Passion 4 Him

By John MacArthur When it comes to Bible study, too often people want to jump straight to application. They might be faithful to read God’s Word, but they skip an important step on the way to applying it to their lives. And in many cases, that application comes from only the most basic, shallow knowledge of what Scripture truly says and means. You can’t dig deeply into the riches of God’s truth if you only have a surface understanding of its meaning. If you truly want to apply God’s Word to your life, you cannot skip over the important step of interpretation . It’s not enough to simply know what the Bible says—we must strive to know what it means by what it says. It’s a matter of, as Paul charged Timothy, “rightly dividing the Word” ( 2 Timothy 2:15, NKJV ). Left to our own understanding, we might be able to make some limited sense of portions of Scripture. However, other passages would leave us as clueless and confused as the Ethiopia...

Question:  We are trying to stand to defend the faith and have come across people believing in the evidence of gold dust, jewels from heaven – stuff from the Toronto guys ages ago. Is God limited in the way he performs miracles today in the modern era? If there is no example in the Word, then basically it’s not from the Holy Spirit but another spirit? Are we “limiting” God by unbelief? Where do we draw the line between these “new miracles” and miracles mentioned in the Scriptures? If we stick to the Word-based miracles only—is that limiting God?   Response:  We have had opportunity to see these areas of concern close up and have heard statements such as “touch not the Lord’s anointed,” or “don’t quench the Spirit with your unbelief.” This attitude is one of the weaknesses of the Pentecostal, or Charismatic, movement. According to 1 Thessalonians:5:21 , we are to “prove all things, hold fast that which is good.” Since the Lord is not politically correct...

Question:  If evidence and reason are essential parts of faith, I don’t see why God should demand faith at all. Why not give us the proof of everything? To have to take that step of faith seems unreasonable to me.   Response :  The answer to your question is dictated by our own limitations, not because of some unreasonable demand that God makes. In order for everything to be proved and reasoned out for us, we would have to be equal to God. Obviously we are not: We are finite and God is infinite. We simply don’t have the capacity to understand everything about God and His universe. Therefore, we need to trust Him when He tells us about things that we cannot fully comprehend. That’s where faith comes in. What we can understand of the universe and of our accountability to God from reason and our conscience is sufficient to point us in the right direction. Knowing on the basis of the evidence that God exists, we ask Him to reveal Himself to us and...

  When writing or even thinking about the biblical Jesus, problems may arise. One of them occurs when we focus on just one of His attributes and lose sight of His many others. This can give us a distorted view of our Lord and Savior. It’s also possible for us to not even consider a particular attribute of His, which likewise can distort our true understanding of His character as revealed in Scripture. All of Christ’s attributes are related, and, of course, they are all perfect in every way. Moreover, Jesus is “the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever” ( Hebrews:13:8 ). He doesn’t change. So, what’s with this title—“Jesus Gets Tough”? Well, the title has to do primarily with  our reaction  when we read that Jesus acted or said something in a way that may startle us. We’re surprised because we may not have considered that particular characteristic of our Lord although it is clearly presented in Scripture. For example, He is called th...

Have you ever heard these questions: Why would a loving God send good people to Hell? Won't God accept that my good deeds outweighed my bad ones? How can God judge Hitler and someone who had only done little sins with the same Hell? What about the person who has never heard of Jesus, why should they go to Hell?  Well, many of these types of questions arise from a lack of understanding about God's standards compared to ours. How a Holy God sees sin, is much different than how we view it. The right justice required for sinning and punishment for it, is obviously different than what we think someone deserves. Why?  As humans, we sometimes see our sin as not all that serious. Yes, we lie, lust, cheat, etc. But it is not as bad as rape, murder, or adultery. We naturally claim our own goodness and that we do more good deeds than bad. So most people believe that are fit to go to Heaven if they have not committed the "mortal" sins. I was one of those people at one ...

Most who profess atheism aren't really "atheists." After a few moments chatting with them about the fact that every building is proof that there was a builder, and that creation therefore is proof that there is a Creator, many change their minds. Or if, confronted with the fact that they believe that nothing created everything, they default to agnosticism, that something did create everything. But then there's the staunch atheist. This one is a challenge. He is the "new" atheist, is the marlin of deep-sea fishing, and he doesn't give up easily. As a fisher of men, I have found that this type of atheist is always ready for debate. He will take the bait, the hook, and any line you give him, and give you a run for your money. The staunch atheist has the zeal of a religious fanatic. He is fundamentalist in his belief that there is no God-and, armed with basic Richard Dawkins phrases, he is ready for a fight. For him, atheistic evolu...

In my experience in sharing the Gospel with unbelievers, I often run into a problem that effects most people when it comes to giving their lives over to Jesus Christ. The problem is the deceit of sin! What I mean by that is people begin to see the truth about themselves and Christ, and begin to count the cost of following Jesus. That is a great thing to do, because even Jesus said: " And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.   For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it —   lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him." (Luke 14:27-29) But where a lot of people stop and decide it is not worth it to follow Christ, is when they begin to think about their life and all the things they would have to give up to follow Him. Thus, the deceitfulness of their sin comes in and tells them, " There is no way ...

What if you had been in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001?  What would have happened to you?  You could have died, and you would have had to face God. "And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgement" (Hebrews 9:27).  You would have gone to Heaven or to Hell forever. (Luke 16:22-23).  If you had died on September 11th, do you know for sure that would have gone to Heaven?  You can know!  To be sure you are on your way to Heaven, you must know four things............ Read here: http://www.fellowshiptractleague.org/tract_html/english/177/page_flip/177.html

Evolution was introduced as an atheistic alternative to the biblical view of creation. According to evolution, man created God rather than vice versa. The evolutionists' ultimate agenda is to eliminate faith in God altogether and thereby do away with moral accountability. Intuition suggests a series of questions to the human mind when we contemplate our origin: Who is in control of the universe? Is there Someone who is sovereign—a Lawgiver? Is there a universal Judge? Is there a transcendent moral standard to live by? Is there Someone to whom we will be accountable? Will there be a final assessment of how we live our lives? Will there be any final judgment? Those are the very questions evolution was invented to avoid. Evolution was devised to explain away the God of the Bible—not because evolutionists really believed a Creator was unnecessary to explain how things began, but because they did not want the God of Scripture as their Judge. Marv...

 (Chorus) Now I'mma tell the world, tell em I'mma tell it everywhere I go Tell the world, tell em Yea I'mma billboard Tell the world, tell em Cast Him like a radio Tell the world you are to know I'm brand new (Verse 1) Uh, I know one thing's true I don't even really deserve to know you But I... I'm a witness that you did this And I'm brand new so I... I'm ready to go And I'mma tell the world what they need to know A slave to myself but you let me go I tried gettin high but it left me low You did, what they could never do You cleaned up my soul and gave me life, I'm so brand new And that's all that matters I aint love you first, but you first loved me In my heart I cursed ya, but you set me free I gave you no reason to give me new seasons, to give me new life, new Breathin But you hung there bleedin And you died for my lies, and my cheatin, my lust, and my greedin What is a man, huh? that you're mindful of em? And what do I have to...

Bible Prophecy is a collection of writings that claim to predict not only the path of modern human history, but also the signs of its eventual destruction. The Daniel Project puts these prophecies under a journalistic microscope, discovering that many appear to have already come to pass. Writings by the prophet Daniel claim to predict - with uncanny accuracy - the Big Brother surveillance society, climate change, terrorism, and the rise of conflict within the Middle East. Known as "the real Nostradamus", Daniel's take on his future - our present - is like the musings of a rollercoaster Dan Brown novel -- the dark implication being that what we perceive to be the truth is in fact masking a deadly pattern beneath... With the hype over the '2012 prophecies' gathering momentum... welcome to The Daniel Project. [This film is being distributed by Mercury Media International for cinema, TV, DVD and VoD. If you can't wait, or want to watch the...

  "And for this reason God will send them strong delusion , that they should believe the lie , that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness." ( 2 Thessalonians 2:11-12) With all the hype of  2012 and the Mayan Calendar, I began to think about the delusion and lie that God will send the world after the church is raptured to be with Lord . There could be a bunch of possibilities as to what this lie is: 1. The millions of missing adults/children was due to an extraterrestrial abduction to rid the earth of those who would stand in the way of world peace.  2. We see that because of millions missing from the earth, it is a sign that what the Mayans predicted was coming to pass: "the end of the world" as we know it. 3. This crisis: which is millions of missing adults/children/babies, will strike fear into the hearts of mankind in which the "New World Order" will have to be established in or...