All believers have a limited idea of what God is capable of doing. We may say He can do anything, but we still have unspoken reservations in some areas. Yes, God can heal the sick and raise the dead. He can part the seas and move mountains. He not only created the sun, which is incomparably more powerful than our biggest nuclear bomb, He filled the universe with hundreds of trillions of suns, all without breaking a sweat. His power is truly incomprehensible. And yet, when it comes to His work in our lives, there are some things we think He must have a difficult time doing. His purpose is to transform us into the image of His Son, Jesus …Continue reading →
You just found out someone has been spreading untrue and damaging rumors about you to all your friends, and now you know why most of them have been avoiding you. What conditions need to be met in order for you to forgive that person who has done serious and maybe permanent damage to your reputation? Questions about forgiveness seem to have different answers in Sunday School than they do in real life. it’s easy to say we need to forgive freely as a hypothetical situation when things are going our way, but let someone step on our toes, really stomp on them hard, over and over again… with a smile on their face, and the concept of freely forgiving goes …Continue reading →
Salvation costs me nothing. Discipleship costs me everything. These are the results of a study on discipleship I put together for the Beatty Community Church, originally as a night class, then as part of the adult Sunday school. These notes are not in their final form and the degree of ‘finished-ness’ varies. Some of the quotes used in these notes were obtained from http://www.christianglobe.com/Illustrations and http://www.watchword.org, and others through my own reading. Please note that the various quotes by various Christian leaders, pastors, and teachers does not imply an endorsement of everything they taught or believed. For example, I quote Watchman Nee in some areas where he has very good insight, but he also has some very dangerous teachings. Always …Continue reading →
Introduction How can we identify the work of the Holy Spirit? What sets the Spirit's work apart from the work of man or a deceiving spirit? What makes the Holy Spirit's work unique? These are important questions for today's believer. Much supernatural activity goes on in churches that is assumed to be of God, but is it? Here are a few examples. As you read them, ask yourself, "Do these describe the work of the Holy Spirit? How can I tell?" News item: NEGLIGENCE – "Act of God" Defense, The Supreme Court of Louisiana has refused to allow application of the "Act of God" defense in a personal injury suit brought by one worshiper against another on allegations that defendant …Continue reading →
I had often wondered what made one painting worth more than another. Is it the name of the artist who painted it? Is it the quality or complexity of the work? Perhaps how old it is? Recently a painting sold for $55 million dollars at Christie’s auction house. Picasso painted it in 1902. It portrays a plain-dressed woman sitting with her arms crossed, perhaps lost in thought. In my opinion, there’s nothing especially fantastic about this painting. I wouldn’t pay $20 for it. However, I am not an art expert. Obviously the new owner saw something in it that I didn’t. When this painting was auctioned, the bidding was very intense. More than one person was willing to spend tens …Continue reading →
Ah, Sunday – The day of rest! The day that we can recuperate from the spiritual drain of the week so that we can get ready for the next six days. We get run down and stressed out Monday through Saturday, and Sunday is the day we get “recharged” spiritually. We go to church and sing uplifting hymns and songs. We listen to an inspiring sermon and bang, we’re ready for another week! Or at least that is the way we think it should work. Many of us think our worship on Sunday prepares us for the week ahead, which it does. But I think we would get a lot more out of our group worship if we changed our …Continue reading →
Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. .. – Acts 16:16-40 (NIV) Paul and Silas were in Philippi, and a girl with a demonic spirit (a spirit of ‘Python’) followed them around town saying that they were of God and were proclaiming a way to be saved. That they let her do this for days makes me wonder if they were weighing the advantages and disadvantages of this free advertising. The girl was proclaiming that Paul and Silas were teaching a way of salvation. Maybe someone who wouldn’t pay attention to a couple of Jews would listen to her. But …Continue reading →
During the three months of our engagement, my wife, Wanda, and I went through pre-marital counselling with Jeff, our pastor. (I recommend pre-marital counselling for any couple who intends to tie the knot). During this time, we studied and discussed the various aspects of our relationship with each other, learning what we could do to keep our relationship healthy and growing. I view the marriage relationship as a picture of our relationship with Jesus Christ. How Christ loves us and how we are to love Him is the way we should love our mates: Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for it. – Ephesians 5:25 (KJV) This expresses the type of love …Continue reading →
it’s amazing how God designed the human brain to be able to pick out individual voices in a crowd. There could be any number of people talking all at once in a crowded room and you could mentally focus on one conversation and then another without having to move around in the room or tilt your head to hear better. The brain uses the different characteristics of each voice to give it something to focus on. This makes for an interesting experiment (and powerful sermon illustration). Suppose several people were in a room all speaking at once. The room is totally dark so you can’t see them. To make things worse, you don’t know any of these people. If I …Continue reading →
But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised, God has chosen, the things that are not, that He might nullify the things that are. – 1 Corinthians 1:27-28 (NAS) God is no respecter of persons. We know this as it relates to God’s judgement and His love, but it also applies to who He uses to do His will. God choose David to be king of Israel. David did not come from a royal line of descendants. He was a shepherd and the youngest of eight sons. …Continue reading →
