When I explain the gospel, and as I teach it to our church, I start with ‘we’re all sinners, none of are good, we deserve a penalty, so we deserve Hell.’ That’s very unpopular, not the most unpopular but perhaps second or third most of what I say. After I’m done with that, I say, […]

John 8:31 says, “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed.” Believers will continue. However, believers must continue. You know you’ll continue, but you also must continue, so let’s continue. Let’s do what it takes to continue. 1 Corinthians 15:58, “Therefore, […]

Jonah 2:9 says that salvation is of the Lord. God is the start, middle, and end of salvation. How is He the start? All of the following will be gleaned directly from scripture. First, God ordained salvation before the foundation of the world. He planned it, predetermined it, through the Second Person of the Trinity, […]

People wear crosses. They are a piece of decoration in the way of earrings and necklaces and pins. Sometimes they are featured on letterhead and logos. A cross was a mode of execution, an extreme, painful invention of the Romans. They meant both to torture and kill someone using this means. Why would anyone want […]

In the last few weeks, I’ve read a few articles and then discussions about the absence of young men becoming pastors. The idea was that it just isn’t happening that boys are growing up and surrendering to pastor a church or plant a church and pastor it. The detriment of this is that churches in […]

I didn’t coin the phrase, something I’ve heard like, “you keep them the same way you get them,” speaking of church growth methods or how a person comes into a church. The thought is to motivate a church and its members not to “get” people into the church in ways that one would not be […]

If salvation doesn’t cost anything, then where did the idea of “counting the cost” come from? They seem like a contradiction, or do they? The concept actually comes from Jesus in Luke 14:28, “For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to […]

Very often in describing salvation, I explain that you don’t have to give up anything to be saved, except for everything. Someone might ask if you have to give up smoking to be saved. Someone doesn’t get saved by giving up smoking. However, smoking might be the reason why someone doesn’t receive Jesus Christ, believe […]

God created man to fellowship with Him. God had already fellowshipped within the Godhead—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—but it was His will for more. Sin separates man from God. For fellowship, the sin must be eliminated. God provided for that through His Son. He made the condition faith. We must believe His Word, the Gospel, […]

Whatever goal we might see for the earth, it will be limited by certain realities. In the beginning, God said to subdue His creation and have dominion over it, expanded upon by his instruction to Adam, to dress it and keep it. We’re still doing those things, but with the new reality of sin, that […]