First Corinthians chapter thirteen is the famous ‘love chapter’ that speaks of love being the principal characteristic of Christian life. For many people the words of the chapter create a desire to conjure up more love for God and others around us.
Yet, as we read the context found in chapter thirteen, and the chapters surrounding it, we can see a different idea emerge. The typical perception focused on mans’ efforts begins to fall away as we see that the writer is more focused on a different subject.
Today we explore what it means to have love, and find a source of strength that we may have never known existed.
Knowing Jesus Christ is the absolute fundamental of the Gospel message. Surprisingly, something so essential as knowing Jesus, is surrounded by a lot of debate, various opinions, and confusion.
For some, knowing Jesus amounts to simply attending a church building, listening to a sermon, and performing other regular Christian rituals. For others, knowing Jesus involves extensive bible reading and study plans.
I understand each of these positions; I’ve lived them for a number of years. As good as gathering together with believers and scripture reading is though, neither captures the essence of knowing Jesus.
What I want to share with you today, is how Jesus describes knowing himself, and how we can truly grow in our relationship with him.
For the previous two weeks, we’ve been examining faith and belief, and we’ve seen some powerful truths regarding what faith and belief are, as well some examples of how to apply faith and belief to our daily lives.
Today we are are going to conclude our mini-series on faith and belief by examine one of the most confusing accounts, of healing in the scriptures— the demon possessed boy, to see what it can teach us about faith and belief, and how Jesus helps us overcome a common barrier of faith.
This article is a re-post from 2016, to fix a broken link elsewhere on the site. […]
Faith is one of those things in Christianity that gets a lot of attention. Many believers are trying to conjure up more and more faith because they think that faith is what’s lacking in their Christian life.
Often, when people speak of faith, they actually mean belief. The idea being that if they could just believe hard enough, that would enable them to receive whatever they are believing for.
As with most elements of the Gospel, human nature tends to complicate what God has made simple. So today I would like to share with you one simple secret to give you unshakable faith and belief.
The parable of the seeds and sower is one of the more famous stories told by Jesus. The parable speaks of seed being scattered on various types of ground with differing results.
Jesus explains the seed as being the word, and the ground as being people’s hearts; and throughout His description there is one type of ground that needs some special attention: the stony ground.
The stony ground is interesting, because Jesus describes it as first receiving the word with joy, but then it falls apart because it has no root. It’s this idea of not having a root that deserves closer study, and it is something that can prevent the word from growing in our lives.
Let’s examine the stony ground together, and see what we can do about it, as well.
Besides Jesus Christ, one of the most contemplated figures in scripture is Satan. Often thought to be the antithesis of Jesus, Satan is usually assumed to be equally cunning, equally, knowledgable, and equally powerful.
Most Christians hold a level of fear regarding Satan, and consider him to be the god and ruler of the world. Is that an accurate view of Satan? Today we’re going to explore this question, and the answer may surprise you.
Patience is one of the hallmarks of Christian living. Oftentimes when roadblocks and spiritual opposition comes our way, we are simply told to be patient— just have more patience. Sometimes being patient is an appropriate response, but other times not, so how do we know when to wait and when to act?
This question can trap many Christians in a form of analysis paralysis, never sure when to take action, and when to simply accept what is happening. So today we are going to explore this vital question, and get a clear picture from scripture of how to proceed in whatever situation we find ourselves.