Celebrate Jesus' Life

The Christmas holidays are past and now the next big Christian holiday will be Easter, the day we celebrate the resurrection of our Savior. Christians are blessed to have a Living Savior. Jesus bodily arose from the dead; there was no body left behind for His dead body was changed to a living glorified body. He became a quickening Spirit by His resurrection and He gives eternal life to all who will repent of their sins and believe in Him.

We celebrate His birth on Christmas day. Let’s devote the other 364 days to celebrating His life. The best way to celebrate His life is to live this life knowing we have eternal life in us. If we know we have eternal life in us, every day should be filled with Joy Unspeakable and Full of Glory. Let us spread it all around to everyone. “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.”(1 John 3:14 KJV)

M.O.E. Ministry of Encouragement

I have discovered a niche that is vitally needed but it is not a crowded field. It is the Ministry of Encouragement. All Christians should encourage other Christians as well as non-Christians. It has been my sad experience that people who call themselves Christians, spend far too much of their precious time berating other Christians. There is too little tolerance among Christians; especially toward those of other denominations. Folks, we are all trying to get to the same place so let’s be a help and not a hindrance to each other.

Is our goal to point people to Christ and to heaven? Or is our goal to get them into our church? I have seen many people who were turned off to Christians because, “They fight among themselves too much.” This is not good for the cause of Christ.

If we all believe in Jesus, that He is the Son of God, that He died so our sins could be forgiven and that He arose from the dead so we could have eternal life, then we have enough in common with other believers to make us brothers and sisters and we should not fight among ourselves.

Jesus said, “A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” (John 13:34–35, KJV)

I want to encourage all Christians to put these verses into practice in the New Year. You have the tremendous power to possibly make the difference in someone’s eternal destiny. As a young Christian in my twenties, I was blessed to have many encouragers who were great help in my Christian life. I also had lots of discouragers who tried to tell me I wasn't saved or I was in the wrong church; and many other things that were a hindrance to me. Maybe the people meant well but they were sadly lacking in Christian love and discipleship methods. Let us be very careful to never become a stumbling block to anyone.

Understanding the Bible

During the holidays I have been reading my favorite blogs. If I combine all the talking points I’ve read, a most interesting pattern emerges. It is in the way people understand and interpret the Scriptures. I make no claim to being an expert in Biblical Hermeneutics but it deeply troubles me that people can see one verse or a passage of Scriptures and interpret it in so many different ways. I can only conclude it is because of the influence of so many theologians across the centuries.

Theologians have provided us with dozens of different understandings of the Bible and we have to ask, which is the right understanding? It is my belief there can be only one correct interpretation of the Bible. Any passage of Scriptures may have many different applications but there is always one true message which God intended for us to receive from it. How do we discover the intended message from the Scriptures? That is what Biblical Hermeneutics is all about.

Hermeneutics throws all the confusing theologies out the window and allows the Bible to be its own interpreter. All Scripture is in agreement with and supports and confirms all other Scriptures. Only when we compare Scripture with Scripture can we arrive at the one correct interpretation of their meaning. In the coming weeks and months, I hope to further expand in this subject. I would greatly appreciate comments from those who read this blog.