A Biblical View Of Christian Liberty

   I recently had the wonderful opportunity to take my eighteen year old daughter to lunch, just the two of us.  She graduated from high school a few months ago and is starting college next week.  Her mother and I have been consciously trying to allow her more latitude in her decision making process.  We still give rudder directions from time to time, but we are trying to let her experience what it is like to be an adult and have the responsibility of making good decisions.  That is why I was very blessed by our conversation over lunch.  As we were eating she began to make some observations concerning the habits of some of her peers who are born again believers in Christ.  She began to ask me about Christian liberties in Christ and how we should view certain conduct or indulgences Christians allow in their lives?  The blessing for me is that she was thinking about her life in Christ and how her conduct would affect those around her.  The question of Christian liberty is so important that I decided to share with you what I shared with her over lunch.

Texas Governor Knows What We Need

Recently Texas Governor Rick Perry called upon Christians to gather and pray for the citizens and leaders of our nation.  The corporate prayer was to ask God to turn us around as a nation.  Governor Perry has received much criticism for his public call to meet and pray.  It is reported that Annie Gaylor of the Freedom From Religion Foundation filed a lawsuit to prevent the Governor from organizing and leading the prayer event.  Thankfully a federal judge had the good sense to dismiss the case.

Evangelism, Where Do We Start?

   At OakLeaf Baptist we have been in a series on evangelism in our Sunday Morning services.  According to Matthew 28.19-20, it is every Christian’s responsibility to share the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with a lost and dying world.  We are to share the Gospel so that lost men and women might be saved.  The Bible tells us that, “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Romans 10.17).  God the Holy Spirit uses his Word to enlighten the hearts and minds of the lost so they might see and understand their need of salvation.  That brings us to the topic of this blog, where do we start when we share the gospel with someone?  The best answer to that question is to look and see where Jesus began when He interacted with the lost.

What We Believe About Jesus Matters

   What we believe about Jesus matters.  Not only does our view of Jesus matter, it is the key to whether our religious world view is right or wrong.  In other words, the validity or correctness of any religious system is directly proportional to that religious system’s view of Jesus Christ.  Let me illustrate the point for you.  I was at my son’s baseball game one evening when two men began to work their way through the park.  The two men were Jehovah’s Witnesses and they were trying to convert anyone who would listen to them.  They ended up standing behind me talking to a young lady.  After hearing their conversation for a few minutes, I interjected myself into the conversation.  You see, I know what the Jehovah’s Witnesses believe about Jesus.  They deny that Jesus is God.  They hold to a view that Jesus was an angel before He came to earth as a man.  They also deny the bodily resurrection of Jesus, claiming that His resurrection was in spirit only.  I confronted the men with their error and assured the young lady that there is only one way to be forgiven of sin and receive eternal life and that is by faith in Jesus Christ and Him alone.  The men moved on and that was the end of it.  What we believe about Jesus makes all the difference between knowing the truth and being deceived by error.  Here are five truths about Jesus that define who He is.

Three Things You Should Know About Hevaen

   Last week we considered the reality of hell.  If you have yet to read the post on hell, I would encourage you to do so.  The subject of our thoughts today, however, are on the opposite end of the spectrum, I want us to consider some truths about heaven.  When someone hears the word “heaven” there is no telling what mental picture might appear?  Maybe an angel in a long white robe, sitting on a cloud, and playing a harp?  Maybe Peter standing at the pearly gates ushering people in?  Still others have no idea what heaven is like and they just think of it as a place to be preferred over hell.  As always, if we want the truth about a matter we need to look into God’s Word, the Bible.  Of all the things the Bible tells us about heaven, there are three that I want to share with you here.

   First, just as hell is a literal place, so is heaven.  When we see the word heaven in the Bible it can speak contextually of one of three places.  It can mean the space in our atmosphere, it can mean outer space where the stars and planets are, or it can mean the place of God’s throne.  The place where God’s throne resides is a literal place, just as inner and outer space are a literal part of what we can see.  One day Jesus told His disciples that He was going away.  He was speaking of His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension back to heaven.  The idea of Jesus leaving troubled His disciples greatly.  In response, Jesus said, “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. ² In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. ³ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (John 14.1-3).  Jesus has prepared a literal dwelling place for all those who are saved by faith in Him.  Heaven is a literal place where the redeemed of Christ will abide with Him.

Three Things You Should Know About Hell

   I recently read a definition of hell that said, “A place of perpetual fire and loathsomeness” (Wycliffe Dictionary of Theology, pg 266).  That definition conjures up all sorts of ugly mental pictures that most of us would rather not think about.  The problem is, Wycliffe’s definition is spot on.  Hell is a terrible place, the horror of which exceeds anything man can comprehend in this life.  Hell is a place to be avoided at all costs.  Most of the world today never thinks of hell in those terms.  It is with that in mind that I want to share with you three realities about the place we call hell.

   First, hell is a literal place.  Hell is not the figment of some writer’s imagination.  Hell is not some mystical place or the result of some religious system’s creativity.  Hell is a literal place that is as real as the world you and I live in right now.  The Bible tells us that at the end of the tribulation, the beast and the false prophet will be cast into a “lake of fire” (Revelation 19.20).  Jesus described hell as a place where there is, “Weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 8.12).  Jesus later described hell as a, “furnace of fire” where there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 13.50).  Hell is a literal place where God’s judgment is administered upon lost men and women for their sin.  Some of the biblical descriptions of hell include a place of total darkness, a place of perpetual suffering, a place of eternal fire, a place of unquenchable fire, and a place of perpetual unrest.  The worst part of hell is that it is a place of perpetual separation from God.  You can be sure hell is a literal place.

Same Sex Marriage - Part Three

   The last thing I want to consider in this brief series on same sex marriage has to do with rebellion.  Mr. Webster defined rebellion as, “Open resistance to authority.”  All sin is a form of rebellion against God.  The prophet Samuel said to King Saul, “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness as iniquity and idolatry” (1 Samuel 15.23a).  It is a very serious matter indeed to rebel against God and His righteous commands. Refusing to believe on Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior is in essence rebellion against God’s anointed King.