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 ...