“For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.”—Romans 8:14-17
God has given us many benefits through faith in Christ. Among them is …
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’”—Romans 1:16,17
Why would anyone be ashamed of the Gospel? Why does Paul pray that he might not be ashamed of this message of hope and salvation? The answer is that the Gospel is offensive to the unconverted person. The very notion that the death of a …
“The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them: The LORD bless you and keep you; The LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; The LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.”—Numbers 6:22-27
What a difference “face time” makes! Today in business, networking by using Skype is preferable to connecting by telephone because you can see …
“Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, ‘You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.’”—Leviticus 19:2
There are many ways in which we cannot be like God; we’ll never possess attributes such as omniscience, omnipotence, or omnipresence. But one way in which we can, in a measure, be like Him, is in the matter of holiness. “You shall be holy, for I am holy” is a scriptural refrain.
In a word, we are to be imitators of God in matters of holiness. Holiness should be the goal of …
“Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off and said to Moses, ‘You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.’ Moses said to the people, ‘Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.”—Exodus 20:18-20
Is it true that the fear of God is simply an Old …
“Then the angel of God who was going before the host of Israel moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them, coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. And there was the cloud and the darkness. And it lit up the night without one coming near the other all night.”—Exodus 14:19-20
Think of the drama! The Israelites, two million strong, were trekking toward the wilderness when they found themselves trapped.
“I do not ask that you take them out of world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in the truth.”—John 17:15-17, 19
Many parents who bolt the door of their house at night, nevertheless allow thieves to come in to their homes and steal their children’s hearts. The body of the child is there but the heart is being stolen …
“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me… By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.”—John 15:4, 8, 9
We should be shocked to realize that Jesus says that if we are not fruit-bearing Christians, we are really of no use whatever to God! Even more sobering, He says that if anyone does …
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”—John 14:27
Keep in mind the context of Jesus’ promise. He had just told His disciples that He was about to go away, leaving them on this earth while He returned to “His Father.” The disciples were devastated and confused. After all, as long as Jesus was with them, He would take care of every situation as it developed: He could quiet storms, provide instant food for multitudes, …
Often when we pray for others, we either fall into meaningless repetition, or submit a grocery list of requests to God, hoping that He’ll respond to our wishes and desires. When we’ve finished praying, we end up being unsatisfied, fretful, and uncertain as to whether or not we can trust God with the assignment we’ve just given Him.
My personal experience has been that such “need-based” praying is often boring, filled with uncertainty, and reduces prayer to a meaningless exercise.
What if we changed our perspective on prayer and began to pray Scripture? What if we echoed back to God …
