Passion 4 Him

By Dale V. Nobbman Dear Christianity Haters, It is obvious most of you have never studied world history or read the Bible in depth.   If you had done either or both of these two things, you would know you are 'wasting' your earthly life by waging a 'futile' war on Christianity.   You would know that the more intensely Christians and Christianity ...

Higley, Dennis and Rauni When an LDS person is asked the question, “Do you know Jesus?”, many will say, “Of course I know Jesus, I have read stories about Him, I have heard talks about Him, I pray in His name, and I belong to a church that has His name on our buildings.” When they say this, the next question to ask is, “Does He know you?” More often than not they then tell about the preexistence, heavenly parents, and how Jesus is our elder brother and that we grew up there with Him – and thus we know Him and He knows us as His siblings, for we all came from heaven. This answer gives an opening to ask how this could be, for the Bible tells us that Jesus alone came from heaven—we did not ( John:8:23 ; 3:13, 31; 6:62; 1 Corinthians:15:46-47 ). The Bible teaches of Jesus who is God who became a man to save us from our sin ( Matthew:1:23 ; John:1:1 , 14, 29; 3:16). When Adam sinned and death entered the human race, God promised to send a Redeemer, “the seed of the...

by Jim Elliff December 19, 2012 Years ago I stood before Michelangelo's David in Florence, Italy. No one questioned that an artist had sculpted this magnificent piece of Renaissance art. It was the work of a genius. Yet, in the same room, no doubt, there were persons called "atheists" who would deny that a greater Artist was also necessary to create the original David that Michelangelo attempted to imitate. The true David, like other creations of God, was far more difficult to make than what Michelangelo crafted out of stone. That David had functioning eyes that could actually see, instead of an orb of stone. Underneath the atheist's claim lies a nagging knowledge that a Creator actually made man and all the world of nature around him, with its symmetry, intricacy and beauty. The atheist may suppress that knowledge as a way ...

An excerpt from  How Close Are We?   The Blessed Hope With Christ’s  I will come again!  still fresh in memories, the early Christians eagerly waited and watched for their Lord’s return. He had said that they were not of this world, but that He had chosen them out of it. Paul would soon write under His Lord’s inspiration: “For our conversation [citizenship] is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body” (Philippians 3:20,21). The world held little interest for these citizens of heaven. They were homesick for the Father’s house, longing to be with their Lord in that eternal haven of rest. Hated, persecuted, and killed by Rome, the early church took comfort in the belief that Christ might return at any moment to rescue His followers from their trials. Paul called the anticipation of an imminent Rapture “that blessed hope”...

By John MacArthur It’s only through God’s grace that believers can face every circumstance with calm, assured peace. Anxiety does not have to reign in our hearts—we can hold fast to God’s peace and provision through any of life’s storms. We’ve been looking at the nature of the peace God grants to believers, as explained in Paul’s prayer from the church at Thessalonica in 2 Thessalonians 3:16 , 18 . Not only is that peace divine in origin, but it is also a gift. When Paul prayed, “Now may the Lord of peace Himself continually grant you peace,” the word translated “grant” is the verb meaning “to give.” It speaks of a gift. God’s peace is a sovereign, gracious gift bestowed on those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. In Psalm 85:8 , a verse you may have never noticed before, the psalmist stated, “I will hear what God the Lord will say; for He will speak peace to His people, to His godly ones.” God grants peace to those who belong to Him. Jesus said, “My peace I...

By John MacArthur  Any anxious Christian would love to have this prayer offered on his behalf: “May the Lord of peace Himself continually grant you peace in every circumstance. . . . The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.” Those powerful, encouraging words come from the apostle Paul at the end of his second letter to the Thessalonian church ( 2 Thessalonians 3:16 , 18 ). They serve as a potent reminder of where we can and should turn when anxiety threatens—to “the Lord of peace Himself.” Peace is commonly defined as the sense of calm, tranquility, quietness, bliss, contentment, and well-being that we feel when everything is going the way we’d like it to go. That definition, however, is incomplete because those feelings can also be produced by a pill—or by alcohol, biofeedback, a nap, a generous inheritance, or even deliberate deception. The reassurance of a friend or someone you love can also produce that kind of temporary peace. That’s not the kind o...

Christianpost.com, 9/12/12, “The Biblical Literacy of Teenage Believers” [Excerpts]: Youth ministry researcher Chap Clark says, “I’m convinced that the single most important area where we’ve lost ground with kids is in our commitment and ability to ground them in God’s Word.” As a result, Barry Shafer says, “The church today, including both the adult and teenage generations, is in an era of rampant biblical illiteracy.” Duffy Robbins takes this one step further when he says: “Our young people have become incapable of theological thinking because they don’t have any theology to think about.… And, as Paul warns us, this…leaves us as ‘infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching’ ( Ephesians:4:14 ).” At the conclusion of the National Study of Youth and Religion, lead researcher Christian Smith reported: “Even though most teens are very positive about religion and say it’s a good thing, the vast majority are incre...