by Gayle Jackson | May 8, 2017 | Articles, Mentors Corner
A problem most all of us will face is our aging Parents. When this occurred to me that my parents were older and the roles were reversing, I asked, what does it mean to honor my parents? The era of aging parent disrupted my family life and created a major struggle in my life. Mat 15:4a For God commanded, saying, “Honor your father and mother”; To totally explore this topic is an extensive, long study. There is a book “Honoring Your Parents” at Amazon or Pikes Peak, CBMC for further study. To get started on this topic, first let me note the word honor here means to “ascribe value to”. Irrespective of your childhood or the misbehavior of your parents, you are to ascribe value to them. In some cases, I have seen from some dysfunctional families that about all that is left for them to “ascribe value to” is that the parents were chosen by God. We are called and commanded to respond in accordance to our observation of them. The accuracy to the application performed in trying to honor the parent is secondary to the attitude that “they are of value”. No matter what your plan is you will probably meet resistance in your siblings, society, your church and your parents. Remember you will answer to God on your thinking and plan. Questions on your study and thinking on Honoring Your Parents are: 1. Do I have any area where I need to forgive or be forgiven by my parents? 2. Do I have any area where I need to forgive and be forgiven by...
by Gayle Jackson | Apr 24, 2017 | Articles, Mentors Corner
The Bible, the Word of God is the key to all we believe. To waffle in your thinking on the accuracy and authority of the Word, is to disrupt your relationship and walk with God. Your commitment to the Word is a key to your walk with Christ. Jos 1:8 “This book of the Law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it by day and by night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall act wisely”. 1Pe 1:23 having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the living Word of God, and abiding forever. Instead of a treatise on The Word, let me ask these questions: 1. Have you ever read/studied the history of the bible and how it came about? If not, when are you going to? 2. Do you know the history of the canonization? 3. Do you believe in a closed or open cannon? 4. Do you believe the bible is inerrant? 5. If you don’t a. What parts are errant to you? b. Can you trust Jesus history and teachings, i.e. His use of Jonah as a historical character? c. If you don’t embrace inerrancy are you declaring your opinion as more accurate than God’s? d. Since Jesus quoted the bible often, what are we to conclude? 6. Do you have problems of squaring the bible with the archeologist? 7. Can you accept creation account? 8. Are scripture teachings, like the following, cultural or...
by Walt Henrichsen | Apr 10, 2017 | Articles, Mentors Corner
“Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men in whom he is well pleased.” Luke 2:14 You recall that these are the words the angels announced to the shepherds the night Jesus was born. When God sent His Son into the world, for the first time since the fall of Adam in the Garden of Eden, people had reason to be at peace. As the Apostle Paul taught, “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.”Romans 5:6 Now God could take sinners to heaven without violating His justice and making heaven dirty. All people acknowledge that the presence of peace is an important component in having a sense of wellbeing. The absence of peace results in anxiety, uncertainty, and insecurity, which in turn produces stress and ill health. Your peace is threatened by such things as fear of the unknown, unjust acts, pain, and broken relationships. The world offers a variety of solutions that will ostensibly bring you peace, but ultimately you will only find it in God. Three times in the opening of Paul’s pastoral epistles he says, “Grace, mercy, peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.” Peace is the product of God’s grace and mercy; you can find it nowhere else. You are wise if you seek it only in your relationship with Christ. For more articles by Walt...
by Walt Henrichsen | Mar 13, 2017 | Articles, Mentors Corner
“He said to them, ‘Where is your faith?’” Luke 8:25 “And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them. And he marveled because of their unbelief. And he went round about the villages, teaching.” Mark 6:5-6 Jesus did not lack ability to heal. Rather, the whole of the New Testament teaches that in order for a person to receive what God offers, he must have faith. Jesus offered to His generation physical healing, evidenced by the whole of the narrative of His life. The lack was on the part of the people who demonstrated an absence of faith. To our generation He offers eternal life, but in order for us to receive it, we must believe. “Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?” John 11:26 Of those Jesus healed in His public ministry, Scripture records only a few (like the demon possessed man in Mark 5) who wanted more of Jesus than just temporal healing. When you seek from the Savior eternal life, are you in reality seeking it in hopes of obtaining temporal gain? God, who knows your motives, will not grant eternal life as a means of acquiring temporal benefit. Faith is critically important, but it must be faith properly directed. For more articles by...
by Walt Henrichsen | Feb 20, 2017 | Articles, Mentors Corner
“And now do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life.” Genesis 45:5 God providentially first had Joseph sold as a slave to Egypt and then placed Joseph as leader of Egypt “next to Pharaoh.” When Joseph’s extended family moved to Egypt and his brothers realized that he now had the power to execute vengeance, Joseph quieted their hearts, reminding them that God had orchestrated the whole saga. God revealed to Joseph’s great grandfather Abraham: “And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years.” Genesis 15:13 We have no reason to believe that Joseph was aware of this prophecy given to Abraham. God effected Israel’s deliverance through the last plague in which He passed over God’s people as he killed the first-born in Egypt. Israel celebrates the Feast of the Passover as the time when God’s wrath passed over them and delivered them from their oppressors. In other words, God orchestrated events, beginning with the selling of Joseph, to communicate to His people that they were to look to Him for deliverance. Salvation is another word for deliverance, and God says that only He can save. He made Israel slaves so that they would understand this. If you don’t see yourself as a slave in need of deliverance, you may not sense your need for God. For more articles by...
by Gayle Jackson | Feb 6, 2017 | Articles, Mentors Corner
Why does one keep on with trying to walk with Jesus and His commands and Jesus thinking and not just return to the world and its thinking (I.e. homosexuality issue, integrity, fornication, etc.)? The thinking is, I am going to Heaven and it looks like there is no downside to indulgences on my part, Christ work has saved me and He isn’t going to take it back. Christ loves me no matter what. Why not just live my life in harmony with the people around me? Why be an odd ball and think like those bunch of hypocrites of believers. There is an argument that goes, abortion sometime is required, and fornication is fun, why not eat drink and be merry for tomorrow I die…As an old saying goes, “get all you can, can all you get and poison all the rest” Verses for thoughts: Luk 9:23 And he said unto all, If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. 9:24 whosoever would save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. Luk 9:25 For what is a man profited, if he gain the whole world, and lose or forfeit his own self? Luk 9:26 For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in his own glory, and the glory of the Father, and of the holy angels. Notice the “Action” phrases Take up Follow me Save his...
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