Month: June 2023

Is Love The Only Doctrine?

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Is Love The Only Doctrine?

I saw a church sign the other day that read, “Love is the only doctrine of this church.” That sounds lovely, doesn’t it? What’s wrong with love? In fact, the Bible says God is love. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love (1 John 4:8). And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him (1 John 4:16). God is love. So is love the only doctrine? Is this what the Bible says?

Is love the only doctrine? No it is not. God is love. Love is one of God’s many, many, countless attributes. But it is only one of many. Yes, again, God is love. But God is also righteous, Holy and just. He is even wrathful. You can’t just tout one attribute of God. In doing so, you miss God! You miss the God of the Bible. We can never fully understand God with our finite minds. But God graciously gave us His word so we can know Him.

Love Is Not The Only Doctrine

God’s word points us to Jesus Christ the Lord and love is NOT the only doctrine of Jesus. The Lord Jesus was tough on self-righteous, religious leaders. But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in (Matthew 23:13). Jesus was also tough on His own disciples. Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken (Luke 24:25).

The woke crowd in America would most definitely call Jesus unloving because of the words He spoke to the religious leaders and to His own disciples. Worse yet, Jesus was intolerant. Very intolerant. Jesus said unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me (John 14:6). Yes, woke Americans will not tolerate the intolerance of Jesus. Even though He is he Sons of God and He is the only Savior. [Read more…]

Are You Wicked?

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Photo by Nik on Unsplash

Are You Wicked?

This is a serious question: Are you wicked? Absolutely not you might say. So why am I even asking this question? Because God has some harsh things to say about the wicked. God hates all workers of iniquity (Psalm 5:5). God is angry with the wicked every day (Psalm 7:11). But here’s the really scary one: The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God (Psalm 9:17).

The wicked shall be turned into Hell. This should frighten every single person that is not a follower of Jesus. If Jesus is not your Lord and Savior, you should have sleepless nights. The terrors of Hell should frighten you nearly to death. You should tremble and fear. Yes, you should shake in your shoes. The demons believe and tremble (James 2:19). Why do they tremble? Because even though they know God is real, they know they follow Satan and they are on the losing side. They know that they have Hell to pay!

So why are you listening to this with no fear and trembling? Because you don’t believe that you are one of the wicked ones. When I say this, I’m talking specifically to unbelievers. Those of us who are truly saved, know that God has saved us out of our wretchedness and we have surrendered our lives to Jesus. But for those of you who are hearing this and are not saved, you most likely have no fear because you don’t see yourself as wicked. You ignore the warnings and hearing about God being angry with the wicked didn’t faze you at all because you think that you are not wicked. [Read more…]

Absolutely Not!

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Absolutely Not!

Ministry Update June 4, 2023

A couple of short (sad) encounters stood out Friday night while we were witnessing downtown. A group of people refused tracts so Joshua asked them if they know where they are going? One young man said that he knew and implied that it was wonderful (sounding like he’s going to Heaven). Joshua then asked him how he’s going to get there and the young man replied that he didn’t have to share that information. I reminded him that Jesus told us to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature (Mark 16:15). If you aren’t willing to share the Good News, you probably aren’t really saved. I couldn’t hear what the young man mumbled after that.

Then I tried to hand a tract to a couple of young women and they both refused. So I asked them if they know Jesus and the one said, “Absolutely not!” I told her to have a nice life because she’s going to have a horrible afterlife. Hell is real and repentance and faith in Jesus is the only way to avoid it. Most people didn’t react that way Friday night. Most of the people who refused tracts just said no thank you and we told them to have a good night. But when we encounter a really hard-hearted person, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with warning them of the reality of Hell and that they are headed for that awful place.

Group Friday night – Anand and his family, Michael and Joshua.

Evangelist Family

Anand, his wife and five children joined Joshua, Michael and I witnessing Friday night. I always love to see families come out. Anand’s daughters were fun to watch handing out tracts and his wife mainly watched the girls and made sure they had tracts, but when they missed a person, Anand’s wife was quick to offer a tract. Again, it was a real blessing to have his whole family come out. Since there were so many of them in one family, Joshua and I went across the street to a different corner to witness. Michael joined us later on. I brought a short message and didn’t have any mockers or encouragers.

Earlier in the night, I handed a tract to a guy named Antoine. I told him that it was a Gospel tract that tells you about Jesus. He made a positive comment so I asked him if he’s a Christian and he said that is. When I asked him how he came to faith in Jesus, he said it was when he hit rock bottom. He cried out for God to save him. Antoine didn’t have a Bible, so I gave him a New Testament. But he knew Bible verses as we talked with him. Joshua quoted him many Scriptures and Antoine kept saying Amen and quoted Bible verses too. He doesn’t currently have a church home, so Joshua gave him an invite card to South Creek Baptist Church. Talking to Antoine was the best conversation of the night that I was involved with. My friends and I also had a great time of fellowship and we pray that God will bless the tracts that were handed out.

(These updates are given to encourage Christians to share the Good News with others)