Thoughts About God's Amazing Grace
The next aspect I'd like to share with you is the ‘fruit‘ of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The next aspect I'd like to share with you is the ‘sincerity‘ of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The next aspect I'd like to share with you is the ‘excellence‘ of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
“And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment …” Philippians 1:9
“For God is my witness, how greatly I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ.” Philippians 1:8
“… being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.” Philippians 1:6
“I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now.” Philippians 1:3-5
Philippians 1:7 – ‘just as it is right for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers with me of grace.'
You are saved and learning how to study the Bible. You are learning the ‘rules' God established for those who serve Him. Wonderful! What are you learning about what happens next? It's fairly simple.
When Paul knew that his days on earth were numbered and he would not get out of prison to start any more churches, he wrote one final letter. We know it as 2 Timothy. When a man knows his life is coming to an end and he has important things to share, we often find those things in his final words. That's why I chose 2 Timothy for this series.
Now that we know how to be saved, how to study the Bible, and the importance of serving God – let's look at the process of doing just that – serving God. I'm going to share with you 40 Rules for Christian Ministry. I did not make up these rules. They come directly from the Apostle Paul, which means they come directly from God.
You can listen to the First Four Rules of Bible Study in the previous podcast. Let's move next to the Second Four Rules.
I developed eight rules for Bible study through years of doing it, so I'd like to share with you what's worked well for me. For the purpose of keeping this podcast brief, I'll share the first four now and the second four next time.
How long does it take to ‘be saved?' An hour? A day? A week? A month? A year?According to the Apostle Paul, a person who truly ‘believes' in the Lord Jesus Christ is saved right away.
I'm dedicating the 8th Season of our Podcasts to the ‘Next Generation.' My reason is simple.
Welcome to Podcast Season 8 for GraceLife, Faith and Self Defense, Grace Martial Arts, and my Substack Newsletter! I look forward to seeing where God takes us this next year.
The Jewish Temple has played an important role in Judaism for thousands of years, but why is it important to Christians? Here's a quick history lesson that may help us understand.https://gracelifethoughts.com/2026/01/09/the-importance-of-the-jewish-temple-in-christianity/
Why didn't God create a perfect world where humans ruled and reigned and had a great life?
Why is there evil in the world?Why did God create the devil?
It's important that we understand the purpose of the Garden of Eden.
In the last part of our new series we saw that God created humans to ‘rule' (have dominion) over the earth. We find that in the first chapter of Genesis. In the last Book of the Bible, Revelation, we find humans ruling and reigning with God forever. If those were the only two portions of Scripture we read, we'd think everything worked according to God's plan and purpose. However, there are thousands of years where humans did not (and are still not) ruling and reigning with God on the earth. Why? What happened?
We begin a deep dive into questions about our existence.
Many Christians love to love. So do many non-Christians. What makes Christianity different than other religious and non-religious worldviews is that God loves despite His wrath. We looked into ‘how' He does that in previous parts of this series. Our final question is ‘why.'
One of the most important ‘Character' traits of God is that He does not change.
Why do we exist? Why are we here on planet Earth? What's my purpose in life? What does the future hold for me? What will happen to me after I die? Why is there evil in the world? Why did God create the devil?
Have you ever heard of the ‘Cafeteria Bible?' That's what a man named Marcion developed in the early 2nd century AD and what U.S. President Thomas Jefferson built in the early part of the 19th century. They both chose to keep the parts of the Bible they liked and throw out what they didn't.
Some people say they can see God's love in the New Testament, but not in the Old. One of the early ‘church heresies' was that the God of the Old Testament was not the same God the Apostle Paul described in his letters. Why? Because the God of the Old Testament was filled with wrath, anger, and meanness, while the God of the New Testament was loving, kind, and forgiving. That's a ‘heresy' because it's not true. I'll explain.
We are living in what some people call a “post-Christian” environment. The Gospel has been preached for almost two-thousand years, but Christianity is no longer admired and desired by masses of people. They view the Christian life and message as ignorant, irrelevant and oppositional to their ‘modern' lifestyle.
John 3:16 continues to be the world's most popular Bible verse – and for good reason. They are the very Words of the Son of God, Jesus Christ.
The word ‘wrath' is found hundreds of times in the Bible. It generally means ‘burning anger, fury, rage, vexation, indignation, agitation, irritation, to be hard, severe or fierce.' The word is used sometimes for the anger or rage of humans and animals – sometimes for the anger of God. But why would God be angry? Isn't God ‘love?'
Our focus in this series is on ‘decency and order' in the Church. I chose the divisive issue of ‘tongues' to start Volume IV of our series. The primary reason is because of this verse – “Let all things be done decently and in order (1 Corinthians 14:40). Another reason, as I explained in the last part of this series, is that ‘speaking in tongues' was one of the first challenges I faced as a new Christian. I was glad to have the opportunity to share my testimony of God's grace to me as a former atheist, but I was a bit surprised by the reception from some Christians. Among other things, they told me that I needed to speak in tongues as ‘proof' of my salvation. They said it was in the Bible, so I should believe it and do it.So, I began a study in the Bible about speaking in tongues.
The word ‘Trinity' is not in the Bible. I used to love saying that to Christians when I was an atheist with a radio talk show. It usually upset them, which caused them to get flustered on air. However, as I was to learn later, that does not mean the ‘Trinity' is not in the Bible. In fact, our current study is an example of the ‘Trinity' working together to bring about the ‘salvation' of people in the world who ‘believe' in Jesus Christ.
I've been a Christian long enough to have seen many changes in the ‘preaching' of the Gospel of Christ. Even though that sounds like a long time to me – in the light of a two-thousand year-old Message of Good News from God it isn't long at all. Unfortunately, 54 years has been long enough to see the preaching of the Gospel go downhill fast. Why?
Nicodemus answered and said to Him, How can these things be? John 3:9 That question from the Pharisee and Sanhedrin member led to one of the most powerful private discourses we have recorded from Jesus Christ. While it includes the world-famous John 3:16 about God's love for the world, that's not how Jesus began in answering Nicodemus' question.
The world's most popular Bible verse, John 3:16, is part of a conversation Jesus Christ had with a ruler of the Jews named Nicodemus.
There are so many divisions and problems in the Church today, why begin with ‘tongues'? Good question.
I'd like to focus for a few moments on two words that Jesus used in John 3:16 – perish everlasting life
The Apostle Peter first used the phrase “day of the Lord” in his sermon on Pentecost. It was Peter's first use of quoting Scripture in the sermon, so that's significant.
What is the world's most popular Bible verse?
What is a “social justice warrior”? The definition you choose might depend on your political or social views.
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