A Not So Jewish Look at the Gospel of Matthew

A Not So Jewish Look at the Gospel of Matthew

In the gospel of Matthew, the Lord gave us a commandment to go make disciples. What have you done in the past five years towards fulfilling this commandment? One writer said the following on this question. “Sometimes we can get so caught up in doing that we forget what we are supposed to do. If you were in employed by a store who sold power-tools to craftsmen, you would want to sell tools that would benefit your customers, something that would help them produce their finest work. You would be wasting your time and theirs if you tried to sell them something inferior or something they would not use. Strange as it may seem, many Christians are busy doing everything except what they are called to do, that is, make disciples. The challenge from Scripture is not to get busy doing the Lord’s work. Start producing disciples for Christ.

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#S4-003: Kingdom First? Some Bible How To Illustrations [Podcast]

[Tweet “First-century Jewish believers ‘blew a gasket’ when they heard other tongues come out of the mouth of these Gentiles.”]

How Do You Avoid the Unpardonable Sin?

Podcast: Light on Life Season 6 Episode 31

How Do You Avoid the Unpardonable Sin?

An aged minister thought that he had committed the unpardonable sin. At last, after much conflict, he submitted to what he mistakably considered was the will of God, for him to be lost. Then something within him whispered: “Suppose you are going to hell, with your disposition and habits, what would you do there?” The quick answer was, “I would set up a prayer-meeting,” and with those words, God’s revelation light dawned on his heart, and he saw how absurd he was. The fact that one fears that he has committed this sin is sure proof that he hasn’t.1

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How to Cultivate God’s Presence in Your Life

[Tweet “You cannot commit the Unpardonable Sin by accident. It is a willful action.”]

Is Suicide the Unpardonable Sin?

Podcast: Light on Life Season 6 Episode 30

Is Suicide the Unpardonable Sin?

One gentleman writes about his overcoming battle against suicide. He relates the following. “I sat in my car in front of the Delaware Memorial Bridge. I had just driven back from a three-day gambling binge in Atlantic City, where I had lost more than $5,000. I had maxed out my credit cards trying to recoup my losses that now surpassed $300,000. My past flashed before me as I tried to get up enough nerve to jump five hundred feet into the Delaware River. I was a decent sort until my marriage broke up, and I began womanizing, drinking, and betting on anything anywhere, I thought.

I am a retired chief master sergeant of the Air Force. I had previously won numerous awards, including Citizen of the Year in Delaware and Sergeant of the Year in the Air Force, and I had shared the National Freedom Foundation’s highest award. My works of patriotism were entered into the Congressional Record of the U.S. Senate. Back then, I had a purpose in life. Now I was an addicted sleaze. I took a swig of the drink I had carried out of the Resorts Hotel and Casino, opened the door, and walked toward the bridge. A state trooper came by and yelled, “Car trouble?” “No, sir, just getting some air,” I said. I climbed back in my blue Sprint and drove home, where I spent a lot of lonely hours contemplating my failures. It was 4:00 a.m. on a Sunday. I drank more booze to help me sleep.

About 3:00 p.m., the phone woke me up. It was Jim, an old friend who always wanted me to go to church with him. He said, “I prayed for you this morning, Joe,” and invited me to go with him that night to hear a guest speaker. I said OK, figuring he would buy me a hamburger after church. At the Pentecostal church, the visiting speaker gave an eloquent sermon and then invited individuals who were hurting to come forward. A long line of people went to the platform. The pastor stood in front of each. Several fell backward. “Those people are being slain in the power of the Holy Spirit,” my friend explained. “Let’s go up.” I waited until there were only a few people left. When I got close to the pastor, he asked, “What can God do for you, my son?”

I blurted out something about my asthma. He raised his hand, closed his eyes, and began to pray. I felt a peace come over me. The next instant, I was lying in Jim’s arms. Did he push me down? I wondered as I glanced around and saw I was the only one left on the platform. “How long have I been lying here?” I asked. “About eight minutes,” Jim said as he helped me to my feet. From that day on, I began to walk in Christ. Today I think of how wonderfully God works. If my friend hadn’t called, if I hadn’t been hungry for a hamburger, if the visiting pastor had not grabbed my interest, I might have ended my life jumping off a bridge.1

What if Joseph Pfister had jumped off the bridge? What would have happened to him? Does God think that suicide is an unpardonable sin? That’s our focus today, that’s what we are talking about in this week’s Light on Life.

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Becoming The Good Man God Wants You To Be

[Tweet “Is suicide a sin so grievous that God does not forgive it? Well, the answer to that is, NO!”]

Why Mixing Holy with The Unholy Is Not a Good God Thing

Podcast: Light on Life Season 6 Episode 29

Why Mixing Holy and Unholy Is Not a Good God Thing

There is a real danger in mixing God’s holy thinking with man’s unholy version. What do we mean when we say a thing is holy? Look at your Bible, and it says, “Holy Bible.” What makes it holy? The land of Israel is called “The Holy Land,” and the city of Jerusalem is called “The Holy City.” Why? There is a quality about all three that they share in common. They all belong to God. The Bible is God’s book; Israel is God’s land; Jerusalem is God’s city. They are all God’s property! That is why they are holy; they belong to God.1 Only that which originates in God and stays in the hands of God and has God’s blessing on it is ever considered holy.

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More on Praising God: Why the Hour Is Here

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Why Taking the Forgiveness Test Helps Your Faith in God

Podcast: Light on Life Season 6 Episode 28

Why Taking the Forgiveness Test Helps Your Faith in God

We have already covered six tests, in two previous podcasts,  whereby you can ascertain whether or not you are believing God. We included: the baseball bat test, the gender test, the acting test, the will of God test, the fear test, and the tense test. This week we are going to ask you to take the last test, the forgiveness test. Walking in forgiveness protects your believing. It shields your faith in God. Holding grudges against people does the opposite. It dissipates your faith in God. The Bible speaks a great deal about forgiveness, and we are going to drill down into this test in this week’s Light on Life.

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Why It’s Important to Flow in Faith’s Domain

[Tweet “Forgiveness is a ‘from the heart lifestyle attitude’ to be exercised without limits.”]

Why Jesus Shocking Bread of Life Statement is the Only Way to Heaven

Podcast: Light on Life Season 6 Episode 27

Why Jesus Shocking Bread of Life Statement Is the Only Way to Heaven

Jewish literature celebrated God’s provision of manna for Israel in the desert. People expected the Messiah to perform a similar feat. The age of the Messiah would be an age of abundance, when God’s blessings would be poured out on Israel. In the following discourse, Jesus presents himself as the fulfillment of these expectations. He said He was the Bread of Life. In contrast to popular belief, however, God’s provision of life through his Messiah entails substitutionary suffering. Jesus will have to “give his flesh for the life of the world,” and only those who “eat his flesh” and “drink his blood” will partake of God’s salvation blessings.1 What did Jesus mean by these strong words? How do we apply His thoughts to our everyday life, that’s our focus on this week’s Light on Life.

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Just Who Is Jesus to You?

[Tweet “Jesus feeding the multitudes is the only miracle recorded in every single gospel.”]

Challenging the Monumental and Mammoth Enemy of Weariness

Challenging the Monumental and Mammoth Enemy of Weariness

Many people out in the world are living weariness of everyday life. They are an auto-pilot just going through the motions. In an extreme case of this trend, ten percent of the British people believe they would be better off dead, according to a survey. One in four was unhappy in his or her job, while one in three felt exhausted, unappreciated, or underpaid. Christine Webber, the psychotherapist who did the survey, said, “Sadly, it comes as no surprise to me that so many people are unhappy at home and work. It seems that people’s lives do not live up to their extremely high expectations. It is particularly worrying to see so many people dwelling on morbid thoughts, with a large proportion just plainly exhausted by life.”1

You have to know that whatever is in the world tends to creep into the church. There are believers in Jesus who are unknowingly combating weariness. We can and should take a hint from the pages of the Bible and fight this challenging and monumental enemy called weariness.

#S2-050: More of Why Renewing the Mind Is Important for Soul Development [Podcast]

[Tweet “If you are faithful to your job, shouldn’t you be equally faithful to your God?”]

What Is the Believing God Test?

Podcast: Light on Life Season 6 Episode 26

What Is the Believing God Test?

We can learn so much from looking at Abraham in the Old Testament. Abraham was fully persuaded and absolutely convinced that God would do what He had promised He would do. He is called the father of faith for a reason and rightly so. And here’s the marvelous truth you can be just like him in faith. But how can we get there? How can we grow our confidence in God? One way is to understand what it means to be believing God. Let’s ask the question then. What does it mean to believe? What does it mean to stand on the Word of God? There are some tests you can take. And that’s what we’re talking about in this week’s Light On Life.

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Why You Don’t Have to Be Sick in Light of the Bible

[Tweet “You don’t want to bring God your opinion. Bring Him His Word. Take the will of God test.”]

How The Blessing of Judah Adds Value to Your Life

Podcast: Light on Life Season 6 Episode 25

How The Blessing of Judah Adds Value to Your Life

In today’s podcast, our focus will be the Blessing of Judah, and it’s link to praising God. It’s a good thing to be always praising God, that’s a Bible fact. While five soloists from the Duke Ellington band danced in the aisles of the National Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., a largely black-tie audience of 1,000 clapped hands to the tune of $12,000 at a musical fund-raiser. “Praise God and dance!” exhorted mellow jazz musician Ellington, and the last section of his Sacred Concert No. 2 began. Band members clapped, thrusting their hands heavenward toward the ceiling high above the arrow-like ribs of the sanctuary. Soon clumps of clappers in the audience joined in, timidly at first, then raising their hands straight up in a fervor of rhythm.1 How The Blessing of Judah Adds Value to Your Life, all this and more on this week’s Light on Life.

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How to Conquer Prejudice the Jesus Way

[Tweet “There is right sex, and then there is wrong sex. God sanctioned sex, and there is sinful sex.”]

Why Mixing Sacred and Unsacred Is Not a Good God Thing

Why Mixing Sacred with Unsacred Is Not a Good God Thing

What do we mean when we say a thing is sacred? Look at your Bible, and it says, “Holy Bible.” What makes it holy? The land of Israel is called “The Holy Land,” and the city of Jerusalem is called “The Holy City.” Why? There is a quality of all three that they share in common. They all belong to God. The Bible is God’s book; Israel is God’s land; Jerusalem is God’s city. They are all God’s property! That is why they are holy; they belong to God.1 Only that which originates in God and stays in the hands of God and has God’s blessing on it is ever considered sacred.

#S3-003: How to Minister Healing Like Jesus Did [Podcast]

[Tweet “Man took God’s holy design for ‘real spirituality’ and turned into an occasion for religion.”]

Why It’s Important You Know You Are Sons of God

Podcast: Light on Life Season 6 Episode 24

Why It's Important You Know You Are Sons of God

It’s vital that we know our identity in Christ. First John three and verse two, classifies all of God’s people as sons of God. The  Old Testament sounds a similar refrain. In Second Kings 10 and verse, thirteen Jehu meets with the brethren of Ahaziah king of Judah. Because these people are unknown to Jehu, he asks these people Who are you? They answered with these words, ‘We are the brethren of Ahaziah; and we go down to salute the children of the king.’ That’s who you are, children of the King. The children of the King is what we are talking about in this week’s Light on Life. The Kingdom of God and Kinship: The King and His Kids.

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[Tweet “In the Kingdom of God, every citizen of the Kingdom is personally related to the King.”]

The Astounding Secret of Not Forgetting God

The Astounding Secret of Not Forgetting God

One of the functions of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer is to bring the words of God Most High to our remembrance. Would you agree that not forgetting God is a huge deal? You would especially think that after reading passages like Psalm 9:17? I don’t know about you, but I have no desire to have any part of this ‘forgetting God’ business. It’s common spiritual sense to take heed to the Word of God along this line. While doing so, also note of some of the feasts in the Bible, like the seven feasts of the Old Testament as well as the one feast, Communion, of the New. Some of these feasts have as their center of attention the astounding secret of not forgetting God. Not forgetting God, that’s our focus in this week’s blog.

Why You Can Be Thrilled With God’s Excellence

[Tweet “It is God who gives the power to get wealth. The tendency in the human is to forget this fact.”]