Recently, I feel that the Lord has been drawing my attention to the importance of prayer more than ever. It is so easy for Christians(myself included) to become apathetic with our prayer life, particularly living in an increasingly Biblically-hostile society. However, I firmly believe that prayer is the powerhouse for the Christian life. It is paramount that as Christians we realize that “…our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms”(Ephesians 6:12, NIV). There is an unseen world around us where Christians are living in the midst of a spiritual battleground. This is why it is critical that we put on the full armor of God (Ephesians 13-17), and that we pray for God’s continued protection. Continue reading
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Suffering, Perseverance, Character, and Hope(Part 4 of 4)
Throughout today’s post I will conclude this four-part series by focusing on the Hope that we all share as believers in Christ.
Although hope is essentially the final resultant fruit yielded from our suffering as Christians(Romans 5:3-4), I feel that its influence has the ability to penetrate into every facet of our lives. In fact, it is the very hope in the return of Christ which serves as the basis for believers to purify themselves in this life (Titus 2:11-14, 1 John 3:3). Continue reading
Suffering, Perseverance, Character (Part 3 of 4), and Hope
Again, I sincerely apologize for the prolonged delayed in continuing this series. Life is far from boring. It seems that there is always something vying for our attention and investments of our time.
Throughout Part 3 of this series I will focus on the intrinsic value derived from character, specifically within the context of Christianity.
As per usual, I will begin with a working definition of character from a Biblical perspective in order to establish a solid foundation for this school of thought.
Dictionary.com defines character in general terms as follows:
Character(noun) – the aggregate of features and traits that form the individual nature of some person or thing; moral or ethical quality; qualities of honesty, courage, or the like; integrity.
Sorry for the Delay
Greetings Brothers and Sisters in Christ, I would like to take this opportunity to apologize for the delay in posting new blog content, particularly with respect to part three of my recent series. Without trying to somehow justify this delay, I feel that my readers have the right to know of the two impacting factors. Firstly, to put it simply, I have been busy with life in general. Admittedly, however, I do confess that I myself haven’t been granting my blog-content writing as high of a priority as I would have liked. Secondly, I have also been trying to build more intentional relationships among: fellow believers, my unsaved friends, and among family members. I feel that the Holy Spirit has convicted me with: the realization that there is a massive need for organic Kingdom-Building within my community; and the knowledge that after God, family comes first. Therefore, you could safely say that I have also decided to take a form of fasting from this blogging ministry. For those of you asking that obvious question, I do plan on resuming my Blog hopefully sometime this week by continuing with Part 3 of my recent series. In the meantime, however, I cordially invite and encourage everyone to read any previous blog entries throughout this archive. Thank-you all in-advance for understanding and may the Lord bless everyone abundantly!
Suffering, Perseverance (Part 2 of 4), Character, and Hope
Press on; God’s Got This!
Throughout today’s blog entry I will continue the series, which I began last week, however this time I will underscore the importance of perseverance in the Christian life.
Perseverance is a widely disseminated term particularly within the confines of Western Culture. Therefore, I feel that a working definition is required for purposes of clarity within this post. Continue reading
Do you really know your captain?
This is a great post! I enjoyed the illustrative connection that you made between “Saving Private Ryan” and the ongoing spiritual warfare which we constantly face in our lives.
As Christians it is both absolutely amazing and reassuring that Jesus, the One who conquered the grave and overcame the world, is working on our side!
Like you identify near the end of this post, it is simply not possible for us(or anyone) to faithfully and wholeheartedly pursue an intimate relationship with God without first knowing Him. The only way where we are really able to get to know God is through His Word. Through the transformative power of God’s Word and the Holy Spirit, our hearts will be molded into being joyfully obedient to God. I believe that it is this very form of joyful obedience that the Lord desires for all His Children to pursue.God Bless!
Saving Private Ryan, Photo by Amblin Entertainment – © 1998
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.
Ephesians 6.10-13
Many of you may remember seeing the movie Saving Private Ryan. The movie is not for the faint of heart, particularly the opening scene. All the ugliness and brutality of war is graphically portrayed so that the viewers would understand the depth of sacrifice the dead and the…
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Attitude of Gratitude
One of the most consistently explored topics in the Bible surrounds the importance of being thankful as believers in Christ Jesus. Being thankful in all circumstances is by no 
means an easy thing to accomplish alone, but I do believe that as Christians with the indwelt Holy Spirit it is not so much a recommendation than it is an act of obedience to the Lord. Throughout this post I will highlight three central reasons explaining why the Christian attitude should be one of gratitude.
Continue reading
Suffering (Part 1 of 4), Perseverance, Character, and Hope
Today I feel that the Holy Spirit is guiding me to start a new series about perhaps one of the most ubiquitous topics that we face on a day-to-day basis. Specifically, this topic focuses on both suffering and perseverance and their critical importance in our lives, particularly as Christians living in an increasingly broken world. Throughout this first entry (1 of 4 in series) I will attempt to provide linkages between suffering and perseverance, relying on God’s Word, in order to emphasize their respective levels of significance in the Christian life.
To begin, I will identify what the Scriptures tell us regarding the value that suffering has in the Christian life.
The relevant Scriptural Text here comes from Romans 5:3-5 where it tells us the following:
3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
5 Ways To Actually Practice Mercy You Need To Know
Admittedly, I didn’t have the opportunity to read last Thursday’s post, however based on the excerpt you provided here, I absolutely agree with your insightful thoughts.
What I have come to discover is that Truth is often the toughest pill to swallow, especially during particular seasons/times when we have permitted our Christian lives to become complacent (myself included).
Over the recent years, I feel that throughout Western Culture we have allowed Christianity to become too comfortable.
Nowadays, it is very evident that the number of Christians whom actually pursue godly risks, and take leaps of faith is dwindling. This deeply saddens me, and this reminds me even more so of how much work is needing to be done by Christians in this broken world.
Jesus tells us that “…The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field” (Luke 10:2).
Jesus not only clearly identifies the problem (which is just as relevant now as it was then), but He also provides us with the solution. The solution is simply found in faithfully asking(through prayer) our Mighty God to send(emphasis) workers(you and I) into the harvest field(to those in need within the front-lines).
It is worth noting as well that believers doing the praying are no more exempt from actively partaking in this work of spreading the Gospel(The Great Commission) themselves than other believers.
God Bless!
Hate Isn’t Helpful
I definitely agree with this author’s thoughts regarding the destructive influence that hatred has amassed within our already-fractured world. Sadly, hatred has become increasingly more and more prevalent in this day and age. Having said this, I am genuinely concerned for what is on the horizon for this generation in light of the frighteningly significant level of traction that hatred has gained.
Roman 12:21 tells us the solution to this dilemma by instructing us to, “…not be overcome by evil, but [to] overcome evil with good”.Dear Heavenly Father,
Please bless all of us as we fight the good fight by seizing every opportunity while striving to make a difference by being empowered with Your Holy Spirit.
Also, please help us to keep our eyes on Your Son: Jesus Christ, Who is our Living Hope, where we are made completely secure and anchored by means of Your unfailing love!In Jesus’ Name I pray,
Amen.
So…. I sent out a tweet a few days ago about hate. It said basically that you don’t gain anything by hating and that the “hater” loses more than the “hated.” That’s it, it didn’t say anything about who hated, why anyone would hate, it mentioned no name, no race, no sexual preference, no political affiliations, nothing.
Immediately after sending it out, and I mean immediately, I started getting replies about how stupid liberal democrats are and how republicans make it hard not to hate. In short, I received a bunch of hate-filled replies agreeing that hate was terrible but blaming either democrats or republicans for making it impossible not to hate.
I’m going to guess here but I’m betting it was Republicans blaming Democrats and Democrats blaming Republicans.
Other people blamed gays for hate, or Muslims, or TV news, or cops, or blacks, or whites, it went on and…
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Theological Reflections 