Posted on Sep 3, 2020 in Devotional | Tags: 2 Timothy 2:1-7, Apostle Paul, athlete, competiion, devotion, enemy, Ephesians 6:10-20, ever faithful, faithful, faithfulness, God, justification, obedience, race
The Athlete Part 2
Open Competition
The church is a church of athletes, we are continually running our race, boxing with the flesh and competing with ourselves for the prize of hearing God say, “Well done, My good and faithful servant (
Matt. 25:23).” But we do not compete by ourselves, we have other more nefarious enemies to contend with. They too serve a master and his name is Satan. They claim to serve themselves or perhaps no one, but we the Christian know that while some may claim that there are no “sides” and no “Teams” we truly know there is. You are either a slave to the world, to the flesh to death or a slave to Christ and there is no in-between (
Rom. 6:15-23). We compete in this day and age not against governments or policies, not against taxes and legislation, we compete against teams of a different nature altogether (
Eph. 6:10-20).
What are the other teams? It would take me more than a lifetime to go through all of them but some of the major contenders of this day are Pantheism, Secularism, and Relativism. Pantheism is to make the world God, Secularism is to make science God, and Relativism makes self God. All of these things are our competitors and yet they follow only one rule that of Idolatry. The Christian must be well drilled to deal with these cheaters but here we must make an important choice: Will you follow the rules or will you try and subvert them?
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Posted on Apr 20, 2019 in Devotional | Tags: God, Jesus, Matthew 16, Messiah, Savior, Who is Jesus
If Christ was not a liar or a lunatic, then He has to be what He said He was; God. There is no middle ground in this discussion. He could not have been merely a good teacher or prophet because He claimed to be God. If He was lying then He was a horrible person who was merely searching for a following and influence. These are not the earmarks of a good teacher or prophet. Read more…
Posted on Apr 20, 2019 in Devotional | Tags: God, Jesus, liar, lunatic, Messiah, Savior, Who is Jesus
We established in our last entry that Christ could not have been merely a liar. He obviously didn’t claim to be God to avoid trouble and He chose the wrong people to go to if He was looking for power and notoriety. In addition, He had to truly believe that His claims were true in order to suffer the many atrocities that were committed against Him. Remember that no where in recorded history does He ever once reveal that He was a fraud. This includes sources outside the four Gospels, most notably Flavius Josephus who wrote: Read more…
Posted on Apr 20, 2019 in Devotional | Tags: God, Jesus, Lamb of God, liar, lunatic, Mark 14, Matthew 26, Messiah, Savior, Who is Jesus
In the last entry we looked at how the claims of Jesus, that He was God, polarized those who heard Him teach. They either worshiped and accepted Him or completely rejected Him. In addition, we briefly looked at the foundation of Josh McDowell’s book “More Than a Carpenter” that states Christ was a liar, lunatic, or God. In this entry we will look at the first possibility; was Christ a liar? Read more…
Posted on Apr 19, 2019 in Devotional | Tags: God, I AM, Jesus, John 8, liar, lunatic, Mark 2, Matthew 16:15, Son of God, Who is Jesus
I wish that I had come up with this simple yet effective approach to show that Christ was who He said He was, but alas I did not. Credit must go to Josh McDowell and his book “More Than a Carpenter.” If you have not read this book I highly recommend it. It is, as my mom used to say, “Short, sweet, and to the point”. Read more…