The apostle John declares that “Jesus is the Son of God” (1 John 5:5). How do we know for sure? Describing Jesus as a deceiver (“that deceiver”) or as deluded (“out of his mind”) are not new (Matthew 27:63; Mark 3:21). John wants us to know that three infallible witnesses prove that Jesus is God. “This is the one…

“For everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God” (1 John 5:4-5). The pressures of this world overwhelm us – an unrelenting pandemic, racial injustice, power outages, employment issues, family concerns,…

We cannot be right with God and not be right with others. “Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone…

“And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world” (1 John 4:14). When I think of Jesus as my Savior, my thoughts often travel in three directions – from, to, and by. I am saved FROM: •    The guilt and shame of my sin.•    God’s coming judgment.•  …

“Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us” (1 John 4:11-12). How can we show God’s kind of love to our children? I’m not sure where I…

I’ve always had a fascination for prepositional theology, that is, theology that is oriented around prepositions. At one point, I even suggested a series of six prepositional statements that could be a contemporary expression of what we in The Christian and Missionary Alliance call the Fourfold Gospel – Jesus our Savior, Sanctifier, Healer, and Coming…

I’ve always loved the story of Elisha the prophet and his assistant in 2 Kings 6:8-17. The king of Aram was waging war against Israel. But every time the king of Aram would plan his attacks, the Lord would reveal the location to Elisha beforehand. Elisha would then warn the king of Israel, enabling the…

“This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10). Let’s say an employee was seriously injured on the job. The doctors did all they could do, but the employee was still left partially paralyzed. An investigation was done and…

I watched a movie episode recently that was entitled “Sacrifice”. Between warring clans, inequities had been meted out and people had been unjustly killed. In order for the inequities to be righted and justice to be done, a sacrifice had to be made by the Queen. She had to surrender herself and her powerful sword….