648. Does “Hyper-Grace” Give People a License to Sin? (Part 1)
647. Those with “Itching Ears” – Who Are They?
The Lord Has Spoken
A favorite scene in the popular movie Forrest Gump shows Forrest running and a crowd following him. He has been running for two years and not saying a word. He stops, and the following crowd can’t wait to hear his profound first words. After the breathless pause, he says, “I’m pretty tired. I think I’ll go home now."
Not the profundity they were expecting! When people, whom we deem significant, finally speak we long to hear what they say. Who is the most significant person in the universe? Of course, it is God himself. When he speaks, something happens.
He spoke, and creation came into existence. He spoke to Moses, and Israel as a covenant people came into existence. He spoke fully by sending Jesus as the Word of God to reveal his thoughts in a way that any hearing heart could understand.
Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son whom he appointed he heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. -- Hebrews 1:1-2
Jesus, Lord Over All
Jesus has been made Lord over all (Acts 2:36), and his words carry the weight of sovereignty. Contrary to current fantasies, everyone's words do not have the same weight of truth. Jesus is truth, and all his words are true. As he closes out the most famous sermon ever preached, he said,
Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it. -- Matthew 7:24-27
The significance of this declaration was that Jesus was differentiating between his interpretation of truth and that which the religious leaders had called the word of God. Even today, Bible verses interpreted without the aid of Jesus, the living Word, are a form of manmade religion, and they can be very dangerous.
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The Foundation of Truth
The cosmic battle has always been about the truth of what God says. The serpent challenged God's word to Adam and Eve. Pagan religions denied the word of God as it was given to Israel. Herod tried to stop the word of God from being fulfilled by killing the young boys when Jesus was born. The Pharisees had replaced the word of God with their own traditions.
Jesus told a parable about his kingdom in terms of sowing seed, and it revealed the various responses to the word of God. The devil stole some of the seeds. Some were scorched by persecution. Some were choked by the busyness of daily life. Some fell on good soil and produced fruit -- the same fruit as the wise man who built on the rock. It is a clear teaching of scripture that the words of the Lord are essential.
We can reject them in favor of some other opinion. Or we can neglect them by refusing to take advantage of their availability. Either way, we lose. Neglect has the same effect as rejection in this case. The word does not produce life.
A house built on anything but the rock-solid truth of God's word revealed in Jesus is going to fall at some point.
The original Liar is actively replacing God's truth with lies. These lies that replace the word will produce death. One of the most prominent lies is that we can ignore the words of the Lord and still succeed in his creation. But his words don't fail.
A house built on anything but the rock-solid truth of God's word revealed in Jesus is going to fall at some point. The rain will come. The winds will blow. The house will fall. Whether it is one's personal life, the family, the business, the church, or the government -- it will not stand.
Listening to the Lord
God has shown his mercy in giving us his word and the promised power to align with it. Rejecting his mercy is serious. He will continue to love the fallen as a Father cares for his children, and there is no pit too deep that he can't deliver, but there are consequences that follow foolishness -- which cause pain to many.
It is not a light thing when a person or a society rejects or neglects the word of God. Mocking Jesus and his words might seem to be funny on late-night talk shows, but there are rains coming to reveal the foolishness of such.
But there is great promise to those who hear and embrace the word of the sovereign Lord. A house built on that solid foundation will withstand whatever comes against it. It will be productive as the seed of the word grows. Since Jesus is Lord, we should listen to his word and be eager to make it a priority to implement it in every aspect of our lives.
Jesus is lord -- and he has spoken! What he says is profound. Listen. Hear. Build your house on it.
Betrayed By Your Heart
Jesus said that out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks (Matt. 12:34). In other words, whatever is within you is what is going to come out of you. If you are full of fear and worry, then you will speak words of fear and worry. If you are a person full of
Lies Religion Taught Me & The Truth That Set Me Free
As a Believer, have you ever been told you’re going to be judged by God someday – that when you get to Heaven He’s going to display, on a big video screen, your life and all the things you’ve ever done wrong? Friends, I invite you to join in on an online Bible study that […]
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633. Summarizing the Scripture (Part 4): We Can Learn from Adam’s Mistake
In this episode we briefly reminisced about our past days in Christian radio, and some of the grace-based songs we used to play. We specifically mentioned these two songs that we both really like.
632. Adam’s Temptation to Be More Like God
632. Summarizing the Scripture (Part 3): Adam’s Temptation to Be More Like God
The Adventure of Spirit-led Living
My brother David lives on the edge. He likes action, he likes adventure and he can’t stand to sit around for too long before taking off again. He has traveled to over 150 countries, jumped out of an airplane, swam with sharks and I guarantee you he is currently contemplating which daring feat he can […]
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Is The Church Relevant?
The church in contemporary society is often criticized and even mocked by those within as well as those on the outside. There is much to be corrected in the church's witness, but we should make no mistake: the church is vital. Without the witness of the church, society will rot in darkness. When the salt loses its preserving quality or the light no longer reveals reality, true hope is lost.
The church is God's gift to the world. With all its imperfections, it does what no other institution can do. So many caricatures of the church have polluted the minds of the casual observer, that many are now concluding that it is so irrelevant as to be dispensable. Bad mistake.
Courting the Culture to “Stay Relevant”
Cultural relevancy is fluid. When the church has tried to change in order to be relevant to culture, it invariably loses its distinctive. It never catches up. Culture without the influence of the transcendent message of the church is always moving toward the exaltation of mankind. When any part of creation takes precedence over the Creator, deception and destruction is just a matter of time.
The aim of the church is to show how the timeless relevancy of the word of God applies to culture. To do less is to deny our calling. It is to show a lack of love for those around us.
In a culture that makes fun of biblical imagery, we cannot rewrite the Scriptures just to be relevant.
There is a great temptation to strike back when mocked. The church can't afford to fall for that. It is contrary to our being. We must refuse to be embarrassed by our distinctive message and model. In a culture that makes fun of biblical imagery, we cannot rewrite the Scriptures just to be relevant. We must boldly interpret and apply the truth that confronts the skeptics and comforts the saints. We don't shun the defense of our beliefs, but we recognize that argument alone is not our assignment.
Proclamation of the good news in Jesus Christ is relevant in any culture. Whether humans will admit it or not does not change the reality that we all know we will face judgment one day -- and we tremble.
We intuitively know that we have fallen short of even our own moral standards, not only God's laws. We are lonely at a level we cannot fully explain, and we are never satisfied with our achievements regardless of how great.
Let Us Look Onward and Embrace Our Role
It is not time for the church to be paralyzed by always looking inward. We are a forward-looking family of faith. We believe that because the gospel can change one person, it can change multitudes. As people are transformed by the grace of God, their moral intuitions will instruct the values and policies of the culture. Our love for our Lord and our embrace of his mission demand that we stand our ground as his church. The world will suffer if we refuse.
Let us not be embarrassed at the distinctives of the kingdom of God that the culture thinks strange. Let's make much of the virgin-born Messiah that the culture labeled a bastard. Let's glory in a small-town boy who was run out of his home town, but walked out of his own grave yard (a phrase I love, borrowed from Russell Moore's book, Onward).
Let's embody the truth of the gospel in the way we speak with kindness, work with diligence, war with courage and love without condition.
Let's joyfully bow before a crucified Nazarene who now governs the world. Let's salute the Cross as our national flag, identifying with the kingdom of God over all other loyalties. Let's speak the word of God as articulated in the Apostle's gospel, with full confidence that it is more powerful than any tyrant, and more effective than any sword of steel or opinion of man.
Let's embrace our role as reflectors of the Son of man who served, suffered and sacrificed to fulfill his mission. Let's embody the truth of the gospel in the way we speak with kindness, work with diligence, war with courage and love without condition.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes… -- Romans 1:16 (ESV)
Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever: Amen. -- Ephesians 3:20-21 (ESV)
True or False? Being Sin Conscious Makes Me Sin Less
I laughed, I cried, I kept screaming “PREACH” and I thought, my goodness, if every Christian on the planet could hear this teaching. Dr. Creflo Dollar is doing such an amazing job unveiling the beauty of Jesus right now. I absolutely loved this message and I loved what he said about racism at the end […]
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Grace Based Holiness – A Brilliant Message by Dr. Creflo Dollar
Friends, I just finished watching such an amazing message by Dr. Creflo Dollar titled Grace Based Holiness. I must’ve cried 45 minutes straight because there was such a strong anointing on this teaching. You’ll see what I mean when you watch it. Right after I finished I called Creflo Dollar Ministries to seek permission to […]
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