Posts Tagged ‘Christian Walk’
Overcoming Anger
In my last post I argued that anger is a severe problem we can’t ignore. Hopefully, you are convinced that you want to “Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice” (Eph 4:31). But even if you despise your anger, you may not believe you will…
Read MoreThe Christian’s Dual Allegiance
This is a sermon with two texts. One text is from the Old Testament, the other from the New. One comes from the prophet Jeremiah, the other from the apostle Paul. Our two texts might seem contradictory, but taken together, they summarize the whole of the Christian’s life in the world. The first is this:…
Read MoreCan I Really Do ALL Things Through Christ?
How many times have you heard someone say this about the word all? “All means ‘all’ and that’s all that all means?” While this is true (the word all does mean “all”), the word all doesn’t always mean every possible thing all at once. While this may seem obvious, we don’t always apply this simple…
Read MoreWhat Will Sustain You in the Hour of Trial?
I’m doing some preaching/teaching in our church about “thinking about Scripture,” or Christian meditation. In our day and age, you might get a little nervous about the word “meditation.” In the non-Christian sense, meditation has the idea of “emptying the mind.” In the Christian sense, meditation has the idea of filling the mind with Bible…
Read MoreThe Inconvenient Love of Christ
Tucked away in the record about the crucifixion of Jesus is a touching, intimate moment that includes a little-known statement by Jesus (John 19:25-27). This statement is the third saying of Christ on the cross, and though it may be the least familiar, it deserves our careful attention. This brief moment and unfamiliar statement teach…
Read MoreCrying Out to God
And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to CRY OUT, and say, Jesus, Thou Son of David, haver mercy on me. Mark 10:47 There are many reasons why our prayers and not always answered. We all know that sin interferes with successful praying (Psalm 66:18; Isaiah 59:1-2). The other common…
Read MoreThe Full Scope of Your Calling as a Disciple
In a long, extended sentence, Paul demonstrated how to pray for other believers (Eph 1:15-21). First, he thanked God for those believers who came to mind. He did this “continually,” which means that whenever they came to mind, he prayed for them; and whenever he prayed for them, he did so with an underlying gratefulness…
Read MoreLearning to Forgive
After riding by horseback around his estate in freezing rain and snow, George Washington woke up with an inflamed throat and was unable to breathe properly. When doctors examined his condition, they prescribed a procedure called “bloodletting,” which followed the prevailing medical opinion that removing blood from the body would reduce inflammation. In this case,…
Read MoreYour Choices Impact Future Generations
Choices lead to consequences. Good choices have positive consequences; sinful choices have negative consequences. Those statements are not surprising to us, yet we often forget them, or at least don’t think much about them. We make choices every day, but we do not always see the consequences of those choices. In addition, sometimes we don’t…
Read MoreA Changed Life Includes Pursuing Sexual Purity
One topic often raised in the New Testament is the issue of sexual purity. Consider the many times issues the apostles bring it up. It is no secret that a wide variety of sexual immorality permeated the early Roman and Greek cultures of the New Testament times. Their gods were immoral, and they imitated their…
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