Culture

Where’s Our Focus?

~ Joe ~ 1 Comment

An alarm.
A splash of water.
A brush through the hair.
A cup to wake up.
A drive.
Catching up with friends.
ToDo lists.
Meetings.
Herding cats.
Phone calls.
Eventually getting some work done.
Another drive.
The wind down.
Family/personal time.
A different ToDo list, maybe.
Running errands.
The second wind down.
Falling asleep way too early.

And repeat…

Although the above is a highly generalized version of our day, it does show how they can be filled with many things to do. Unfortunately, it’s easy to loose focus on eternal things when we live like that for days, weeks, months and years on end. If we’re not careful, we’ll find ourselves thinking more like an unbeliever than a child of God. So let’s take a look at what Jesus had to say about this topic to help us retain our focus.

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Salvation is not a Gift from God

~ Joe ~ 2 Comments

Although many well meaning ministers refer to salvation as a gift from God, the Bible makes it clear that this is not the case. Salvation is not a neatly wrapped gift that God gives to some people and not others. Salvation is not a “get out of Hell free” ticket.
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Living by Grace through Faith

~ Joe ~ Leave a comment

How does a person become a Christian? I think the majority of existing Christians would say that a person gets saved by accepting Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior or by simply believing in Jesus or by accepting the free gift of grace from God. And any of these would be correct. Paul wrote to the Ephesian church “For it is by grace that you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8).

However, when asked how a Christian becomes mature in their faith, most Christians will answer: by reading your Bible, doing daily devotions, praying often, going to every church service, getting connected to a small group, giving to the church and missions, by serving at your church, etc.

Not that doing any of those activities are bad––in fact, they’re all very good things to be involved with––but none the less, they are just activities. They are merely external events that we can choose to do.

Instead, I believe the way for a Christian to become spiritually mature is to live life the same way they received eternal life––by the grace of God through faith in Jesus. Let’s take a look at Galatians to study this a bit further.

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Got Hypocrisy?

~ Joe ~ 2 Comments

Wired.com had a “Green” eco-friendly article up the other day entitled, American Consumers Not As Enlightened As You Think. Although the article reported survey results and expert opinions regarding the automobile purchases of American consumers, I think the first two paragraphs capture the heart of the article nicely.

Hybrids? Pfft. Clean diesel? Who cares. Americans want cars with iPod integration, photochromic glass and capless fueling systems – whatever the hell those are.

Give people a choice between a fuel-sipper with a map in the glove box and a gas guzzler with in-dash navigation and most of them are going home in the car that tells them how to get there, according to a “snapshot” survey by MyRide.com.

The great thing about this article is that it’s true! Although the mainstream media purports that Americans are converting to “green lifestyles” and leaving behind their misguided fossil fuel habits, their purchasing decisions show the contrary.

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