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1 John 1:9- "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." The Bible teaches two distinct applications of forgiveness. The first is that of our positional forgiveness in Christ through what is called the Doctrine of Justification . This forgiveness applies to our eternal standing with God and is reckoned to our past, present, and future sins as a free gift from God.  The second is that of relational forgiveness. This is the application of forgiveness that the Apostle John is describing in 1 John 1:9 and it does not interfere with the free gift of salvation that we receive in our positional forgiveness. The purpose of relational forgiveness is to "purify us from all unrighteousness." The idea is that as we walk out our relationship with God we regularly collect residue in our soul from sin that we commit daily, and through confession we are able to be purified of this residue and enab...

I hear this question from time to time and I thought I might address the matter. I hope you find it helpful. The answer to whether a Christian should or shouldn't celebrate Christmas depends on how they approach it. The reason I say that is because the Bible does not speak of a holiday to celebrate the birth of our Savior. In fact, the observance didn’t make its way into the church until around the 5th century. The origins of Christmas are rooted in pagan traditions before the church era. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that it's wrong to observe a national holiday. Truth be known, there are many things that we observe today that have their roots in pagan traditions. Did you know that the names for the days of the week come from pagan beliefs? For example, Saturday comes from the worship of Saturnus. Friday comes from Fria, the goddess of love. Yet, when I observe Friday or Saturday, I’m in no way participating in pagan worship. We need to be careful and guard against...

According to a 2015 report by the Barna Group, commissioned by the American Bible Society, 88% of American households own a Bible.  For those households owning a Bible, 39% enjoy a King James Version, 13% possess a New International Version Bible, and 10% of those owners are reading from the New King James Version as well as the English Standard Version.  Also appearing in that study was that 13% of American adults purchased a new Bible in 2015.  Out of those new Bible sales, the NIV led the sales charts in both dollar sales and units sold.  With over one hundred versions of scripture in print, what has drawn 70% of Bible readers to four translations?  Why has one version of the Bible dominated the market for decades?  For Christians living in the 21 st century there are so many options to choose from when it comes to translations of the Bible, what attributes are Bible reading Christians looking for when selecting a Bible?  There are three main co...

After I finished preaching one Sunday, I had two young men approach me and said the Lord had called them into the ministry, and they asked if I had any advice for them. I said, “Yes, I can give you my advice in one word: OBEY!” I think this is perhaps the single greatest word of advice anyone could have for discovering and remaining in God’s will. Unfortunately it is also one of the areas of greatest difficulties for so many of God’s people. We are like sheep—prone to wander and amazingly stupid. We are like donkeys—stubborn and willful. We are like peacocks—proud and vain. We are quick to analyze and rationalize but slow to obey. We are masters of procrastination and experts at justification. Making excuses comes naturally to us, but simple obedience seems so difficult. Delayed obedience is disobedience! I have found this to be one of the most common reasons people fall short of the will of God in their lives. So many people are continuously waiting for the “right time” before t...

The doctrine of the trinity (tri-unity) of God is a Christian doctrine that describes the triune nature of God. It states the following: There is One God which is comprised of three separate, equally divine, wholly unified person's called the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The three are One in essence, nature, and union, but are separate person's who perform different functions in total unity with one another. Saint Patrick described the trinity as comparable to the three separate leaves on the One unified Irish clover. Scriptures describing the divinity and person-hood of the Holy Spirit: Matt. 28:19 , "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit," 2 Cor. 13:14 , "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all." Eph. 4:4-6 , "There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called ...

The term “spirit of Jezebel” is referring to an evil spirit that Satan uses to cause defilement and division among God’s people. Believer’s can be either enslaved, oppressed or influenced by this spirit, or all three. Ephesians 6:12 says “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” In order to stop tolerating this evil spirit in our lives we have to learn the spiritual truths necessary from God’s word that empower us to defeat it! In this article we will discuss identifying this spirit, submitting to God, and overcoming it. We will also learn what it means to have and operate in our spiritual authority as believers. Revelation 2:20- “Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sa...

Ephesians 4:30 says, "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption." The question of how God feels about us when Christians sin has tugged at and sometimes plagued people's heart for centuries. Does God feel angry at us? Does he feel disappointed? What does it mean for Him to be grieved? The way in which we answer this question can play a direct role in our spiritual health and maturity as believers. Hebrews 11:6 says, "And without faith it is impossible to please God..." If it impossible to please God without faith then it logically follows that it is impossible to displease God when we have it. For example, as a father when one of my three sons does something wrong does it cause me to be disappointed in them, or their actions? That is, should I change the way I love them as my son just because they had bad behavior? No! What does happen is this: I am grieved by their behavior because it is harmful and s...