Unless the criticism you receive is for being lazy, being criticized is likely to be a good thing. People who don’t do anything of significance usually don’t take much flak. But even if you should suffer for righteousness, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear or be disturbed, but set apart the Messiah as Lord in your hearts, […]
One of the greatest weaknesses of the institution we call the church is that it compels us to a greater allegiance to its doctrines than to its Head. More time is spent in some circles teaching adherents how to defend themselves from Baptists and Methodists and Pentecostals and Roman Catholics than is spent teaching how to become more profitable servants […]
It seems to be a pitiful shame that today we have a hundred English versions of the Hebrew Scriptures, with the added value of the New Testament, and two thousand years of church history to tranquilize us from listening to the Holy Spirit. He is all the first century believers had, so they weren’t distracted from turning their world upside […]
Being filled with the Spirit is not optional if we expect to serve Jesus. It is neither a one-time experience that doesn’t need to be repeated frequently. The difference between the first time and the subsequent times of being filled is that after being filled from without the first time, we are filled from within, as the Spirit becomes in […]
The warfare over your life is bigger than you think. The attacks on your health, your property, your relationships, your rest, and all the rest, are allowed in your life so that you have opportunities to have increase in the process of Christ being formed in you. That important purpose needs to have faith applied to it so that it […]
Jesus offered the greatest threats and the least mercy to the scholars He encountered. He chose a very different sort of people to continue His work when He left the earth – fishermen, a tax collector, a revolutionary, and a couple of strays. Under the influences of Roman mythology, the only leaders we respect are scholars. Perhaps we need more […]
William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, was convinced that a random talk was far more effective in the process of changing lives than a well-prepared sermon. If we spend time on purpose among other believers discussing the things of the Spirit and the Kingdom, we will become more mature and more effective in our lives. If we are afraid […]
When Yahweh judges a matter or a person or a nation or an organization, He is pronouncing what is righteous, and informing the judged regarding their alignment with that righteousness. If the judged has had their sins paid for by the blood of Jesus and are in Christ, there is no condemnation, even though there was guilt. The matters related […]
We don’t have to wait until the battles in life are over to have victory. Jesus already won a victory that overcame the world. He embarrassed His enemies at the cross and the grave. The place where we fight is maintaining our position of victory. The first evidence we may see of it most days is that we have peace […]
Here are a few quotes from Karl Marx, written as parts of a critique of “Philosophy of Right,” written in 1820 by Georg Hegel: • Man makes religion, religion does not make man. • Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the […]