Advocate for Christ

The best life is a God First life

Tag: Salvation (Page 1 of 3)

Rather than whine PRAY

Pray and do – Draw closer to God

April 25, 2026 / / 0 Comments

  • Rather than worry, draw closer to God (Philippians 4:6-7)
  • Rather than whine, pray (James 4:8)
  • Rather than following your desires, follow God’s for you (Titus 2:11-14)
  • God is waiting for you to follow His Word as He intended. (John 6:40)

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

“ Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. Mark 16:16

“Then Jesus told His disciples, ‘If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.” Matthew 16:24 ESV

  • Romans 10:17 – The Word of Christ
  • John 8:32 – know the Truth
  • Hebrews 11:6– He rewards those who seek Him
  • John 20:30-31 – Written that we may believe
  • Luke 13:3 – we must repent
  • Acts 17:30 – Ignorance is no excuse
  • Romans 10:10 – believe in the heart and confess
  • Matthew 10:32 – Tit for tat
  • Galatians 3:27 – Baptism is to put on Christ
  • Mark 16:16 – Believe and be baptized equals being saved.
  • Acts 2:38 – For the forgiveness of your sins
  • Revelation 2:10 – The Crown of Life
  • 2 Timothy 3:16-17 – All Scripture is God’s word, Not Some of it!

God First!

How often must God say something in Scripture for it to be true?

How often must God say something for it to be True?

April 24, 2026 / / 0 Comments

From the beginning of creation, God’s Word has been Truth and nothing but Truth, and it will continue to be so to the end of time as we know it. God is Unchanging, God is Love, God is Good, God does not Lie! When someone discounts the importance of Scripture or flat-out dismisses it, they dismiss God, effectively deciding they know better than God. According to God’s Word, all of scripture is God-breathed. In other words, all of Scripture is inspired by God, giving us what God wants us to know and follow (see 2 Timothy 3:16-17)

If someone says they don’t believe “ALL” scripture is from God, or that it really means something other than what is stated, are they not calling God a liar or implying God goofed? If scripture tells you something is wrong one time, yet society, someone, or a culture tells you it’s ok or meant differently than what you can read, who’s right? — My answer is God!

When Scripture is pointed out, many respond: “Well, that’s your interpretation.” However, scripture tells us: “knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation.” (2 Peter 1:20) In other words, Scripture is from God.

In 1 Corinthians 14:33, scripture states: “For God is not a God of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.”

God did not provide us with a book of confusion.

Some try to reinterpret the Greek to force an interpretation that yields their desired result; however, in this effort, the problem is not with God’s Word.  No, the problem is with the individual seeking an answer different from what’s in God’s Word. God’s Word is true, as written for our understanding, not our confusion.

We don’t need to be Greek scholars to understand God’s face value meaning. So, if one believes in God and that the Bible is God’s Word, they should also understand that Scripture has only one correct answer, the one that God intended, and that answer will not contradict any other scriptures.

“The unfolding of the words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple” Psalms 119:30

Scripture also gives us a STARK WARNING:

“I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, 19 and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.” Revelation 22:18-19

  • Hebrews 6:17-18
  • Titus 1:1-2
  • 1st John 4:16
  • Psalm 136:1

God First!

Real love is not void of consequences; Real love includes rebuke and discipline. Revelation 3:19-20

As Christ Loves Us

April 21, 2026 / / 0 Comments

Real love is not void of consequences; Real love includes rebuke and discipline.

From the revelation of Jesus…

“Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.” Revelation 3:19-20

God First!

What can we give God?

What can we give to God?

April 10, 2026 / / 0 Comments

During the days of creation, we find the phrase, “And God saw that it was good,” repeated several times. However, it was not until God created man in His image that scripture tells us, “God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was VERY GOOD. (Genesis 1:31)

We are God’s creation!

“For God so loved the world, that He gave his only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16 )

God is the creator of everything we see and comprehend; everything our minds think we know and understand; it’s all from God. So, what can we offer to God that He wants?

God wants us to recognize that He is the only God and that Jesus is His Son, who was with God at Creation. (John 1:1-5) He wants us to know that salvation comes only through the innocence of Jesus, who was sacrificed for our sins and then raised by God to sit at his right hand in heaven; King of Kings, Lord of Lords, only through Christ do we have hope of eternal life with God. He wants us to know that Jesus has prepared a heavenly home for us beyond this world if we choose to accept His grace and keep His commandments. God wants us to know that on the day of judgment, our souls will be given new heavenly bodies for our never-ending life, and He tells us so in His Word. ( See 2 Corinthians 5:1-10, Philippians 3:20-21, John 14:3-10)

So again, what can we offer God that God really wants?

God has given us every reason to love Him; He has given us the freedom to choose good over evil, and He wants us to love Him.

LOVE, love is the only thing we can give that God seeks from us, not by force but by choice.

May we all seek God first in our lives, love each other as Christ has loved us, and show Jesus that we love Him by keeping His commandments. This is what God seeks, it’s what God wants, and what God wants to reward us for.

The Greatest Command:  ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:28-34

  • Genesis 1:1-31
  • John 3:16
  • John 14:15
  • John 13:34

God First!

Wow, if only the Apostle Peter Knew

Wow, if only the Apostle Peter knew

April 3, 2026 / / 0 Comments

On the day of Pentecost, when Peter preached the first gospel sermon, do you wonder why? Why is it that when Peter and the other Apostles (in Acts 2) were asked by the crowd whose hearts had just been pierced by the message of Christ,” Brothers, what do we do?”

Why did Peter NOT answer the crowd’s question with: “Accept Jesus into your heart and recite with me these words in a prayer, and you will be forgiven, you will be saved.”

WOW, if only the Apostle Peter, who was filled with the Holy Spirit, had known what many people claim today. That they could “just” accept Jesus into their hearts and recite a prayer to be saved; however, that’s “NOT” how Peter answered.

Peter never said, “baptism is an outward sign of an inward decision.” In fact, no such prayer is found in God’s Word. INSTEAD, Peter (filled with the Holy Spirit) tells them exactly what God wanted them to do… “And Peter said to them, ‘Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:38 ESV)

None of Peter’s responses indicates that any of God’s instructions were mutually exclusive.

In verse 41, God’s Holy Word says: “So those who received His word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.” (Acts 2:41 ESV)

So, right after they received the message of Christ, they immediately followed the Apostle’s instructions and were immersed in the waters of baptism. They could have set appointments; they could have done so in small groups over weeks, but instead, we find urgency is implied: “So those who received His word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.” (Acts 2:41)

That day, about 3000 souls were added to the Church! (Don’t you know that took a while?)

These scriptures show us that hearing, believing, repenting, and being baptized in the name of Jesus Christ is how we obtain the Holy Spirit.

Who did the adding? Who was being saved? Verse 47 “praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:47 ESV)

Please, don’t take my word for it. Take God’s word for it. “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15)

“Knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation.” (2 Peter 1:20)

Below are several passages on Grace, belief, repentance, confessing Jesus’ name, and baptism for study.

• Grace: – Ephesians 2:8, Romans 3:24, Titus 2:11, Acts 15:11

• Belief/Faith: – Hebrews 11:1, John 8:24, Romans 10:17, Acts 3:19

• Repentance: – 2 Cor. 7:9-10, Luke 13:3-5, Acts 17:30

• Confess: – Romans 10:9-10, Matthew 10:32-33, Luke 12:8-9

• Baptism by immersion: – Matthew 16:15-16 1 Peter 3:21, Acts 2:38, Mark 16:16, John 3:5, Matt 28:18-20, Ephesians 4:5, Romans 6:3-4, Colossians 2:12, Acts 8:36-39, Mark 1:9-10, John 3:23

God First!

SATAN IS THE EVIL ONE

SATAN IS THE EVIL ONE

March 28, 2026 / / 0 Comments

 – If you feel farther away from God today than you have in the past, the question becomes, WHO MOVED? HINT: it was NOT God.

“Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” James 4:8 ESV

It stands to reason that the opposite is also true if we move away from God.

“And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper,” Romans 1:28 NASB

– If there is any evil in it, it is not from God

  • “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.” James 1:13 NASB
  • “This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him, there is no darkness at all.” (1 JOHN 1:5 NASB)

– God is Love

  • “The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” (1 JOHN 4:8 NASB)

– God is Good

  • “For the Lord is good; His steadfast love endures forever, and His faithfulness to all generations.” PSALMS 100:5 ESV

– All the Time

“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” ISAIAH 5:20

Sometimes, we are tempted to blame God when our hearts are torn in anguish and pain. We struggle to reason why tragic things happen to good people, innocent children, loved ones, or maybe to ourselves. We might ask, why me? Why us? Why them? We may experience a tragic loss or have other life-altering events we don’t understand. Crime, Cancer, Alzheimer’s, Dementia, Covid, Heart issues, Blood or Breathing issues, accidents, Lyme disease, to name only a few.

We want an explanation, we want to assign blame, but blaming God is misplaced.

As we see from the scriptures above, there is NO evil in God. There is, however, refuge, hope, and prayers answered. There is the possibility of eternal life in heaven for those who choose to become “In Christ” and keep His commandments according to God’s will, NOT our own.

“For He makes the sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.” (Matthew 5:45)

Satan is the evil one; take refuge in Jesus. When we move away from Jesus, we are moving closer to Satan; closer to forever tears.

Jesus is our only hope for eternal life, where there are no illnesses, pain, or tears. Where our souls will live with new bodies, and our hopes become reality forever in heaven with pure love.

Acts 2:38-41, 1 Peter 3:20-21, Colossians 2:11-13, Romans 6:4-5, John 3:5, Mark 16:16, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Titus 3:5, Matthew 28:19–20, Acts 10:48

God First!

If the Words from the pulpit step on your toes, Be Grateful

Ouch! If it Strikes-our-core, be grateful!

March 23, 2026 / / 0 Comments

If the words from the pulpit step on our toes, be grateful. If the words from the pulpit never step on our toes, be concerned.

God’s word can ’take us by the ear’ and guide us to better ourselves, or it can be used to” tickle our ears”.

None of us is perfect, so rather than taking offense when lessons strike at our core, why not embrace their intent to encourage us to be better? Why not open our guarded hearts and embrace self-examination, comparing our decisions to God’s expectations in Scripture?

God’s way is the healthy way, it’s the perfect way!

Putting on Christ, Love of Christ, and Trust in Christ are where we find salvation, mental calm, and God’s comfort. It’s how we can have peace in the midst of chaos and Joy in the midst of pain.

With God, we can be certain every word is true and rely on every promise. God offers peace that surpasses all understanding.

All things are possible with God, and every person has the opportunity to be forgiven. Our souls will live somewhere for eternity, and our choices today decide where.

“Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul.”

3 John‬ ‭1:2‬‬‬

God First!

God’s Accomplishments – should be praised

March 20, 2026 / / 2 Comments

Have you ever had someone take credit for your accomplishments? If so, how did you feel about it?

God is treated this way repeatedly as “Scientists” seek, and people believe everything was created by accident rather than by God.

God’s proof is all around us, in Science, Math, and History, which support what we find in Scripture, and that God is the most logical explanation as the Creator of everything we know.

Many actively work to give credit elsewhere. Sadly, the gullible then fall prey to praising the “creations of God” rather than God Himself.

History shows that people inherently desire to worship something; they want to put faith in something they deem greater than themselves. Worship and praise have been given to such things as the moon, the sun, stars, mountains, water, fire, and animals. Innumerable statues have been made, erected, and worshiped, and theories invented, taught, and believed.

Today, many give the credit that belongs to God to those touting disbelief under the disguise of science. Technical-sounding words are coined and used to construct hypothetical theories, then presented as sound science and taught to our children.

Think about it: Theories are being taught to the most gullible, our children, and told it is science.

Our children are taught to believe our creation was a fluke accident where nothing exploded into something, rather than God created everything, that a spec of absolutely nothing, too small for our eyes to see, exploded into something that created planets in a perfect universal placement to provide life on Earth. Then, over billions of years, this accidental mass developed into the perfectly designed world of nature and life we live in today, where animal and human life are natural phenomena, and our human ancestry is monkeys.

– Were you taught this?

– Do you currently lend credence to any of these theories?

– If not from God, where did our intelligence come from?

God gave us free will and said, “Look at the evidence around you.” God would not have given us so much proof if He expected blind faith; nope, God gave us brains, the ability to question, weigh, comprehend, and conclude that the only logical answer is that Design Requires a Designer.

Every woven and intricate detail of this world requires design; thus, the most logical conclusion, supported by science and math, is not an accident but rather that Everything created is God’s accomplishment, and the proof is all around us; any other explanation is fabrication.

TO GOD BE THE GLORY!

  • Genesis 1:1
  • Romans 1:20-25
  • Revelation 4:11
  • John 1:3
  • Colossians 1:16
  • 1 Corinthians 8:6
  • Nehemiah 9:6
  • Psalm 33:6
  • Genesis 1:1-37
  • Genesis 1:27
  • Psalm 19:1
  • Hebrews 11:1-3
  • John 1:1-3
  • Exodus 34:14
  • Deuteronomy 5:9
  • Exodus 20:1-26
  • Jeremiah 10:12
  • Isaiah 45:18
  • Romans 10:17
  • Proverbs 3:13
  • James 1:5
  • 1 Peter 3:15-16
  • Isaiah 1:18
  • John 20:31
  • 2 Timothy 2:15

God First!

Satan loves lies and liars, distorting and twisting is lying

March 18, 2026 / / 0 Comments

If I wrote a book full of incoherent words, phrases, sentences, and paragraphs and threw in a few random pictures, I could have a best-selling book, a book of incoherency.

A book that simulates watching the news today, where the goal seems to be to purposely complicate the uncomplicated by twisting every word and distorting every sentence to completely destroy its original intent, where the simplest truth cannot be heard and understood because of the useless but loud chatter of deceptive talking heads.

Simply put, purposely twisting words to apply narratives other than their original intent is lying, and only Satan loves lies.

God tells us:

• “Lying lips are an abomination to the LORD, but those who act faithfully are his delight.” (Proverbs 12:22)

• “Jesus said to them, ‘If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of My own accord, but He sent me. Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear My word. You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me. Which one of you convicts Me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me? Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.’” (John‬ ‭8‬:‭42‬-‭47‬ ‭ESV‬‬)‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

• “But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.” Revelation 21:8

• Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil. (Matt 5:37)

God First!

Unlimited Time Awaits us in heaven if we choose to follow Christ

Spiritual Edification

March 8, 2026 / / 0 Comments

Before my wife’s illness interfered, the following was my typical schedule for planned edification each month in Bible classes and worship with the Church.

  • 1 hour – Sunday bible class
  • 1 hour – Sunday Worship
  • 1 hour – Sunday eve worship
  • 1 hour – Wednesday bible study
  • 1 hour – 1st and 3rd Thursday for a men’s bible study.

The time adds up to around 22 hrs. per month, yet this is only about 6% of my awake hours in a year.  Does this number surprise you? It surprised me. I thought it would be much more than 6%.

Is God getting our best effort or a minimum effort? In the story of the rich young ruler, the ruler asked Jesus, “What must I do to receive eternal life?”

When Jesus heard this, He said to him, “One thing you still lack; sell all that you possess and distribute it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”  But when he had heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich.” Luke 18:22-23 Apparently, he was unwilling to give up all he had to follow Jesus.

Jesus doesn’t ask us to give our life savings, but; Would we be willing to if He did?

(Especially if we think giving Him a few hours each week is inconvenient.)

It’s a matter of our hearts!

You and I, every person on earth, are so important to God that He gave us His only son as our pathway to eternal life. “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

Jesus, “who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,” Galatians 1:4

How much are we willing to give to Him?

Rhetorically:

  • What example are you giving to those you love by your effort?
  • Is God getting your best or your minimum?

God First!

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