Christian: Do you hesitate to observe Easter or Christmas?

Posted on April 10, 2021 by Steve Husting

I listened to a sermon on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It was preached to a congregation which met at 6am at the church outside on Easter morning. To them, the sunrise was a reminder of the dawn of Jesus’ resurrection of the body. I would be embarrassed to ask the members if they worshiped the sun god. I would cringe to think that they worshiped the Easter bunny. They came to the meeting specifically to hear the good news of Jesus’ resurrection and how it affects them. They came to be inspired and encouraged and fed with the Word of God.

Later on TV that morning, my wife and I watched “Leading the Way” Pastor Yousef give a Resurrection Day sermon based on “and Peter” in Mark 16:7. The main message was the difference in Peter’s life before the resurrection and after. Peter thought he was washed up because he had denied the Lord three times earlier. The Lord rose from the dead and went out to him. He was the God of second chances. It was an inspiring sermon and I’m sure many viewers who were holding back because of some failure were inspired to rededicate their lives to Jesus with hope.

In my nearly 40 years as a Christian, I have read hundreds of books, seen many Christian-themed movies, and read many internet articles. If the church is full of people who worship the sun god or the Easter bunny, I’ve never seen a presentation that fed that urge. They presented Jesus instead.

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How we benefit from the death of Jesus Christ

Posted on April 1, 2021 by Steve Husting

What purpose did the death of Jesus, the Son of God, serve? Hebrews 2:14-18 gives us insight into this aspect of His death, burial, and resurrection.

“Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,” (Heb. 2:14).

God formed man to be of flesh and blood. Man sinned and brought a pandemic of death and the curse upon all. Through Jesus, God intends to save as many as believe in Him. To do this, Jesus “likewise shared in the same” flesh and blood, God becoming man. Adam’s sin brought death into the world. By becoming a man Himself, Jesus could overcome death and the devil. How does He do this?

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Letter to a Pen Pal

Posted on February 20, 2021 by Steve Husting

I had a thought. (I get those now and then.) People say the Bible is a handbook of life. But not quite. It doesn’t tell us which college to enter, which person to marry, which career to go into, right? These are the things we want a handbook to tell us about. These are the kind of life issues we are concerned about.

Actually, the Bible is the handbook for thriving in the Kingdom of God. It tells us how to be a good citizen under the rule of Christ, the King of kings. If this is what you are using the Word of God for, then you’ll find it a precious treasure.

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Meditation: “Love one Another” (1 Corinthians 13)

Posted on February 6, 2021 by Steve Husting

First Corinthians 13:1-8 has been oft quoted at weddings simply because its topic is love. But Paul the apostle did not have marriage in mind when he wrote this. He had church gatherings in view. First Corinthians 13 is the middle of three chapters addressing this church’s lack of order in their gatherings.

We display this love to our brothers and sisters in the meetings when we all have a work to do, a contribution to make. This particular love to one another creates an orderly meeting. “Let all things be done decently and in order” is the summation of these three chapters (1 Cor. 14:40). Love promotes order.

The point of this love is to let every member of the church shine with the gift they brought in to build up the body. We are not to grab the ball and try to do everything ourselves to dunk it. Harmonious teamwork wins the game. By myself, I’m just dribbling around. Without the teamwork of love, we are nothing (1 Cor. 13:2).

Let’s look afresh at this passage with the aim of loving our fellow believers in the church.

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Politics and the Christian

Posted on February 4, 2021 by Steve Husting

The problem with political parties is not their individual takes on the nation’s issues. The problem is that they are filled with sinners, people who too frequently are without God’s level-headed wisdom and guidance.

The problem with the politicians in office is that they were all voted in by sinners.

God removes kings and sets up kings (Dan. 2:21). Whoever is in authority in the government has been set there by God (Rom. 13:1-7). Therefore Christians should be civil toward them, even if they do not like their policies. Nevertheless, we are free to impeach, recall, or vote in a replacement; to use any lawful means at hand to replace them or their laws if they usurp the commandments of God.

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“Why do we do that?”

Posted on January 21, 2021 by Steve Husting

John’s disciples came to Jesus with a question. They asked, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but Your disciples do not fast?” (Matthew 9:14-17). The implications of this question are relevant to us today.

First, I can imagine church-goers today asking similar questions. “Why do we wear suits while you dress casual?”

“Why do we we quote our denomination’s founder to make a point, but you don’t quote yours?”

“How come we pray to the saints for help, but you don’t?”

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The Unintuitive Gospel

Posted on January 8, 2021 by Steve Husting

Paul the apostle received the gospel as a revelation from God. No man taught him the Good News. The Spirit showed it to him (Galatians 1:11-12).

Therefore, it’s not intuitive that God so loved the world that He gave us His Son.
It’s not apparent that the Son of God gave up His life for us.
You can’t use logic to conclude that Jesus gave Himself to save the world.

The churches have many people who don’t know that God loved them with a self-sacrificial love. Let me put it in another way. Many of us don’t live our lives with this act of love in the forefront of our minds. Rather, our minds are often filled with the emptiness or foolishness of the world.

The gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel of the Kingdom of God, is not intuitive. It needs the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to bring it home to us.

It’s more intuitive that life is ugly, death and destruction is prevalent, and God must hate us. No one needs to explain these things to us. Anybody can conclude these things by looking around.

God reveals His love to us through the Good News of Jesus Christ. He uses the simple method of preaching to communicate His sacrificial love (1 Corinthians 1:21). Then the Holy Spirit directs the hearing heart to believe in Jesus for salvation from sin. Then His love is made plain. The eyes of the blind are opened to see Jesus.

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Your God is Too Small

Posted on December 28, 2020 by Steve Husting

I’ve been reading a book for the second time since I rediscovered it in the bargain bin: Your God Is Too Small, by J.B. Phillips. What he wrote about Christians and their small love applies to what I’ve been reading in the political news for months.

First, some background. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Who did God love so much? The world. But that’s not what I’ve been reading in the news. The verse has been twisted by Christians to say that God only loves the conservatives, not the liberals. The Republican party, not the Democratic party. And vice versa, for Christians are scattered across the spectrum of political ideology.

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The Incarnation of the Son of God

Posted on December 13, 2020 by Steve Husting

Before we can address the theme of the Son of God becoming flesh, we should remind ourselves of why he came to be born here in the first place.

In the Garden of Eden, Adam chose the way of disobedience and passed that sin on to all of us (Romans 5:12-14). All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We were slaves of sin and could neither restrain nor free ourselves.

When God chose to dwell among the children of Abraham in Israel, the Holy One set up a system of animal sacrifices to deal with sinners. When any sinned, breaking the commandments, he or she could bring a prescribed, blemish-free animal to put away the sin (Leviticus 1-7). Man was not blemish-free, so he could not die for another’s sin, not even his own.

We needed a blemish-free man to undo Adam’s sin nature. He needed to be sinless so he could die for the sins of others.

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Come Before His Presence with Thanksgiving

Posted on November 27, 2020 by Steve Husting

The first three verses of Psalm 95 call us to sing, give thanks, and worship the LORD, Yahweh, the Rock of salvation, the great God, the great King above all gods. This God is distinct among all the man-made gods of the earth. We call Him Jesus and acknowledge that no other god had the love for us than that shown by the Rock of salvation who died for our sins, was buried, and rose from the dead to take His rightful place by the Father over all creation.

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