Category: Grace Living (Christian Life)

“Very Religious” Versus “True Holiness”

Sunday, May 24, 2015

“That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind: And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” (Ephesians 4:22-24 KJV).

Is it merely religious, or truly holiness?

Recently talking among a group, I heard a person comment about a certain woman’s modest apparel. Another person replied, “Oh, yes, she is very religious!” (The implication, a common one, is a “religious” person dresses decently and acts respectfully.)

Ironically, it was “religious” people in the Bible who did some of the most disturbing things. Did not “religious” Cain murder Abel his brother (Genesis 4:1-15)? When Baal worship infected Israel, did not “sodomites” appear among the Jews (1 Kings 14:24; 1 Kings 15:12; 1 Kings 22:46; 2 Kings 23:7)? Did not the innumerable pagan priestess prostitutes who roamed Corinth’s streets at night “serve” Aphrodite, Greek goddess of love? (Hence, Paul urged lustful Christians in Corinth to marry in 1 Corinthians 7:2,9.)

Furthermore, Ephesians talks about “true holiness” (today’s Scripture). This implies that there is such a thing as false holiness. Anyone can appear to be set apart for God’s purposes, can be doing things that are noble and nice and noteworthy, but yet they are actually not serving the God of the Bible at all.

Remember Israel’s “very religious” behavior in Isaiah chapter 1. They would raise their hands, assemble for their festivals, offer animal sacrifices according to the Mosaic Law, visit the Temple, and so on. God said He was so sick of seeing such hypocrisy that He hid His face! They were not doing such things by faith. They did not believe His Word. They just loved to appear religious because it appealed to their flesh.

One day, when God calls His Christians home to heaven, we will see once and for all who is a Christian and who is not. Those who remain on earth will be manifested as “false holiness” (the “very religious” bunch). One can fool some of the people some of the time, but one cannot fool all of the people all of the time. And remember, no one can fool God any of the time! 🙂

Our latest Bible Q&A: “Should Christians accept the practice of cremation?”

The ‘Body’ of Christ

Saturday, May 23, 2015

“And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory” (1 Timothy 3:16 KJV).

A Christian sister, recently explaining the Church the Body of Christ to her grandkids, was asked by the youngest, “How can we be the ‘Body’ of Christ?” Let us answer that.

“The Church the Body of Christ” is a metaphor the Holy Spirit chose to describe the group of believers in this the Dispensation of the Grace of God (see Ephesians 1:22,23; Colossians 1:24). Jesus Christ Himself is not physically on our planet. He is seated at His Father’s right hand in the third heaven (Colossians 3:1). Nevertheless, He is indeed on planet Earth in another sense (see today’s Scripture).

Jesus Christ works today through the third Person of the Godhead. His name is “Holy Ghost,” but His role is “Holy Spirit.” The Holy Ghost indwells Christians (1 Corinthians 6:19; 2 Timothy 1:14). When someone comes to the end of their dependence on works-religion, their efforts to atone for their sins; when someone comes by simple faith alone in Jesus Christ’s shed blood, death, burial, and resurrection as sufficient payment for their sins; the Holy Ghost comes to live inside that person (Ephesians 1:12-14). The only way God can work through Christians is the indwelling Holy Spirit.

First Corinthians chapter 12 should be read and considered. Just as our physical body has eyes, ears, nose, mouth, arms, legs, et cetera—all of these governed by our brain—the Church the Body of Christ has many members (body parts) who are guided by one Head (Jesus Christ) (Colossians 1:18). What He thinks, we do. What we do, it is really He who is doing it. God is manifest in the flesh today in the form of Christians. Today, Jesus Christ cannot physically comfort hurting people, cannot physically walk to people’s homes and share the Gospel with them, cannot assist them with difficult tasks, et cetera, but we can (and should). As His “ambassadors,” we are acting in His absence (2 Corinthians 5:20). May our actions be acceptable to Him! 🙂

Fruit in the Time to Come

Friday, May 22, 2015

“For we write none other things unto you, than what ye read or acknowledge; and I trust ye shall acknowledge even to the end; As also ye have acknowledged us in part, that we are your rejoicing, even as ye also are ours in the day of the Lord Jesus” (2 Corinthians 1:13,14 KJV).

Oh, what excitement and rejoicing there will be when all members of the Body of Christ in heaven we will see!

In the early 1900s, preacher and Bible scholar Dr. C. I. Scofield led a certain missionary to trust Jesus Christ as his personal Saviour. In the 1940s, that missionary led a certain preacher to Jesus Christ. By the early 1970s, that preacher had led a certain woman and her husband to Jesus Christ. In 1980, that woman led Mom and Dad to Jesus Christ. It was in the mid-1990s that Mom led me, at the age of 6 or 7, to trust Jesus Christ as my personal Saviour. In just a few lines, that was one route the Gospel of Grace “traveled” in the 20th century!

Today’s Scripture is a very exciting passage in light of the above paragraph. Paul and Timothy knew the Corinthian believers would be their rejoicing at the Judgment Seat of Christ. Conversely, Paul and Timothy would be the rejoicing of the Corinthians in that day. Similar statements were made about the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians 2:19,20.

When we all arrive at the Judgment Seat of Christ on that glorious day post-Rapture, and the Lord Jesus Himself evaluates the doctrine we have stored in our inner man, there will be great joy, a most glorious reunion, an event that transcends our imagination! There, we will recognize those we led to Jesus Christ, and we will know those Christians whose lives we impacted with sound Bible doctrine (dispensational Bible study). Also, we will be able to thank the saints who were so faithful in leading us to trust Jesus Christ and/or teaching us His wonderful truths. All the memories of the troubles of this world will just melt away. We will be awed by what God Almighty did to get us all there! 🙂

Speak to the Hungry People!

Thursday, May 21, 2015

“…He that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully…” (Jeremiah 23:28b KJV).

Do you have God’s Word? Then speak that Word faithfully, that you may feed the starving souls!

In ministry, I meet many cantankerous people. They are not interested in being Bible believers. They only want to argue and change the Bible text when they disagree with it. What is sad is if they have actually trusted Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour! Then again, I find some people (saved and lost alike) who make ministry so worthwhile. They want to believe God’s Word, and cannot hear enough of it. They want to hear more, more, and more! (It is our pleasure to stick around talking with them as long as possible.)

One Christian sister explained to me that she was teaching dispensational Bible study to another Christian. He was so intrigued by the verses she was sharing. The poor man was “starving” spiritually. Church services were just not feeding his soul. He had religion, but not edification. He wanted to hear more from God’s Word!

A Christian brother who has since gone to meet the Lord, was known for his sincere searching for the truth. That man was so open to being taught the Holy Bible rightly divided. He refused to hear any more denominational teaching—he had heard enough of that for many years before. He wanted the pure Word of God. For hours at a time, he eagerly received Bible lessons! His earthly life was cut short due to illness, but we were so glad to serve him for the brief time we did.

One of my closest friends in the ministry attended weekly services with her husband for some 10 years in a denominational church. Once these Christians came to understand God’s grace and the King James Bible rightly divided, she summarized their decade of denominationalism: “In those 10 years there, we learned nothing!”

Saints, Father God has not yet closed our Dispensation of Grace. We have His preserved Word (the King James Bible), so let us faithfully speak it to as many people as we can before time runs out! 🙂

The Hope of Creation

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

“For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now” (Romans 8:22 KJV).

Having recently taken our family pet dog to the veterinarian, I was reminded again that the curse of sin affects all creatures, not just us.

In the waiting room, an enormous Great Pyrenees dog limped with “flopping” hind legs. Puzzled, I asked the nurse what was wrong with it. She said “old age.” The dog was 12 years old—roughly 60 in human years—and suffered from severe arthritis. The aging dog could not stand for long. My mind immediately recalled today’s Scripture—“the whole creation….”

If we were to go to heaven and ask Adam, “Given the chance to do it all again, would you eat that forbidden fruit?,” I wonder what he would reply. That sin was certainly enjoyable but it had such awful consequences. Adam foreknew death for himself and Eve, but not the long-term and extensive damage. He had no idea that his one act of unbelief and disobedience would impact over 10 billion people and innumerable animals and plants. They would all suffer the repercussions—disabilities, disease, and death—for something he did. He had no idea that his sin would require the Creator’s very life!

Everywhere we turn, we see problems, problems, and more problems! It is such a comfort to know that our Creator God has abounding grace and pity toward us. It was not His will that such difficult human, animal, and plant conditions would exist. He has not left us hopeless and helpless. All hope for creation rests solely upon the Lord Jesus Christ. No pope, priest, “prophet,” president, preacher, pundit, professor, or person has any power to undo what Adam did. Scientific analyses, political agendas, social movements, economic theories, religious participation—all the works and thoughts of weak and faulty men such as ourselves. Oh, how Jesus Christ is so desperately needed here. He is the answer to all our problems.

Rather than looking within ourselves, or looking to others like ourselves, let us look in the Holy Bible to learn that Jesus Christ is the only Hope for heaven and earth and all their hosts. He will set it all right in His time! 🙂

Our special edition 150th Bible Q&A: “Who wrote the book of Hebrews?”

A Higher Education: It Is Up to You

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

“Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity” (1 Timothy 4:12 KJV).

Nine years ago today, I graduated high school. Consequently, we dedicate this devotional to high school students who are nearing graduation.

Are you about to graduate high school? What would God have you do afterward? Go to college? Trade school? Something else? What career should you pursue? If you do plan on education after high school, where should you attend school? These are tough questions, and while God’s Word does not answer them, you can make decisions that conform to sound Bible doctrine—that is God’s will.

In today’s Scripture, Paul encourages downcast Timothy. Timothy was considerably younger than the Apostle Paul. Older people who are teaching false doctrine are intimidating young Timothy: “Tim, you are too young to teach God’s Word. Let us handle it.” Young Timothy conceded, became silent, and allowed the (“older and wiser”) false teachers to continue teaching their damnable heresies (cf. 1 Timothy 1:3-7; 2 Timothy 1:5-8). Paul replied, “Timothy, Speak up! Let no man despise thy youth!”

Christian youth can be just as effectual in their station in life as Christian adults. The lost world is watching us Christians, and we need to be sure that our actions are in accordance with the sound Bible doctrine we claim to believe (lest we be guilty of confusing the already-puzzled unbelievers). Whether “young or old,” our speech, our lifestyle, our acts of love, our determination, our belief in sound Bible doctrine, and our separation from that which God hates, is the way we communicate to the lost world God’s Word and its preeminence in our lives and hearts (today’s Scripture).

Above all, dear graduates, whatever you do post-graduation, “do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God and the Father by him” (Colossians 3:17). After all, it really is not your life—it is Christ’s life in you (Galatians 2:20; Colossians 3:4), so He alone deserves the glory!

*Based on a Bible study by the same name, which can be read here. Also, see the study “The Spirit-Filled Student.”

Truth Be Told

Monday, May 18, 2015

“But we have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God” (2 Corinthians 4:2 KJV).

If we have not done so already, may we abandon “handling the word of God deceitfully!”

A “faith healer” preacher, after sharing “healing testimonies” and offering to send prayer cloths and anointing oil by mail, read 2 Corinthians 4:16 on television: “For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.” He actually admitted that our physical bodies are aging and decaying. Jokingly, he referenced his balding head and he and his wife’s wrinkling skin! (“Physician, heal thyself with thy ‘miracle-healing tools!’”) No wonder people laugh at us Christians. Just look at the foolishness “Christian” television networks air!

Recently, someone told me she had “paid for some Masses” for a certain deceased loved one to be freed from purgatory’s flames. Those prayers said on her behalf were not cheap, but they were certainly not enough to merit God’s heaven. (If Jesus’ blood did not bring someone to heaven, can silver and gold?)

Dear friends, the above is not Christianity but charlatanry. Remember, if someone is not making sense, ‘someone’ is making money! There are many sincere but vulnerable people, particularly in religion. These precious souls need to learn the difference between Christianity and charlatanry. Just because someone is reading a Bible, talking about “Jesus” and “God,” or claiming to be led by the “Holy Ghost,” that does not automatically make that individual a spokesperson for God (a common myth). Ministers are oftentimes the sneakiest people. Jesus condemned the religious leaders of His day for them draining people of their income and trust. There are billions around the world today equally deceived and abused.

Beloved, let us take our King James Bible, and let us be grounded in Paul’s epistles, Romans through Philemon, that we not be “tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine” (Ephesians 4:14). As we learn to tell the truth, those who want to know it, will learn as well. 🙂

Out of Season

Sunday, May 17, 2015

“And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness” (Isaiah 29:18 KJV).

What does today’s Scripture have to do with the current spiritual affairs of “Christian” United States of America?

According to a recent poll, in 2014, about 71 percent of Americans claimed to be “Christian.” In 2007, it was 78 percent. Some 23 percent of Americans polled in 2014 claimed to be “atheist, agnostic, or of no specific faith.” Back in 2007, that percentage was 16. In other words, it seems that Christianity is losing its majority. Why do I say “seems?”

One of the greatest misconceptions is the widely held belief that every person who claims to be “Christian” is a Christian. If we were to re-poll the above persons, and ask them to define what a Christian is or believes, many would be unable to tell us. The actual percentage of Christians is far lower. There may be 224 million church members in our beloved nation, but certainly not 224 million members of the Body of Christ! From Genesis through Revelation, the God of the Bible has never had a majority. I doubt there are 224 million true Christians in the whole world!

What is happening in our nation is we are reverting to pre-Christian times. When Christianity spread through pagan lands in New Testament times, there was increasing light and truth. Now, the opposite is occurring. That light and truth are becoming scarcer—not just here, but in all places history once knew as “centers of Bible believers.” This world is heading for the seven-year Tribulation, and rightly so. Two thousand more years of unbelief have been credited to mankind.

The spiritual ignorance that so gripped Israel millennia ago is suffocating the whole world spiritually. Thankfully, today’s Scripture says that God’s Word will still be preserved beyond our present-day, to convert Israel in the future. If that Word will exist then, it must exist today. Despite all the false religions, false teachers, and false Bibles, our King James Bible is a beacon ever so bright and true. ‘Tis the preserved Word of God that shall see us through! 🙂

A Renewed Opportunity

Saturday, May 16, 2015

“To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:19 KJV).

If only more lost people knew the first half of today’s Scripture. If only more Christian people knew the second!

Recently, I learned that a family member attempted suicide. Thankfully, the police intervened and hospitalized him before he carried out his plan. A dear religious man, a war veteran plagued by post-traumatic stress disorder, haunted by his violent past, has gotten the psychiatric help he so desperately needed. Sometime ago, he told me that he could still see in his mind his friends’ faces from all those years ago, people who never came home from the war alive. Like so many veterans, he feels guilty for not dying with the others on the battlefield. I do hope to visit him soon and share Jesus Christ with him (again).

It is estimated that there are between 10 and 20 million failed suicide attempts worldwide every year. Every year, over 800,000 people are successful in taking their lives. What is saddest of all is that the vast majority of these precious souls go to hell (not because they committed suicide, but because they died without Jesus Christ). They did not have go to hell.

When Father God sent Jesus Christ to Calvary, He sent Him to change the status of the nations of the world (today’s Scripture). Once, while He dealt with Israel, the nations were cut off from Him (Ephesians 2:11,12). Today, God has concluded “all in unbelief, that He might have mercy upon all,” Jew and Gentile (Romans 11:32). Verse 15 talks about how God has temporarily cast away Israel in order to reconcile the world. He is not pouring out His wrath on them. People of all nations can come to Him by simple faith in Jesus Christ’s bloodshed, death, burial, and resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:3,4). This is the Gospel of the Grace of God, “the word of reconciliation,” and may we Christians be faithful in getting it out to the masses before it is eternally too late. There is hope in Jesus Christ! 🙂

Our latest Bible Q&A: “Could you explain Acts 19:1-7?”

Up From the Grave He Arose #4

Friday, May 15, 2015

“And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it” (Colossians 2:15 KJV).

The chorus of Robert Lowry’s classic 1874 hymn “Up From the Grave He Arose” highlights today’s Scripture.

“Up from the grave He arose;
With a mighty triumph o’er His foes;
He arose a victor from the dark domain,
And He lives forever, with His saints to reign.
He arose! He arose! Hallelujah! Christ arose!”

On the cross of Calvary, Jesus Christ appeared weak and defeated. “He [had been] crucified through weakness” (2 Corinthians 13:4). On that Resurrection Sunday morning 20 centuries ago, there were many shocked individuals. The most surprised was the old Devil himself. All his efforts to keep the Lord Jesus Christ dead and gone had failed!

Now that the mystery has been revealed through Paul, we read in the context of today’s Scripture: “[13] And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he [God the Father] quickened together with him [Jesus Christ], having forgiven you all trespasses; [14] Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; [15] And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.”

On Christ’s cross, we were crucified. The means whereby Satan killed Jesus Christ, God used it to make us dead to sin! That awful sin debt that we had accrued with the Mosaic Law was nailed to Christ’s cross. That whole Law system was thus done away, and the Dispensation of Grace came in! At Calvary’s cross, Jesus Christ put the entire Satanic policy of evil and all of its associates, to complete and utter shame.

Now, Jesus Christ is “alive for evermore” (Revelation 1:18). We too are alive for evermore with Him, dead to sin and alive unto God’s glory (cf. Romans 6:1-23). So, we wait for Him to come and take us away to the heavenly places, where we will reign forever with Him. Praise the Lord! Up from the grave (we arose because) Jesus Christ arose! 🙂