The “Greater Things”…
I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, if anyone steadfastly believes in Me, he will himself be able to do the things that I do; and he will do even greater things than these, because I go to the Father.(John 14:12 Amp) Just the other day I was listening to a sermon preached by Ray Stedman back in 1985. What Ray brought to my attention was surely one of the most astounding promises in the Scriptures… I have always read this passage, and thought that we ordinary humans are somehow so capable that we can actually do greater things than the Son of God Himself did, when He was here in the flesh, but what I learned was that Jesus was really saying here is that as the risen Lord, who dwells in us by means of the Spirit, He will do greater...
Read MoreFruit of the Spirit – Life through Christ
In Romans 6:4 Paul says, “We were buried therefore with Him by the baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious [power] of the Father, so we too might [habitually] live and behave in newness of life. ” [Amplified] Here Paul is answering the question that every Christian asks at one time or another: “Can believers go on sinning?” Paul’s answer is an emphatic, “Absolutely not!” We cannot go on sinning because we have died, have been buried, and have risen again with Jesus, and therefore we too may live a new life. If we are true Christians, there will be a noticeable change of our behavior, because of a radical change of government. Paul is saying that if we continue to go on living as...
Read MoreNo room at the inn? I doubt it!
Most Bible translations state that after Jesus was born, He was laid in a manger “because there was no room for them in the inn”. This sounds as if they were rejected by the people of Bethlehem. Was that really the case? There is a trap in traditional language. “No room in the inn” has taken on the meaning of “the inn had a number of rooms and all were occupied” in other words, the “no vacancy sign” was already “switched on” when Joseph and Mary arrived in Bethlehem. But the Greek word does not refer to “a room in an inn” but rather to “space” (topos) as in “there is no room my desk for my new computer”. It is important to keep this correction in mind as we turn to the...
Read MoreHow do we deal with conflict?
The most common criticism against the Christian church in our times is that it is irrelevant to people’s real problems, and does not help people where they live. Many churches of our day are interested only in singing hymns and performing religious ceremonies, or in spouting moral platitudes and reading Scripture, but not really engaging in the current problems of our society. In Chapters 4 and 5 of Ephesians, we see that the Apostle Paul comes to grips with our constant urge to lie, to steal, to gossip, to be hateful and bitter with one another. He deals at length, frankly and forthrightly, and every way, he brings Christian truth right down into life, and shows us how to live in a sick society, dealing with such matters as climbing divorce rates,...
Read MoreDo you know your Bible?
We have a reputation for knowing and teaching the Bible, but I am afraid there is still much biblical illiteracy among us. There are people who do not know anything about the Bible at all. I want to ask you to measure yourself by three tests which are given in Hebrews 5, by which you can check yourself as to how much you know of Scripture. I am not going to ask you how far it is from Bethlehem to Jerusalem, and I do not care how many kings there were in Israel, or how many in Judah. Those are not the important questions. But here are the three things that will test you. First, can you tell the difference between right and wrong, especially when right looks wrong, and wrong looks right? Have you learned how to use Scripture so as to tell the difference? Second,...
Read MoreWhat is a promise?
What is a promise? When two young people stand at the wedding altar and promise each other, what are they doing? They are committing themselves to give of themselves to each other. A promise, basically, is a commitment to share yourself. If you give a promise to someone, you are committing something of your time, your energy, your resources to that person. If you say, “I’ll meet you at the corner of this street at this time,” you have thereby committed a certain part of yourself to that person for a certain length of time. That is what a promise is. It is a sharing of self. So, the great promises of the Bible are the efforts of God to share Himself with us. When we understand the promises, we will understand something more of the nature and the...
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