I'll Be Honest

(Note: At 29:40 the cassette flipped and the audio quality decreased.)

When many stopped following Jesus, He looked at those left and said, "Do you want to go away as well?" We see here that Christ wants our reaffirmation to Him. To declare as Peter did in John 6:68-69, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God."

The life of Jim Elliot was remarkable. He was a godly young man who lived an extraordinary life, and he paid the ultimate price; his life, to bring the gospel to the unreached. His life is a powerful example for Christians, especially young ones, to learn from and imitate.

It doesn't matter what shade of skin we have, but by reconciliation through the Cross, the door has been opened so that we actually have real communion with God and we can enter before Him. We are talking about the greatest realities of our identity. Your greatest reality is not the color of your skin. Your greatest reality is that you are one whose sin has been paid for by the blood of Christ. By the blood of Christ all Christians are made one; that is a reality that we must not deny.

This is the high-handed rebellion of the sinner against the Lord; to not believe on Him. What a thing! We tend to think that unbelief is a neutral matter. It is not. And the Spirit of God comes and especially puts His finger on that one thing: you haven't believed on the Lord of glory who died for sinners. - Bob Jennings

Jesus calls us to do things that we are not able to do. When He calls us to do impossible things, like step out on to water and walk, are we going to trust and obey Him? Or are we going to sit safely in our boat under the pretense of not being presumptuous?

Christians in America are living in a day when major emphasis is placed on right doctrine and good theology. This is good and vital, but sadly, this can lead to having an unloving attitude towards other Christians who don't see everything in the Christian life the exact same way we do. We need to make sure that we don't compromise on love and cut off fellowship from other true Christians on secondary issues of the Christian life. A big test of our love is not how we treat other Christians who we agree with on everything, but rather on how we treat and view other Christians who disagree with us.

Jesse pastors in Dallas, Texas at http://gracelifedallas.org

Luke was lost with a false profession that lasted until God stripped everything away from him. Yet even after his traumatic accident, he continued on in his sin and refusal to trust Christ; until God opened his eyes to the finished work of Christ on the Cross.