Posts Tagged "grace"

Do you ever get the feeling maybe you’re not seeing yourself accurately? “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.”  -Romans 12:3 The word Paul uses here for “Sober judgement” is the greek word “sophroneo.”  It literally means, “to be in one’s right mind.” This same word is used in the Gospels for a man who was set free by Jesus after being possessed by a “legion” of demonic spirits.  In Luke 8, Jesus casts out the demons and the man is then described as being sophroneo, “in his right mind” (Luke 8:35)....

Have you discovered how subtly bitterness can sneak in to your soul?

Do you ever fear God might abandon you? “I will keep Your statutes; do not utterly forsake me!” -Psalm 119:8 I used to worry that God might leave me if I didn’t do what I was supposed to, but today there’s not a place in my heart that is afraid of that at all.  I don’t have to ask Him not to forsake me; I know He won’t! How can I be so sure? Because when Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46) it was a cry that meant two things.  It was a sign of my despair on His shoulders, and a promise of His triumph on my behalf.  It meant that He was taking my place, bearing the abandonment that I should have experienced for my sin. If you have trusted Christ for salvation, then you can...

Think about this for a moment: When you and I doubt God’s grace, we fall into the same trap that the serpent prepared for our first parents in the garden. It means we are listening to the sly voice of the deceiver when he says… “God doesn’t really love you. He doesn’t really have your best interest in mind. He won’t really come through on His promises to you, won’t really provide for you.” If you believe this, you will begin to draw away from God and His presence and draw closer to whatever “forbidden fruit” you feel will step in to provide whatever you think the Father is withholding from you. Yet, for each one of us, on the days that we do this, we die a little more inside. How much greater it is for...

I subscribe to an excellent free resource from an organization called Koinonia House, the ministry of Bible teacher Chuck Missler.  It’s called “K-House eNews” and it’s a weekly e-mail update that includes brief news highlights from around the world and medium-sized articles on Scripture and life.  If you’re interested, you can subscribe here. The past two issues have featured an EXCELLENT series on “Faith and Miracles” that blessed me very much, so I thought I’d share it here.  There are six articles, each about a page-and-a-half long. Enjoy! — Pastor Phillip Faith and Miracles: a six-part series of articles from Koinonia House Part I: Faith in What? “Have faith,” people will often say when...