What is The Costly Foundation of Worship?

Praise and Worship Truths

What Is worship? Worship is the highest and noblest act that any person can do. When men worship, God is satisfied. When you worship, you are fulfilled. Why did Jesus Christ come? He came to make worshipers out of rebels. Think about the change that must take place in an unregenerate human being in order to get a person to the point of becoming a worshiper, that is the change that took place in you when Jesus Christ became your Lord. This is one way you can honor the Lord by tapping into the worship part of your being and giving God the glory.

[Tweet “The higher you desire to go in God, the deeper you have to dig.”]

#S3-042: More of How Do You Know You Really Believe God [Podcast]

Take The Test!

We can learn so much from looking at Abraham in the Old Testament. Abraham was fully persuaded and absolutely convinced that God would do what He had promised He would do. He is called the father of faith for a reason and rightly so. And here’s the marvelous truth you can be just like him in faith. But how can we get there? How can we grow our confidence in God? One way is to understand what it means to believe God? Let’s ask the question then. What does it mean to believe? What does it mean to stand on the Word of God? There are some tests you can take. And that’s what we’re talking about in this week’s Light On Life.

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[Tweet “You don’t want to bring God your opinion. Bring Him His Word. Take the will of God test.”]

More of What Is the Ministry of Reconciliation

The Epistle of 2nd Corinthians

In last week’s post on 2 Corinthians 5, we asked the question ‘Have you ever wondered what believers in Jesus should be involved in? What should our focus be?’ We saw in Second Corinthians that one of our roles is the ministry of reconciliation. According to the Word, every believer has this ministry. What we are endeavoring to learn is what is that ministry and how can we fulfill it? We left off in verse nine showing the strong connection between this ministry and the promised glorified body Jesus has waiting for us.

[Tweet “Preaching the gospel to the world doesn’t mean ‘Shove the gospel down everyone’s throat you meet.”]

#S3-041: How Do You Know You Really Believe God? [Podcast]

Take the Test!

Jesus ministered healing to twenty-three individual cases. In the vast majority of these individual cases, you can see evidence of the person’s faith in connection with their healing. What does it mean to have faith for healing? What does it mean to believe? How do you know if you really are believing God? You may have had those times where you thought you believed God, and nothing happened. You were believing the Lord for some healing in your body, and you got no better fast. How do you know if you’ve connected? Everything is by faith. You know by faith. You expect by faith. If you want to connect with God, you have to speak in His domain. You have to speak His language. Otherwise, you won’t be heard. Heaven is a faith place. The domain of unbelief is not understood there. You will not connect if you’re speaking in the wrong realm. So, how do you know if you really are believing God’s Word? One way you can find out? Take the test. There are seven tests which you can apply, which we are going to go over. These are not all the tests there are. These are seven that I know about. If you want to receive from God, take the test.

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[Tweet “You know you believe when no one can talk you out of it, even under pressure.”]

What is the Ministry of Reconciliation?

The Epistle of 2nd Corinthians

Have you ever wondered what believers in Jesus should be involved in? What should our focus be? Does the Bible tell us? The scripture says, ‘Seek first the kingdom of God’ (Matthew 6:33) Why did He tell us this? Why didn’t the Lord just save us and just take us to heaven? There must be a reason. Second Corinthians speaks of the ministry of reconciliation. According to the Word, every believer has this ministry. What is that ministry and how can we fulfill it?

[Tweet “There’s a lot in life which can cause loss of focus, but Paul reminds us that our walk is by faith.”]

#S3-040: Why the Awesome Hand of God Brings Blessing [Podcast]

God's Mighty Power and Anointing

Proverbs 21:1 says the king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord. That means all the kings, not just the good ones, not just the righteous ones. So, in last week’s podcast, we honed in on the phrase ‘the Hand of the Lord’. What does that mean, ‘the heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord?’ The Bible speaks of the ‘hand of the Lord’, the ‘finger of God,’ and the arm of the Lord. But here, in Proverbs twenty-one verse one, we have hand of God, not arm or finger. We saw that the phrase ‘the hand of the Lord’ or the phrase ‘the hand of God’ occurs fifty-five times in the Bible. What is the Hand of Lord? Is it a good thing or a bad thing? Is it something you want to experience or something you don’t want to experience? And so, we looked at the negative side, the judgment side of the hand of the Lord. We saw it manifest in the case of Israel’s sin. We saw it manifest in the New Testament of Ananias and Saphira and we pretty much determined that we don’t want any of that ‘hand of the Lord’ in judgment business because our God is a consuming fire. There is a positive side to the hand of the Lord. There is a blessing side and as believer’s we want all there is of the blessing which comes from the hand of God in our daily life. The heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord. That’s what we are talking about in this week’s Light on Life.

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[Tweet “Physical strength is rooted in the spirit of man not the muscles of man. It has spiritual roots.”]

Why You’re Bored in Church and How to Overcome It

The Epistle of Galatians

In last week’s blog, we looked at one of the first signs to look for when people are disconnecting from their first love. The scriptures warn us about taking this path. They warn us about abandoning our first love (Revelation 2:4). The Greek word ‘abandon’ means ‘to give up’ or ‘to let go’. Jesus knows where your heart is. He knows if you’re giving up or letting go. Which way are you trending, up or down? In today’s post, we are going to look at the second sign people transmit when they are considering defecting from the from the ranks: boredom. If you’re seeing this sign in yourself, beware.

[Tweet “Boredom stems from the thinking when you hear the Word and say, “I already know that.””]

#S3-039: Why the Awesome Hand of God Brings Growth [Podcast]

God's Mighty Power and Anointing

William J. Wolfe has called Abraham Lincoln “one of the greatest theologians of America.” He added that Lincoln’s theology was profound, “not in the technical meaning of producing a system of doctrine, certainly not as the defender of someone denomination, but in the sense of seeing the hand of God intimately in the affairs of nations.” 1 The hand of God is seen among the nations and is seen in the well-known verse in Proverbs 21:1. In today’s Light on Life, we will look at the phrase the ‘hand of the Lord’ and how it applies to the rulers of the nations.

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[Tweet “God’s little pinky finger is enough to knock the devil completely out of commission.”]

The Truth About the Enormous Problem of Itching Ears

The Epistle of Galatians

In the past couple of posts, we addressed the idea of how believers in Paul’s day were abandoning Jesus for another gospel. We defined some of the words Paul used in describing the defection of the Galatians. We looked at the words, ‘I marvel’, ‘turning away’, and ‘so soon’. In today’s post, we are going to look at some of the signs the Word of God warns us about when people consider turning from their first love. When the Bible says people have itching ears, just what exactly does that mean? Let’s take a look at Paul’s admonition to Timothy.

[Tweet “The ‘itching ears’ phenomenon is something which has always been and is now.”]

#S3-038: Why Diversity Empowers Us Actually to Overcome Racism [Podcast]

Overcoming the Spirit of Division

I heard this story this week from a good friend who has been following this series on ‘How to Overcome Racism’ in the church. And his story illustrates the reason why we need to teach and are teaching on the subject of racism. As it turns out, he was attending a church in Phoenix Arizona and volunteered to work with the Pastor in building up the work of God there. The Pastor was African-American as was most of the congregation. The volunteer was Caucasian. As it turns out, he was passing out fliers in the neighborhood with a young lady from the church who was all working for God. So both of them are going house to house. After a while, they decide to take a break from their labors. They hadn’t eaten anything, so they decide to go to a restaurant. Now mind you, he was not romantically interested in this lady. They were just hungry and wanted to replenish themselves. While they are in the restaurant, he notices someone staring at them to the point where it got to be uncomfortable. He didn’t think about it. He didn’t really put the pieces together. A few months after this, the pastor calls him into his office and tells him he has to leave the church.’Leave the church, why?’, he asks. The pastor tells him, ‘Because, you are demon possessed.’ So this man begins to quote the Word of God all the while confessing the Lordship of Jesus. So he says to the pastor, ‘Does this sound like I’m demon possessed?’ ‘No’, says the pastor but you’re still going to have to leave the church. The church, apparently, didn’t approve of anything interracial. Months later when judgment fell on that church this pastor reconnected with this man and apologized. He had gotten pressure from his deacons and constituents in the church and had caved into their demands. Racism in the church. It exists. There’s no need to hide from it. There’s no need to act like it’s not there. It shouldn’t be there but is there and that’s why we’re doing this series on ‘How to Overcome Racism in the Church’. We’re continuing on with it in this week’s Light on Life.

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[Tweet “Diversity is God’s idea. In His magnificent creation, He did not make everything the same.”]

Beware of Abandoning Jesus and Know How to Spot the Signs – Part 2

The Epistle to the Galatians

In the Virginia Medical Monthly one doctor tells the story of a woman who grew backward. This woman had grown normally, married, and had three children. Life was grand until the husband and father died when the children were in high school. The mother doubled her devotion to the children. She changed her clothes to those of a girl of twenty, joined in her children’s parties and fun. In a few years, the children noticed that as they grew older their mother was growing younger. Psychiatrists call it “personality regression,” which means “a person walking backward.” Usually, such people stop going backward at a certain age. But not this woman. She slipped backward at the rate of one year for every three or four months of time that went forward. Although she was 61 years old she acted and talked like a 6-year-old. She was sent to a sanitarium, where she insisted on wearing short dresses, playing with toys, and babbling like a child. Then she became like a three-year-old; she spilled her food, crawled on the floor, and cried “Mama.” Backward still farther to the age of one, she drank milk curled up like a tiny baby. Finally, she went back over the line and died. 1 Successful Christian life is a pressing march forward. We can’t stay stationary nor be as Lot’s wife who looked back. If you look back, you slide back. This is what the Galatians did. They looked backward at the law. Instead of looking forward to Jesus.

[Tweet “These believers were the ‘Benedict Arnold’ of their day. They were traitors to the gospel of Jesus.”]

#S3-037: Yet More of How to Overcome Racism in the Church [Podcast]

Overcoming the Spirit of Division

Once the Devil was walking along with one of his cohorts. They saw a man ahead of them pick up something shiny. What did he find? asked the cohort. A piece of the truth, the Devil replied. Doesn’t it bother you that he found a piece of the truth? asked the cohort. No, said the Devil, I will see to it that he makes a religion out of it. 1 There has always been religion on the world. A shiny piece of the truth, not the whole truth just a piece of it. A piece of a truth can lead to a whole lie. Israel had descended from the truth of God’s Word into a miry pit of ‘piece religion.’ They had pieces of the truth but not the whole truth.

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[Tweet “Every person is noble and of royal blood. For from one blood, God made all men to dwell on earth.”]