Christian Living

     I love Matthew 18:22-35. This passage teaches us so much about forgiveness. In this parable, we understand the depth of forgiveness that comes from God. We also appreciate the depth of forgiveness we should offer others. To best understand this concept, we must look at the values that are forgiven.      A servant is brought in front of a king who was settling accounts. This servant owed the king 10,000 talents. He could not pay it back. The king then prepared to sell the man and his family into slavery and sell all his home with its goods to recoup his money (Matthew 18:25). This would only give the king a fraction of his money back. In Ancient Rome, slaves went for 500 denarii for a male and a female upward to 6,000 denarii. In 79 AD, a recorded price in Pompeii indicated "that a slave sold for 2,500 sestertii or 625 denarii." 1 We can make some simple estimations about how much he, his wife, and kids would bring. A male slave would get 500 denarii. A female would bri

     As Christians, we need others. We need our brothers and sisters in Christ to push us. Solomon, the wisest man to live, said, “As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend” (Proverbs 27:17 NKJV). We need our strong brethren to show us our potential in Christ and coach us to get there. If you try it on your own, you risk missing the fullness of life in Christ. It’s not motivation or determination as much as it is healthy competition and desire to be “like them.” Even Paul set that challenge out there for our New Testament brethren and in turn for us when he said, “Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1 NKJV). Seek iron and be iron for those around  you. All it will do is make us all better.       

  Healthy Competition You know one of the most significant concepts we need to understand is "your worst competitor is you." Why because you don't push yourself as much as you think. You can push yourself, but without some healthy competition, you will fail to get better. You will also miss the mark on reaching your full potential. Think about this statement "individuals perform at a higher level when competing against external opponents than when working alone." (Kyle Eschenroeder). As much as we would like to say everyone wins, the truth is they don't. There is a winner, and the rest are losers. That is not a bad thing.   I need Iron In losing, you see where you could be and who you could be if you drive yourself to a better place. If you never achieve that level of success, you still go farther than you could have ever gone in measuring yourself against yourself. As Christians, we need others. We need our brothers and sisters in Christ to push us.

            Prayer is a wonderful blessing given to us by God. I once heard it said, “The bible is His words to us and prayers are our words to Him.” Amen. We need to talk to Him and do it regularly. He wanted us to hear Him to the point His words resonated deep within us (Colossians 3:16; Hebrews 4:12).   Then He goes on to say that we are to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:1). This lets us know that He wants to hear us and our words matter to Him. God makes no mistake in emphasizing the need to pray and the need for us to lay things at His feet.             God wants our prayers. He wants to hear our heart cry out.   The things that are deep within us are His too. We often try to hold those in and hide those things. They are also the same things that rot our inmost being. God wants those thoughts and desires. He does not want well planned and well-orchestrated prayers that are done to be seen by men. Matthew 6:9-13 makes it clear how God wants us to pray. Take some time

         Faith is something that we often have issues with for one simple reason; it’s invisible. The word itself does not mean a tangible object that the five senses can detect. However, it is made up of the hope of eternal life and the evidence of God and His work. 1 I truly think this is the crux of the matter on faith. To many souls believe faith is something else. It is treated like a mythical creature that can only be witnessed by a few. It is presented like a lore that has no real root and no true evidence. It is handled flippantly. It is talked about frequently with no substance. Everyone is an expert on faith, but few truly understand it nor have it.      Faith is made up of someone's hope of eternal life. First, you must believe in the very thing that holds the keys to immortality, God. Christ made it clear that those who believe will be saved. 2 You have to believe God created a plan to save man in Christ from the beginning of time. 3 You have to believe tha

     For us to understand this verse of being saved by grace through faith. We need to understand God’s definitions of those words that are given to us in His word, correct? Let us do that.   Can we go back and look at Eph. 2:8-10 and look at the verse itself? Excellent "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." Ephesians 2:8-10 KJV. First, I would like to ask, what is grace according to scripture? Many rightly say grace is “the free and unmerited favor of God, as manifested in the salvation of sinners and the bestowal of blessings.” Mariam Webster defines grace as “unmerited divine assistance given to humans for their regeneration or sanctification” 1   That’s correct.   That explains it, but it does not give us a full picture. I still have questions ab