When signing up for a new account online, have you ever read the small print statement before clicking the “I accept” button? The authors of those documents try to cover every possible contingency. Imagine, then, if the Christian life was similar and had a rule for every scenario a person could ever face. How thick …
Category Archives: Discipleship
32584 Obeying to Avoid Punishment
Jesus said that He “came that [those who follow him] may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10, NASB). Living to just not get in trouble, however, is pretty far from abundant life. Imagine a teacher whose ideal student is simply one who doesn’t get sent to the principal’s office. We would question whether that teacher …
32585 Obeying to Demonstrate Love
“Just accept me for who I am.” “Don’t judge.” “I just want to be loved and accepted, not preached at.” We are often quick to take offense at the perceived arrogance of someone who tries to tell us how to live our lives. We easily presume that authentic love requires others to fully accept how …
32581 Obeying God Faithfully
Obedience? Isn’t our life with Jesus a relationship and not a list of rules? It’s funny isn’t it—we’d never begin a romantic relationship with someone who said we had to both love and obey them. In fact, if our new significant other said, “Now that we’re dating, I expect you to obey me,” we’d set …
31054 Develop the Relationship
It is the most exciting event in your life to trust Jesus as your Lord and Savior. God instantaneously transferred you from the domain of darkness to the kingdom of his Son and gave you new life in him! You are born again and have become a new creation in Christ! You are now in …
32455 How to Be Filled with the Holy Spirit
You may be thinking, “I’ve accepted Christ into my life. I know that the Holy Spirit comes into your life when you accept Christ. But why then, does my life presently reflect so little power?” It is important to think about what might be standing in the way of your experience of a Spirit-filled life. …
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31052 Sin That Has Destroyed Humanity
If you have read the article, “God and You“, you may be wondering why there are death, evil, destruction, and poverty in the world if God is good and His creation perfect. Despite His holiness, goodness, and love, we, the human race, distrust God and have chosen our own way rather than God’s way. We …
31053 The Good News
For four hundred years, the people of Israel were slaves in Egypt. Can you remember your family history over four hundred years? Their parents, grandparents, great-grandparents—as long as they could remember, they were slaves. The people of Israel knew no other life than the life of slavery. But the truth is that they were God’s …
32713 Proclaiming the Gospel
The gospel means good news. The rightful, righteous, benevolent King of all creation has returned to restore peace out of chaos, to bring life out of death, to shine light to dispel all darkness, to execute justice, and to cause his creation to prosper once again. And you have an honored and unique role to …
32811 Standing Firm in Christ
Resist the enemy. The who? Scripture is unabashed in describing what we’re up against as Christians. Ephesian 6:10-12 says, “Finally, be strengthened in the Lord and in the strength of his power. Clothe yourselves with the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For our …