Posts

Facing the Reality of Our Mortality: A Christian’s Call to Number Our Days and Rest in Eternal Hope

Image
There comes a moment in the life of every believer—sometimes gradually, sometimes with the sudden force of a diagnosis, a failing body, or the quiet recognition that the years have grown short—when the nearness of death can no longer be ignored. The end of this earthly pilgrimage is no longer a distant theological concept. It is imminent. The horizon of eternity has drawn close, and the soul must reckon with the unalterable truth that soon it will step from this life into the presence of the living God. This is not a subject for the faint of heart, nor for those who prefer the soft language of modern sentimentality. Scripture does not permit us to treat death as a gentle transition or a natural cycle of life. Death is an enemy (1 Corinthians 15:26). It is the wages of sin (Romans 6:23). It is the great leveler that strips away every earthly pretense, every possession, every reputation, and every remaining ambition. Yet for the one who is in Christ, death has been stripped of its ultima...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Deceitfulness of Sin and the Slow Calcification of the Heart

Image
  * (Hebrews 3:12–15) * The writer of Hebrews does not treat hardness of heart as a sudden event. He treats it as a progressive danger that can overtake even those who have already tasted the goodness of God. After quoting Psalm 95, he presses the warning home: “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end; While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.” (Hebrews 3:12–15) Notice the careful language. The danger is an “evil heart of unbelief.” The means by which it takes root is “the deceitfulness of sin.” The result is progressive hardening. And the only window of opportunity named is “To day.” Hardening rarely begins with open rebellion. It usually ...
Post a Comment
Location: Plymouth, IN 46563, USA
Read more

Behold, I Do a New Thing – Moving Forward Without Looking Back

Image
  The final word of biblical adaptation is not nostalgia for what was, but expectancy for what God is yet to do. Isaiah 43:18-19 declares, “Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.” The temptation in every season of change is to keep looking backward—to the former health, the former ministry, the former security, the former relationships. The Lord commands the opposite. Stop remembering the former things as the measure of the present. Lift your eyes. God is not finished. He specializes in making ways in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. Paul lived this truth. Philippians 3:13-14 records his settled method: “Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Luke 9:62 adds t...
Post a Comment
Location: Plymouth, IN 46563, USA
Read more

Practical Anchors for the Changing Season – Seven Non-Negotiables

Image
  The biographical examples of Scripture are not given merely for inspiration. They establish non-negotiable principles that every believer must apply when life changes. From the whole counsel of God we draw seven anchors that must not be moved. First , anchor yourself in the unchanging Word. Psalm 119:89 declares that forever, O Lord, Thy word is settled in heaven. When everything else shifts, the believer returns to the settled Word. Do not adapt your doctrine to the new season. Force the new season to submit to the doctrine already revealed. Second , refuse the counsel of the ungodly. Psalm 1 stands as a perpetual warning. The world offers endless strategies for coping. The fundamentalist rejects them all. Our help comes from the Lord which made heaven and earth (Psalm 121:2). Third , maintain the fear of the Lord. Many adapt by growing casual with holy things. Scripture warns through Nadab and Abihu, Achan, and Ananias and Sapphira that God is not mocked. Seasons of personal up...
Post a Comment
Location: Plymouth, IN 46563, USA
Read more

Paul: Content in Every State – The Secret of Godly Contentment

Image
  No New Testament figure endured more constant and varied change than the apostle Paul. He went from respected Pharisee to hunted Christian, from free preacher to chained prisoner, from successful church planter to shipwrecked castaway. Yet from a Roman prison he could write, “I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Philippians 4:11-13). Contentment is not natural. Paul says he “learned” it. It is a grace cultivated through repeated experiences of both abundance and need, always in dependence upon the strengthening Christ. The fundamentalist Christian must reject the world’s counterfeit versions of contentment—positive thinking, gratitude journals divorced from the cross, or the pursuit of “balance.” Biblical contentment is the...
Post a Comment
Location: Plymouth, IN 46563, USA
Read more