Episodes
Episodes
Monday Jan 29, 2024
10 Challenges Christians Face Before The Return of the Lord
Monday Jan 29, 2024
Monday Jan 29, 2024
10 Challenges Christians Face Before The Return of the Lord
Regularly gather with believers (Hebrews 10:25). Ever since Covid, the church has never quite bounced back to where it was in 2019 as far as attendance goes. Nominal Christians were affirmed in their lazy approach to the faith. Every church was divided into 3 groups - those that kept giving and serving, those that eventually came back, and those who left never to return. A popular counter argument is that the church can gather spiritually or online instead of in person. Even though technology helps the church a lot, it does not replace personal interaction. This is evident in the rise of mental illness since the shut in orders.
Observe the Lord’s Supper mindful of his return (1 Corinthians 11:26). We often observe the Lord’s table with a focus on what Jesus came to do. Even though the Last Supper is historically rooted, the emphasis is not on Jesus’ entrance into history, but his return. Jesus died to establish his kingdom and there is a day coming when Jesus will be back to fully inaugurate the kingdom and remove everything and everyone who stands against him. Some people would judge God for this, but if God is the creator of the world, he has all the rights to do whatever he wants and those that judge him ironically prove why they are not fit for eternal life. Though God extends the offer of salvation to all those who hear the gospel, some will reject the invite, discounting themselves from eternal life.
Love believers and unbelievers (1 Thessalonians 3:12-13). Jesus warned us that people’s capacity for loving other people will severely diminish (Matthew 24:13). Several factors play into this situation, as there is a rise in violence, famines, death, lies, and moral corruption. It is easier than ever to assume someone is an idiot, especially after hearing them share their beliefs. We need to get really good at separating people from their beliefs. Ideas promote life or death, and people are vehicles for those ideas to be enacted. Many ideas need to be destroyed, while the people who ascribe to those ideas need to change their mind. People aren’t the problem, the destructive ideas they hold are. If Christians don’t make this distinction, they will fall into the trap of hating the people they are supposed to be loving and preaching the gospel to.
Practice patience (James 5:8). As we race forward toward the end of the world, there will be ample opportunities for God’s people to lose their cool over the evil in the world. We need to be aware of what is happening, but we shouldn’t be living on the news. Our meditation, our contemplation, the majority of our thoughts should be focused on God’s Word, not fear-mongering news and politics. We need to pace ourselves and continue to follow God faithfully. This is what it means to be patient. Fear makes it difficult to practice patience.
Live a different life from the world (1 John 2:28; 3:2-3). God has called us to be holy, or different from our unbelieving acquaintances. The life we live now will give us reason to be confident when we meet Jesus, or ashamed. We may claim that we know Jesus, but will Jesus say that he knows us? We don’t want to shrink from him in shame. Are we living a life that is purifying us now? Are the spiritual disciplines in your life fueled by your hope in God’s promises about the end of the world? The world is quick to ridicule holy people, but that’s because holy lives show the stark contrast against everyone else’s lives that are commonly marked by evil. Be different. Even if you never open your mouth about Jesus (and you should), your life shames people by comparison. Light exposes darkness. It’s always been that way.
Refrain from judging others (1 Corinthians 4:5). As I’ve already mentioned, evil will increase, and so it is easier than ever to judge whether or not people will be going to heaven or hell. We need to judge ideas, not people. When we judge people (Paul did in 1 Corinthians 5:12), we shouldn’t be making eternal judgments over people, because that’s reserved for God. Only God knows the heart and how people will end up. Some people start really well but will not continue living faithfully before God. Other people may seem to be beyond hope, but will be saved later. We need to play the long game and leave those eternal judgments to God.
Preach the Word (2 Timothy 4:1, 2). We are always supposed to speak on God’s behalf as a prophetic voice to our culture and to the nations. Sometimes the season is favorable and people are friendly to the message. Most of time, preaching about sin and the need for Jesus is not popular and out of season. However the culture feels at any given moment, the church doesn’t change what she believes or declares. We are an anchor at stormy seas, a constant presence in the midst of a culture that is always changing its mind, disagreeing with itself, while progressively getting worse and worse.
Comfort the hurting (1 Thessalonians 4:16, 18). In the last days, Christians will lose loved ones, either to natural death or to martyrdom. These circumstances cause immense emotional pain, making it easier than ever to get selfish, as you focus on your own pain. The challenge here is to reach out and comfort someone else who is hurting. Idealistically, we should be comforting each other so that nobody should have to suffer alone.
Win souls (Jude 21-23). In the midst of a world that hates Christians more than ever, we need to remember to be a compelling group that is marked by love, mercy, and truth. We are to continue to be a group that continues to engage with those who doubt. All this must be done without compromising into the conduct of the world. Honestly, one of the biggest critiques on the church today is that we look just like the world. No wonder we are not compelling. The world doesn’t want what it already has. Back to point 5, we need to be holy so that we can please God and offer the world something different.
Be concerned with heaven (Colossians 3:1-4). The life of our minds and the course of our lives are conditioned by if we are truly saved. If you are saved (“with Christ” as Paul would say), you cannot be a nominal, name-only Christian. Christ is life, not a piece of it, not even the highest priority. The point of our lives and everything in our lives is Jesus. If this is our mindset, we will be heavenly-minded. We will think about Christ’s coming kingdom and that gives us our marching orders for life on earth. This is the answer to Jesus’ prayer (Matthew 6:10).
Friday Jan 26, 2024
7 Bowls of God’s Wrath
Friday Jan 26, 2024
Friday Jan 26, 2024
EP 44 | 7 Bowls of God’s Wrath
Revelation 15-16 is the biblical horror story describing how the world ends. The question is if this passage is literal like Jerry Jenkins and Tim LaHaye do with their Left Behind series, or if this literature is more symbolic. My hermeneutical journey compels me to choose the latter because that’s how the apocalypse works, and most of Revelation has been a series of visions and sounds.
Chapter 15 is a prelude to the following chapter. It starts with a sign in heaven. The last time we saw a sign in heaven was in chapter 12, as we were reintroduced to the celestial woman, Israel. Signs act as omens as they hint at what’s coming. This time, it is the destruction of the created order.
The big question that Revelation (especially these two chapters) bid us to ask is about God’s morality. Is God evil? Is it evil for God to wipe out evildoers, and remove their wicked governments, and their wicked cultures?
God is praised for being holy and right. You cannot ask God if he’s evil without asking if God would still be right if he never did anything about the evil in the world. No matter what interpretation you hold regarding the Millennium of Revelation 20, this book of the Bible is clear that the church will be persecuted and Christians will be killed by the agents of the beast, the dragon, and the false prophet. God’s martyrs cry out to him for justice
People have been stumped by the problem of evil for thousands of years. I believe the answer to the question is not hard to understand but difficult to accept. If God punished evil, nobody would survive. Evil exists because people are evil and inflict evil on others. There is certainly evil in the world and that evil dwells in seed-form within the heart of every human. This is why we need Jesus so we can be holy, and thus be spared from the wrath of God.
At this point in the book of Revelation, the 7 bowls contain God’s wrath, and once they are poured out on the earth, cosmic justice will be met for the killing of God’s people. These bowls are similar to the trumpets, but instead of one-third destruction to various things on earth, the bowls are destruction. It’s a horror story about the end!
Monday Jan 22, 2024
The Unforgivable Sin
Monday Jan 22, 2024
Monday Jan 22, 2024
The Unforgivable Sin
Solomon told us that there is a time to speak and another time to keep quiet (Ecclesiastes 3:7).
Wisdom is saying the right thing, at the right time, to the right person. If those three things do not align, you should stay silent.
If you follow Jesus, you should have a heart for the lost. This should propel you to go public with your faith and speak up regarding what is true. Some people will listen to you and be curious to learn more. God has primed that person’s heart to be more receptive. Perhaps tragedy moves people to seek out a Christian to pray for them, or to find answers. And when that time comes, we should be ready to answer for why we believe Jesus (1 Peter 3:15). Not everyone will be convinced, like the crowd at Mars Hill after Paul preached (Acts 17:16-22), but they left curious. Others dismissed Paul as a babbler. Apologist Frank Turek once said that if you cannot convince them, plant the seed. The seed works like a rock in the shoe, an objection or point that stays with the opponent that begins ever so slightly to cause doubt on what they believed was false.
Other people will never listen. We don’t know who they are. It could be that they would be ready to listen later on in life. But as we are sharing our faith, it was never the Lord’s intention for us to spin our wheels in the mud, trying to convince the obstinate and hard-headed (Matthew 10:14; Luke 9:5). Say it once and then move on. Your very life is a witness that speaks when your mouth is silent.
The hard truth to accept is that some people will never repent (Rev 9:20-21). One example is Judas Iscariot. I wondered for a long time why Jesus called him the son of perdition (destruction). It is because he chose destruction. He was not beyond hope. Like Peter, he could have sought restoration after the resurrection of Jesus from death, but instead, he bought a rope a hung himself. Even in his guilt, the closest to penance that he reached, he still did not seek the Lord for mercy. He chose death and destruction.
Some sin will end in forgiveness and some sin will end in death (1 John 5:16-17). We are not encouraged to pray for the sins that will end in death, and I will venture to say that sin is stubborn unbelief. There is no point in praying for such as person who is determined to be wrong though he thinks he’s right. Jesus called out a similar attitude in the Pharisees who had committed the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit by saying that Jesus’ power came from demons and not from the Holy Spirit (Mark 3:28-29). Perpetual sin and refusal of God’s words and work result in the impossible situation of repenting (Hebrews 6:4-6). This is why we are encouraged to let the obstinate wicked depart headlong to their destruction (Revelation 22:10-12).
This means there is no point in arguing with people. I’ve said this before. Pay close attention to how people ask questions. Their tone reveals if they consider themselves as an authority over you or a humble student attempting to add to their knowledge. Some people ask questions to trap you like they did Jesus (Matthew 22:15). They want to confuse you and cloud your reasoning so they can sneak in and subvert your faith. Cults work just like this. This is one reason why Jesus told us to ignore blind guides (Matthew 15:12-14).
Don’t spend all your energy and time arguing with those who think you are a moron for being a Christian. Go be a Christian! Go live like you believe that this is all true! Stay vigilant over your life, your doctrine, and your work. If the devil cannot get us to disbelieve, he will try to distract, or exhaust us. Don’t fall for it. I’ll end with 1 Timothy 1:3-7.
Friday Jan 19, 2024
Why Should Christian Learn About Archaeology? (ft. Adam Doyle)
Friday Jan 19, 2024
Friday Jan 19, 2024
Thursday Jan 18, 2024
Can Someone Believe In Faith and Science? (ft. Adam Doyle)
Thursday Jan 18, 2024
Thursday Jan 18, 2024
Wednesday Jan 17, 2024
What Do You Do With Noah And The Flood? (ft. Adam Doyle)
Wednesday Jan 17, 2024
Wednesday Jan 17, 2024
Tuesday Jan 16, 2024
Does the Bible Read Like Fact or Fiction? (ft. Adam Doyle, Part 2 of 5)
Tuesday Jan 16, 2024
Tuesday Jan 16, 2024
Monday Jan 15, 2024
Monday Jan 15, 2024