This was 700 years before Jesus. Isaiah predicted the Jews would reject him and the Gentiles would believe in him. Psalms 22 foretold the crucifixion of Jesus 800 years before crucifixion was invented by the Romans. (more…)
A Fairy Tale
A long, long time ago there was absolutely nothing. And then, out of nowhere, the universe just brought itself into being. Miraculously, conditions were just right for a micro speck of goo within a puddle of goo to suddenly spring to life. I know that the proven scientific Law of Biogenesis states that this is impossible, but this is a fairly tale and anything is possible.
This speck over millions and millions of years eventually evolved into a fish. This fish met a fish of the opposite sex, and they had more fish. I wonder where another fish of the opposite sex came from? But, this is a fairy tale, and with fairy tales and theories anything is possible. According to evolutionists, given enough time, anything is possible. That is why it is so important to them that the earth is billions of years old. Research has shown that the statistical probability of forming even a single enzyme, the building block of the gene, which is, in turn, the building block of the cell, is 1 in 10 to the 40,000th. This means that it would require more attempts for the formation of one enzyme than there are atoms in all the stars of all the galaxies in the entire known universe. Yet, evolutionist not only believes this happened but that it happened more than once. That is the beauty of theories and fairly tales. You can make up anything! And someone will probably believe it!
After a few million more years this fish decided it wanted to live on land. So it began to stick its head out of the water and gulp air. After a few more millions of years, it developed lungs instead of gills. Then it decided to climb out of the water and walk on land using its fins as legs. After a few more millions of years, its fins eventually turned into legs. I wonder how it survived all those millions of years before it got legs? With fins, it would have been very difficult and slow to get around. Other creatures would have been extremely rare if any existed. What did it eat? Maybe it ate grass. No, there was no grass yet. Oh well, it’s just a fairy tale.
After a billion years or so, this fish evolved into a dinosaur. I know, the scientific First and Second Laws of Thermodynamics proves this cannot happen. But, this is just a theory, I mean fairy tale. Supposedly some dinosaurs weighed up to 100 metric tons. What would an animal that size evolve from? There was no other creature even close for it to descend from.
Eventually, the dinosaur decided it wanted to fly. Its front legs slowly began to evolve into wings. So for a million years or so, the dinosaur went through life with two bad front legs as they were changing. And then for millions of more years it had lived with two bad wings before they eventually became real functional wings. During these millions of years the dinosaur’s bones become hollow, it grew feathers, and it completely changed its DNA. It was now a bird and could fly.
Let’s go back to the fish with legs. After billions of years, it turned into all kinds of marvelous creatures. One of these creatures was a monkey. After millions and millions of more years, this monkey learned to walk upright and became a man. And this is why evolutionists to this very day believe they came from a monkey’s uncle.
Those that believe in evolution instead of creation say the Bible stories are just fairy tales. They couldn’t be real. They always use Jonah and the whale as an example. They are not willing to believe that a whale could swallow a man and spit him out three days later. But, they willingly believe the fairy tale of evolution. They refuse to believe in the virgin birth. Is it harder to believe that the Holy Spirit could implant a seed in a woman and that she would give birth than it is to believe that life just spontaneously happened out of nothing?
I believe it takes much more faith to believe how a state of absolute nothingness can bring about intelligent processes and results than it does to believe in an omnipotent God that created all things and is responsible for the intelligent design of the universe. I realize that those that don’t know Jesus have never experienced his presence. And that he hides from those that rejects him and believe themselves wise in the ways of the world (Mt. 11:25, Lk. 10:21). Many would much rather believe that the Bible is all old myths and ancient stories. They prefer to believe that God doesn’t exist, rather than believe there is a God that will someday judge them for their sins.
They claim the Bible is a book of fairy tales, Yet they believe the biggest (lie) fairy tale of all.
A Long Shot
Originally posted on Hope Shack:
? My first deer I shot with a bow, was at a distance that would have been a better shot for a rifle. Before I tell you how long the shot was. I want to give you some background. That…
Evolution: An Anti-God System
The very philosophy of evolution denies the act of creation and the very existence of God. It denies that man was created in the image of God. Since man has evolved higher than the animals, he is the master of the planet. Evolution teaches that creation is taking place through nature’s evolutionary processes, even though this contradicts the basic laws of science. Evolution takes the focus from God and places it on man. It is the basis for all the anti-God systems that have plagued mankind. It was the basis for Hitler’s Nazism and Karl Marx’s supposed scientific basis for communism.
Evolution is nothing more than theories that have been promoted and taught as scientific facts. It promotes a materialistic and self-seeking world view. Evolution goes against proven scientific laws. (Check out my earlier posts).
This is the point where some of you are tempted to leave a negative comment or call me crazy. But, before you do. I challenge you to do your own research. See why the basic laws of science prove that evolution is impossible. Laws such as the First and Second Laws of Thermodynamics, the Law of Biogenesis, and Mendel’s Law of Genetics. Check the latest finding in microbiology and molecular science. I challenge you to do your own research. Forget what you have been told or taught or what I have said. Learn the truth for yourself. Do this rather than leave a comment that simply reflects someone else’s thinking.
If evolution is wrong, why is it still be taught and promoted as science? (more…)
Rediscovering Prayer
Originally posted on Hope Shack:
What is prayer? When and where do we pray? Why do we pray? For many of us, the very concept of prayer comes with struggles. We get tripped up trying to get it right, find the time, or even doubt whether it will even…
Are You Going to Heaven? You Can Know for Sure!
Do you believe and put your trust in Jesus Christ? If you said yes then you can know without a doubt that YOU are going to heaven! You have God’s guarantee!
First, We are all sinners, none of us deserve heaven. Yet, Jesus made it possible. The Bible tells us that because one man sinned, sin and death entered the world. Because of that man’s sin, we are all born in sin. (Romans 5:12)
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” (Romans 3:23).
We are all sinners and undeserving of heaven. Just being a good person, isn’t good enough. We cannot be good enough to be deserving of Heaven. God cannot abide sin of any kind. Big sin or a little sin, it doesn’t matter. It is still sinning. “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8)
Suppose you had a barrel of water and it had been filtered and distilled until no impurities remained. If someone asked you to drink it, you wouldn’t hesitate. But suppose someone put a single drop of raw sewage in it. Would you drink it? Of course not. The same is true with sin.
Just like the barrel of water, a single sin, a unloving thought or a moment of anger will make us unfit for heaven. It is impossible for us to live without sin except for the grace of God. Only Christ walked upon this earth as a human and was without sin.
Thankfully, God has made it easy for us to go to heaven. He sent His Son to die on the cross and redeem our sin with His blood (John 3:16). Jesus paid the price for our sins and redeemed us from the death that we deserve. Jesus paid for our sins with his blood, he is our redeemer, and therefore he is our only way to heaven. He made it possible for us to someday stand before God. (more…)
Jesus Visited Their Home….
Miracles still happen and Jesus still makes house calls.
Sid and Liz are ministry partners who live south of Dearborn, Michigan – home to one of the largest Middle Eastern immigrant populations in America. The Doyles and their volunteers have given out thousands of DVDs of “JESUS” in their area.
Liz was leading a group of church volunteers Christmas caroling from home-to-home in a Middle Eastern immigrant neighborhood. It was a classic scene on a cold Michigan night. Everyone was bundled up. They walked up the steps of one home and stood on the porch. They began singing…
“Silent Night, Holy Night, Son of God, love’s pure light. Radiant beams from thy holy face…”
Green Wooden Boats
Originally posted on Hope Shack:
In the 1950’s and 60’s, when I was growing up, I only remember wooden row boats, and all of them were green. I remember the first boat I helped my father build. We built it with yellow poplar. Yellow poplar…
Sharing Jesus 