Christian Living

After you have received the gift of eternal life, God doesn’t want you to live in doubt. He wants you to know that you have received eternal life and a new relationship with Jesus Christ. This is the theme of the entire book of First John. I would like to look at three undeniable promises of eternal life God has given us:

The next six weeks are some of the busiest on the calendar. Between now and Christmas, life can easily swallow us up in a whirlwind of holiday preparation and activity. Yet, these busy weeks also hold some of the most sacred moments of the entire year…if we will intentionally look for them.

Sermon outline: This is an abbreviated outline with the complete sermon downloadable at the bottom of the post. The devil is a dirty liar. Among the most dangerous and effective of his lies is this: “It is hard to do right and easy to do wrong.” This statement seems true to us sometimes.

Daniel’s testimony was that light could be seen in his life—the light of God. Our world is definitely a dark place. If ever a light could shine brightly, it is today. What affects my brilliance as I let my little light shine?

There are many strange and unscriptural ideas abroad about revival and just as many about the “end times.” One harmful combination of such false notions is the idea that there will be no great revivals in the last days, that the eras of awakenings are past, and that we live in a time just before the second coming of Christ when no revival can be expected.

Worship and music are as essential to each other as worship and preaching. It seems there is always tension between time dedicated to music and time dedicated to preaching. In our world today, preaching is being shoved into a smaller and smaller time constraint while it seems the services are filled with what amounts to little more than an emotional rock concert.

Have you ever thought of your trial as a stewardship from God? It is. And when stewarded properly, God will use your trial to give you some of His greatest gifts. God has given us an incredible, amazing resource with which to steward our trials. It’s called grace.

We all hit points of plateau in our Christian life—times when we don’t seem to be growing like we wish or when we are struggling to gain momentum in spiritual growth. Are you there? Do you want off the plateau?

I heard someone quote an old preacher who said regarding this text, “I believe in chasing buzzards off. I don’t believe in chasing buzzards.” It seems to me that this text and the thought given by that man of God now in Heaven are especially significant to us today.

If you were a football player, you would think the most precious possession during a game was the football. Should you have the opportunity to receive or intercept a pass, you would run with everything you had toward the goal line, while protecting the ball from the other team.

Music is the accompaniment of life. The music a man chooses as his accompaniment says a lot about his lifestyle and his belief system. The world uses rock music to accompany themselves in their revelry and reflect their philosophy and approach to life.

God has given us the answer that the world needs—the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But what do we do with this treasure? How do we steward the Gospel? How can we get this truth into all the world?

What would you say the “spiritual temperature” of our society is today? Is it predominantly Christian? Are the world’s morals becoming more godly? Should Christians emulate the worldly cultural system we find ourselves in or be different—set apart?

Do you ever feel that you have more responsibilities than time in which to perform them? Actually, I don’t know of anyone who doesn’t feel that way! Thankfully, God has given us a resource to help us make decisions concerning our time. It’s called wisdom!

How many of us have ever heard of Jacob Knapp? In his day, he was one of the best known preachers in America. Often titled “Elder” Knapp because of the Baptist teaching that the senior officer of the local church is the bishop/elder/pastor (see Titus 1:5-9 and 1 Peter 5:1-4), this man has a unique place in the history of Baptist work in this country.

One of the defining moments in my life occurred at a restaurant table nearly thirty years ago. Across the table was a man who had been one of my childhood heroes. Years earlier, he had preached in our church and signed my Bible.

Telling lies has been and will be part of the human condition; after all, before we were saved we were of our father the devil, and he is the father of lies. However, I must admit it seems like lying has soared to new heights in our culture.

Christ’s last command before He ascended to Heaven is found in Mark 16:15: “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” Every person has an eternal soul, and it is our privilege and responsibility to share with them the good news of salvation.

To be a happy Christian, you must have a spiritual homeostatic equilibrium. This is a steady state of maintaining your optimal point or point of finest functioning for the Lord.