Why?

No, That's Not the True Meaning of Christmas

by John MacArthur

The community where I live doesn’t make international headlines very often, but last week the managers of a local residential complex for seniors earned a large-print banner at the top of the Drudge Report. “Christmas Tree Banned: ‘Religious Symbol,’” the headline screamed.

To A Transexual Friend Who Professes To Be A Christian

(I wanted to say this to my childhood friend who got a sex change, but I broke contact with him since he never replied to my message and went along with the procedure.)

You're living a fantasy.
First you must accept who you are. If you say that you were supposed to be a woman then you are saying that God made a mistake, but God doesn't make mistakes. God made you a man.

He accepts you as you are. That means that no matter how big the sin, He will forgive. No sin is too big for Him to cover. Go to him with a contrite spirit and turn away from listening to your emotions. Scripture says, “The heart is deceitful. Who can understand it?” God understands it because He made it. And now He has let you turn to your wickedness because you have abandoned His word and chosen to ignore it for your happiness. Joy is God's gift to us. We cannot obtain it on our own efforts. When you do that, it's superficial.

From A Man Under Sufferance

I have suffered a lot emotionally for God. It may not sound like a big thing if you were to compare it to martyrdom but it's part of our calling.

John G. Stackhouse,
You are not content to give yourself the mere necessities of existence, surely, but instead you prefer to give yourself the very best life has to offer....And in the Christian religion, there is nothing wrong with this attitude. Jesus never suggested we not seek the best for ourselves. To be sure, sometimes what is truly best for us requires sacrifice: "Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:27). Yet Jesus himself "endured the cross" in order to secure "the joy that was set before him" (Hebrews 12:2). The key is to realize that securing what is best for oneself takes place within the overarching goal of pleasing God and serving God's world--especially in the form of our neighbour, the "near one."

Drifting

If a Christian continually excuses his wandering ways and denies sin, then his conscience gradually numbs. A person who becomes desensitized to wrongdoing has paved the way for more sinful behaviour with less guilt.

As the drifting believer's conscience becomes anesthetized, his spiritual ears are also deadened--truth cannot gain entrance because he has invited wrong attitudes and philosophies into his thinking process. What's more, his heart hardens to the things of God. Shrinking away from testimonies about divine power, grace, and mercy, he avoids situations that might reawaken the conscience and stir his spirit to repentance.

People drift from God in search of more--more freedom, choices, and pleasure. But since the consequences are a hard heart, a numb conscience, and dead ears, what they end up with is less. The drifting believer sacrifices the victorious life in Christ for an existence devoid of permanent satisfaction.

What Can We Learn From Natural Disasters?

Inspired by John MacArthur

The world is so offended. We're so used to mercy and blessings, so accustomed to abusing grace that when justice does appear we think that it's injustice. We're offended when God is not merciful because we don't understand what we deserve.
Yes, there are times when His mercy runs out. Though we would never tolerate a person who constantly offends us, God has more mercy than we do.

You're living on borrowed time. You're living by the grace from a Holy God. The message is always the same in every disaster; you're gonna die. And you're just storing up wrath until the day of judgement (that is, the day you die). Day by day you're filling up the reservoir of God's patience until some day the dam breaks and you drown under all your sins (that is, your sins will be revealed on the day of judgement).
However, God has sent his Son into the world to take our punishment. The goodness of all the blessings God has given you should lead you to ask God to forgive you for abusing his goodness and at times mocking his mercy and grace.

Is It Necessary to Have a Pastor?

Here is a question I asked CARM.org last month. I decided to share it since I haven't been posting much this year. This question came up on regard to an encounter with a couple of evangelists from a home church who were trying to tell my wife and I that organized church is wrong and there is no need for a pastor. Please share your ideas!


Hi Michael!


Thanks for the question; It's a good one. I would say yes, it is necessary to have a pastor if you want to be a blessed and fully functioning part of the body of Christ. This, of course, is a great calling and the Church is Christ's means by which He ministers to the world in this age. Consequently, note this passage:


"And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ" ~Eph 4:11 , 12


You see by this that pastors have been given by Christ to build the kind of Church He desires.


I hope this helps.


Rod
http://www.e-sword.net/