Category: Discipleship
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In this post, our final post in this series, we are continuing our discussion of spiritual transformation and growth. Specifically, we are going to look at the real keys to our role in transformation. In the last post, we mentioned a passage that talks about these keys. Therefore I exhort you, brothers and sisters, by…
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In our last post, continuing our discussion of how we are to live in light of the New Covenant, we said that we are to cooperate with the Holy Spirit in transforming us into Christ’s image. To do that, we are to walk according to the Spirit, not according to the Spirit. We then fleshed…
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In our last post we talked a little about what it means to be holy and to grow in Christ. We said that holiness is a work of God with which we cooperate in His transforming us into the image of Christ (His image). It is primarily focused on the inner thoughts and attitudes, and…
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The New Covenant is what God uses to change and transform us, making us holy as He is holy. We are changed into Christ’s image.
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The promises of the New Covenant mean that there is no sin from which God cannot free us. Change and growth are possible for every believer in Christ.
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Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see (2 Kings 19:16). The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord’s throne is in heaven; his eyes see, his eyelids test the children of man (Psalm 11:4). The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the…
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Save, O LORD, for the godly one is gone; for the faithful have vanished from among the children of man. Everyone utters lies to his neighbor; with flattering lips and a double heart they speak. May the LORD cut off all flattering lips, the tongue that makes great boasts, those who say, “With our tongue…
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Loving My (Different) Neighbor, Part 3 But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed…
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Loving My (Different) Neighbor, Part 2 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And…
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Loving My (Different) Neighbor, Part 1 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all…
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I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead (Phil. 3:10-11). In the previous post (“Your God is Too Small”), I related my struggle to reconcile Jesus’ words about…
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When the disciples saw [Jesus curse the fig tree], they marveled, saying, “How did the fig tree wither at once?” And Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say…
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In the last post (“Christian or American,” 1/12/20), we asked some hard questions about the church and believers. We suggested that many parts of the American church are losing their biblical identity. We further suggested that this is because many churches have bought into the world’s ways of thinking, and that they have tied themselves…
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I had hoped to start the New Year off with a more encouraging post. In the light of recent events that continue to unfold, however, it became necessary to address these issues for the sake of the church, the Body and Bride of Christ. Last week, many of us watched a sight we never thought…
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Then certain of the elders of Israel came to me and sat before me. And the word of the LORD came to me: “Son of man, these men have taken their idols into their hearts, and set the stumbling block of their iniquity before their faces. Should I indeed let myself be consulted by them?…
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And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14). Then he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, knelt down, and began to pray, saying, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup…
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Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and he will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday. Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out…
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For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God’s truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, “Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles, and sing to your name.”…
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Two years ago I posted a blog (We Interrupt This Program…., 11/5/18) “on the eve of one of the most watched elections in US history, at a time when the country is more divided than ever” On the eve of the US Presidential election, those words seem even more accurate–and more ominous. What is most…
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Most of us in the church are familiar with Hebrews 11, the so-called “Hall of Fame of Faith.” Many of us can recite at least portions of the great events mentioned. And countless sermons and messages have been preached on faith from this passage. This post is not intended to add to that collection. Rather,…
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Many years ago, the Christian artist Mark Schultz came out with a song entitled “He’s My Son.” It’s a powerful song about the desperate cry of a father’s heart. Though some see it as a sad song, unworthy of a Christian listening to it, it captured my heart. Songs of honesty always have. This is…
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In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, of the division of Abijah. And he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord. But they had…
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Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as…
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They tested God in their heart by demanding the food they craved.They spoke against God, saying, “Can God spread a table in the wilderness?He struck the rock so that water gushed out and streams overflowed.Can He also give bread or provide meat for His people?” (Psalm 78:18-20) When we look at the history of Israel–how God chose them, delivered them, and…
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Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the Lord, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water (Jer. 2:12-13). Have you ever stopped and thought about just how foolish…