NCarolinian

Many Christians do what we call "serving the Lord".  I sense there is an impression that after people accept Christ as their personal Lord and Savior, therefore becoming a Christian - the call to display their commitment through their lifestyle becomes laborious. Some believers, I feel, may perceive the good works or deeds to be chore oriented and that is their starting-line for serving God. I believe if this is your perspective as a fellow brother or sister in Christ then it needs some alteration. There is truth in knowing some of the work, deeds or service we will render unto God will be labor intensive. However, when acting on the instruction to fulfill God's personal calling on your life or live a lifestyle set apart for Him, led by the Holy Spirit - believers in Christ should desire to minister unto the Lord at all times from a reference of eternal gratitude.  Having the heart and mindset of serving the Lord is proper since He died for us, we should live for Him.  Fr...

I deeply yearn for all believers, especially pastors and teachers of The Word of God to continue reading, out-loud the verse in which they seem to always stop half-way to three-fourths through – 1 Corinthians 2:9-10 . These two verses read – "However, as it is written: 'No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him'--but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit." Paul is quoting Isaiah 64:4 in the majority of this passage with what I glean many instructors of The Word communicate as just no possible way we can know this side of heaven all the marvels that await us in paradise – 'No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him' . Why Not?! First, that is not what Scripture says according to the above verse. The rest of the verse has not been read or considered. Second, you are limiting the power of the Holy Spirit within each believer to do this work - ...

Multiple mention of a certain topic in Scripture is of particular, inspired emphasis by God. For example, God moved on John's spirit to write twice in the book of Revelation on the subject of true Christians belonging to the Kingdom and Priesthood of God. In Revelation 1:6 it says, "To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen." Then in Revelation 5:10 , this declaration of Kingdom and Priesthood is found in a song that is sung by the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders that stay before God's throne. The lyrics picture a future time when Jesus and those He bought with His blood will reign on earth, but first Christ must bring forth the judgments found in scrolls that He alone is worthy to open the seals to.  The words of the song are -  “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slai...

Try your best to mentally "walk a mile in the shoes" of Christ’s original twelve Disciples. Attempt to see through their eyes the thoughts and feelings they experienced as Jesus broke into their world. Maybe the magnetism to Christ were His eyes. Maybe it was His voice, He was, after all, the Word of God in flesh! Once someone was a disciple of Jesus, living with Him must have been awesome to be sure, interesting all the time and confusing to a Jewish people expecting a militant Messiah and now receiving a Lamb of God, a suffering servant.  To hear what He had to say and see the compassionate miracles He poured out on the people would have certainly made you think twice about His messiahship because Isaiah 53:2 says about Jesus,  "He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him."   Yet, there was something about Him that drew the Disciples like a moth to a flame. There was an amazing, supernatural attraction bec...

In a section of his  second letter to Timothy, Paul writes  to Timothy about dealing with false teachers. Within this section Paul instructs Timothy to be a believer and leader of believers that not only witnesses before others of God's grace but one that presents himself/herself before God. 2 Timothy 2:15 says, "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth."   The Audience of One - God - is who Timothy and all Christians are strongly encouraged to present ourselves to for everything but here especially - 1. approval 2. unashamed-ness in working for God 3. one who correctly handles God's Word Believers are approved by God through the salvation of Christ Jesus. But after accepting Jesus as personal Lord and Savior, the deeds or works of the believer are continually approved as he/she lives out a faith-filled lifestyle that pleases the Lord. Our work for the Lord in the secu...

In this world of eat or be eaten, the performance-driven society we live in - God interrupts with a gift, His only Son, Christ Jesus for the redemption and reconciliation of humanity to Father God.  For those ready to accept God's love gift of salvation through Christ Jesus for the rest of eternity by living their life patterned after Jesus, the acceptance of this is straight forward. For those who are performance-driven and have a hard time accepting gifts, this might be difficult. However, Jesus has paid the price, accepting all of humanity into His kingdom. Now humanity has to decide on the acceptance of Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior. From birth, humans seek approval. From some authority figure in our life, whomever that might be, children to the elderly desire to know they are accepted and that they are doing life correctly. The main pool of sources that humanity has to pick from to receive approval are - the world, the enemy of our souls, our self, others and God. Fr...

The lack of technology in humanity's early history caused travel and agriculture to teach us patience and hard work pay off. Both travel and farming, back in the day, were limited by foot, animal, boat or other means due to the large distances of land between peoples. Places like cities and things like buildings don't just materialize out of thin air or jump off the page into perfect existence after we draw or sketch them to scale. Neither do we observe a son or daughter appear fully grown, healthy and inserted properly in society at the wish of a newly wed couple planning a family. None of these were instantaneously created or born at their full potential. We have stages to a final product or outcome. When we look at humans they are born then usually develop physically and mentally over the years in stages to become hopefully a healthy, productive, contributing member of society. This pattern of first - idea, then plan and creation and development also applies to everyone'...