Blog

Why the Cross?

the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. (I Cor 1:18)  There once was a man who wanted to build a bridge to the sun, so he fit stones together and began to raise up a bridge from the ground. His bridge looked beautiful, and much effort went into it, but in the end, the man failed. His goal was hopeless. Such is the story of those who think their works will get them to heaven. And yet, ironically, most people don’t see…

Discerning Christians From Imposters

Beware false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing (Matt 7:15) Father, grant us your Spirit to discern our hearts and the hearts of others.  Christians are new creatures in Christ, sanctified and made clean through our Savior. Yet Christians still struggle with sin. We do not always find it easy to live out our identity in Christ. The past several weeks I have given some principles to help us in our fight for holiness. I now want to address a related question. If Christians still sin, how do we tell the difference between a genuine Christian wrestling with…

The Fight Part III

Fight the good fight of the faith (I Tim 6:12) Father, take my mind off of this world and put it squarely on your precious Word. We are victorious in Christ. But we must fight. We are holy and clean in the Beloved. But we struggle to live out our holiness. So far I have been giving principles for the fight. 1. Understand that we are sinful and weak on our own. 2. Rest in the work of Christ in us. 3. Walk by faith, not by sight. Today, let’s add a couple new principles for fighting the fight of…

The Fight Part II

Fight the good fight of the faith. (I Tim 6:12) Lord, grant me a greater faith to hold onto your precious promises. We have been talking about the fact that the Christian life is a fight for holiness. In the last blog I discussed two principles that help us in this fight: 1) Understand that apart from Christ we are sinful and weak. 2) Rest in the work of Christ in us. Today I will focus on a principle that helps us do number 2. Walk by faith, not by sight (II Cor 5:7). The Christian life is a life…

The Fight

I have fought the good fight . . . (II Tim 3:7) May I fight, O Lord, your fight — the fight for holiness. Last week I discussed the fact that Christians are holy but mentioned as well that we still sin. Such talk may raise an eyebrow or two, for how exactly can holy people sin? Doesn’t holiness mean we don’t sin? To address this question, I want you to think of a bride at a wedding.   When she says, “I do,” she becomes a wife, and her identity changes for the rest of her life. At the wedding, she…