Tag Archives: faith

Featured Resource – Week of 05/06/2012

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A Ready Defense by Josh McDowell

Thomas Nelson, 1992
496 pages
ISBN-10: 0840744196

This is a great resource for strengthening and defending your faith.  This book begins by upholding the authority of the Bible.  It addresses supposed contradictions and criticisms of God’s Word.  After laying that groundwork, a section on Jesus Christ shows that He is truly God incarnate and why Jesus must be exactly Who He claimed to be.

There are lengthy sections comparing Christianity with non-Christian religions, cults, and occult phenomena.  This is particularly helpful for defending your faith in light of these religious systems.

A section on most asked questions about Christianity covers common objections and inquiries people have when confronted with the person of Jesus Christ. This is valuable information that often comes up when sharing your faith with others.

The final section covers the uniqueness of the Christian faith.  The emphasis here is on how lives are changed through Jesus Christ.

The book is formatted so that it can be read from front to back or used as a reference book for specific topics.  The subject matter is divided into 45 chapters, so most chapters are relatively small and great for quick reading on a particular issue.

This Is My Blood

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And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. (Matt 26:27-28)

And he said unto them, This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many.  (Mark 14:24)

Countless animals were killed in Jewish history to provide the blood required for the proscribed sacrifices.  This is because blood is required to remit sin (Heb. 9:22).  However, none of those sacrifices provided the actual blood that was required.  Those sacrifices were only symbolic of the ultimate sacrifice provided by Jesus Christ (Heb. 10:4, 10-14). Continue reading →

Following Jesus Regardless of the Cost

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John 12:12-13, 19 On the next day much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, 13 Took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord.  19 The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing? behold, the world is gone after him.

The passage above is part of the history of Palm Sunday.  It marked Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem a week prior to His resurrection.  As verses 12 and 13 show, Jesus had many followers at this time.  The overwhelming throng of people caused the Pharisees to remark that the world had gone after Him (vs. 19).  The rest of history shows that this was the calm before the storm. Continue reading →

Your Spiritual Condition Is More Important Than Your Physical Condition

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Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when he had found him, he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God?  He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him?  And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee.  And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him.  (John 9:35-38)

In John 9, Jesus heals a man who had been blind from birth (John 9:1).  He fixes his physical condition of blindness and that was a definite reason for rejoicing!  However, that wasn’t the man’s biggest problem.  Continue reading →

The God Option

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And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and, behold, the Egyptians marched after them; and they were sore afraid: and the children of Israel cried out unto the LORD. And they said unto Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt? Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians? For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness.  (Exodus 14:10-12)

The Israelites had been in bondage to the Egyptians for some 400 years.  They had just left after God miraculous deliverance of them through ten plagues.  They are free.

One would think that their faith in God would be at an all-time high.  However, this was not the case.  Continue reading →