Of the many titles given to Jesus, none are perhaps quite as striking as “the Prince of Peace.” When considering the names and titles which God describes Himself to us as, we should remember that God doesn’t need to name himself for His benefit. Whenever God gives himself a name, he does it for our benefit.
So when the God-breathed, holy Spirit inspired scriptures refers to Jesus as the Prince of Peace, what does that mean? That’s a challenging question to answer, but it’s vital to understand to appreciate the gift of divine peace that Jesus gives to us.
Righteousness is a term that’s bantered about a lot in Christianity. Righteousness is integral to the […]
There are many promises and facts in scripture that assure us of wonderful things. Promises for a future in the heavenly Kingdom of God, and facts that we can stand on right now to secure us in the truth and free us from bondage and fear.
One particular fact that is very powerful yet a often ignored or misunderstood comes from Psalm 91:10 which says that no evil shall befall you.
For many people, these words are too fantastic to believe. Surely God did mean to suggest that no evil could touch us! You’re dreaming!
But what if He did mean it? How would that change your outlook, your emotions, or even your life? Let’s check it out.
Guilt is one of the biggest issues among Christians today. I can make a lot of interesting comments about that… but I won’t. The simple fact is that most believers just don’t know what to make of guilt, or how to manage those feelings. The difficulty of guilt has led some to fundamentally change essential doctrines of scripture, lessening the gospel message in the process! Not good.
The truth is that most of us have things in our past that can be a source of some level of guilt— it’s normal; it’s natural. There’s nothing wrong with you, or unique about your situation in that regard. What we do with those feelings of guilt is what makes all of the difference— and you don’t need to guess about that. The scriptures describe the incredible way that Jesus sets us free from guilt, and far from lessening the gospel message, it’s magnified through Christ.
There’s been an ongoing feud among Christians for a long time. A battle between the holiness camp and the grace camp. The holiness side is preoccupied with your works, the things that you do, your behavior, and a checklist of things that you must accomplish to please a perfectly holy God. And they often sound something like this:
“God is coming back one day! He’s not coming back to give you a big hug! He’s coming back to execute his wrath! You need to fear and tremble before him! The scripture says Be holy for I am holy! Tremble, fear, condemnation! Bwahahahahah!”
So, the holiness camp is completely focused on the wrath of God, and uses fear to promote human works.
Now, the grace side is on the opposite end of the spectrum. The grace camp often completely disregards the judgment and even sometimes the respect worthy of God. On the extreme, the grace side sounds like this:
“Oh, don’t worry! God loves you! The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, and everything’s just fine and dandy all the time!”
So which is it? Is God suffering from multiple personality disorder?
As you might expect, neither of these positions tell the whole story, and the truth of God’s character, His nature, and the Gospel message, is far greater! Let’s talk about it!
One of the most common questions that comes up today, is that if God is in control, and He’s so good, and we are so blessed, then what’s going on with the world; why does the world seem to be getting worse?
Some people assume that it’s because humanity is a fallen and sinful creation, sheer ignorance, or the devil and his forces of evil!
Those things are all part of the equation but not the whole answer!
What if I were to tell you that you are playing the most critical role in the state and direction of the world, and you don’t even realize how! In fact, you are the one with all of the power, and your power is being used against you without your knowledge.
Last week, we explored what it means to abide in Christ, and we saw some powerful truths regarding His sacrifice for us and how it changes our position from sin to righteousness, and our nature from sinner to king priest in His kingdom and family.
During that study, something caught my attention which caused me to meditate on it more— specifically in Hebrews 4:10 which refers to ceasing from our own works, as God did from His.
It’s one thing to speak about ceasing from your own work or effort, and spiritually-speaking, we know that we should cease from our effort, though we find it challenging to fully rest in what Christ has accomplished.
I know this challenge quite well, I’ve been there, I’m familiar with the struggle; and so today I want to continue from where we paused last week. As we continue to explore abiding in Christ, with the details given to us in scripture, and I believe that as we study this together today, it will release a burden that has secretly been on the hearts of many who have been finding it difficult to rest in Christ.
Abiding in Christ is something that Jesus mentioned several times and is repeated in various New Testament books. But what exactly does it mean to abide?
To some, abiding is simply attending regular church service. To others, abiding means regular bible study and devotional. And others still haven’t given abiding any consideration at all.
But abiding is is critical for a healthy spiritual Christian life, and the scriptures don’t leave us guessing as to what it means. So today, we will examine what it means to abide in Christ, and how it applies in our daily life.