Blogs
Jesus said that many will seek to enter salvation and will not be able to. There are many reasons for this, but it is not because God refused salvation to anyone. "The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men . . ." (Ti. 2:11) and God "is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" (2 Pet. 3:9).
There is effort involved in obtaining salvation. The effort is not for the purpose of earning salvation. That is a free gift (Rom. 5:15); but we do have to fight the good fight of faith (1 Tim. 6:12). Faith in Jesus' goodness is what saves us - not our own goodness - and Satan is constantly trying to destroy our faith....
Some people have tried to interpret this scripture to say that Jesus was disclaiming deity by associating Himself with the gods spoken of in Psalm 82:6. However, Jesus is not saying that He is a god only in the sense that the scriptures, spoke of men with divine authority as gods (Ex. 4:16; 7:1; 22:28; Ps. 82:1). In the verses before this, Jesus proclaimed His oneness with the Father and in His statements after this, He says that the Father is in Him and He is in the Father, making clear His claim to deity. Also, the Jews were not pacified by His answer, but they tried again to stone Him. If they would have understood His statements to mean that He was not proclaiming His deity, they would have left Him alone.
The comparison that Jesus is making is between the scriptures clearly...
There were many ways in which Jesus already revealed who He was. His miraculous works certainly revealed who He was. Jesus had also clearly revealed that He was the Christ, both in the synagogue at His hometown of Nazareth, and when speaking to the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well.
Jesus, in His pre-existent state, was in the form of God. "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (Jn. 1:1).
Jesus was God, manifest in the flesh (1 Tim. 3:16). However, Jesus did not demand or cling to His rights as God, but laid aside His Divine rights and privileges in order to take the form of a servant and be made in the likeness of men. He further humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the Father, even to...
This sickness was the work of Satan - not the work of God. Jesus said it had bound her - not blessed her - for eighteen years. The teaching that says that sickness is actually a blessing in disguise, because the Lord is working His plan in one's life, is not found in scripture. As Acts 10:38 says, Jesus "went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil," not "oppressed of God."
There are 17 times in the Gospels when Jesus healed all of the sick that were present. There are 47 other times when He healed one or two people at a time.
Nowhere do we find Jesus refusing to heal anyone. Jesus said that He could do nothing of Himself, but only what He saw the Father do. His actions...
WHEN I SAY "I AM A CHRISTIAN", I DON'T SPEAK OF THIS WITH PRIDE BUT AM CONFESSING THAT I STUMBLED AND NEED JESUS TO BE MY GUIDE.
Jesus had just spoken about relationships before He gave this parable of delivering ourselves from the judge. The warning is clear that we should do everything within our power to avoid strife (Rom. 12:18). However, the consequences of failing to settle the differences are more than just physical prison or punishment.
Strife can produce spiritual and emotional prisons. James 3:16 says, "where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work." Depressions, fears, loneliness, bitterness, sicknesses, financial problems, and many other things can become prisons from which we will not be delivered...