The Apostle Paul was not just a preacher. He loved the people the Lord put into his care. Unlike the false teachers who always seek to put others under their thumb while criticizing the true servants of the Lord, Paul served as an example of a man who poured himself out for the sake of shepherding the flock of God. Our culture and the issues we face may be different, but the dangers remain the same. So does Paul remain an example for spiritual leaders to follow, and for the people of God to take note.
The Epistle to the Ephesians tells us that Christ has reconciled all creation to Himself and to God, and Christ has united people from all nations to Himself and to one another in His church. Ephesians 2:11-22 teaches us that through the blood of Christ people have not only been reconciled to God, but reconciled to each other. Through Christ the wall of hostility that once existed between God and man has been removed along with the wall of hostility between Jew and Gentile. The result is that all believers are brought together, in peace and love, by the blood of Christ.
Christians face many challenges in the present day, whether it be the pressure from a post-Christian culture or the allurement of entertainment. Our self-serving reaction is to retreat from the fray or indulge the flesh. But God calls us to stop living for ourselves and to spend our lives for His glory. This means that we have a responsibility to reach the unbelieving world around us for Him. When we endeavor to walk in wisdom toward the world, we will be mindful of our testimonies, intentional with our time, and skillful with our tongues.
God has been gracious to reveal Himself to us, not only through the skies, but through the Scriptures. It is only in the pages of the Bible that we find who He is, who we are, and what He has done to reconcile us to Himself. When we rightly respond to this revelation, His glory is revealed in us!
Discouragement can take many different forms, but it always tends toward the same end of veiling the goodness of God from our eyes. In Psalm 42, we have the divinely-provided cure for discouragement through the experience and the inspired pen of David.
What Do I Have to Do to be Saved? Can a man get to heaven apart from properly evaluating his own spiritual condition? Who can truly be considered "a good…
The irrefutable demonstration of a debt forgiven is love. Jesus understood the power of the testimony of a changed life and didn't hesitate to challenge his critics on this one point: if you're not serving Him, you haven't been forgiven.
Too often our hearts are distracted from the glorious preoccupation of worshipping the Lord. The allurements of the world, the cares of life, and the pain of loss all have the tendency to pull us down into a spiral of despair and discontent. Psalm 103 calls us to speak to ourselves and call ourselves to remembrance of who God is and what He has done for us that we might be compelled to lift our eyes to the One who is worthy of all our praise.
How do I grow in Christ-likeness? Sanctification—the process of becoming more like Christ—is a profound mystery: God alone causes the growth (1 Cor. 3.6-7), and yet Christians are commanded to pursue their own spiritual growth (Php. 2.13, 2 Pet. 3.18). How can that be? More than that, what are we supposed to do about it? The apostle Paul answers that question for us, but maybe not in a way we might expect.
The Missions Mandate
Many Christians argue that if God is sovereign in salvation, there is no need to share the gospel. This common fallacy fails to understand the biblical fact that God has not only ordained the ends of salvation, but the means of it. The means is the necessity for Christians to take the gospel to the ends of the earth in obedience to the Great Commission.
What is Marriage Really? There no shortage of controversy as well as ignorance when it comes to marriage. What is it, what is for, and what should marriage mean to me? The Scriptures give us authoritative insight and instruction from God himself that informs us, equips us, and encourages us to safeguard this most precious of human institutions—especially in our own homes, where we need it most.
Racism vs. the All-Sufficient Truth of God American society today is embroiled in a controversy over racism. Where is the solution to this ages-old and always-present evil? There is no…
