Category: Salvation

2/18/2025 1 Comment

The First Commandment

Aseret haDevarim are the Hebrew words which mean the “ten words” or “ten matters” and describe what is worldwide known as The Ten Commandments.[1]
"In the early fifth century, the Christian theologian Augustine of Hippo combined the first two commandments into one commandment, and split the prohibition on coveting into two commandments . . . Augustine’s list became the standard enumeration for the Roman Church."[2]

The Eastern Orthodox churches used a variation of Jewish thinking by making the first commandment, “Do not have other gods besides Me,” and “Do not make an idol for yourself . . .” (20:3,4a). But in Judaism, the first commandment is God’s declaration, “I am the LORD your God.”

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12/17/2024 1 Comment

Miracles: We Have Never Seen Anything Like This!

Roberta was Stacy’s laundry mat owner and insurance agent in Mexico City. Needing to renew her insurance policy, Stacy scheduled a meeting with Roberta and was prompted by the Holy Spirit that she was to share the gospel with the result that Roberta would be saved. When they met, Roberta confessed, “Sometimes I sit at a stoplight and wonder, God, how can I know You?” That gave Stacy an opening to share the gospel. Roberta responded, “You’re telling me I can walk out of here forgiven for everything I’ve ever done?” Stacy answered, “Yes—everything.” Roberta reacted incredulously, “Even an abortion?”
“Yes, even an abortion.”
“I want that because I’ve gone to a church for 18 years, and the leaders told me that was not possible.” Roberta then prayed and asked for forgiveness for her sins and for Jesus to be the Lord and Savior of her life.

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12/3/2024 0 Comments

The Seeking Trifecta

Marine Captain Ray Smith, while serving as a military advisor to 250 Vietnamese Marines, was attacked by an overwhelming Viet Cong force while defending a hilltop outpost. The assault was so savage, and the weather was so bad (preventing close air support) that Smith had to lead the remaining 28 Vietnamese Marines to the safety of friendly lines. Because he was carrying a radio, Smith courageously threw himself backward on top of their own booby-trap-infested wire barrier so 28 Marines could move over the crushed wire, stepping on his prostrate body to safety. Despite severe cuts and bruises, Smith successfully fought and led those under his care to safety, winning him a Navy Cross.[1]

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10/10/2024 0 Comments

Mickey Mantle

Mickey Charles Mantle (October 20, 1931—August 13, 1995) was a Hall of Fame Center Field player for the New York Yankees from 1951 to 1968. [1] During his illustrious career, he was a 3x Most Valuable Player (MVP), Gold Glove winner, Batting and Triple Crown (batting average, home runs, and runs batted in) winner, and Major League Player of the Year. Mantle played in the All-Star game 16 times. He was part of seven World Series-winning teams. He is considered one of Baseball’s best players and sluggers. He is the only player to hit 150 home runs as a left and right-handed batter.[2]

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4/8/2024 0 Comments

Woodchoppers

He doesn’t care about me. If He did, I wouldn’t have all these problems. If He did, He would explain why life must be so challenging. If He did, I would be included and be part of a family instead of feeling alone, excluded, and misunderstood. Ferdi wrestles with a whole lot of insecure thoughts and emotions. His Venezuelan birth mom gave him up to an adoption agency. He’d lived in six different foster homes before his 18th birthday. Without ever knowing his real father, he struggled mightily to trust his Father in Heaven, whose Son he had put his faith in as a 26-year-old single dad. Hard living creates hard questions for the man who chops wood and sells firewood to pay bills and put food on his table. The name Ferdi means to be brave, but that is not always easy when life is a giant question mark.

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2/17/2024 1 Comment

How Does a Little Child . . . ?

My father caught me in some forgotten misbehavior when I was a little child. He explained that when we did things wrong, that was called sin, and sin displeased God. I knew about God because we prayed to Him each meal, and Dad, at that time in Naha, Okinawa, always started his day off by reading his Bible, praying, and drinking his coffee. Dad explained that if we told God that we were sorry for our sins and placed our trust in His Son, Jesus, Jesus would forgive us, and we could look forward to living with Him in heaven someday. He asked me if I would like to do that. Of course, I don’t remember his exact words or direction because that was over 60 years ago, but I remember confessing what I had done was wrong and eagerly wanting Jesus to come into my heart.

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1/31/2024 1 Comment

God Will Speak

Stac saw an older man in Kroger with an Army Vietnam Veteran cap, so she thanked him for his service. They talked for a while, swapping stories, and just before she left, he asked if he could share one more story with her. Mike said that while serving in Vietnam, he was in his Quonset hut one night, lying on his cot all alone, when a voice told him to get up and move away from it. He thought that was strange and ignored the message and tried to sleep. But again, he heard a voice telling him to move. He did nothing and fell asleep, only to be shaken awake and ordered by a clear voice a third time to get up and move outside the hut. Finally, he listened and went outside. Almost immediately, a mortar round crashed through his hut, destroying his cot. Had he not gotten up and moved, he would have been killed. With tears in his eyes, he smiled and said God is so good. Stac answered, “He certainly is.” Mike hugged her, and they parted with Stac, saying if we don’t see each other again, we’ll see each other in heaven.

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11/20/2023 1 Comment

Karma

Brita angrily kicked the wandering Cocker Spaniel, who dared to enter her front yard. Her neighbor, Betty, viewed the mean action with disgust. Two weeks later, when Brita broke her leg after slipping off her front porch, Betty noted to her husband with some satisfaction, “That’s karma. She’s getting what she deserved.”

Karma is a Hindu concept that views one’s actions as bringing upon themselves good or bad results either in their present life or in a reincarnation. It is a cosmic reward or punishment principle based on a person’s deeds. In The Logic of God, Ravi Zacharias explained, “Hinduism has two nonnegotiable beliefs: karma and reincarnation. No Hindu will trade these away.”

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11/13/2022 0 Comments

The Night Before a Hanging

Esther is an amazing book that teaches why God’s people should trust Him, keep their faith, and not give in to opposition and persecution. The Israelite exiles faced elimination thanks to an antagonist named Haman, who talked his king into decreeing their destruction. Before the dreaded day of death came for the exiles, Haman constructed a gallows for his enemy Mordecai and went to sleep, confident of his diabolical plan’s fulfillment the next day.

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11/7/2022 1 Comment

Salvation with Fear and Trembling

Salvation is a free gift received by a heart that recognizes sin, takes responsibility for it through confession and repentance, and then places one’s faith in God’s Son, Jesus Christ, that He is Lord and the only One capable of sacrificing His life to pay the debt of sin, forgiving transgressions so that all who place their faith in Him might experience eternal life with Him.

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9/26/2022 0 Comments

Why We Exist

Gerry got back from Afghanistan, and he is not in good shape. Half his squad was on a mounted patrol when their vehicles were hit by an improvised explosive device (IED), killing four and badly wounding two. Unfortunately, he had to identify the bodies and could not get the images out of his head. Now between alcohol and too many medications, his life has lost meaning, and he has frequent thoughts of ending it.

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9/19/2022 1 Comment

Inheritance

News flash—there was an attack by a Demon Assault Team (DAT) in heaven today, which wiped out an entire wing of the Central Automation Records Division (CARD) that contained the Book of Life (BoL) and the computerized records of those who are to receive a heavenly inheritance. Michael led a task force of angels that was able to wipe out the DAT, but the CARD facility was severely damaged, and the Book of Life (BoL) was badly compromised. It would seem that Satan hoped to disrupt God’s eternal life reward plan for His saints.

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7/1/2022 0 Comments

Inability to See

Meditation
John 8:25-27—“Who are You?” they questioned. “Precisely what I’ve been telling you from the very beginning,” Jesus told them. I have many things to say and to judge about you, but the One who sent Me is true, and what I have heard from Him—these things I tell the world.” They did not know He was speaking to them about the Father.

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6/29/2022 0 Comments

Understanding Delay

I hope this is an encouraging word for someone—discouraged by delays, by the hiccups of life that seem insidious; by the time that goes too fast when you want it to be slow and too slow when you want it to be fast.

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5/21/2022 0 Comments

Kingdom of God

Pastor Mike tells the story of how as a child, he and his siblings would eat through an entire large box of Kellogg’s Pep cereal to get the prize—a submarine. Mike’s goal was to get the prize; he didn’t care for the product.

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4/7/2022 0 Comments

Guaranteed!

Payne lives in the United States but is from Great Britain. Payne grew up as an agnostic. When he came to the U.S., he accepted an invitation to church and heard the minister encourage people to give in support of the ministry. Payne was surprised when the pastor guaranteed that if anyone tithed and did not see God bless their efforts and consequently lost money, he would return their total gift. After the service, he went up to the pastor and said, “Let me get this straight. You are giving us a money-back guarantee if we give and do not see an increase in our finances?” The pastor replied, “I’ve been pastoring for over 30 years, and I have never lost this challenge—so yes, I’m giving you a money-back guarantee!”

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3/24/2022 0 Comments

Believing Gained by Reading

Erwin introduced me to Rojan* an 80-year-old doctor born in Peru. We listened to him as he explained that there is no such thing as hell and that when he dies, he will simply decompose and return to the earth—body, spirit, and soul. There is no afterlife he said. Implied in his words were his belief that there is no God and no accountability for us in how we live. He was firm in his convictions and seemingly unconcerned of a finite life.

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2/17/2022 0 Comments

Life

Satan shrewdly deceived Eve in the garden. Just eat the forbidden fruit and you will be like God and know the difference between good and evil (Genesis 3:5). The deeper implication behind his temptation was that Eve was somehow deprived. At this point in her existence, she had no knowledge of evil. What Satan did not tell Eve was that it was her relationship with God that was most important. Having her eyes opened would make her like him—a fallen creature out of God’s favor. His intent was to sever Adam and Eve’s relationship with their Creator by cunningly convincing them to disobey His command.

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1/6/2022 1 Comment

Tell the Righteous!

Meditation
Isaiah 3:10-11—Tell the righteous that it will go well for them, for they will eat the fruit of their labor. Woe to the wicked—it will go badly for them, for what they have done will be done to them.

God’s word to Isaiah challenged me to study the word righteous because it is in that context that things go well for people. What I found was staggering in some ways. But before we look at the signs and fruit of righteous living we should understand 14 lessons that teach:

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12/7/2021 1 Comment

A Faith of Equal Privilege

The antidote to discrimination and racism is Jesus Christ. Pastor E.V. Hill once shared his response to Black Panthers threatening his life for preaching about “that white Jesus.”
I don’t know anything about a white Christ—I know about Christ, a Savior named Jesus. I don’t know what color He is. He was born in brown Asia, He fled to black Africa, and He was in heaven before the gospel got to white Europe . . . I do know one thing: if you bow at the altar with color on your mind, and get up with color on your mind, go back again and keep going back until you no longer look at His color, but at his greatness and His power—His power to save![1]

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