Accessing Grace for Help

Posted on December 24, 2016 by Steve Husting

“Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.'” (1 Peter 5:5)

When we think of grace, we define it as an undeserved gift from God. You can’t earn it, just as you could not earn your salvation. God gives the sinner life even though the sinner’s life was lived in opposition to God. So salvation was an unearned gift of God.

But there is more to grace than God giving us an undeserved gift. According to 1 Peter 5:5, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” God withholds grace from one class of people and gives it to another. A logical mind would reason, “of course the humble got grace — he deserves it while the proud does not.” But if grace is undeserved favor, how could this reasoning make sense? The truly humble, of course, would be the first to protest that due to the sin they repented of, they do not deserve grace any more than the proud do. Continue reading →

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There’s More to the Romans Road to Salvation

Posted on November 14, 2016 by Steve Husting

In most cases of the gospel proclamation, the message preached is about entering into salvation. The Romans Road is often used to lead a person to faith in Jesus Christ. (To learn more about this method of chaining verses, see this article from GotQuestions.org.)  From the tension, despair, and frustrations I’ve seen among Christians in hard times, it’s evident that they’ve missed the other parts of Romans, which tells us that salvation is an ongoing process in which God uses difficulties and trials to mold us into people of victory and hope. I have been frustrated and endured long bouts of tension-filled sleeplessness myself, and can relate to this misunderstanding. When we don’t understand how God saves after we accepted Christ, or what exactly He saves us from, then “victory” becomes a hazy buzzword at best.

If you thought the gospel was only about entrance into salvation, if you are frustrated that things are not going your way, or your financial situation or relationships are causing you pain, then there is more to the gospel and the power of God than you have been led to believe. If you believe that God is here to smooth things over when you have trials, that He will help you escape every hurt and sorrow, and He will banish all difficulties from your life, then you have not begun to enjoy the gospel fruit. There is more! God’s way of salvation is different than what we have believed. He does more than deliver us from a future Hell and leave this life a hit-or-miss affair. Let’s look a little closer at what Romans really teaches about salvation. Continue reading →

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Kingdom Culture

Posted on September 3, 2016 by Steve Husting

When we have a low view of our salvation, it creates in us a lopsided view of personal growth. We look to the past or upbringing (“I came from a Christian family, so I’m saved”), or boast in the name of our denomination, or insist that we are good people. These things give us a misplaced measure of confidence in our spiritual walk. Jesus’ message was the good news of the kingdom: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:15). What standard are we using to gauge our spiritual growth? If we are going to evaluate our spiritual standing, I suggest we judge according to kingdom principles. Continue reading →

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Jesus’ Creation of Authorities

Posted on August 26, 2016 by Steve Husting

Jesus did not only create the seen and unseen things of the natural world, but also conceptual entities like hierarchies of authorities in heaven and earth. When we think of Him as Creator, we usually don’t go that far, do we? We just focus on the physical things of our world.

For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him (Colossians 1:16). Continue reading →

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The Cultural Christian versus the Called-out Christian

Posted on July 24, 2016 by Steve Husting

It has been said that if you were born in India, you would most likely be a Hindu because your parents were. If you grew up in the Middle East, then you would be one of the three strains of Islam. If you grew up in Mexico, you would be a Catholic. And so it goes. In other words, the atheist contends that Christianity as a religion is no different than all the other world religions.

You know what? In a sense, they are right. Many Christians are cultural Christians. They have taken on themselves to follow the religious practices of their parents. They say exactly what all the other religious followers say: “I am a good person. I go to church/synagogue/mosque/temple. When I die, will go to Heaven.” Continue reading →

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Eternal life is a healthy relationship with God

Posted on July 16, 2016 by Steve Husting

Each of the Bible’s spiritual values have a natural-life counterpart that we live out, whether we believe in God or not. Eternal life is one of those aspects that we already know in our natural lives. The average church-goer probably believes that eternal life is the same as living a long time, of never dying. Actually, it is quite different. Eternal life is best understood as a deep and abiding friendship. It focuses on the quality of life, not its mere length. Continue reading →

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Saved, but not yet delivered

Posted on June 24, 2016 by Steve Husting

In Romans chapter seven, Paul agonized over his inability to do the good he expected to do as a saved person. At the end he poses the heartbreaking question, “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me?” This is spoken by a Christian man, one who had been saved by Jesus. On the one hand, he had responded to the gospel of salvation. On the other hand, he had yet to experience the saved life of deliverance from sin.

He was crying out for deliverance. He seemed to know the promises of a better life, and knew it should result in victory over sin. Sin separated us from God, and Jesus came to reconcile us to Him, so He came to deal with sin. Yet Paul still did not experience the blessings he assumed would come from a new life with God. Continue reading →

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Suffering: the training ground for spiritual maturity

Posted on June 17, 2016 by Steve Husting

How does the Spirit get mature, spiritual fruit in us? He doesn’t wave his hands over us or sprinkle pixie dust. No; he does it through suffering. That seems like a negative way of looking at the process, doesn’t it? Yet the idea of suffering, particularly of crucifying the flesh, is to remove everything that gets in the way of following the Spirit. With the flesh crucified, the Spirit is free to move and work in and through us. Continue reading →

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Book Review: The Popular Handbook of Archaeology and the Bible

Posted on May 14, 2016 by Steve Husting

2013 Joseph M. Holden and Norman Geisler
Harvest House Publishers
ISBN 978-0-7369-4485-4
http://www.christianbook.com/popular-handbook-archaeology-and-the-bible/norman-geisler/9780736944854/pd/944854

  • Did you know that 25,000 archaeology artifacts give support for the Bible?
  • Did you know that archaeology has unearthed historical details of the lives of over 60 major characters of the Bible?
  • Did you know that archaeology is the Bible’s greatest friend, is a scientific discipline, and provides great support for the reliability of the Old and New Testaments? (We just can’t say this for any of the other world religions’ holy books.)

I’ve always wondered why we don’t see any evidence of the Exodus and the events in Egypt. I took it for granted when other books said there is no evidence, and any existing evidence was covered up by the sands of history. Until I picked up this book at an apologetics convention at our church.

Here I learned for the first time that researchers had unearthed the dwelling of the Israelites in Goshen where they stayed as slaves of the Egyptians. The archaeologists found that their dwellings were of the same structures as those they’ve unearthed in Canaan. This gives support to the story of them moving from Egypt to Canaan, as the Bible teaches. It makes sense, doesn’t it, for people to rebuild their homes in a new land in a way that they were accustomed to? And there’s more.  Continue reading →

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Second Corinthians insights

Posted on April 16, 2016 by Steve Husting
Morning Meditations by Steve Husting

Morning Meditations by Steve Husting

My family is being blessed as we follow this method of Bible study: https://stevehusting.com/alivetogod/2013/10/19/whats-a-good-way-to-study-the-bible/

My family is going through the book of 2 Corinthians together, chapter by chapter, and sharing our results on Monday evenings at the dinner table. What follows are the results of my own meditations in the first few chapters of this book. There’s no need to restrict the blessings to my dinner table! After you read the following, try the Chapter Summary method of studying and meditating on the Bible on your own.  Continue reading →

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