How To Gain Victory Over Sin – Additional Notes

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Here are some additional notes that didn’t make it into the book, but may appear in a second edition. How To Gain Victory Over Sin was intended to draw attention to the most neglected, yet essential part of resisting temptation, but it isn’t the only important part. You should also spend time with other like-minded believers where you can share each other’s struggles and burdens, pray for, and encourage one another. Each member of the Body of Christ needs the others to grow. Book location Notes Page 4“He begins with our need for salvation…” Our need can be seen in Romans 2:1-6, our inability to save ourselves in Romans 3:9-20, and God’s solution to our problem in Romans 3:21-26. Page … Continue reading →

The Blessing of Leaving All

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And Jesus again answering says to them, “Children, how difficult it is that those who trust in riches should enter into the kingdom of God! … Verily I say to you, There is no one who has left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake and for the sake of the gospel, that shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time: houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions, and in the coming age life eternal. But many first shall be last, and the last first.” – Mark 10:24,29-31 JND How rich is too rich to enter the kingdom of God? It’s easy … Continue reading →

Beware Of Leaven

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… When the disciples reached the other side, they had forgotten to bring any bread. Jesus said to them, “Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” … Then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. – Matthew 16:1-12 (ESV) The Pharisees and Sadducees are no longer with us, but their leaven is. You can’t see it, but you can see its effect. Most bread today is leavened with plain yeast. But yeast in packets or jars was not available until relatively recently. Leavening in Bible times was accomplished by using a bit of dough from the previous batch to … Continue reading →

Be Holy

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Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts in your ignorance; But as He who called you is holy, you also become holy in all conduct, because it is written, Be holy, because I am holy. 1 Peter 1:15-16 The command to be holy is one God always gives to His people. In the Old Testament it was given to Israel. In the New Testament it is given to us believers. We are a “holy nation” (1 Peter 2:9), God’s people, and we are to be like … Continue reading →

Titanic

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The world is like the Titanic. When Adam disobeyed God, we struck the iceberg. At that point the ship was doomed, even though things didn’t look too bad on the surface. But now the end is near. The ship is up-end and sinking fast. The opportunities to get into the lifeboat are drawing to a close. But even with the world falling apart, people are still trying to enjoy the cruise. They’re ignoring the danger and refusing the warnings of those who really care for their well-being. Satan has this world convinced that Christians hate sinners. But we don’t hate sinners. We love sinners. If we really hated them, we wouldn’t warn them of the consequences of their sin. We … Continue reading →

Second-Hand Faith

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“…I am left, I alone…” – 1 Kings 19:10 Hypothetical questions: If the person who led you to Christ suddenly told you, “I’m sorry. I misled you. I was wrong. There is no heaven or hell. Jesus is a fairy tale. God does not exist. … I have proof, and here it is…,” how would your faith fare? What if all of the great Christian preachers, teachers, authors, apologists, radio and TV personalities, etc. you look up to suddenly said the same thing? What if everyone in the world abandoned Jesus and urged you to do so… what would you do? I’ve thought about questions like these off and on for many years as a way of identifying whether my … Continue reading →

I See Dead People

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In the movie The Sixth Sense, Bruce Willis’ character meets a boy who is ‘gifted’ with the ability to see ghosts – dead people. But these dead people don’t realize they are dead. They go on with their ‘lives’, moving around their old haunts, talking to those they knew… all in ignorance of their condition, until they suddenly realize what has happened. The movie is fiction, but the concept is real on a different level. I see dead people every day. I pass them on the highway. I work with them. I talk with them. But they don’t realize they’re dead. They see the stars in the night sky, they hear the birds sing, and the feel the wind on … Continue reading →

Cerebro Consciousness Argument

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(The following is another approach to my argument for the necessity of the human spirit given in More Than Matter, and Independently Conscious. Imagine you are an X-Man like Charles Xavier, but with much more extreme capabilities. You also have a Cerebro-like machine that allows you to see every human being in the world and know everything there is to know about them. With your superhuman powers, you look at Cerebro’s screen and see billions of human beings at once in infinite detail. You know each person’s exact physical makeup. You can see their every neuron firing. And you fully comprehend what you see. You also know virtually every human being on the screen is self-aware. Each has an independent … Continue reading →

Knowing God Through The Psalms

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The path to greater faith is to know God better, for how can you trust someone you don’t know, and how can you trust someone more if you don’t know him more? For the last 9 years I’ve kept a journal of my Bible readings. I keep track of each date, passage, and thing I’ve discovered. My primary focus is to know God better, so when I find something in my reading that directly or indirectly describes who God is, what He does, why He does it, to whom He does it, and so on, I write it down so I can remember for the benefit of my relationship with Him. Psalm 18 is one of those psalms that contains … Continue reading →