As we look through the fruit of the Spirit I hope that you are being blessed and learn from this study. I know I have learned a lot and I am hoping that it will strengthen my faith and change my life. I hope that for you as well. Today we are discussing goodness. Let us do good and give God the glory.
Continue reading “The Good Fruit”Tag: works
Jesus Commends Smyrna
In the second letter to the 7 churches, Jesus commends the church in Smyrna and has nothing against them. This should be the church we would want to be a part of. But, as believers, there is still a cost. Those who follow Jesus are often looked down upon to say the least. Many are persecuted; believers in John’s day as well as many places today are imprisoned, beaten or killed for their faith. But most of the time the church that is persecuted is the strongest. People who are persecuted have the strongest faith and have the most boldness. It is through our struggles and suffering and that we grow as people and as believers. And whatever we go through in this life will not compare to the glory we will receive in the next.
Continue reading “Jesus Commends Smyrna”Letter to Ephesus: A warning for Today’s Church
When I first started this blog, I wrote some short posts about the Seven letters to the Churches from Jesus in Revelation. Today I thought I would go back to the letters and expound on it a bit. I believe that we are getting closer and closer to Jesus’ return, and it is more important than ever to pay attention to what Christ has to say here.
Continue reading “Letter to Ephesus: A warning for Today’s Church”What’s that mean?
Ever notice that Christians have these fancy terms that few if any other people use? And some of the words may have a different meaning in scripture than how the average Joe would use it (like faith). Some of these terms are critical to the gospel message. I tried to make sense of it all and I hope I can explain in a way that is easy for all of us to understand. As I studied these, it was quite interesting to see how these words are used in the Greek and throughout the scriptures. I don’t know Greek, but googling the Strong’s definitions of the Greek/Hebrew terms and looking at the context in the Bible has helped quite a bit. We will discuss some of these terms in the next few posts. Let’s begin with the scripture that is the heart of the gospel message and incorporates most of these terms. I hope you read on and that God blesses you and gives you and me more insight. Continue reading “What’s that mean?”
What is Your Foundation?
Sorry for no posts for a while, but I was on a mission trip in Haiti and we had no internet. What a blessing! One of the things we did was lay the foundation for a new church building. While I was out there pouring cement, a five gallon bucket at a time, so many parallels came to mind about laying a foundation for the church, on stony ground, with thorn bushes here and there, the hot sun beating on us, but God is in control and Christ is our true foundation, the chief cornerstone. The church service we had was wonderful, 41 people and 25 of them children. Although it was in Creole, we had one universal language and that was our love and faith in Jesus Christ. The people here were very passionate in their worship and with things like voodoo in this land, their faith (as well as spiritual battles) is very real. Continue reading “What is Your Foundation?”
My Daily Scriptures 