Christian Growth

Responsible Freedom

~ Joe ~ Leave a comment

Ask anybody in America what they think is the best part about this country and it will most likely be “freedom.” I would agree; this is the land of the free! But at Christians we too are free. In fact, I would say we have a greater freedom than anything this world can give. We have freedom in Christ!

The Bible has much to say about our freedom in Christ. Here is a short list:

John 8:32
Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

John 8:36
So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

Romans 6:7
anyone who has died has been freed from sin.

Romans 6:18
You have been set free from sin…

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Multiple Second Chances

~ Joe ~ Leave a comment

Have you ever wished that you had a second chance at something? I know I have. Maybe it was a bad purchase that involved a lot of money or something on the job that could have been done better. Maybe it was how we treated a friend or what we should have done for somebody but didn’t. Regret and wishing we had second chances may be a part of our normal life but with the Lord Jesus, it doesn’t have to be.

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Loved for a Purpose

~ Joe ~ Leave a comment

What do Christians always tell nonbelievers about the love of God?

They tell them that God loves them for who they are and nothing that they could do would ever change that, but how often do you hear believers telling other believers that?

Well, I’m here to tell you that God loves you, Christian! And nothing that you’ve done in the past, even after becoming a Christian, and nothing that you are going to do will change how much God loves you.

Romans 8:38-39 says:
38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

But why is this so important? Don’t Christians already know that they are loved by God?

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Being a Light

~ Joe ~ Leave a comment

CNN.com posed a story 6:08 p.m. EST, December 19, 2006 entitled, “Reality check: 95 percent of Americans had premarital sex.” Following are some excerpts from the story:

NEW YORK (AP) — More than nine out of 10 Americans, men and women alike, have had premarital sex, according to a new study. The high rates extend even to women born in the 1940s, challenging perceptions that people were more chaste in the past.

“This is reality-check research,” said the study’s author, Lawrence Finer. “Premarital sex is normal behavior for the vast majority of Americans, and has been for decades.”

Finer is a research director at the Guttmacher Institute, a private New York-based think tank that studies sexual and reproductive issues and which disagrees with government-funded programs that rely primarily on abstinence-only teachings. The study, released Tuesday, appears in the new issue of Public Health Reports.

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How Approachable Are You?

~ Joe ~ 1 Comment

You are a Christian. You’ve been one a long time. You gave your life to Jesus Christ and now you read your Bible, pray often, and you’re at church every time the doors are open. Your family, friends, and neighbors know that you are a Christian because you’ve told them so and because you can, and have, quoted chapter and verse to them from your Bible. (They also know because of all of the forwarded “Christian” emails you send to them.  🙂 ) You are a wealth of biblical information and are able to speak the truth into any situation, but how approachable are you?

Once people know that you are a Christian will they be able to approach you with real life issues and hurts? Are you accessible when they have deep spiritual questions that only the God of the Bible can answer?

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