Bringing Scripture to Life

The MAN of SIN The Bible uses this term  “the man of sin”  ( anthrôpos tês anomias ), one time in all of Scripture to describe the ferocious beast that Satan will send into the world in order to unleash enormous evil on humanity at the end of human history.  Why should we be concerned about this man of sin? The reason we should be concerned is because he will deceive many, causing a great falling away before the end. In other words, this man will have enormous influence over the world. Paul writes to the Thessalonians saying, "Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day (the Second Coming) will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed , the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God" (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4) Here we read that Paul warns the Th...

When you became a Christian, was your salvation experience based upon you saying the "sinner's prayer"? Were you asked to repeat something to this effect; "Dear Jesus, I believe in my heart that I am a sinner. Please forgive me for all of my sins. I believe in my heart that You died on the cross for my sins, and that You raised from the dead. I believe You are the Risen Lord and Savior. Please come into my heart and change me. Please help me to live for you now. In Jesus' name, Amen."? For those of you who were introduced to Jesus by saying the “sinners prayer” there is a danger to be aware of. The danger to be aware of is basing your relationship with Jesus off of repeating the sinner’s prayer. The sinner’s prayer is only a tool that many Christians' use in order to help someone who is unsure of how to pray, or who has actually never prayed before, express their desire to God to be forgiven of their sins and put their trust in Jesus. ...

I n his   book  Note to Self: The Discipline of Preaching to Yourself , Joe Thorn powerfully communicates the importance of something that every professing Christian must become a master of, and that is the discipline of preaching to ourselves!  We live in a fallen world, and part of the effect that our fallenness has upon our lives is that we are constantly being influenced by negative self-talk, which in most cases causes us to begin believing the negative influences that bombard our hearts and minds every day.  This can have a disastrous effect upon us if we allow it to influence us to begin doubting God's love for us, or God's ability to work through us (cf. Matthew 13:58; Hebrews 11:6). There is nothing more dangerous to the life of a Christian, than to allow this type of negative faith-killing, self-destructive talk, cause us to stop trusting wholeheartedly in God. This book is a wonderful tool for you to begin developing the art and discip...

Leonard Ravenhill's classic Why Revival Tarries has been one of the most challenging books I have ever read. In this book he forces the spiritual leader to take a look deep within the depths of his or her heart in order to see if there are any idols of the heart that are keeping them from being fully submitted to God, and fully searching for God in their life and for their ministry. One caution to this powerful book is to be careful not to find yourself in the midst of a "works-based" relationship with God. True spiritual health and fruitfulness in the life of a believer comes from abiding in Christ (John 15), and responding to the Spirit's work (Galatians 5:22-23) and leading in our lives (Romans 12:14). God's love for us has nothing to do with how many hours of prayer we commit to each day, or anything else we do as a response to His love. God's love for us is found at the cross (Romans 5:8), and is experienced through faith alone in Christ a...

This book was taken right out of the playbook from Granger Community Church. Granger has become a model for many churches across the country of what a healthy, growing and innovating church can become.  In this book Simply Strategic Stuff: Help for Leaders Drowning in the Details of Running a Church , we are given  "99 topics that church leaders need to know! Some say it's the little things that matter the most, but the little details are often what pastors dread the most. Easy-to-understand and humorous, Simply Strategic Stuff equips pastors to perform the administrative details of pastoring with ease, and enthusiasm. Pastors are encouraged to consider basic principles that will help them develop systems and structures for releasing growth, enabling churches to reach their communities and the world for Jesus Christ!" - Amazon Book Description Below I have listed 3 of the key concepts from the Book that were important take aways for me when I rea...

Are you a professing Christian who is feeling spiritually dry today? Being spiritually dry or barren is a condition that God never intended for His kids to live in, and yet every one of us have found ourselves in that state at one point or another in our journey with God.  Below are 10 guaranteed ways to keep yourself in the land of the spiritually barren. 1. Not putting God first in your life (Matthew 6:33) 2. Not walking in faith (Hebrews 11:6) 3. Not Storing up Treasure in Heaven (Matthew 6:19-21) 4. Not following the Word of God (John 14:21) 5. Not pursuing personal holiness (Hebrews 12:14b) 6. Not pursuing peace with everyone (Hebrews 12:14a) 7. Not forgiving others (Matthew 5:23-24) 8. Not obeying the Greatest Commandment (Matthew 22:37-38) 9. Not obeying the New Commandment (John 13:34-35) 10. Not fulfilling the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20). When we are not making our relationship with God the most important part ...

It was the Monday morning after an Easter Sunday, where I had just poured myself out for the Lord the day before. Needless to say, I was wiped out and experiencing a typical pastors blue monday. When I checked my email that morning, I received a note from a young mom of three, who just moved into the area because of her husbands job transfer. She was writing to inform me that she went onto our website the night before and read our How to know God page, and received Jesus as her Savior. It's been three years now since receiving that letter, and it is a blessing to me to know that she is still walking with Jesus.  In the original email I received from her, one of the things that she asked me about was prayer. Now that she has given her life to Jesus, she knows she is supposed to pray, but she said, "I am not sure how I am supposed to pray"? The following is my original response to her letter on how to pray. The most important thing about prayer is to be real with...

In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus asks the disciples, "Who do you say that I am?" The disciples had zero understanding at the time of the ramifications of their answer. They had no clue at the time that the answer they were about to give determined their eternal destiny!  You might be a bit like the disciples who were following Jesus at that time, where you know that Jesus is important, but you, like them, are not quite sure just how important He was and is to your life.  When reading through the gospels we discover that none of the disciples actually had a full understanding of who Jesus truly was until after He resurrected from the dead. In fact, prior to the resurrection they were cowards (John 20:19), but after the resurrection they became fearless for Jesus (Acts 4:13).  It was s hortly after Easter Sunday, that  Peter with his life on the line, would boldly proclaim to the religious leaders of his day, "Nor is there salvation in any other, for the...

The following articles are notes from a series I did back in 2011, when going through the book of first John. I was inspired to make these articles available when it was announced that Rob Bell's newest book, What we talk about when we talk about God was being released later this week, which is certain to be as big a disappointment to the Christian Faith as was his last heretical release Love Wins was. Not that these articles were written with Rob Bell in mind, but his influential books are the result of him not testing the spirits. These notes were made available so that you the Christian, would know what the Bible says about "testing" the Spirits, and in obedience to the Word of God be followers who accurately test them so that you are not deceived.  May we be like the Berean's who were more "fair-minded" in that they "received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily" to find out whether the things that Paul was say...