Watch the summary video We all want inner peace. Normally we associate the presence of peace with the absence of turmoil in our life. Under the right circumstances, we can temporarily experience this natural peace. However, the peace that Jesus offers is a peaceful state in the midst of turmoil. The apostle Paul writes, And …
Author Archives: Jonathan Kobayashi
22002.17 Journey Time with God
Life is a journey. When you are in a crisis situation or prolonged hardship, it seems more like a disruption to your journey. In reality, it is part of your journey. When parents take their children on a trip, invariably they will hear the question, “Are we there yet?” In response, they encourage their kids …
22002.18 Growing in Tough Times
Watch the summary video God uses tough times to develop Christ’s character in us. It is the potholes, detours, and difficulties along the journey that provide opportunities to reshape and refine our attitudes and actions. This takes time and it’s his goal we not get derailed from his plan, but become champions of endurance. The …
41311 Testimony Themes
Personal testimonies, particularly, testimonies of salvation, are powerful. A salvation story is never simple, however. People reach the point of believing in Jesus over a period of months and even years. Usually many people are involved in the process. How they realized their need for Christ may not be just one in a single occasion. …
63202 2. In the Image of God
In order to fix my broken life, God had to change the way I thought about Him and the way I thought about myself and others. He had to reintroduce Himself to me as a God of love. First John 4:16 tells us, “God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, …
63203 3. Adam and the Fall
Before the fall, Adam and Eve had a Spirit-to-spirit connection with God. God did not live in them, but He walked with them. In the Garden of Eden, everything for Adam and Eve’s full life—their perfect relationship with God, self, others and the world—came through their relationship with God. Adam and Eve’s spirit, soul and …
63204 4. Moses and the Law: “You Shall Love”
After the fall, God could no longer express His love and care for Adam and Eve as He had in the beginning. All of humanity was living in a broken relationship with God. Now people were living with their eyes opened to the knowledge of good and evil. Because people had no connection with God …
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63206 6. New Covenant: Faith Promises
Jesus didn’t just show us a new way, He made it possible for us to live in that new way. He gave us the New Covenant to replace the Old. In the New Covenant we receive from God by faith. It is a two-step process summarized clearly in First John: “And this is His commandment: …
63205 5. God’s Solution: “This is My Beloved Son
Tragic as it was, God used the fall, and the struggles of the people in the Old Testament, to display His sacrificial love. Without the fall, love would not have been able to express itself in complete, grand form. God’s love reached down to us when Jesus became a man and took our place by …
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63208 8. Paul’s Warning : “O Foolish Galations!”
Today many Christians understand that a mix of grace and self-effort will never save us. Martin Luther clearly taught the truth that we are justified by faith alone. Eternal life is not earned by works of the law, but by faith in Jesus as the Son of God. However, Luther did not teach Jesus’ New …
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