Tag: repentance

Jesus Warned About The Dangers Of Traditions

In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! Thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. (Mark 7:7-9,13 ESV)

This passage is one of the more severe rebukes Jesus ever delivered. Notice his rebuke isn’t because they don’t worship; instead, he says they worship in vain. And it’s significant that this rebuke was triggered by the seemingly innocent tradition of washing hands. But Jesus said when we hold to the tradition of men, we leave the commandment of God. The word leave comes from the same root word as divorce. Which means, we are separating ourselves from God’s truth in order to embrace our traditions. And by separating ourselves from God’s truth, we are forfeiting His true purposes for us.

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Is Sin A Big Deal To God?

Sin is a major topic in the Bible. The words sin, evil, and wicked appear more than 2,300 times in their various forms, and this doesn’t even include the numerous times specific sins are mentioned. This level of communication from God indicates just how important this issue is to Him, and how much He desires His people to have a proper understanding of sin. Yet, despite this abundance of communication, many believers have a misguided, unbiblical perception of sin.

Reading an article that focuses on sin may not be that appealing, but I pray you will commit to reading all of this because it addresses some foundational truths that are vital to our walk with the Lord. And at its core this article isn’t really about sin, it’s about becoming all that God desires us to be.

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Are We Saved Just By Believing?

The Bible tells us, that without exception, all people are lost, meaning that our sin separates us from a holy God 1. But the Bible also proclaims that the lost can be saved and restored to right relationship with God. Since it’s dealing with man’s eternal state, the Bible provides a lot of information regarding salvation. Yet, it’s scary how some people pick and choose among the scriptures and teach things about salvation that are not consistent with the gospel that God proclaims in His word.

If we can’t clearly communicate God’s plan of salvation for the lost, then nothing else we’re saying or doing has merit. At stake are people’s eternal destinies, so we must get this right.

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Does The Bible Endorse Pastors Leading The Church?

Most churches today are led by a pastor. And this person is the defining influence on that church. Their leadership will shape what that church believes and what it does. The very personality of the church will reflect the pastor who leads it. This person will also be the face of that church, being the most visible representation of that church to the community.

If we’re doing this right, if the preeminence of pastors is the biblical way for churches to be governed, then pastors should be as prominent in the Bible as they are in today’s church. But instead of having a pronounced presence in the New Testament revelation of the church, pastors are only mentioned once in the Bible, and some translations don’t mention them at all. Instead of having a strong presence in the scriptures, pastors are strangely absent. It’s as if they don’t exist.

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Do Sunday Sermons Fulfill God’s Plan?

Most Christians consider preaching to be a fundamental requirement of the church, and the Sunday morning sermon is commonly revered as the most important event that takes place in the church each week. While it’s clear that the Bible strongly endorses the ministry of God’s word, is the church’s traditional notion of preaching consistent with the way preaching is presented in the Bible?

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The Danger Of Cherry-Picking The Scriptures

The Bible has a lot to say about the love and goodness of God, and these truths are incredibly positive and reassuring. But it’s a mistake to isolate scriptures that are personally encouraging, and treat them as if this is all the Bible has to say about God; as if he is always this way and cannot be any other way.

The definition of cherry-picking is to choose and take only the most beneficial items from what is available. This approach to the Bible is a temptation that is quite easy to fall into, but it results in a distorted view of God himself, and an inaccurate assessment of where we personally stand with him. If we value an honest and healthy relationship with the Lord, we must persistently seek and welcome everything that God says to us throughout the scriptures.

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Don’t Expect Jesus To Be Reasonable

Jesus Christ is the Son of God who came to earth to seek and to save that which was lost 1. However, in the Bible we never see Jesus inviting people to pray a prayer to “receive” salvation. Throughout the four gospels we see Jesus calling people to follow him, and it’s this commitment to follow Christ that leads to salvation 2. How we understand and respond to Jesus’ call will have eternal implications.

Let’s examine some Biblical examples of Jesus calling people to follow him, and the different ways that they responded.

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Relating To Jesus Beyond The Gospels

The four gospels of the Bible give us amazing insight into the life of Jesus. We get to see the Son of God living among us as the Son of Man. He models perfectly what it means to love God and to love others.  He also models perfect obedience that honors God 1. For all eternity we will marvel at how God’s amazing love caused Him to make the ultimate sacrifice that restores us to right relationship with Him.

As believers we should diligently study the gospels and take to heart the example and teachings of Jesus that are recorded there. However, we are also called to engage in a right-now relationship with the risen Christ. In order to have a healthy relationship with Jesus, we must understand who he is right now, who he is beyond the gospels. Freezing Jesus in time and seeing him only as he was in the time of the gospels will have a negative effect on our present-day interaction with him.

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Should Christians Be Judging?

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged” (Matt 7:1) is a well-known scripture that many people like to quote. It is often used to imply that being critical of anyone in anyway is a violation of how God wants us to act. However, this is only one scripture and should not be viewed as the definitive truth on this issue. The truth about any subject is found in everything the Bible has to say about that subject, and the Bible has much more to say on the subject of whether or not we should judge others and their actions.

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