How do we Fight the Devil?

Posted on October 9, 2014 by Steve Husting

The Bible tells us how to address the one “who deceives the whole world” (Revelation 12:9) in several revealing passages in the New Testament. In none of them are we told to attack him directly. Rather, we remove the means for him to attack us. For instance, we would not want to go after a stronger opponent with a knife in our hand if he is a better fighter than ourselves, because he could take the knife away from us and use it to hurt us. The principle is the same here: by refusing to look to the flesh to save us, we deprive the devil of a weapon to use against us. Let’s see how the NT communicates this idea. Continue reading →

Posted in Demons, H e l l and Suffering | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Salvation of the Soul

Posted on September 13, 2014 by Steve Husting

What is the salvation of the soul, and what does it look like? The first few verses of 1 Peter chapter one give us a strong sense of this salvation and then concludes with, “receiving the end of your faith – the salvation of your souls” (1 Peter 1:9). What is this salvation, and how can we know whether our spiritual growth is heading in the right direction? Continue reading →

Posted in Encouragement | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Neglected Deliverance

Posted on August 29, 2014 by Steve Husting

We tend to seek the Lord’s deliverance when we get into personal trouble. But there is a deliverance that keeps us out of the trouble in the first place. Which would you like – to fall into trouble and try to get out of it, or to avoid it in the first place?

For instance, the word tells us about deliverance from the snare of the fowler and from the perilous pestilence (Psalms 91:3). Our first impression of this deliverance is that we’ve fallen into a trap or are experiencing a spiritual plague and the Lord promises to rescue us from it. But that’s not the best way the Lord delivers us. For instance, Proverbs identifies the promiscuous woman and tells us to avoid her (Proverbs 5). Avoiding her, we avoid a terrible fate. Thus, by heeding the warnings of Scripture we identify and avoid the traps beforehand while the more simple-minded don’t pay attention – and fall right in (Proverbs 22:3). Continue reading →

Posted in Encouragement | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Faith and the Spirit’s Leading

Posted on August 5, 2014 by Steve Husting

What is faith?

A definition is in order. What is faith? If faith means to believe something without proof, as many claim, then how is it different from blind faith? What I find funny is that those who dislike faith because it believes without proof, believe in this definition of faith – without proof!

The word faith appears many times in the Bible in the New Testament, which was written in Greek. If we turn to a Greek scholar’s work, Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words and look up faith, we find it is the word pistis, which means “primarily, firm persuasion (akin to peitho, to persuade), a conviction based upon hearing, is used in the N.T. always of faith in God or Christ, or things spiritual.”

To have faith means to have a firm conviction about something. How one comes to faith is not in the meaning of the word. One may have faith based on a wide variety of evidence, or not; the proof is not part of the semantic meaning of the word. The meaning of faith is centered on the persuasion you have, not on how you arrived by that persuasion, or even what you believe in.

Those who say that (true) faith is blind or that it means to believe something against all reason are wrong. Religious faith is based on a Greek word with a real definition found in a Greek dictionary which derives its meaning from the N.T. context in which it appears. Faith means to be persuaded of something. (The only biblically sound reason for faith to mean something different is when it’s said to be “the faith,” in which case it is talking about the Christian life and doctrine in general.)

If you strongly insist (have a firm conviction, have faith) that faith means to believe something in spite of the facts, then your personal faith is real, but based on false information.

A wrong meaning of faith will result in wrong practices and a wrong understanding of the Scriptures in which the word appears. Continue reading →

Posted in Encouragement | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Does the Holy Spirit still lead believers today?

Posted on July 14, 2014 by Steve Husting

The book of Acts relates several accounts of men who were directed by the Holy Spirit to say certain things, do something, or go somewhere. Is this direction of the Holy Spirit supposed to continue in today’s church? Or did it stop back in the days of the apostles in the first century? Continue reading →

Posted in Encouragement | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Evolution vs. Creation: Collision of Two Worldviews

Posted on June 20, 2014 by Steve Husting

Neither creation nor macro-evolution have physical proof for their positions. Rather, each party looks at the scientific data from their own perspective and looks for evidence to support it. For instance, the people who are convinced that macroevolution has occurred look at all the fossils unearthed over the centuries and concludes, “Well, since we all evolved, then these invertebrates probably evolved one after the other and the vertebrates branched off and evolved their own way. All these bird-like creatures evolved in order and the mammals branched off and evolved, splitting up more and more, based on the similarities among them.” The evidence is plain.

Those who believe God created each kind of creature by itself, seeing the same data the evolutionist sees, concludes, “All fossilize skeletons are full and complete. All parts needed to be a living creature are all accounted for. There are no in-betweens. These skeletons illustrate the biblical account, that God formed each animal according to its kind. They did not evolve but were created as is.” The evidence is plain.

Same data; same science; different viewpoints Continue reading →

Posted in Science and Evolution | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: When the Storm Hits

Posted on June 12, 2014 by Steve Husting

When the Storm Hits
by Chuck Smith
Copyright 2013 The Word for Today
http://www.twft.com

What do we do when the storm hits; how are we to react when the troubles come?
This book reminded me of several perspectives regarding our trials that I had forgotten. God has a purpose for our trials that Christless people cannot share in. Our trials will not overwhelm us when we see them through God’s eyes. Here are just a few thoughts that were prompted by the pages of this worthwhile book by the late Chuck Smith, who pastored the Calvary Chapel church in Costa Mesa, CA.

Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

What is intimacy with Jesus?

Posted on June 9, 2014 by Steve Husting

What does it mean when Christians talk about having intimacy, or a deep relationship, with Jesus? There are many ways to describe it and experience it. I will talk about one way of entering into that intimacy or fellowship with Jesus and continuing in it all day. Continue reading →

Posted in Encouragement | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Do we need the power of the Holy Spirit?

Posted on June 3, 2014 by Steve Husting

Recently one of my prayer group regulars talked about our need of the Holy Spirit’s power upon us just as it was on the disciples in Acts. He seemed to think it was a matter of just asking for it and the power would be given.

Based on the stories of the empowering of the apostles in Acts, I wonder if there is more to it than that. The apostles had a goal that was bigger than them, so they required God’s own power to make it happen. “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel.” That’s a God-size task requiring God’s power.

I suspect that most of us have much smaller goals in mind and we pace ourselves so that we can accomplish them in our own strength. Our goals may be work-related, hobby-related, or something to do with home or school. But for the most part we won’t be asking for God’s empowering because our tasks are modest and doable on our own. Continue reading →

Posted in Encouragement | Tagged | Leave a comment

Why macro-evolution doesn’t make sense

Posted on May 23, 2014 by Steve Husting

One major barrier against the gradual evolution of relatively simple organisms into complex ones rests on the organism’s inability to understand its environment and adapt to it.

For instance, how could a blind organism understand that color is produced by light waves reflected by or absorbed by objects, and correctly deduce that it must create an eye composed of rods and cones to capture these rays and correctly interpret them? How could a blind organism know that light could be too bright or too dark and create a pupil which dilates and contracts to monitor the correct amount of light?  It just doesn’t make sense that something blind and primitive could instinctively understand that color is seen according to an object reflecting certain invisible wavelengths of light. Continue reading →

Posted in Science and Evolution | Tagged , , | 1 Comment