How The Trinity Works In Our Salvation

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/christiancrier/2019/06/03/how-the-trinity-works-in-our-salvation/

How Joy Is A Source of Strength

The joy of the Lord is a source of strength, but it’s so much more.

Joy is a Gift

If you are grieving or going through a difficult time right now, it’s hard to have joy, but the joy of the Lord is a great source of strength, but it’s also a gift from God. Human joy can’t take us very far. It disappears in the dark shadows of our trials and tribulations, but the joy which God gives is permanent and is as eternal as the life God has given us through Christ. Prior to Jesus going to the cross and returning to the Father, He told His disciples, “Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full” (John 16:24). Notice that they must have had some joy in order for it to be full, so even though the disciples were troubled about Jesus leaving them, He said, “you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you” (John 16:22). The Lord has “spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” (John 15:11). The psalmist understood that joy did not from a human source, but from God, writing, “You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound”(Psalm 4:7). What God puts there, stays there, so first of all, joy is a gift from God.

The rest is at: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/christiancrier/2019/06/05/how-joy-is-a-source-of-strength/

Why People Leave the Christian Faith

~ Claude Mariottini

Last July the evangelical world received the sad news that Joshua Harris, the author of the best-selling book, I Kissed Dating Goodbye and the former lead pastor of Covenant Life Church and the founding church of Sovereign Grace Ministries in Gaithersburg, Maryland, announced that he and his wife Shannon Harris were getting a divorce after more than twenty years of marriage. They were married in 1998. Joshua and Shannon have three children.

In the statement in which he made public his decision to abandon the Christian faith, Harris said, “I have undergone a massive shift in regard to my faith in Jesus. The popular phrase for this is deconstruction, the biblical phrase is falling away. By all the measurements that I have for defining a Christian, I am not a Christian. Many people tell me that there is a different way to practice faith and I want to remain open to this, but I’m not there now.” In announcing Harris’ decision, The Wall Street Journal had the following headline: “Joshua Harris Kisses Christianity Goodbye.” And according to CBN News, “After Kissing Christianity Goodbye, Joshua Harris Joins Vancouver’s LGBTQ Pride Parade.”

Then, at the beginning of August, a famous Australian songwriter, Marty Sampson, announced: “I’m genuinely losing my faith, and it doesn’t bother me.” According to a deleted post published in the Christian Post, Sampson said that the church had failed him.

It is difficult to understand how people can make a decision to leave the Christian faith and depart from their fellowship with Christ. On one occasion when many of Jesus’ disciples quit following him and left, “Jesus said to the twelve, ‘Do you also wish to go away?’ Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life’” (John 6:67-68).

Find the rest at: https://claudemariottini.com/2019/08/29/why-people-leave-the-christian-faith/

The Resurrection of Christ – podcast

http://mkto-sj190104.com/ilpJ0dLcWtS00N000Hc0A0w

God Uses Christian Song to Lead Man to Confess Murder

https://churchleaders.com/news/357979-god-uses-christian-song-redeemed-lead-man-confess-murder.html

‘Build My Life’ Tops List of Most-Used Worship Songs by Churches

Check these songs out at:

https://churchleaders.com/news/358031-build-my-life-tops-list-of-most-used-worship-songs-by-churches.html

Which Revelation is True?:Is Religious Experience a Test For Truth?

chab123

For the follower of Jesus, there is the call to “make disciples of the nations” (Matt.28:19). Any attempt to reach out to a lost and needy world will result in several encounters with people from a variety of spiritual backgrounds. Many Christians can be surprised to find out that many people from non-Christian backgrounds are incredibly sincere about their faith. Unfortunately, sincerity is not a test for truth. Many people have been sincerely wrong about many things. What about the question, “How do you know your faith is true?” In other words, if a Mormon and a Christian ask each other this question, they both may assert that the test for the truthfulness of their faith is a religious experience. In this case, the confirmation of the Mormon faith happens through the heart confirming through what is already true in the mind. In other words, the Mormon appeal to a religious experience sounds a bit like the Christian appeal to the internal witness of the Holy Spirit. Religious experience should not be taken lightly. After all, biblical faith is not simply about adhering to a set of objective, historical, propositions. Biblical faith involves a commitment of the whole person.

However, the issue of religious experience brings up an interesting point in apologetic dialogue. Which revelation is true? What god is the individual encountering? Mormonism claims to be founded on divine revelation. Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon Church, claimed to have received personal revelation from God on the basis of two visions, (the first allegedly given to him in 1820, the second one in 1823). The Bible asserts that Jesus is that He is uncreated (John 1:1-3; Col. 1:16-17) while the Mormon claim is that Jesus is a created being. The apostle Paul uses the Greek word “plerophoria” which means “complete confidence, full assurance,” to indicate that the believer has obtained the knowledge of the truth as a result of the Holy Spirit’s work (2 Cor. 2:2; 1Thess. 1; Rom. 4:21; 14;5, Col. 4:12). (1) But what epistemological rights does the Christian have in saying their faith is true? While we do not want to discount the internal witness of the Holy Spirit, critics object that several other religions that are not compatible with Christianity lay claim to a self-authenticating witness of God’s Spirit. Do not all existential experiences need an external test for truth? In appealing to the Book of Mormon the Mormon says:

” And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost. And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.” (2)

And so we see with the Mormon, all that is required for truth is the subjective testimony of the Holy Spirit. How does the Christian explain the Mormon’s confidence that the burning in their bosom is really not an authentic experience with the Holy Spirit? Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon Church, claimed an angel appeared to him and directed him to what are called the golden plates. Smith then showed them to eleven others. Smith is supposed to be responsible for translating these plates into The Book of Mormon. Like the apostles of Jesus, Smith suffered and died for his beliefs. However, there is a major difference between the eleven witnesses to the gold plates and the apostles of Jesus. (3) While six of the eleven witnesses left the Mormon Church, we have no record of the apostles of Jesus (Paul, James and John, others) even leaving the early Christian movement. (4)

Continue reading: https://chab123.wordpress.com/2019/08/19/which-revelation-is-trueis-religious-experience-a-test-for-truth/

We meet with God when we meet with one another

https://www.kevinhalloran.net/we-meet-with-god-when-we-meet-with-one-another/

12 things Atheists should thank Christians for

https://fullyaliveblog.net/2019/08/06/j-john-12-things-atheists-should-thank-christians-for/

Old Testament Stories Are NOT Morality Stories

https://churchleaders.com/pastors/videos-for-pastors/250346-old-testament-stories-not-morality-stories.html