Jim

We are children of our loving God. Unfortunately, like in the Crusades, are we Christians losing the moral high ground? A long term Christian evangelist to college campuses says 20 and 30 years ago was a great time for bearing fruit on campuses. Now, they spend their energy: Trying to convince them that Christians aren’t inherently racist, sexist, and abusive. How did we get here? The Kingdom of God is about love and compassion for the lost. Did Jesus ever …

In 1517, Martin Luther gave new life to the Biblical idea of Salvation by faith alone by discovering that Romans 1:16 -17 means we are saved by faith. That led to Martin studying and teaching on Romans a lot and modern evangelicals developing the Roman Road for simply sharing the gospel. However, it is not only in Romans that the main thing is clarified. See here the Gospel in Galatians. 15 “We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles 16 know that …

What do you think if someone tells you they are Christian, but “I don’t go to church very often.” This happened to me May 11, 2005 which proved to be life changing and it happened again just now. This makes me think. When that guy said that, I was leading a Christian non-profit in China. He was interviewing to get a job for our non-profit. I asked him why he did not go to church, and he said, “People at …

Fear of death for faithful Christians is quite understandable and thoughts here about parachuting can help us see just how understandable. “Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark.” —- Francis Bacon (1561-1626 Christian Scientist) Death is guaranteed unless Jesus comes back before we die. I guess that Jesus will come back in about 10,000 years, so back to the death question. Death is a part of life, so we do best to get used to it. …

Jesus is our Lord and Savior. Paul the Apostle is an example to follow. Let’s take on these words from Paul the Apostle. 19 Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should. In some circles, people ask the pastor to pray for the as he is nore holy. Or have the pastor …

Atheists live sad lives. The key to being Atheist is to live a shallow life as thinking deep hurts. If you think of meaning in life where only material exists, you end up finding that all is meaningless. If your thinking comes from a random collection of atoms, then your thinking is meaningless. Death is just an end.  Faith gives meaning, but why? Did you know that committed Christians and conservative Muslims both are known for having lots of children? …

How are we representing God? Or how are Christians viewed? Are we giving God a good name in public?  We all know that the US church is in decline. Let’s think more.  Here, an evangelical pastor writes to chart 50 years. Look at this data. Christianity has traditionally been seen as a stabilizing, even moderating, influence on American life. In 1975, more than two-thirds of Americans expressed “a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in the church,” according to Gallup, …

In 312-16 AD Christianity went from being a banned and severely persecuted group in the Roman Empire to being the favored faith and joining the Emperor in power. Christians, understandably, thought it was good news when the Emperor Constantine had his soldiers put the symbol of the cross on their shields. In fact, it proved to be a disaster for the church. Power hurt us. Let us make Constantine a warning to the faithful. Constantine encouraged the Christians, but refused …

In China where I live, if you are a child of a top political leader, you have the world at your feet. Some might wish that they were some official’s son or daughter. The Bible says those who believe become children of the King of the Heavens and Earth. That is a lot bigger than earthly political power. That is why the Bible says we can be joyful always. God is in charge and says we need not worry. Why …

I have often noted that Jesus said we are to be children all our lives. He, further, emphasizes that we need to be like little children. The result is that the gap between what we are today and what the Bible says can be daunting. We also have gaps in terms of meeting people’s needs around us. Are we good enough? It can all be too much for us, and we give up or shrink inside ourselves. How does God …