'Christian Living' Tagged Posts
The Unrepenting Repenter
The believer in Christ is a lifelong repenter. He begins with repentance and continues in repentance. (Rom. 8:12-13) David sinned giant sins but fell without a stone at the mere finger of the prophet because he was a repenter at heart (2 Sam. 12:7-13). Peter denied Christ three times but suffered three times the remorse until he repented with bitter tears (Mt. 26:75). Every Christian is called a repenter, but he must be a repenting repenter. The Bible assumes the…
Don’t Just Tweet Your Proverbs: Lessons from Solomon
I don’t quite understand it. Everyone knows that King Solomon was the wisest man in the Old Testament. Yet, he had the most precipitous moral freefall of all the kings. The early Solomon loved God. “Now Solomon loved the Lord” (1 Kings 3:3). But the later Solomon was out of control morally: “Now Solomon loved many foreign women.” “Solomon held fast to these in love” (1 Kings 11:1,2). What went wrong? In fact, the marital alliances he made with the…
The Fear of Death and God’s Grip
Whatever hard thing you are facing may turn out to be more frightful in the projection than the reality of it. Like all things that bring us fear, there is truth behind that fear, however. The truth that chokes us is that all of us will die (unless escaping at the coming of Christ). It is only a matter of time. We’re sure, as well, that our lives could end in an unexpected way. And, beyond this, most of mankind…
My Father Said to Me
My father tried to teach each of his children those great lessons he learned in his long life, some from the crucible of failure. Here is one. His mother, an exemplary Christian, had a weakness in the area of worry. She fought it and worked to turn her worries into prayer. It was a besetting sin, often showing up to hassle her. My father fought against worry also. He considered worry to be a true battleground in his life. I…
Seeking Assurance?
The “security of the believer” is the unchanging objective reality that God has forgiven us and has accepted us through Jesus Christ forever. The “assurance of the believer” is the sometimes shifting subjective confidence that God has forgiven us and has accepted us through Jesus Christ. Do you have assurance? And do you have good reason to have it? Faith is assurance, true, yet the faith of real believers is sometimes weak allowing doubts for a variety of reasons. An…
Speaking Bible
There are a variety of ways to be obnoxious in our interactions with people. One of them is to always speak in holy tones as if we are super spiritual. Another is to use trite Christian phrases when we greet people, such as, “How’s the Lord blessin’ you today?” We may mean well with such words, but they often come across as disingenuous and sometimes create embarrassment. But, we should speak Bible truths. I don’t mean that we should quote…
How Do You Recover From This?
When a child leaves the home abruptly and angrily, with a vow not to return, how do you recover? When you receive termination papers from your work with no prospects of another job, how do you keep from losing it all? When bills pile too high and the income is too low, where do you turn? When your companion of decades has a stroke and leaves you alone, what can help you keep balanced through the lonely days and nights?…
You Can Never Love Too Much
You can never love too much. You can dote too much, cuddle too much, stare at a picture too much, and even fix more cookies than are acceptable, but you cannot love too much. Paul emphasized this to believers in Thessalonica: Now as to the love of the brethren, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another; for indeed you do practice it toward all the brethren…
To Teach My Poor Mind
A man traversing an ancient stone bridge over a fast moving stream encountered a meditative old soul tossing sticks into the water and straining to see what she had done. She did not lift her head or shift the focus of her eyes from their downward gaze to even acknowledge his presence as he came close. There was nothing trivial about her motions or about the look in her fixated eyes. She anticipated no watchers. She intended no words. She…
A Little Light
Is this so for you?
The Old Ways
The old ways. Do we want them? Some of you are older (though I’m glad that hasn’t happened to me). And all of you are older this year than you were last. Was it better before? Do we have the right perspective about the way it used to be? There is something charming about what things were like before smartphones and social media and so much public anger…..the pace of life, the emphasis on relationships, the steadiness of it all.…
Free booklet/Free PDF of My Preferred Way to Read the Bible
Order for free or read the free pdf at the link below. Jim Elliff shares the Bible reading plan that has helped him the most over the last several years. Many have joined him in this approach and have experienced the same joy and discovery that has enriched his life. Jim encourages the believer to read one or two books of the Bible repeatedly as a way to understand the Scriptures on a new level. Practical advice is given, as…
On Stumbling
Now as they were eating, He said, “Assuredly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me.” Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you that this night, before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.” Then Jesus said to them, “All of you will be made to stumble because of Me this night . . .” (Mt. 26:21, 31, 34). One betraying, one denying, ten stumbling. All twelve disciples fulfilled the prophesy of Jesus. We learn from this…
God Doesn’t Need You
“He is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.” Acts 17 Paul on Mars Hill in Athens proclaimed the entire self-sufficiency of God. We are his body, it is true, which is the fullness or completion of the Head. He uses us. But he needs nothing from us. Let that sink in. We do not add to him in any way, but rather, he gives…
Give to Me, Bright Sovereign
The Sovereign King of the Universe has welcomed us, and invited us to ask him for all that we need. He not only invites us to ask, but is the very one who can accomplish what we request.
The Surprising Story of Bill Beery
My brother pastored an unconverted man on the rolls of the church. When it was discovered, some of the men in the church began to share Christ with him and soon he became a true believer in Christ. His name was Bill Beery, a direct relative of the famous deceased actor Wallace Beery. Bill was a physically imposing mechanic at 6’ 6”. But Lou Gehrig’s disease, the illness that physicist Stephen Hawkins endured, soon wilted him into a shadow of…