Blog (Page 3)

Matthew 16:15-16 “He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed), the Son of the living God.”             Jesus asked His followers a very important question here: “Who do you say I am?” Jesus wanted them to understand that a proper understanding of who He is would lead to a right relationship with God. First, He asked the disciples to tell Him who other people thought He was,…

Matthew 16:25 “For whoever wishes to save his life [in this world] will [eventually] lose it [through death], but whoever loses his life in this world for My sake will find it (that is, life with Me for all eternity).”             Christians are commanded to lose their lives. This means that we ought to deliberately release our lives to God and His kingdom. One of the biggest hindrances to doing this, is our view of what constitutes our view of…

Phil. 3:13 “Brothers and sisters, I do not consider that I have made it my own yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead.”             The world will tell you that the dominating influence in your life is your past. If you came from a difficult home life, that will determine the direction of your life. If your culture was treated unfairly, that will dictate the condition of your life today. If you were hurt or…

1 Thess. 5:24 “Faithful and absolutely trustworthy is He who is calling you to Himself for your salvation, and He will do it (He will fulfill His call by making you holy, guarding you, watching over you, and protecting you as His own).”             God never call us to do anything without faithfully keeping His word and enabling us to do it. We are not always faithful to do what God tells us to do. In spite of that, God remains faithful…

Isaiah 40:31 “But those who wait for the Lord (who expect, look for, and hope in Him) will gain new strength and renew their power; They will lift up their wings (and rise up close to God) like eagles (rising toward the sun); they will run and not become weary, they will walk and not grow tired.”             At times you may feel so worn out and stressed that you are not sure you can take another step. You may…

Isaiah 40:31 “But those who wait for the Lord (who expect, look for, and hope in Him) will gain new strength and renew their power; They will lift up their wings (and rise up close to God) like eagles (rising toward the sun); they will run and not become weary, they will walk and not grow tired.”             At times you may feel so worn out and stressed that you are not sure you can take another step. You may…

1 Samuel 26:8 “Then Abishai said to David, “God has given your enemy into your hand this day; now then, please let me strike him with the spear driving it to the ground with one stroke, and I will not strike him the second time.”             Sometimes we are tempted to take shortcuts to our destinations in life. David faced this temptation several times before he was crowned king. Samuel, God’s prophet, anointed David and prophesied that David would be the next…

1 Timothy 1:12 “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has granted me [the needed] strength and made me able for this, because He considered me faithful and trustworthy, putting me into service for this ministry.”             From our human perspective, the apostle Paul’s record as a zealous persecutor of Christians should have kept him from being in God’s service. Paul was known as the chief of sinners, as a blasphemer, and as a very violent aggressor (1 Tim 13-15).…

Colossians 2:15 “When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities (those supernatural forces of evil operating against us), He made a public example of them, having triumphed over them through the cross.”             Believers are not called on to defeat the enemy! Of course, we know that the enemy is Satan, listen, we are not called on to defeat Satan, God has already done that in Christ! It is not our mandate to “bind” Satan. Jesus was already set limits on…