Random Thoughts on the Really Good News

“And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.” (Hebrews 11:15-16) Don’t look back, keep moving forward. Why?  Because it is our tendency when we look back to start longing for what was, rather than appreciating what is or what can be. The above Scripture refers to Abraham and his family.Had they looked back to Ur from which God had told him to leave, they would have had a tendency to want to return to the past. And if so, Abraham  would not have become the father of FAITH. Barbara Streisand sang beautifully about memories in the hit song of the movie The Way We Were… "Memories light the corners of my mind, misty watercolor memories of the way we were Scattered pictures of the smiles we left behind, Smiles we gave to one another for the way we were Ca...

“A rejoicing heart makes the countenance cheerful” (Proverbs 15:13). When I used to sing in a church choir we would sit in the choir loft during the worship service. It always amazed me as I looked out over the congregation how little joy was in the facial expressions of those attending the services. Too often religious doctrine does not bring joy, just bondage and fear. Many people go to church hoping they can avoid the the wrath of God for not doing so.  They would prefer to be hunting, fishing, golfing  or just resting. Only the freedom of knowing and actually believing that God has taken away the sins of the world makes a heart rejoice.  If our facial expression, especially during a worship service, is not  “cheerful” …why not? Maybe because the message in most churches has become something other than good news... “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) Now that is go...

"...let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:1-2) Life is what it is. We don’t ask to be born, but here we are. We can’t request where we are born or to whom. It is what it is…God has decided. Sooo the best we can do is to "run with patience the race that is set before us” . But why should we be “ looking unto Jesus” in FAITH? Jesus was a man just like us. He had a race to run as we all do. His particular race reveals to mankind what, but for sin, we could be now, and what, after sin is done away with, we all will be after God is finished with us in this present mortal life. Jesus died just as we will die, and he was resurrected never to die again, just like we will be. And that is what is meant by “looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our FA...

“With great power the apostles continued to TESTIFY to the RESURRECTION of the Lord Jesus. And God's GRACE was so powerfully at work in them all.” (Acts 4:33) It is the testimony about the resurrection of the Lord Jesus that is important for mankind. And in that testimony alone does the power of GRACE work among mankind. The Christian church has lost the proper emphasis when proclaiming the gospel. It is not the cross, but the resurrection that gives mankind hope beyond death. The cross is an instrument of DEATH. GRACE has to do with the unmerited favor of God toward mankind. And mankind, all of us, miss the mark (SIN) which results in death to us ALL. “…in Adam ALL die”…”For the wages of SIN is DEATH” ... "...people are destined to DIE once..."  (1 Corinthians 15:22; Romans 6:23; Hebrews 9:27 ) The RESURRECTION is the means by which sinful dead men are SAVED and this SALVATION is a FREE gift flowing from the POWER of the GRACE of God. It is our HOPE and the GOSP...

“The god of theology is a well-meaning, good-intentioned weakling, whose intentions, however amiable, cannot in every case be carried into effect, and whose universe is a rickety affair subject to accidents of every kind.” — Alan Burns Most Christian leaders speak of God as an Omniscient, Omnipotent and Omnipresent Sovereign God, and He is. However, certain of their false doctrines reveal their true opinion of Him to be those set forth by Alan Burns above. To them each man determines his own fate regardless of what God desires to do…which is to SAVE them. The following are well established doctrines of Christianity and are false. They have each contributed to the separation of mankind into two categories…those who agree with us and go to heaven, and those who disagree with us and go to hell. I feel certain that the following false doctrines offend God. Self Determination (Free Will) Eternal Conscious Torment Immortality of the Soul The Trinity Vicarious Atonement My brother Bill pos...

Some people get condemned and shamed for rejecting the gods of religious institutions. If you are one of them, do not worry about that at all, for you have not rejected the real GOD, but the made up god of religious institutions. And that is a good thing, in my opinion. “Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because ye go round the sea and the dry land to make one proselyte, and whenever it may happen -- ye make him a son of gehenna twofold more than yourselves.” (Matthew 23:15) I think it is impossible to reject the real God.  He does not "separate" Himself from us…only the gods of religion do that. “I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor messengers, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things about to be, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God...” (Romans 8:38-39)

“Be not judging anything before the season, till the Lord should be coming, who will also illuminate the hidden things of darkness and manifest the counsels of the hearts. And then applause will be coming to each one from God” (I Corinthians 4:5) In 1991 Anthony Hopkins won the academy award for outstanding actor in a leading role for the film “Silence of the Lambs”. He played the role of Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a psychopathic murderer. Anthony Hopkins played the part just as the script was written and performed so well he received the highest award of the motion picture academy. God created the universe and all that is in it according to the Bible. “I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the LORD, who does all these things…I made the earth and created man on it; it was my hands that stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all their host…by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions ...

"God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired..." (1 Corinthians 12:18) Once upon a time it was understood that the body of Christ was the church.  That the body was composed of people chosen by God and resided in the hearts of its diverse members. Families of its members would meet together in homes, and then in separate buildings constructed for that purpose.  Each Sunday they would gather with other members in the area  to study the bible, sing the old hymns, listen to a sermon, and when necessary help those of their community in need. The church residing in those families would then go to their individual homes having felt good about being with friends.  T hey were not concerned with growing the numbers, they grew in numbers as they helped people in the community who saw in them the love of God. Then one day it all began to change when some decided the church was an entity residing in the buildings and if they would incorporate...