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What Does It Mean to be Free from Sin?

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What Does It Mean to be Free from Sin?

With freedom from sin comes personal responsibility. Believers have the personal ability to respond to God’s grace rather than continue to live in sin. Response ability.

Under the New Covenant, we are free from sin. We are free from sin in that God is no longer holding our sins against us.

Paul explains in Romans 6 that freedom from sin doesn’t give one an excuse to continue in sin; it’s just the opposite. It’s the opposite because we are under grace.

If you have a traditional understanding of grace, you will not grasp the power of “under grace.” Grace is traditionally defined as unmerited favor. It’s equated to mercy. The sentiment is that God shows you grace even though you deserve punishment. That’s incorrect. Grace and mercy are different. Mercy is undeserved forgiveness, but grace is inner strength.

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God is a Constant in a World Full of Variables

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God is a Constant in a World Full of Variables

In mathematical equations, there are constants and variables. A constant has a fixed numerical value, while a variable may be unknown or can variate. In the formula d = 2r; 2 is a constant whereas, r and d are variables. To solve the equation, you work out the problem until you define the variables. In math, once you solve variables, you can build skyscrapers or balance budgets. In science, when you isolate and know the variables, you can cure diseases or develop all sorts of effective medicines.

The point being, if you solve the problems by working out the variables until they are known constants, you’re left with a reliable formula or process, and sometimes a scientific law.

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How to Hear God in a Crisis

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How to Hear God in a Crisis

Do you want to know how to hear God when it's hard to hear God? Here’s how; if you know what he said, you'll know what he is saying. You don't need a NEW word; you need a LIVING word.

What Is God's Word?

The word "word" is the Greek word, logos. It's where we get the word logic. Logos also refers to the character of the speaker of that word. God's logos is how he thinks, how he treats people, and how he organizes everything he does. It's his way. God has a way about him; that way is his logos.

The logos of God manifests in different ways. We have the written word, which is God’s commandments, instructions, poetry, doctrine and history. The written word reflects the logic and character of his being. The written word can be used to keep us grounded when we feel like we receive a fresh spoken word from God.

Another aspect of the logos of God is Jesus. Jesus is the Logos of God, made flesh. If you could squeeze God's way of thinking, how he behaves, and how he lives his life through time into a human being, that's Jesus.

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The Truth About Suffering and Tribulation

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The Truth About Suffering and Tribulation

You might suffer, even to the point of losing your life, for preaching the Gospel. In that situation, God promises that he'll comfort you. Paul teaches us that if we find ourselves under religious persecution, we can turn to God and be strengthened. As we're strengthened, it helps us persevere, and we come out with hope and patience. But you can not say that God will mess around with your life's circumstances, to make you suffer, to teach you patience.

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You Don't Have to Prove Anything to Anyone But Yourself

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You Don't Have to Prove Anything to Anyone But Yourself

You don’t have to prove anything to anyone except yourself. People will place all kinds of expectations on you if you let them. They will tell you what they think you should do based on their own lives. Much of the time, we think about what someone else will think when we’re making our decisions.

We live with an underlying sense of expectation from our parents, spouses, our friends, our boss, and our coworkers. We worry about what our political affiliates will think. We worry about what our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ will think. We worry about what our pastors will think.

But none of those people are living your life. You alone have to process your thoughts and emotions when you lay your head on your pillow night. You are the one who has to determine whether you’re following God or not.

You are the only one you have to prove anything to. You know what you’ve done, you know what you need to do, and it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks, they can’t live out the results of your choices for you.

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Viral Love: The Church Can Spread Love Through Unity in the Midst of Uncertainty and Fear

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Viral Love: The Church Can Spread Love Through Unity in the Midst of Uncertainty and Fear

The world is freaking out, and we have the solution! When we allow God to love us we are made whole. From that wholeness we will trust God deeply. When we trust him, we walk in his promises and experience His provision, even during a pandemic. The world needs this kind of wholeness, the world needs peace. How will the world know this love that makes us whole? Through a united church.

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When You Pray, Believe That You Have Received and it Will Be Yours

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When You Pray, Believe That You Have Received and it Will Be Yours

Jesus said “all things are possible for those who believe,” and “believe that you HAVE RECEIVED and it WILL BE yours.” We can either take him at his word or come up with all kinds of explanations and rationalizations about why he didn’t really mean those things. Folks will bring up theological points like context and audience but the bottom line is, he said them.

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What Do We Know?

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What Do We Know?

The scientific world asks, “what do we know” when seeking to establish accurate results. The Law Enforcement community asks, “what do we know” when trying to examine evidence and find the truth. The same question can be asked when seeking to establish God’s Word in your heart.

“What do I know to be true about God” is an excellent question to ponder when you pray. Start with what you know is true, then pray about the things you need to pray.

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You Must Be Sanctified to Encounter the Presence of God

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You Must Be Sanctified to Encounter the Presence of God

You must be sanctified to encounter the presence of God

Coming in contact with the presence of God will kill you if you have not been appropriately sanctified. Sanctification means to be cleansed or purified in a specific way. Once something is consecrated, it is holy, or fit for use by God.

Under the Old Covenant, you sanctified yourself, under the New Covenant, Jesus is your sanctification. Under the OC, you cleansed your outer man. Under the NC, Jesus cleanses your inner man.

To be sanctified under the Old Covenant, you took a bath, washed your clothes, and abstained from sex for two days.

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I Am Free to Love You When I Set You Free from My Judgements

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I Am Free to Love You When I Set You Free from My Judgements

To Jesus, judgment is when you “look at the speck of sawdust in another person’s eye.” He says STOP IT! Don’t do that! When you look at the speck you no longer see that person, you only see the speck. The speck is whatever issue or behavior you are judging about that person.

His remedy is to remove the plank in your own eye so you can see clearly to help them remove the speck from their eye. The plank in your eye is your judgment of that person. Your judgment is clouding you from seeing the person apart from the speck, you only see the problem. Remove your judgment and you will see clearly to help them.

Notice he doesn’t say to ignore the speck. Jesus wants you to address the speck, if you see someone caught in sin you are to help restore them. But if you only see their problem, it will blind you from helping them in a healthy way.

God is not holding our sins against us, we should not hold people’s sins against them either. Love keeps no record of wrong. Does that mean they get away with it? No way, they’ll reap what they sow, but you’re not the judge, jury, and punisher.

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