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Many things lost in life can be restored; however, time misused can never be recovered. Once the sun goes down, the day is forever gone.
However, many times success is perceived the way society defines it rather than the way God views it. It’s seen through the eyes of the temporal rather than the eternal. This blurs our vision and understanding, which results in misguided pursuits.
The truth is that eternity cannot be mentally comprehended. Our minds are finite, prohibited from grasping perpetual or everlasting concepts.
The fear of God is what keeps our hearts within reach of the Holy Spirit.
Only those who fear God are capable of hearing the words of eternal life.
Human reasoning can create a form of beauty and goodness that is contrary to the eternal love of God.
The key is to know what the King desires and looks for, not what seems good to society or human reasoning.
This gentleman read from the sacred writings, “Dear brothers and sisters, what’s the use of saying you have faith if you don’t prove it by your actions? That kind of faith can’t save anyone. It isn’t enough just to have faith. Faith that doesn’t show itself by good deeds is no faith at all—it is dead and useless. Now someone may argue, ‘Some people have faith; others have good deeds.’ I say, ‘I can’t see your faith if you don’t have good deeds, but I will show you my faith through my good deeds.’ Do you still think it’s enough just to believe that there is one Jalyn? Well, even the demons
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“You say you had faith, yet faith is not faith unless it is accompanied by corresponding actions of obedience. It is not enough to say you believe, for even the demons believe but are certainly not saved. Those who truly believe will exhibit a changed nature and no longer produce the fruit of an evil one. You continually bore the fruit of the evil lord Dagon, which was only evidence that you never truly believed in me from your heart.”
No one can pluck you out of my hand, but I never said you couldn’t walk away. You alone hold that power.
Jalyn answered, “You were a teacher, but did you not read from the books you taught? ‘Dear brothers and sisters, not many of you should become teachers in the school, for we who teach will be judged by Jalyn with greater strictness.’”29 Double Life countered, “How was I a stumbling block?” Jalyn’s tone became harder. “You caused many of my little ones to stumble and fall permanently. Faint Heart is just one example. She was entrusted to your care. I gave you authority to protect her, not to use her for your own advantage. You used your influence to satiate your lust and violated her and
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The servant will be severely punished, for though he knew his duty, he refused to do it. But people who are not aware that they are doing wrong will be punished only lightly. Much is required from those to whom much is given, and much more is required from those to whom much more is given.’”
So my question is, are we doing the best service to people by not mentioning hell from our pulpits today? Is that true love?
I find it amazing when Christians are stumped by a nonbeliever saying, “How can a loving God send people who have not heard the gospel to hell?” My simple answer is, “It’s not His fault but our own.” Jesus paid the terrible price to free mankind. Afterward, He told those of us who already understood this good news to go into the entire world, telling those who hadn’t heard that we have been redeemed from the curse we brought upon ourselves and upon all creation. We will have to give an account for our generation. God has done His part!
Jesus says the way to identify whether people are genuine Christians is not by what they say, how religious they may seem, or how often they attend Christian gatherings. Rather it is by what they do! Is their fruit selfless and kingdom-focused? Or is it selfish and worldly-focused,
They’ve confessed Jesus as their Lord, but there’s been no heart change. Jesus is now just a part of their lives.
It’s interesting. In many countries where Christians are persecuted, they come to Jesus knowing they are losing their lives. Today in Western societies, we come to Jesus for a better life and entrance into heaven. But we must lose our lives for His sake as well.
We’ve preached a gospel that speaks of free salvation, which is absolutely accurate, but we’ve neglected to tell candidates it will cost them their freedom. When I speak of freedom, this isn’t a matter of real but of perceived liberty, for all those outside Christ are bound to sin. They are slaves even though they may fully believe they’re free.
Here we see the parallel. Many nonbelievers see Christians as slaves, in bondage and losing freedoms while they themselves are free. However, the truth is that those outside of Christ are the ones bound, not unlike those living a lie on the farms while enslaved by the Machines. They are slaves to sin.
He may think he is free because he confessed a sinner’s prayer, yet he has not freely given up his personal “rights” in order to follow Jesus. He still wants his freedoms (which are counterfeit) along with the benefits of salvation. You cannot have both!
They’ll sincerely believe He is their Savior, but they’ll affiliate with Him for the mere fact of what He can do for them rather than for who He is. It’s no different than a woman marrying a man for his money. She may marry him for love, but it’s love for the wrong reasons.
They will attend services, home groups, and other gatherings, hear the Word of God, yet lack transformation.
Scripture doesn’t teach grace as the big Band-Aid but rather as God’s empowering presence within us to do what truth demands of us.
Grace empowers us to serve God acceptably.
that we are not saved by our own good works. However, Polycarp also wrote to believers, “He who raised Him up from the dead will also raise us up—if we do His will and walk in His commandments and love what He loves, keeping ourselves from all unrighteousness.”
So it is not only confessing Jesus, but both confessing Jesus and doing the will of God, that will get us into heaven. And the only way we can do God’s will is through the grace He gives us when we humble ourselves by denying our own lives and receiving Him as Lord.
“Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:26–27).
we allow our experiences to interpret the Word of God rather than allowing the Word of God to establish truth!
In the past I knew only what others had told me, but now I have seen you with my own eyes. So I am ashamed of all I have said and repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42:2–6 TEV)
did you notice that I did not come on the scene while Job or his friends spoke of Me incorrectly? My presence didn’t manifest until someone stood up and spoke the truth!”
Loving Jesus means you lay your life down for Him. You no longer live for yourself but for Him.
There are those not unlike Judas who make great sacrifices for the ministry—even getting people free from demonic oppression, healing the sick, preaching the gospel, and trusting Jesus for salvation—but who have never intimately known Jesus. Their work is all done out of the motive for self-gain, not out of love of God.
Both in searching the scriptures of the New Testament and through years of experience in the ministry, I’ve learned that the greatest trap for pulling people away from their walk with God is unforgiveness.
It is important to note that the offenses we hold against each other, when compared with our initial offense against God, are comparable to a $10,000-debt stacked up against one of fourteen billion dollars! No matter how badly someone has treated you, their wrongdoing does not compare with our transgressions against God.
Some have been shaken by this message about falling from grace, which is so clear in Scripture. They’ve come to me in a panicked state, saying, “I thought we had eternal security.” To this I reply, “Absolutely yes! We do have eternal security! Jesus said He would not lose any the Father gives Him (see John 18:9) because He would never leave or forsake us. But He didn’t say that we couldn’t leave Him.” This usually is met with concerned looks. So then I say, “If you truly love Jesus Christ, why would you ever want out? You will not deny Him if you truly love Him!”
If you love God, you will have no trouble keeping His commandments! If serving God is an obligation, you have entered into a legalistic relationship, and it will be hard to keep His commandments. We should not serve God to earn His approval; we should serve God because we are in love with Him!
Those who lack this foundation will surely slip into the fear of man, and we ultimately serve who we fear. If we fear God, we will obey Him even under pressure. If we fear man, we will yield to man—especially under pressure—and drift toward what benefits our own pleasures, fleshly desires, or pride.
He differentiates between being afraid of God and the fear of the Lord, and there is a distinction. The one who is afraid of God has something to hide. Recall what Adam did when he disobeyed in the Garden of Eden: he hid from the presence of the Lord. On the other hand, the one who fears God is afraid to be away from Him. He runs from disobedience. So the first definition of holy fear is to be terrified to be away from God.
the manifestation of the fear of the Lord is obedience to His Word, ways, or commands.
Wisdom, which we will discuss in great depth in future chapters, is the knowledge and ability to make the right choices at the opportune time. Those who make wrong choices under pressure lack wisdom, and wisdom’s source is the fear of the Lord.
It is the fear of God that keeps us from drifting back into sin.
Then he said something that riveted me: “John, there are millions of American Christians just like me. They call Jesus their Savior and love Him, but they don’t fear Him as their supreme Lord.”
The fear of the Lord gives us strength to not fall away from His grace into a life of lawlessness. The love of God, on the other hand, keeps us from legalism, which also destroys intimacy with God.
If we are not driven by eternity, we will live and communicate more to benefit this life instead of seeing life from an eternal perspective. We will teach people to live for the day rather than to live like the patriarchs, who “waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrews 11:10).
He realized love was not about pleasing others; it was about truth.
So here is the amazing truth: God wrote a book about you prior to your birth, and in it every moment of your life was laid out before a single day passed! The question is, will we fulfill what was planned for us?
In regard to your calling, you’ll not be judged according to what you did but rather according to what you were called to do!
God will show us the final picture but not all the steps to accomplish it. This keeps us in faith rather than reasoning. We need to seek to obey what He tells us, then move toward that goal. Often, however, our next step may not look as if we are headed toward the goal but rather in the opposite direction. Being sold as a slave for ten years after receiving a dream of leadership (as in Joseph’s case) isn’t exactly a logical step. This is why we are told, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will direct your paths”
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The Lord is the One who places His people. Paul tells us, “But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased” (1 Corinthians 12:18). This may be a shocking statement to you: we are not the ones who choose where we go to church. God is!
at some point the believers realized everyone had two major responsibilities. First, to proclaim and teach the gospel to other individuals. Second, to play a role in the local church. The discovery that all believers were to tell the amazing story of Jesus’s resurrection is found in Acts 5:42–6:1: “And daily in the temple, and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ. Now in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplying
