Life. Faith. Jesus.

Did you know that I am writing a series on the cross?

Some of you Old Testament junkies will enjoy this.

I’m taking my sweet ole’ time with it too. I have recently finished answering the second question in the series and wanted to give you a snippet of the article. There you will find more information, along with an entire table of Old Testament prophesies fulfilled in Jesus.

This is a series where I will leave the comment section open in the articles. That way, if people have questions (specifically, people who don’t know Jesus) they can ask them openly.

Take a moment to give it a read. Leave some feedback in the comments below.

Question #2: What did Jesus die for?

Let’s take a look at 1 Corinthians 15:3. Starting at verse 3, it says, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures . . .”

Jesus died for our sins according to Scripture. This is important, because if it was not according to Scripture He would not have been the Deliverer. What I mean by that is all the prophecies—or foretelling—of Christ in the Old Testament regarding the coming Messiah was fulfilled in the person of Jesus. Everything had to line up with all the hundreds of prophecies in order for this to actually be what it is.

Our first introduction to the promise of a deliverer is found in Genesis 3:15, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” This is called the protoevangelium. In other words, the first gospel, or “good news”. The wording for offspring is singular. The word “offspring” is the Hebrew word “zera`” (zeh’-rah), which may be better translated “seed.” This is singular, not plural—The Seed. From that point on, the Bible records that God’s people long for the promised Messiah.

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Guest article written by Daniel C. Wilson, keynote blogger at DesireSpiritualGrowth.com

There is no one so useless as the one who is lukewarm, content, comfortable, and safe behind a buffer of outer holiness.

Trying to remedy this by focusing on living “right” can feed this unusable stratagem. When we focus on living “right,” we inevitably miss out on a passionate pursuit of Christ.

Not only that, but our pursuit of right living empties our life of the spiritual power that ought to be filling our life.

What are you zealous for?

Do you lack zeal for prayer? For missions? For church? For Bible study?

If so, the problem is not a lack of information or focus on those activities.
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How long before you actually followed Christ did you say that you “believed” in God?

I can speak for myself here. It was for all my life. I’ve always “believed” in God.

But I didn’t trust in Him. I didn’t love Him. I didn’t worship Him.

There have been numerous people with whom I’ve talked and have told me that they believe in God. Of course, this used to satisfy my inquiry. But not now.

Now, however, when someone tells me they believe in God, I ask them, “Oh yea? That’s great!” And then follow with, “What do you mean by that?”

So why does it take more than just believing?

Whoever follows Jesus knows his voice. They discern from the voice of the enemy, and the voice of their Savior. To put it plainly in the words of Jesus, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27).

But what does it mean to follow Jesus? I suppose we could write a book about this, but this article does not afford the time and space. So I will break it down into two things for now that are most protuberant: Loving God and Loving Others.

This comes from Jesus’ response to the Pharisees in Matthew 22:36-40: Read more

**Guest post by Demian Farnworth at Fallen and Flawed.**

Great question. It’s one I’ve often struggled with and felt very awkward at times defending, whether that be with friends or family or strangers.

But what I’ve found is simply this: Jesus is very explicit that he—and he alone—is the only way to God.

Think John 14:6: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.”

How do people who reject Jesus as the only way to God deal with that?

They can’t.

See, if anyone reads the Gospels it’s clear that Jesus thought of himself as God. And also thought of himself as the way to God.

The rest of the letters in the NT bear witness to this.

What this means is that either Jesus was a liar or a lunatic. If he was either of those, then why grant him the status of “great teacher” who is just among many to point us to God. Why trust what he says?
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It’s Christmas Eve, but it feels like Friday.

This week feels like one of the longest weeks. Probably because of what I have done at work. It’s just been crazy. I got this crazy sinus pressure and feel like I just ran a marathon. I hope I feel better by this weekend because I’ll be preaching, and it’s never fun to do that while feeling a little down. So right now, all I want to do is get back in bed, pull the covers over me, and SLEEP.

But I AM really thankful it’s Christmas Eve. Read more