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Why Jesus’ Sacrifice on the Cross Matters!

Daily Devotional: Today’s devotional is about the importance of Jesus’ sacrifice. As Christians, we believe that Jesus died on the cross for the sins of humanity, and through his death and resurrection, we can have eternal life. The Bible teaches us that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). Our sins separate us from God and we cannot reconcile ourselves to him on our own. But God, in his love and mercy, provided a way for us to be reconciled to him through the sacrifice of Jesus. John 3:16 says “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross is not just a historical event, but it has ongoing power and significance…

ADAM TELLS US ALL WE NEED TO KNOW ABOUT OURSELVES AND HOW TO HEAR THE SAVIOR

It all begins with the first man and the first woman. Adam and Eve. If we can’t prove it from the events describing their experiences then it is not true. It’s really that simple. So can we prove that Adam’s nature changed from a Godly nature to a sin nature from the events that took place with these two people? No. It says nothing about a sin nature anywhere in the Bible as it relates to these two people. Or anyone else for that matter. Can we prove from these events described anywhere in the Bible that Adam was spiritual when God made him? No. In fact, Paul taught plainly that he was not spiritual when God made him. He said he was only natural. Flesh and blood. And if these things were true for the first two people then…

SATAN’S TRAPS- DECEPTION, DISTORTION, MISCHARACTERIZATION, AND OUTRIGHT LIES

In a post I received from Harvest Christian Fellowship, a church I once attended as a very young believer, head pastor Greg Laurie rightly claimed that the devil will cast doubt and call into question what God’s word really says. Misquoting, mischaracterizing, and distorting it to deceive us to believe things that are simply not true. Here’s part of what Greg wrote. “The Devil’s first words to Eve ended in a question mark, designed to cast doubt on God’s love: Has God indeed said…? He was quoting God, yet he completely twisted what God said. The same was true of Satan’s temptation of Jesus, where he said, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down [from the temple]. For it is written: ‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’ and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, lest…

WHERE THE EAGLES ARE GATHERED TOGETHER

The purpose of this message is to clear up any confusion about the marriage supper of the lamb. It is not about a tearful and sumptuous meal we will be having at a huge dining table with the Messiah. It is about the destruction of His enemies. We are living in the dispensation of the grace of God now. This is why God is not judging nations or people. His grace leads men to repentance by His goodness. Not severity. This time of grace where sin is not imputed will continue until the time of the great tribulation when He finishes the last 1/2 of the last week in Daniel’s 70 weeks prophecy for Israel. Simply stated from Mt.24:28; “For wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together.” From Rev.19:5-9; “And a voice came out of the…

MAN, MORTAL FROM THE BEGINNING- THE SURPRISING BEAUTY OF IT

The beauty of our mortality is that in it, and by our own free will, we find reason to seek a relationship with God. This is why God set it up so that Adam would only be sent out of the garden after he had the knowledge of good and evil. And not before. Because armed with this knowledge, and understanding his own mortality, it was God’s plan that he would come to trust in Jesus by seeking for answers about what comes next. And hearing those answers from those who have come to know Him. The Bible tells us in 1Cor.2:14 that the natural man doesn’t consider spiritual things. Neither can he know them because they can only be discerned through spiritual means. The reason for this is that generally speaking the natural man only thinks of things in terms that relate to…

After the Great Tribulation is Over, What Will Happen Next? The Resurrection of the Dead!

Common Misconceptions: The Bible is clear that the resurrection of the dead is a reality. This life is far from all that there is to experience. While death is the end of physical life, it is not the end of human existence. That’s really good news! However, people have a difficult time imagining what heaven will be like. Some think of heaven as a place where people sit on clouds like angels and fly from one family reunion to the next. Others have the idea that heaven will be a like a super-cool concert where people singing for all eternity. The very notion of enduring eternal choir performances may lack the WOW factor that you’re hoping for. “Like Him” Here’s a verse in Scripture that should pique your interest in what this heavenly home will be like. 1 John 3:2…

WHAT POSSIBLE GLORY COULD THERE BE IN A MINISTRATION OF DEATH AND CONDEMNATION?

In 2Cor.3 Paul lays out the case for the glory of the Old Testament. And the much more glory in it’s successor The New Testament. He says in vs.7-9, “But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away: How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.” The glory in both the New and the Old testaments is the presence of God. A presence Paul says in Rom.3:23 all men are in need of saying, “All have sinned/missed the mark and fallen short of/lack the glory/presence of God”. In the Old Testament that glory, God’s presence…

BASICS Pt.2- WHEN PAUL SAID A RIGHTEOUS MAN CAN NOT SIN- 1Cor.10:21-23

Righteous and justified, in Hebrew yashar, and dikaios in Greek, carries with it the Biblical meaning of being right with God and in relationship with Him. And this right-ness with God is eternal life. Just as life is the opposite of death, so righteousness is the opposite of sin. And just as a man who is alive can not be dead. So a man who is righteous can not be a sinner. 1John3:6-9. So a man can not be a sinner saved by grace. He is either a sinner, or he is saved. So as we learned in pt.1 of this series just as sin is to miss Jesus because He is the mark at which we are to aim our faith. So righteousness is hitting the mark by believing in Jesus. This is why the Biblical definition of righteousness…

BASICS Pt.1- THOSE WHO SIN DO NOT KNOW HIM- 1JOHN3:6

“The lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.” “He died for our sins.” “He will reprove the world of sin.” Do you know what these things mean? Well, for a start the word sin, hhatah in Hebrew and hamartia in Greek, means to miss the mark. Plain and simple. So this is what a man does when he sins. He misses the mark. As when shooting an arrow trying to hit the bulls eye on a target. So to know what these things mean we must first discover what the Bible says the mark is at which we are to be aiming our faith. And since most who call themselves Christians have been taught to believe the pagan doctrine of original sin, which is in all actuality just a form of judaism for Gentiles, a system…

THE NATURAL MAN JUDGES THE OUTWARD- GOD JUDGES THE HEART

1COR.2:14,15 TELLS US THE SPIRITUAL MAN JUDGES ALL THINGS. But, how is this possible when Jesus told them in Mt.7:1-3 not to judge lest they should be judged? It is because they were not spiritual, but only natural. And as natural men they themselves were not ready to be judged because they had not yet been judged as all who are spiritual have. Because all who are spiritual have already been judged to be righteous by the faith of Christ. When the natural man judges he looks on the outward appearance. But, God looks on the heart. And 1Cor.2:14,15 tells us there is a spiritual man that “judges all things”. Here we are told this is something that those who have received God’s gift of the spirit allows the believer to do. And it is only by this judgment that we can…