COVID-19 and Closing Churches

With the spread of the flu-like Covid-19 virus, government orders to close, and the community in fear of getting sick; at what point should a church close its doors and temporarily end meeting?  To get clear guidance, we must seek God's Word, and not our feelings or thoughts from our fragile emotional state.  What did Jesus and The Apostles do?  What did the early church do?  What does Holy Scripture say?

The God of Life, Adopts

Why would God need to adopt us?  Are we not God's Child already?  Is there something that separates us from God?  Why doesn't God just snap his fingers and make everything right?  Is everyone going to be adopted by God?  All these questions hit to the heart of how God is the God of Life and does what even most people are unwilling to do; adopt rebellious orphaned children.  This article addresses all these questions with what God himself reveals.

The Women's Rights to Her Body

A fundamental argument for abortion is the Woman's Bodily Rights, or "reproductive rights" justification.  The ultimate and most common argument for being Pro-"Choice" (pro-abortion) is the argument for the mother to decide for herself, leaving the option for abortion wide open and often suggested and hinted.  But is the Fetus her body?  Do rights justify immorality?  Is her body really her own?  There is a fundamental flaw in this logical when it comes to divine, objective, universal truth.

The Inconvenience of Serving God

We have our daily and weekly routines.  Work, Wednesday small group, family time, and Church on Sunday.  We often and easily forget that God does not work by our schedule.  Sometimes, God gives us an opportunity to serve him and glorify him at times that interfere with our daily or weekly routine.  How we respond to this reflects where our heart stands with God's Will and our ultimate desire to worship and serve him.

Public Evangelism

Before setting out to conduct street evangelism and open air preaching it is a good idea to research the county and city ordinances regarding noise violations and disturbing the peace.  Odds are someone will get offended and call the police claiming one of the two.  When police are called, they have reasonable suspicion that a crime or ordinance violation has been committed.  They are obligated to respond and investigate.  This should be expected. (check out Is Street Preaching Biblical?).

Have Some Gifts of The Spirit Ceased?

More specifically, has the gift of tongues, healings, and prophesying ceased?   Right off the bat some will argue of course they have not citing some of their own witness accounts at their local church. BUT are those experiences the same as the ones described during apostolic age?

John of God, The Spiritual Healer from Brazil

John of God is a fairly well known spiritual healer based out of Brazil.  He has been interviewed by Oprah and featured on ABC News, Newsweek, and other international news outlets.   He is a medium and spiritual healer that performs odd 'surgeries' that heal the individuals illness and spirit.  He claims to be possessed by 'entities' such as dead saints and doctors.  He claims that all his spiritual encounters and healings are done by God's will.  Given his region of the world is predominately catholic and mentions the 'saints' it would seem that the God he is referring to is The God of The Bible.  BUT is he serving God's will?  Is allowing himself to be possessed by 'entities' God's doing?  Is he OF God?

When Someone Says "The Lord told me..."

Some people will claim God spoke to them directly, either verbally, in a vision, in a dream, on their private air plane, or they were lifted up to heaven and met God face to face.  But are their claims true?  If these claims are true, what are the implications?  If they are not true, what does that mean for the person making that claim?  How can we know the trustfulness of their claims?  We need to seek God's actual word to test these type of claims.

Word of Faith Hermeneutics

Word of Faith Hermeneutics.  There is no one central teacher or organizational ministry but a collection that feed off each other adding in their own unique idea, which is usually accepted by the others.  The primary teachers that form the collection of Word of Faith doctrine are: Kenneth Copeland, Fred Price, Joyce Meyer, Paul Crouch, Kenneth E. Hagin, Charles Capps, Marilyn Hickey, Benny Hinn, Paul Yonggi Cho, Morris Cerullo, Creflo Dollar, Jesse Duplantis, and E.W.Kenyon. What do they teach?

Who was John The Apostle?

 The Apostle John is an extremely important figure when it comes to our knowledge about what Jesus did and taught.  He is also extremely important in early church history.  He was the son of Zebedee and Salome. His brother was James, who was also one of the Twelve Apostles.  He was ready for anything did the most he could out of his love for Christ. 

Discussion with a Jehovah's Witness

Evangelism takes shape in many forms.  At times God has random strangers walk up and ask random questions that spark spiritual conversations.  Other times major life events causes us to reflect on deeper matters which leads to spiritual conversations.  And at times, God even uses the internet.  In this case, God chose to use the internet.  A devout Jehovah Witness reached out and shared a screen shot image from the JW website about who they think Jesus is.  Given the massive importance of the topic, we felt it was necessary to engage in a dialog with this individual but it quickly changed in tempo, tone, and agenda.

How to be a local missionary for your community

Every Christian is called to be a witness of the person and work of Jesus Christ.  Though not everyone is called to go to some far away land but everyone is called to proclaim the good news exactly where they are because that is exactly where God has placed them at that moment in time.  How faithful we are to God in his calling is what we are accountable for, none the less, we are called and placed for this purpose.  Then how do we be a local missionary for our community?

Hurricane Harvey Help

It is critical that the church acts when there is a need.  Well, there is a need.  Hurricane Harvey hit Texas and Louisiana hard and there is an on going need of donations.  As the Body of Christ, we serve the Lord Jesus Christ in every opportunity and need.  We serve not for selfish reasons or intent but out of Love for God and others.  If God has given you a dry roof over your head, food, clothing, and life; it is your duty as a servant of God to use that which God has given you for others in need.  There are many ways to serve and help.

Faith in Truth Comes From God

How do you KNOW the Spirit of God dwells in you?  How do you KNOW God has chosen you, and adopted you to be a child of God?  The answer is more simple than the world thinks.  Your faith in the truths of Jesus Christ is proof.  Why? because the faith to believe these truths, comes from God; but what truth exactly?

Are You Fearless For Christ?

Are you fearless for Christ?  Seems like a basic and simple question but it is much deeper than most of us actually think.  The deeper question is, are you so dedicated to Jesus that you risk your own life to make him more known?  This is the question we must all ask ourselves in our daily lives.  Reflecting on what Jesus, the Apostles, and the early church had to endure and sacrifice should give us some pause and self reflection.

The Real Opportunity to Glorify God and Love Your Neighbor

Some people think that being a good neighbor is serving the Lord, but then just leave it at that.  Others feel that living a 'gospel' lifestyle is good enough so proclaiming the gospel to your neighbor is not necessary.  Some still, avoid conversations about spiritual things and justify themselves with ideas like "my neighbor sees my gospel lifestyle" or "I do nice things for my neighbor, so they see God through that".  But is that actually serving and Glorifying God and actually loving your neighbor;  Are we actually taking the REAL opportunities that God places us in to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ?

Ghosts, Hauntings, Spirit Possession; and God.

What are Ghosts?  Are there supernatural hauntings? What causes paranormal activity?  These are all questions that are growing more common in a modern scientific world.  The questions are not if a supernatural realm exists but what is the source of the supernatural elements.  When looking at what God reveals we can come to understand what the world is having a hard time understanding.

The Season of Advent

 Following the Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement, and Feast of Tabernacles that remind us of things still to come; Advent reminds us to prepare our hearts to remember who already came and who will come again.  The weeks of the four Sundays before Christmas is known as Advent.  It is an extra-biblical season and by no means is required for Christians to celebrate but is up to the conscience of each person (Romans 14:5–6).  This article will get into the history behind Advent and its meaning.

What Makes Christianity The True Faith?

 What Makes Christianity The True Faith?  Can it be trusted and what makes it different from all other faiths?  We will briefly provide unintentional historic support, modern secular historians opinions, archeology and philosophical supports; as well as discuss the support from the death and resurrection and biblical prophecy for what makes Christianity true.  Again, these are brief to allow for self reflection and research. 

Is The Church Shrinking?

As we see an increase in the 'non religious' or 'unaffiliated' religious preferences grow in government censuses and religious surveys and the numbers of self identified 'christians' get small each year, we tend to think the Church is shrinking.  Even most denominations and nondenominational churches show a slow but steady decline of church membership.  Does all this indicate the Body of Christ, the people group set aside by God himself as first fruits for his Son and The Bride of Christ; shrinking?