All equal on judgment day All people are equal in God’s family. No one is insignificant. Are you significant Do you ever feel like you are insignificant? Big name ministries, musicians, or authors may seem more important to you than your life. Will they receive a greater reward in heaven? Let’s see what the Bible says. It has the final say. It is clear. Simple. We learn in John 14 Jesus said that those who love Him will be loved…
Jesus goes on in John 15 verse 7 to tell us what a privilege we have when we pray if we do abide in Him. We will be able to ask what we will and The Father will do it for us. Could that explain why many prayers aren’t answered? We are not abiding (keeping His commandments) in Him. In verse 10 He goes on to explain “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in My love, just as…
Bearing fruit pt.4 A warning This topic of abiding in Christ has its example in the life of Jesus. John 15:10 Jesus says, “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in His love.”KJV And He warns us in verse 6 what will happen if we don’t abide (keep His commandments) in the vine. We will be cast off. Into the burn pile. Discarded. That doesn’t sound…
Bearing Fruit – pt. 3 How? Jesus tells us in John 15:4 “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.” NKJV Abiding in Christ is simply going about our normal everyday lives aware of His presence and living to please Him. In verse 9-10 Jesus encourages His disciples to abide in His love. “If you keep my commandments, you…
Let’s go to the beginning John 15. John 15:1 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.” So we see right away as branches we get all our sustenance from Jesus the vine. All our nourishment from Him. All our abilities come from His life in us. Now we move on to verse 2. “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may…
Could we be missing something, maybe a great experience in our walk of faith? We want to walk in His will. School graduates want to know God’s will for their lives. Many believers want to know they are daily walking in His will. But how to know? Dare I say, do we need to know the big picture? Are we so fixated on discovering God’s will for our lives that we miss life? Are we so concerned about becoming all…
We can’t love God without knowing Him. Just like we can’t love someone we don’t know. It’s not possible. Knowing God takes time and effort, a lot of focused effort. Whatever we want from God we must seek Him with all of our heart. This isn’t a half-hearted attempt. No, it takes a constant focused pursuit of Him even while doing life. Loving God is a response to His loving us. With people, it is a choice, but with God…
The Old Testament sacrifices were a sweet, pleasant aroma to Jehovah God. It cost the givers. It cost the animal’s life. It was a service, a worship to God. Jesus said that a friend will lay down his life for a friend. We tend to think of this as physically dying for that friend. That rarely happens. It isn’t usually required of us. That kind of sacrifice can mean something quite ordinary. What does happen frequently are everyday chances to…
We all lose touch with God in our daily lives. That was not meant to be. We are meant to live in His Presence all the time. God promised to never leave us or forsake us. In reality, it is we who leave Him as we carry on with life. When we set Him aside to attend to our responsibilities, we cut ourselves off from Him. It is not intentional. It is done in ignorance. We compartmentalize our life. God…
I want to take a few minutes and expand a little on last week’s prayer about hunger for God. Create in us a hunger for You, O God, that is a starving, painful hunger. A longing, a pining for You that doesn’t just threaten to consume us, but actually does consume us. It consumes our thoughts, desires, and plans even while we go through every day with its responsibilities, relationships, and relaxation. May it be the default system running in…
