Doubt Busters

Hebrews chapters 3 and 4 remind us that God rescued the Israelites from their slavery among the Egyptians, bringing them through the Red Sea miraculously, then through the desert for training in trust. God promised them a land filled with “milk and honey,” a good land, unlike anything they had experienced in the days of slavery past. But in the desert trek, things take a turn for the worse: instead of praising God for the Promised Land to which He is surely leading them, they complain over their current harsh conditions. After one final act of rebellion, in which they sent spies into the land and panic when they find it filled with monsters, God decides to leave all the complainers outside the Land and let in only the two who held fast to God’s promise – Joshua and Caleb – and bring in the children of those who did not believe. So all the adults of that time died in the wilderness. Continue reading →

Is there a difference between children of God and sons of God in the New Testament? Yes. Galatians lays a good foundation for the meaning of these two terms, and from those verses we can see echoes throughout the NT. These passages imply that God is not satisfied that we are “saved,” going to church, and being nice people. He is looking for mature believers who have specific qualities, and those qualities cannot be developed in our own strength, doing good deeds that we’ve thought up, or participating in religious routines, such as Jewish laws. It must begin with the training of the Spirit, and continue with Him.

God sees the end of the life and what character our choices and responsibilities are making of us. He wants His children to grow up into persons of responsibility so they could handle the heavier duties of ruling in the kingdom. No father will place his sons at the top of his business empire without carefully targeted training over the years, and it is so with God and His children as well. Continue reading →

Reviewing God’s truths for me.

I am a new creation in Christ. God is my heavenly Father and has abundantly proven His love for me by the willing sacrifice of Jesus Christ for my sins. (So there is no need for me to start a question with, “If God is love, then why….?”) He has placed me into His family and I have the right and privilege of coming to His throne at any time.

Through Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection, my sinful self was laid in the grave and the new creation has risen with Him to the heavenly places. I can now die to the sinful temptations that come my way and resist their feeling of power – for they are only feelings with no real power. Continue reading →