I’ve been doing the Jesus Calling devotional for almost 2 years now. The author says that these are the words of Jesus. It’s backed with scripture, so I believe it is, and it’s an interesting perspective on the Bible. For me, it’s often not what I hear said in churches – at least the ones…
Here’s a thought… trying to be perfect is idolatry. It’s pride. It’s aspirations of being like God. It’s not humility. God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble. This makes sense, right? So when churches tell you to be like Jesus, what do they mean exactly? Yes, we know that avoiding sin keeps…
I’m not fond of this phase as a part of salvation. Not that I don’t agree, but there’s the spirit behind it, and I think it could be more simply put. That sounds like works to me. Yes, you must turn and it must be real – the repentance part… regretting your sin. If you…
Look at the definition of repent: re·pent /rəˈpent/ verbfeel or express sincere regret or remorse about one’s wrongdoing or sin. That’s turning to God. You’re sorry for your sin and you turn to God. It’s not work you have to do. It’s you regretting what you’ve done. That’s it. Of course you have to do…
In the last 5-6 months, I’ve really been hearing from God. It’s so great. I’ve always heard short, quiet words from time to time, but I’ve learned that God has a lot to say. All I do is read my devotional and Bible versus. I keep a journal, which is a Word document. It’s easier…
If you’re a Christian / follower of Jesus, don’t forget that you need to keep hearing/reading the gospel. Hearing is believing, and it keeps you out of trouble. It works for me. The gospel isn’t just for the unsaved. It’s for us, too. It’s good news and is encouraging. You need that kind of food…
God is just. That means he’s a perfect judge. He has to punish the murderer, right? If he doesn’t, he’s not a just judge. That’s why he just can’t let everyone into heaven. We ALL deserve to be separated from God because we can’t meet his holy standard of absolutely no sin. So we all…
The thief on the cross didn’t have time to repent: And he was saying, “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom!” And He said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”Luke 23:42-43 Right here, we see that repentance is not necessary for salvation. Jesus was…
God just lead me to Colossians chapter two. Here is a part of it in The Message Version – about verse 11: Think of it! All sins forgiven, the slate wiped clean, that old arrest warrant canceled and nailed to Christ’s cross. Isn’t that… good news? There’s so much of this chapter I love –…
I grew up in a time that us Gen Xers know well – there was physical punishment when we did things wrong as a kid. It wasn’t all the time, but we had the fear of that coming if we really screwed up. That was in my family, but there was a pretty big twist…
Here’s the scariest verse in the Bible: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into heaven’s kingdom. It is only those who persist in doing the will of my heavenly Father. On the day of judgment many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, don’t you remember us? Didn’t we prophesy in your…
Let’s dive in. You just have 2 choices: With each choice, there are consequences: It’s such an easy choice. There is freedom in God. Some pastors (including one I had as a youth pastor, back in the day) preach guilt. This means they hammer in the fact that you are guilty of sinning and you…