Category: Faith

The Hope Of Heaven

The question has often been asked as to why the early church grew so rapidly. The answer, I believe, is quite simple. The Christian religion is a religion of hope. Hope was something many of that day did not have. Hope is more than wishful thinking. It is defined as “desire with expectation of obtaining what is desired”. You may desire something, whatever it may be, but realize the chances of ever having this desire come true is not realistic. The desire may be there, but you cannot hope for them. Expectation alone is also not hope. Most of us expect sickness to come from time to time, or expect to pay taxes, etc. We expect these things in life, however there is no desire for them, therefore we do not hope for them. Where there is desire and expectation there is hope, and such hope is necessary for us to live the Christian life successfully.

What the Christian hope is not:

It is not the “hope” that we are going to Heaven. Have you ever been asked, “Are you going to Heaven?” and your reply is “I hope so”. We can know if we are going to Heaven or not, no hoping about it. In 1 John 5:13 we read, “I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.” If one knows he has eternal life he knows he is a Christian and thus going to Heaven.

What the Christian hope is:

It IS the promise of Heaven with all the good things that are there. We ought to desire it, and we ought to expect it. If we don’t, we have no hope. Many Christians just desire Heaven but don’t expect it. If you don’t expect it, you are not diligent or don’t believe the promises of God. The basis of our hope is that we are children of God. The reason for our being children of God is God’s love. 1 John. 3:1 reads, “See what great love the Father has given us that we should be called God’s children”. We became God’s children by being born again. John. 3:3 says, “Jesus replied, Truly I tell you, unless someone is born again; he cannot see the kingdom of God”. No one except a child of God can have this hope of Heaven. Those with whom we come in contact in our everyday lives that cannot call themselves children of God are without hope. The Apostle Paul tells us, “At that time you were without Christ, excluded from the citizenship of Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12). We know from scripture that Heaven is a prepared place because Jesus said, “In my Father’s house are many rooms, if not, I would have told you. I am going away to prepare a place for you. If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself so that where I am you may be also.” Heaven is prepared only for those who summit to Christ and become children of God.

Purity is a must

We know that as a Christian, we must keep ourselves pure and the hope of Heaven purifies our hearts. 1 John. 3:3 reads, “And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” The stronger our hope, the purer in heart and life we will be. Likewise, the purer in heart and life the stronger our hope will be. Purity in the life of every Christian is necessary before we can have hope of “appearing with Christ in glory”. The hope of Heaven should cause us as Christians to rejoice. Matt. 5:12 tells us, “Be glad and rejoice, because your reward is great in Heaven.” The Christians hope is based upon the promises of Christ, and he has promised us Heaven if we obey him. Our hope depends upon the strength of our desire, and how badly we want to go to Heaven. It is also based on the strength of our expectation, and our faith in God who has promised us a place in Heaven if we have lived the kind of life we should. The Christians hope is worth more than the entire world, do you have it

A Commitment For The Day

With every sunrise and the awakening of the eyes, the war with Satan begins. A man uttered a prayer to God saying, “So far today, I’ve done O.K. I haven’t lost my temper and I haven’t gossiped. I haven’t been grumpy, nasty or selfish, and I am really glad for that! But in a few minutes, Father, I’m going to get out of bed, and from then on, I’m probably going to need a lot of help. Thank you!” Overcoming temptation and the power of sin is a struggle in which the child of God is continuously involved.

Many times, we find ourselves overcome by temptations and struggles again and again. With each day, new challenges face the Christian. To fight the good fight is to continue the struggle each day as the one before, because Satan is never tiring in his work. Peter tells us to add perseverance to our faith (2 Peter 1:6). For a continued spirit of diligence is needed to make our calling and election sure. James tells us, “That the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (James 1:2-4).

As we look at our lives and wonder how we can ever overcome temptation and sin, the outlook seems bleak. We resign ourselves to accept our sin and pray for God’s mercy. Often, we become despondent over the possibilities of truly being what God wants us to be. When that happens, we in effect have decided that it is not possible to defeat Satan and it is easier to give him the victory than to continue fighting.

Many Reasons for Failure

The reasons for failure are numerous and shared by all men alike. Many know the answer to overcoming sin and even amid combat – armed with the weapons of defense against sin – lay them down to be overcome. Can we be victorious? Can we truly have the hope of eternal life burning within us? Can we be all that God wants us to be? Is that power of faith available to me?

Jesus gives us the answer. “Do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matthew 6:34). We tend to look at the “big picture” of our life and see what a great challenge we face to overcome sin. While we must be aware of the “big picture” and understand the whole, perhaps we need to focus more on today.

Each day is a big enough picture to look at and deal with. All the tomorrow’s that will ever exist have so many worries and anxieties about them that we can never deal with them. That is why someone said, “Don’t worry about tomorrow, God is already there.” God can deal with all the tomorrow’s and as His Son tells us to deal with the day at hand and we shall have enough to do. As the Danish proverb says, “The only mile we have to worry about is the next mile.”

From this realization that our lives are only understood by the day in which we have, we then must learn how to begin each day to help us through the remainder of the day. Health officials tells us that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and it sets to tone for our day’s health. As with the body, we must feast upon spiritual matters to help us make a good day in the work of the Kingdom.

First, a realization of what lies before us is important to remember. As Paul pointed out in Ephesians 6, we face on onslaught of mighty forces that seek to destroy us. We cannot go out in the day thinking that we are fighting against a small, unprepared army.

If we awoke to the presence of 500,000 armed soldiers surrounding our home with every conceivable weapon of war at their disposal (2 Kings 6), would we just walk out the door casually and think we could defeat this whole army unprepared? That probably is not going to happen, but we must realize Satan is there with his army each day even though we may not physically see them.

A Commitment is Necessary

Jesus died on the cross to give us the victory over sin. We can repel the forces of Satan because the power that we have is greater than the power Satan has. One of Satan’s most effective tools is to convince us that he is too big to defeat. In our daily struggles, we give up because we believe it impossible to stop sin. On the contrary, we have such a great army at our disposal that Satan trembles at the knowledge of such.

God did not leave us alone nor unguarded to fight the host of wickedness. “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel” (Hebrews 12:22-24).

“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31). We can defeat ourselves if we do not make the proper preparation for the battle. Paul illustrates in Ephesians 6 that we must put on the whole armor of God to withstand in the evil day. Each day must be faced with the commitment to conquer the day. Again, the focus is not to worry about tomorrow but to face the day that is upon us.

A commitment for the day is needed to know the battle plan. We know we have the victory, but we must enact our will to follow the plan for victory. Each day must be faced with prayer. Our prayer is a commitment to overcome what we see approaching during the day. Prayer is not a generalization of some religious thoughts or saying “God, help me.” Rather, it is a specific declaration of truths. In speaking to God, tell him what you plan to do for the day and how you plan to carry it out.

Examine the day and its challenges and declare in specific terms how you will overcome the temptation or sin.

A daily reading of the Bible is not an option to learn how to fight against Satan – it is an absolute necessity! How many times have faithful Christians gone out to battle without a knowledge of God? How many Christians have been overcome by sin due to a lack of His Word? The word of God not only tells us about the wonderful grace and love of God, but it also tells us how the devil works.

Originally by Kent Heaton

Edited and adapted by Jack Critchfield

Something Far Worse than Covid

“Covid is real!” “Covid is deadly!” “People need to take Covid seriously!” Such statements ring resoundingly from both national news and social media outlets alike…And they’re absolutely right! Many Americans who had reportedly tested positive for Covid, had passed away.

Yes, there are more important things…

Now, as an aside, the reason I write it like that is because of the somewhat deceptive way in which such data is chronicled, conveyed to, and consumed by, us. Hopefully we all understand by now that only a portion of the total number of deaths being reported as resulting from Covid actually are. Check it out for yourself. Consider:

1). As a story in the Denver Post confirmed earlier this year, such categorization “has been used by the health department since the start of the pandemic and includes the total number of people who died who have COVID-19, regardless of whether it was the virus that ultimately killed them.”  (Emph. mine – DED)

2). It is also noteworthy that health care facilities can receive vastly more federal funding for each case of Covid that they list that they had to deal with.

3). When you add to that, the fact that in states like Oklahoma where the less dependable rapid test results that used to be considered as probable are now counted as positive. Well, you can see how that if one doesn’t understand the parameters behind which these numbers are arrived at, that the daily reported Covid “death toll” numbers can, at the very least appear to be quite deceptive, if not outright overly and grossly exaggerated.

However, the point of this article is neither to minimize the impact of the Coronavirus or to downplay the tragic loss of life that it is legitimately causing daily in our society. Any one life lost to this monster is one life too many! But what the point of this article actually is, is to bring to our attention a far, far, infinitely far greater and more deadly and dangerous event, and subsequently, the unbelievable irony that accompanies it. Consider…

Using these overly exaggerated numbers partly because even slightly more accurate ones are nowhere readily available as far as I know, that means that while 8,393,773 Americans have reportedly contracted the Coronavirus as of October 19th, that the other 322.5 or so million, or roughly 97.5% of Americans, have not. And yet, as to the infinitely more far reaching and life-changing event of which I speak, it will be experienced by every single American, as well as every other person on the entire planet to boot – 100% of us, no exceptions!

Also, while the recently-chronicled amount of Covid cases that have had an outcome in America as of the 19th of October numbered 5,688,234, some 5,463,410(or roughly 96%) of those people who once had it, had also recovered from and ultimately survived it. However, as to the far more fatal future event to which I refer, there will be no such overwhelming survival rate. In fact, there will be far more who will perish in it – and for all eternity – than there will be of those who survive it (Matt. 7:13-27).

Obviously by now you’ve figured out that the event to which I refer is the coming Judgment Day (Rev. 20:10-15). And the obvious irony is how so many unsaved folks who so adamantly claim that we must all take the Coronavirus more seriously – a disease that has only infected less than 3% of our population; a disease which, amongst those whom it has infected, have experienced about a 96% recovery rate; and a disease which can, only at its absolute most, take away one’s momentary earthly life–seem to want nothing whatsoever to do with taking far more seriously the eternal death that so many – including all of them if they don’t become Biblical New Testament Christians – will most certainly experience come Judgement Day! Talk about needing to take something far more seriously? Talk about messed up priorities! Talk about straining out a gnat to swallow a camel (Matt. 23:23-24)?!?

But before we get too far down on those who know neither Christ, His word, or about the judgement to come (like Felix in Acts 24:25), what about us? Where do our priorities lie? In discussing and/or seeking to help others avoid and/or survive the Coronavirus? Or, in discussing and seeking to help others avoid the wrath of God on Judgement Day, by teaching them how to better know and to obey Jesus, so they can survive it by virtue of His blood and be guaranteed entrance into His eternal heavenly home?

Yes: Covid is indeed real; and it needs to be taken very seriously. However, the question we as Christians must answer is: “Have we been helping to stem the tide of something far more destructive by sharing the gospel instead?”

Doug Dingley (www.Godswordistruth.org)

Will Your Anchor Hold?

“Will your anchor hold in the storms of life,
when the clouds unfold their wings of strife?
When the strong tides lift, and the cables strain,
will your anchor drift, or firm remain?”

This is the opening stanza of the hymn “We Have an Anchor.” It is found in most songbooks that religious organizations use.

This question, “Will your anchor hold” is asked metaphorically to describe one’s life.  We have all used various metaphors on occasion to describe some aspect of ours or someone else’s life. So, when asked if your anchor will hold, we understand it is not a tangible (or actual) device. An anchor is defined as: “a device usually of metal attached to a ship or boat by a cable and cast overboard to hold it in a particular place by means of a fluke that digs into the bottom” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). When this question is asked, we should look to see what it is that fulfills the deeper meaning of the anchor.

Security and stability

What is it that provides the needed “security”, “stability”, and grounding one needs spiritually? The answer to this question should be easy, but too many seem to fail to be properly “anchored”. Hope in God’s Word of course is the answer. The apostle Paul makes that very clear when he said, “If indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister” (Colossians 1:23).

However, many seek their hope from other sources. Obviously the things of the world cannot provide the stability needed, nor the promise of life beyond this one because, “the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up” (2 Peter 3:10). Thus, the physical things of the world will be destroyed when the trumpet sounds. And in 1 Corinthians 3:19, Paul writes that even the intangible things of this world are ineffective as an anchor for the soul. The world’s wisdom will also be destroyed with the world.

What is this anchor?

The Word of God is that in which we are to be anchored. “‘BUT THE WORD OF THE LORD ENDURES FOREVER.’ And this is the word which was preached to you” (1 Peter 1:25).  So, having having established in what we are to be anchored, let’s make certain we understand each of us have responsibility in this. 

Considering the Word is sure, steadfast and unfailing, if our anchor does not hold, who’s fault is it? It would stand to reason it has to be ours. If we are in a boat, and toss the anchor out on smooth solid rock, it won’t catch, let alone hold. That’s why it is so important to be anchored in the gospel, the Word of God. Once we place our anchor in the Word of God, the only one that can release it is us!  

How an anchor works

Having spent some time fishing on Lake Cachuma and having to hold the boat in place, I know the anchor rope must become slack in order to release the anchor. If the boat maintains the tautness on the anchor (and it is properly seated), the anchor will not release. Now, apply this spiritually and we should see that we must maintain the proper tightness on the anchor, that which keeps us properly moored or connected to God. When we become slack or fail to do as we should, we allow our anchor to slip. Then we begin to drift just as a vessel on the water does. This could be devastating. And from a spiritual standpoint, it is eternally disastrous. Perhaps this is the reason we have so many passages warning Christians to hold fast, or to stand fast. Is this not what a properly engaged anchor does, hold fast?  

In Philippians 1:27, “Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so…I will hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.” The same applies to us. We see this same idea directed toward the brethren in Corinth in 1 Corinthians 16:13. The point of what Paul is saying is that if they stand fast in the faith, they can remain strong. In fact, 1 Thessalonians 3:8 tells us we are “alive” (spiritually) if we stand fast in Christ.

Leaders must have stability

The elders (bishops) are also to have the characteristic of “stability” as they “hold fast” the Word of God. Titus 1:9 tells us this and tells us how the elders (and all others) can defend the Word of God if they hold it fast. And then we see those Christians of Jewish descent being exhorted to remain anchored in their profession in Hebrews 10:23 . We could site many more places, but these should be enough to show that we have full control of our stability.

“Will your anchor hold in the storms of life, When the clouds unfold their wings of strife?” Don’t become slack and let your anchor drift. Seek the strength and stability in His Word.