Scholar Robert Mounce reflects, “Nowhere will you find a more accurate picture of sinful humanity pressed to the extreme. One would think that the terrors of God’s wrath would bring rebels to their knees. Not so. Past the point of no return, they respond to greater punishment with increased rebellion. Such is sinful nature...
23-0212: Jesus is the Lamb of God who is worthy of all worship because He was slain and yet He lives. Revelation 5 expands John’s Throne Room vision by drawing his attention back to the Throne where the One seated is holding a scroll. When the angels ask if anyone is worthy, no one...
The reality of lukewarm was the loss of communion with Jesus. All the affluence of life caused them to believe they had no need and deceived them to think they could live far from the source. A lukewarm life is produced by two main qualities; a false security due to personal resource, that fosters...
Jesus celebrates as most significant the church of seeming insignificance in the world. And it is this church to which He opened a door that cannot be shut. Jesus entrusts the commission of His Kingdom to the church of insignificance in the world. And he is not embarrassed or ashamed, but calls them to...
Reputation makes it easy to construct a counterfeit identity where people hide their true self, and this is most easily done in relationship with God....
What you tolerate will determine where you set your hope, and influence the hopes of others around you. False teachings seduce the church to stain our good works and spoil our witness in the world. The gospel leads Christ-followers forth by Jesus’ authority to make disciples of all nations now, teaching the Truth of...
Compromise is a process motivated by personal benefit or gain, initiated through a pattern of thinking that culminates in choices made and produces an unhelpful, and undesirable end. It is motivated by self-centeredness, and advances by questions that justify personal desires. But most of all, it damages and destroys and it seldom exposed until...
22-1023: Jesus is the Sovereign King who has conquered and calls His people to Be Faithful and receive the crown of life. Jesus has nothing against this church. But what He has for this church is not easy to hear. Suffering is not merely a possibility for a Christian, but a reality for which...
A church like Ephesus, highly committed to doctrinal diligence, was not only necessary to guard against, but one could argue, produced by the demand that arises from the false teachings and teachers that came so prolifically from a hyper-religious culture. No one sets out to abandon God’s love, but many wake up one day...
The King is Coming states the doctrinal conviction that the One who came, Jesus, is King and is coming again. He who came from heaven, bore our sin on the cross, was buried and raised on the third day, and ascended as King is coming again to culminate the full measure of His victory...