If your faith doesn't change the way you live, it isn't real faith. Even the demons believe in God and tremble (James 2:19).
True belief produces a life of obedience to Jesus.
If a foreigner hates America, fine. But why then become a citizen here? Better yet, why would the US allow someone to become a citizen who hates the country?
A guy who just became an American citizen eight years ago sat at George Washington’s desk and lectured us about what it means to be an American on our nation’s 250th birthday.
You know what shook me when I was Muslim?
The story of Hosea. God tells a prophet to marry a woman He knows will betray him.
She does. She runs to other men. She ends up enslaved, sold, used up, worthless to the world.
And God tells Hosea to go BUY HER BACK.
To pay money for his own wife who cheated on him, and love her again. Hosea 3.
I thought it was the most humiliating command in the Bible. Why would any man do that?
Then I realized I was the wife.
I gave my heart to everything but God. I chased other masters. I sold myself cheap. I made myself worthless.
And God looked at me, the betrayer, and didn’t say “you’re not worth it.”
He said, “Name the price. I’m buying her back.”
That’s the Gospel. God doesn’t wait for the unfaithful to come crawling back clean.
He pays to redeem them while they’re still dirty.
Islam told me to make myself worthy of God.
Hosea showed me a God who pays to redeem the unworthy.
The cross was Him naming the price.
Praise the Lord.
Being a good person doesn't get you to Heaven
Being a good person doesn't get you to Heaven
Being a good person doesn't get you to Heaven
Being a good person doesn't get you to Heaven
Being a good person doesn't get you to Heaven
Jesus alone, folks. Not our works. It's all Jesus.
The Gospel does not to affirm your sin, celebrate your sin, or accept your sin.
The Gospel rescues you out of sin, redirects you away from sin, and gives you victory over sin.
Claiming you are killing your child with Down syndrome to spare him suffering is total self-delusion. You have no right to kill a child. And children with Down syndrome can live beautiful, full lives just like any of us. Murdering a child with disabilities is never the answer.
Good preaching doesn't just make you feel good. It should also convict you of your sin and point you to the cross. We need biblical truth, not worldly motivation.