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 Blessing And Priviledge of Oppression

There are two ways to view oppression and persecution; (1) as being a victim and the negative societal effect or (2) as a righteous opportunity with positive eternal effects.  But how do we properly see oppression and persecution through the eyes of God?  We must take to heart what Jesus spoke and believe it, trust it, and apply it.  Are you an oppressed victim or a victorious servant?  Does how you handle oppression bring God glory?  Is he pleased with how you live under oppression?  We need to look at what Christ Jesus reveals to know and see how oppression can be turned on it head.  How oppression can be a blessing and privilege in the life of a Christian.

Women Pastors And God's Design

This has become a touchy issue in recent history.  With more American and European churches allowing more woman pastors in teaching and church body leadership roles than ever before, we ask, why in recent history and not prior?  Why do some object to this?  Is this gender discrimination?  In all the questions we can ask, we must first and foremost turn to Holy Scripture to determine what is truth and what God reveals about this issue.

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?).

Is Christmas Pagan?

Every year before Christmas we all see people sharing memes and articles about how Christmas is a pagan holiday or comes from pagan roots.  But is this true and does it matter?  First lets investigate where Christmas, the seasonal symbols and ideals, came from and discuss why it matters.

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?

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.

Actually Trusting God

Knowing God can be trusted and actually trusting God are two different things.  One is just simple knowledge, the other is the application of the knowledge.  One is easier than the other.  But also our understanding of who God is helps us be able to actually trust him.  We can have no worries about the unknown future, results, and have peace with Joy; all from actually trusting God.

True Revival

What is a revival, who sparks it, and how does one begin?  In more charismatic circles we hear about revivals and supposed prophesied soon coming and that we need to do A, B, and C to usher in a revival. But looking at history, we see a couple major revivals.  We can also learn what happened and how it happened when we look through the lens of scripture.

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.

A Godly Couple

A Godly couple reflects the nature of God and relationship with God between himself and mankind and between Christ and the Church.  Only through His original design of holy relationships we see how the power of God is felt and seen.  The relationship itself can be seen as powerful in its unity and purity for the rest of the world to see and come to know.  What does a Godly Couple look like?  What do they do different from the rest of the fallen world?

Hyper Spiritualism

What is Hyper Spiritualism?  It is a blend of emotional focused worship and subconscious guilt hiding that does not produce true spiritual change in a persons life.   Hyper Spiritualism can be found at seeker focused, emergent, and charismatic churches.  Hyper Spiritualist desire to act and feel a certain way to 'feel' more spiritual and to 'feel' better about the sin they live in.  This form of pseudo-worship makes people focus on their feelings at the moment without ever addressing the deeper need of a heart change in the rest of their life.  What does scripture say about Hyper Spiritualism?

What is 'Doctrine' and does it matter?

The word doctrine comes from a Latin word, doctrina, which means, “that which is taught.”  and it refers to the Christian teachings on Scripture, God, man, Christ, salvation, church, and the end of all things. Simply put, doctrines are organized teachings by their subjects.  The Doctrine of something is simply the organized explanation of what is taught about that something.  When it comes to Jesus, who Jesus is and what he did, is simply the doctrine of Christ.

The Church and Politics

How should the true body of Christ respond to an ever growing hostile and aggressive political landscape?   To get a well rounded grasp on this issue, please check out God and The Government and Who would Jesus vote for?  What happens when secular society and worldly minded, politically charged activists, demand support from the Church for their political agendas and candidates?  We will look at the deeper issue than just the game of politics.

God and The Government

God sets up and institutes each government (Romans 13:1-4) which can be a positive or negative judgement on the people of that nation.  Some times God is not pleased with those whom people chose to lead the people but allows it (Hosea 8:4) and hands people over to their sinful heart and desire (Romans 1:24).  But how are Christians called interact with their ordained governments and what is their absolute Human Right?

PRAYER

One of THE most important aspects of Christianity is the direct connection to God that is only allowed through faith in Jesus Christ.  What do we pray for and how should we pray to a all power all knowing absolutely holy God? What is the purpose of prayer if God is all knowing?  This article will address all these questions about this vital and essential aspect of Christian life.

Small/Home Groups

As local church communities grow into large congregations it gets harder for the church leadership to address all the needs of the larger growing congregation.   Creating small groups / home groups is a strategy to help fulfill the material and spiritual needs.  There are advantages in this strategy.  In this article we will address the strategy in a biblical way and discuss how to form a plan and execute it.  We will lay out the who, what, when, where, how, and why of small/house groups.

The Self and The Center of Everything

Americans are quick to think that they are the standard of the world.  Their individuality and rights are the greatest gifts to all the world.  But what if God required of all those who followed him to give up their 'rights' and everything in this world; for his glory.  Humans are not the center of everything. The individual is either a self righteous idol trying to be its own god, or enslaved to another humanistic idol, or a self-denying, self-sacrificial, supremely valuable instrument of God's Glory.  Are you the center of all that you do or is God? How would you know?

The Satisfaction of Christ Jesus

All humanity longs for something.  It needs and desires something more than itself.  It invents and subscribes to things that attempt to satisfy that need and desire.  Religions, cultural norms and laws, hobbies and possessions, careers and status.  All these things CAN attempt to satisfy the human longing for contentment and peace.  Even some "christians" are not satisfied with just their religion, they need greater health, more wealth, and happiness too.  But the absolute power of being in Christ is the absolute contentment and peace that only comes from him.