Read Bible for Yourself

(Discipline in the Church) "Hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord." 1 Corinthians 5:5 NIV The principle of disciplining an erring member of the church is deeply rooted in the Scriptures. God eventually uprooted the Israelites from the Promised Land as part of His strategy of preserving a remnant of His elect (servants). Jesus rebuked Peter, and also allowed a rich seeker to walk right away for insincere repentance. Paul writes that the principle of getting rid of all leaven when the Passover lamb is sacrificed applies in disciplining, even expelling, people who claim to be Christians but retain immorality. Such discipline/expulsion is meant to let them realize they have gone too far and are in danger of perishing if they do not repent fully. Some would argue that sending immoral people out of the church or limiting their fellowship (suspension) amounts to handing them over to Satan. ...

  (A sample of how the New Testament rolls only in the context of the Old Testament) Don’t you yourselves know that you are God’s temple and that the Spirit of God lives in you?   If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is holy, and that is what you are. 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 CSB Flee sexual immorality! Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the person who is sexually immoral sins against his own body. Don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought at a price. So glorify God with your body. 1 Corinthians 6:18-20 CSB “‘This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says: Correct your ways and your actions, and I will allow you to live in this place. Do not trust deceitful words, chanting, “This is the temple of the Lord , the temple of the Lord , the temple of the Lord .” Instead, if you really correct your ways and y...

  It appears some people spend so many years studying how to study the Bible that they have no time to read it. Meanwhile the best or the only right approach to studying the Bible was factored into its writing and compilation (just like every writer or compiler does). Begin from Genesis and end at Revelation. It's only 66 books containing altogether not more that 800,000 words in even the most wordy translations. Successive books draw on preceding ones, and that is how the Bible makes sense. Therefore, persons, locations and events are not mentioned in later books that were not treated in earlier ones. The Bible is not an abstract revelation but narrates events that actually took place on Earth at verifiable dates. You may therefore find it interesting to consult dictionaries, maps and other faithful historical materials along the way. These however shouldn't take too much of your reading time, as you will soon learn that the authors were indeed faithful witnesses. Also, gu...

1. IS THERE A GOD? 2. IF THERE IS GOD, WHAT IS HE SAYING? 3. IF THERE IS GOD, HOW IS HE LIKE? 1. YES, there is God, the Maker of the heavens and the earth. All that is around us which we didn't make should leave us in no doubt about that (Romans 1:19-20, "because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse" NKJV). 2 HE SAYS all we humans have sinned against Him, and prove our guilt and sinfulness by our selfish anti-God tendencies and acts of wickedness against others. Because of this we are doomed to toil, die and face His judgement afterwards. However, He has promised to forgive everyone of us that admits his guilt and forsakes his sinfulness. He is so completely ready to wipe out our guilt and give us eternal life that He made Jesus Christ ...

  "The soul who sins shall die. The SON SHALL NOT BEAR THE GUILT OF THE FATHER, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself. “But IF A WICKED MAN TURNS FROM ALL HIS SINS which he has committed, keeps all My statutes, and does what is lawful and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die." Ezekiel 18:20-21 NKJV The point here is that the source of your sinfulness (by birth, training, curse, pain or whatever) WILL NOT MATTER. It is what you need to do that matters. Will you continue in it or you will repent? Repent. #WarnThem, #biblebrief, #Luke2447

  We were ready to serve if it would guarantee a comfortable life, but the Son of Man seeks followers who are not looking for even a place to lay their heads! We thought a good social status would make us more influential in service, but the Lord would not tolerate a follower who put even the most important funeral ahead of preaching the Gospel! We are used to counting on the approval of our kinsmen, but the Lord disapproves of us seeking their approval once we have His. So have the values changed for those of us who are in Christ Jesus. We can still function very well without those. Why? Our value has changed. The Lord Himself bought us (at the cost of His own suffering and death) and we must glorify God in our bodies. We are no longer slaves to sin nor do we own ourselves. We are therefore free of the fears of tomorrow and death. Moreover, He fills us with the Holy Spirit, so we can do all things through His strength. If Christ cannot rejoice in His works (us) neither...

  David stole the wife of Uriah, one of his soldiers, and caused him to be killed in battle. God confronted him on it through Nathan the Prophet. David repented immediately, and God stayed his well-deserved death, but pronounced the following judgment which came to pass: i. There would be rebellion in David's house ii. Another person would defile David's wives in the open (to show all Israel that God doesn't condone sin) iii. David would lose the son that resulted from the adultery (2 Samuel 12:9-14) Occasionally, we hear people charge God with injustice and therefore call the Scriptures into question. Usually they do so in order to set down their own alternatives. They also ignore the full context of the Scriptures and the truth that God sees more than what we see. However, concerning what see, God's justice runs without fail. The following are a more key instances of sinfulness and how God dealt with them. WHEN ADAM DISOBEYED GOD God banished Adam from h...

  “Go and sin no more”, is how the Lord Jesus resolved an apparent standoff between grace and the Law. The Jews arrested a woman they claim was caught in adultery and asked Jesus to sanction her stoning as is required under the Law of Moses. Jesus asked whoever was also without sin to commence the stoning, and none did. So, Jesus asked the woman to go and sin no more (John 8: 1-12). So, both grace and the Law of Moses do not excuse sin. The contrast is that the Law requires immediate human intervention in things specified to be sinful, while grace emphasized room for repentance and for direct Divine retribution. The Bible records direct Divine interventions before the Law and in situations where people entrusted with the Law failed to justly to apply it. The Law of Moses is actually God-given (Divine), meant to let people hold one another in check, and to elevate the morality (glory) of God’s people above that of their Godless neighbors. Surely, the people applying the Law also...

The earth was cursed and that which was from the earth was doomed to return to it (Genesis 3:17-19). Remember how carefully Genesis identifies man as formed from “dust of the ground” before [God] “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” (Genesis 2: 7), and Ecclesiastes’ assertion that “the dust returns to the earth as it was and the spirit returns to God who gave it.” (Ecclesiastes 12:7) Apostle Paul later observes that “sin came into the world through one man [Adam], and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, BECAUSE ALL SINNED.” (Romans 5:12) Is it the sin of Adam that causes all humans to sin? If we answer an unqualified “Yes” to this, we encounter two key challenges. Firstly, what then caused Adam to sin? Secondly, do people sin involuntarily? In what way therefore did sin and death spread to all humans? Apostle Paul explains this in terms the Lord Jesus Himself hints at as, “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41), when he sa...

No human being is happy doing what is wrong. We are not fashioned to live in sin. It is only the temporary passing pleasure called temptation that gets us. But immediately or soon after, the smile of satisfaction leaves our faces. "Would your countenance not be bright if you had done what is right?" (Gen. 4) We plunge into terrible feelings of worthlessness and contradiction whenever we lose control and do what we know to be wrong. "O wretched man that I am. Who will save me from this body of death?" (Rom. 7:24) In order for us to live free from the pain of repeating the agony-inflicting acts of sin, God gave us Christ, our Savior and Standard. "Thanks be to God, through Christ Jesus." (Rom. 7:25) Forget those assertions that pretend that our default setting is joyful sinfulness! We remain made in the image of God, and will NEVER BE PEACEFUL IN SIN. Turn to Jesus and live. #Luke2447