Communion, one of the most mysterious and interesting Christian rituals in all of scripture. But why did Jesus institute it? Was it merely do give us something to do so we wouldn’t become bored? There must be more to it. God would not give us a useless tradition or a meaningless ritual. He knew exactly what He was doing, and why He was giving us the remembrance of Communion.
Today we are going to explore the amazing blessings contained within Communion, and how it’s an amazing proclamation of what Jesus Christ has accomplished for us.
Do you want real transformation? Real miracles? Real change? There is a very interesting section of scripture that explains how real transformation occurs, and I’m exited to share it with you today.
So many people are in need of help; spiritually, emotionally and physically. And all of it comes through one specific channel and one specific source. And it’s much much simple than you may realize. Let’s get started.
The idea of “tempting God” has always been an interesting one for me. Growing up in a religious setting, hearing traditional teaching, I was always told that tempting (or testing) God was a bad idea, and it was a sure way to get yourself hurt.
Of-course being a younger child (physically and spiritually), this made me apprehensive about asking God for anything or trusting Him. After all, how could I truly be certain that I wasn’t testing Him with my request? No-one ever really explained it. And as I grew-up in these same religious environment, any time I tried to reach out in faith and trust God for things, someone would come along and say “Now brother, don’t go testing God!” – and it would reignite that fear all over again.
But what does it actually mean to “test” or “tempt” God? Does it mean we can never believe Him? Does it mean we can never rely on or trust Him? We’re going to talk about this today. Let’s get started!
One of the biggest areas that I struggled with in the past, was the idea that I was waging a constant battle to “improve myself”.
- Improve my performance – to commit less sinful actions
- To look more like Jesus, meaning basically the same thing, to commit less sinful actions
- To never be comfortable, but always in this constant war to try and become what God wanted me to be.
This feeling was spurned on by the Christians around me who said things like: If you’re comfortable in your Christianity, you’re doing it wrong. A phrase which always struck me as a bit of a dangling-carrot. Did Jesus die to subject us to further futility? Is the work complete or isn’t it? Did Jesus only perform a half-redemption?
I have since come to realize that I am not alone in these questions. And millions of Christians around the globe are on a mental and spiritual treadmill. Constantly running to try and reach an unreachable goal. Never being satisfied, and never feeling any comfort – because if they dared to, they would be a “lukewarm Christian” in their view.
Well, today we are going to examine this, as we have a discussion about being secure in Christ.
Do you need a miracle today? Would you like to see more miracles in your life? Whether it’s physical, emotional, financial or spiritual, there is a single channel and avenue by which miracles come: faith. Faith is the key that unlocks the power of God in your life. And ironically it is largely ignored in favor of trying to obtain miracles by performance and works.
So today we are going to have a discussion regarding faith and miracles. Because miracles can still very much happen, and the scriptures tell us how. So let’s get started!
Success, we all want it. With very few exceptions, each of us wants to succeed in whatever we do; nobody likes to fail. But what assurances do we have for success? Is success just a gamble? A roll of the dice? Fear of failure can be a strong deterrent to moving forward.
So what should our view be, as believers in Jesus Christ; as reborn new creations washed clean and redeemed by His sacrifice? Perhaps simply having the question spelled-out in this way just opened your perspective somewhat. And we’re going to continue today by having a discussion regarding how Jesus Christ has given you the assurance of success. Let’s get started!
Many times throughout the New Testament writings in scripture, Jesus says to “Fear not”, “do not fear”, or “don’t be afraid” – it’s good advice… especially now with so many global catastrophes and viral scares going around. However the advice to not be afraid really doesn’t mean anything without a reason why… if someone just tells you to not be afraid, you may wonder why, or think that they were crazy! But when you have a reason, then it becomes simple.
So today we’re going to look at some examples of Jesus, and what the scriptures have to say regarding fear, and what we find will be eye-opening.
Spend some time in the charismatic circles of Christianity, and you will probably hear the term “open heaven” used here and there. It’s a term meant to describe the resources and assistance of God and heaven being available and given to you.
There are a great number of believers today who are looking for an open heaven, and wondering how to get it. So today we are going to have a discussion about how this can be achieved, and how Heaven is actually open to you right now, today.
Welcome to the fourth part of our series on changing your lenses, your perspective of your circumstances, your identity in Christ, and of God Himself. And it is this last item – your perspective of God Himself – that we are going to focus on today. And this is probably going to be one of the most difficult discussions that we have ever had… not because it is difficult to study, but because for many of us (myself included) it requires us to take an honest and hard look at what we truly believe about God; and repenting (changing our mind) regrading our beliefs accordingly.
So join me today, as we have a tough, but necessary discussion regarding changing our lenses of God.
Welcome back to part three of our discussion about perceptions; where we are exploring how the lenses that we see ourselves and the world around us by, can have a powerful and dramatic effect on our entire life. And not surprisingly, the scriptures have quite a bit to teach us about our lenses.
Last week, we paused after seeing how the Israelites failed to enter the Promise Land, by allowing their circumstances and their skewed lenses speak louder to them than the multiple promises of God that they had already been given. This is a scenario that plays out today as well, in the lives of a great number of believers, and it keeps people wandering in the “spiritual wilderness”, continually lost, weak and defeated, when in fact they have countless unclaimed promises of victory right in-front of them.
I also mentioned last week, at the end of our study right before we paused, that even if that picture resembles you today, that there was no need to despair, because there is a way out of the wilderness, thee is an answer, and we will find out what that answer is today in this study. So join me now, as we continue our discussion about changing our lenses, and changing our life.