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  Yep...I brought this graphic back today as a ‘refresher’. It’s been awhile...look familiar? :- ) So you were taught that “Christians are not perfect, just forgiven”; or maybe we are just ‘saints who sin’; but just not as bad or as often as we ‘use to’. And the reason being...’we are human with a carnal nature’ ....a nature, mind you... that we will always contend with on this side of heaven, right? Well, there’s just one problem with that faulty theology - scripture teaches just the opposite. Yeah...it happens, which is why Paul warned us by giving a ‘heads up’ that we would be exposed to a plethora of ‘other gospels’ that would lead us astray, just as Eve was. Why, we might even end up receiving ‘another spirit’ and/or following ‘another Jesus’. (2 Cor. 11:3-4). And should we fail to maintain a ‘love for the truth’ we could end up ‘believing a lie’ (that God actually sends) and in the end...we will perish. (2 Thess. 2:9-12; Luke 13:3,5; 2 Pet. 3:9) I am going on my 4th year now o
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  Why? Why do we do this continually? Why do we tell new coverts (and one another for that matter) that even though they have been ‘born again’, they will 'continue to be sinners...saved by grace’ who will always practice sin on ‘this side of heaven’?  Doesn't sound much like a 'new creation' to me. (2 Cor. 5:17) Do we do that because we...continue to fall and stumble ourselves, and practice sin? If so, when did our own ‘personal failings’ become God’s standard? (Matt. 5:48; Rom. 10:2-3) And suppose you are ‘helping’ a new ‘born again believer’ to grow in their faith, a friend of yours perhaps, and they come to you and ask for you to explain what John wrote in his first letter: “We know whoever is born of God no longer sins...” (5:18); ... how do you white-wash and explain that one away? Maybe they launched off on a study of their own in John’s gospel, 15:1-8...about the need to ‘abide in Jesus’ and then they stumbled across 1 John 3:6 that says “whoever abides in Hi
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  Jesus did not heal every single person when He was here. Case and point - that lame man we read about in Acts 3 was a ‘regular’ there at the temple in Jerusalem and Jesus would have had to passed by him on multiple occasions. And yet we read in Acts 10:38 how Jesus went about doing good...’healing all who were oppressed by the devil’. So did Jesus ‘sin’ because He did not heal that beggar? Of course not; He knew that at some future point in time, Peter and John would be used by God to heal him which would open up an opportunity for the gospel to be proclaimed. God really does know what He is doing. And Jesus knew that as well, which is why He was committed to doing only...what the Father told Him to do. (John 14:31) And those who are abiding in Christ ‘ought themselves to be walking just as He walked’. (1 John 2:6) We were talking yesterday about those ‘sins of omission’ that many are convinced we ‘commit’ all the time when we fail to do something 'good'.(James 4:17) Today
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  You’ve probably heard, if not used, the expression: ‘big sin and little sin’. My first exposure to such a concept was introduced in the church I was raised in but with more impressive terms: ‘mortal sin’ and ‘venial sin’. Basically, committing a mortal sin was our ticket to hell but those pesky ‘venial sins’...were what most of us were guilty of doing and not all that serious. Yes...we should work on doing better with those, but they posed no eternal consequences. Others have been brought up hearing terms like ‘sins of commission’ and ‘sins of omission’. That one always makes me smile because it just dooms us all... because of all the good things we fail to do is where we supposedly fail and fall short. And then there is all that ‘sinning’ that happens because of all those ‘bad thoughts’ that land on our noggin. Sigh...is it any wonder why God likened us to sheep and lamented how His people are ‘destroyed for a lack of knowledge’? (Hosea 4:6; Isa. 53:6) So let’s see if maybe we c
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  IF...you are abiding in Jesus, you will not continue to practice sin. And can someone tell me where in the Bible does it suggest that ‘abiding’ is some kind of ‘holy option for super-saints’? I know that makes our flesh, if not ‘other things’ ...bristle within us, but I don’t know how else to say it; and mind you, these are not my words, but His. We know that whoever is born of God does not sin. (1 John 5:18; 2:6; 3:6,9; 1 Pet. 4:1-2; Rom. 6:2,7,18,22) The problem with this assessment is that it does not ‘fit’ with most, if not all of the many man-made doctrines being taught today. I know that sends up ‘red flags’ for many of you; really...I get it. It would have for me too, years ago. And this leads to even a bigger problem when we refuse to acknowledge and believe what God’s word says, because if we are not truly abiding in Him, then we can produce ZERO fruit. Again, His words, not mine. (John 15:4-5). And you should know by now what problem that in turn, leads to- because fruit r
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  It’s like many verses we skim over in our Bibles...where you read it, don’t give it much thought and then just keep reading so we can feel good about ‘checking off another chapter read’ for the day. This one is found in Romans 10:1-3. Paul was talking about Jews who had yet to come to Christ. He mentions how they ‘have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge’. (2). He then explains how they are “ignorant of God’s righteousness...while seeking to establish their own righteousness... and have not submitted to the righteousness of God”. (3). In other words, being ‘sincere....but sincerely wrong’ is not a ‘new thing’. In my post yesterday, we touched on that ‘other component’ that is mentioned there in Matt. 6:33 where not only are we admonished to ‘seek first...the kingdom of God’ (if we want to be assured of God’s divine provision) but we are also to be seeking first....”HIS righteousness’...as opposed to what ‘we think’ is some standard of righteousness. And there is a lot o
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  I’m pretty sure most of us have done this at one time or another, and probably on more than one occasion. You know...where you are trying out a new recipe for the first time, or maybe assembling a new piece of ‘simple’ furniture, or a grill, etc. And towards the end of the process you realize you missed a key part or ingredient back at the start which leaves you frustrated and feeling like a fool. It happens, right? We can do that when reading our Bibles as well...where you come across a particular verse that you thought...you knew by heart, and then much later, something jumps off the page that you swear you have ‘never seen before’. Funny how that happens. Those ‘oversights’ can be painful and costly in some situations; others, maybe not so much. So you left out adding the cinnamon to those homemade cinnamon rolls...nobody dies from that. One verse in particular comes to mind for me, personally. It’s found in Matt. 6:33 and one that really stood out to me early on in my faith
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