The Faithful Christian a blog of The Lighthouse Ministries

  Every January, millions of people begin their year with New Year’s resolutions. Losing weight, getting organized, exercising more, eating healthier, and managing finances better are some of the most common resolutions. But what about making spiritual New Year’s resolutions? We make commitments and tell our friends and family on January 1st, only to give it all up by January 3rd. But as humans, our struggle for consistency goes way beyond resolutions. Making commitments we can’t keep runs all through society, back to Biblical times. In the Bible, James spoke of some people who can teach us a valuable lesson about great intentions that aren’t aligned with God’s will:   Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”;  whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.  Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord w

      Prayer is an essential part of a Christian’s walk with God. This is how we communicate with him, and one way he communicates with us. When the veil was torn, we were given intimate and immediate access to God, but he also assigns us the responsibility of praying for other people. The Hebrew “ paga ” means “to fell,” or “attack,” but also “meet” or “make supplication.” The Greek was translated as “petition” and “intercession.” Our English word “ intercession ” is derived from the Latin for “to come between,” which means both “obstruct” and “to interpose on behalf of” someone. Christ stands between us and the Father. That’s why we pray “in Jesus’ name” because it’s by His sacrifice that we are made righteous and can approach the throne of God. A modern understanding of “intercession” can include “mediation” or “standing up to” someone. This understanding makes God sound like the playground bully. Christ would be the hero, defiant towards an unloving Father, not part of

  This article was written by A.W. Tozer in the 1950’s.  It shows the state of the church during his lifetime and friend, it’s much worse today.  Imagine what this old saint of God would think today. ALL UNANNOUNCED AND MOSTLY UNDETECTED there has come in modern times a new cross into popular evangelical circles. It is like the old cross, but different: the likenesses are superficial; the differences, fundamental. From this new cross has sprung a new philosophy of the Christian life, and from that new philosophy has come a new evangelical technique, a new type of meeting and a new kind of preaching. This new evangelism employs the same language as the old, but its content is not the same and its emphasis not as before. The old cross would have no truck with the world. For Adam's proud flesh it meant the end of the journey. It carried into effect the sentence imposed by the law of Sinai. The new cross is not opposed to the human race; rather, it is a friendly pal and, if understood

  In exactly one week we will celebrate Reformation Day.  I preach this every year, Christians should have nothing whatsoever to do with Halloween. So, here we are again.  If Christians want to celebrate a holiday on Oct. 31, then celebrate Reformation Day, it’s much more fitting for people who claim to follow Jesus, What is Reformation Day?  I’m glad you asked. A single event on a single day changed the world. It was October 31, 1517. Martin Luther, a monk and a scholar, had struggled for years with his church, the Roman Catholic Church. He had been greatly disturbed by the churches sale of indulgences and felt the church needed rehabilitation and he was just the monk to stage an intervention, so to speak. A young bishop, Albert of Mainz was bishop over two bishoprics, he desired an additional archbishopric over Mainz. This was against church laws because he was far too young for the office.  So Albert appealed to the Pope in Rome, Leo X.  Leo X greedily allowed his tastes to exceed h

  Why does Christ want some to not  believe? That’s a perplexing question for a lot of Bible readers who scratch their heads when they meet texts like  Matthew 13:13  and  Luke 8:10 .  There really are two questions here. They’re both good. One is, Does  1 Timothy 2:4  imply that God’s desire for all to be saved rules out his decisive sovereignty over who is in fact saved? So, if he  desires  all to be saved, are you going to draw the inference that he can’t be involved in choosing some to be saved and some to pass over and not be saved? That’s one question.   The other question is, what is God’s reasoning or purpose behind preventing some people from seeing the truth and being saved in Luke 8? Now, let’s take those one at a time and then relate them. Whose Will? First Timothy 2:1–4  goes like this:   I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet l

  Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the  faith , just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.    Colossians 2:6-7 If you grew up in America, you probably heard somewhere along the line that sentences should never end with prepositions, infinitives should never be split, passive voice is taboo, and metaphors should never be mixed. We have those rules, for the most part, to preserve clarity as writers learn the craft. But sometimes grammar rules need to be broken, just as Paul does here by cramming metaphors right up against each other, and for good reason. So walk in Him : It all begins with a walk. Jesus put splinters in His back to stumble up a hill, and He expects no less of us ( Matthew 16:24 ). We sometimes struggle over the rocky ground, and obstacles define the journey as much as the path itself ( Psalm 37:24 ). But God laid out the lines ( Psalm 16:11 ), emblazoned the roadway with clear markers

       Are we, the modern American Christian, that claim to be the light bearer of the truth of God's holy scriptures, actually at odds with the word that we proclaim?  Are we following the true Jesus, the biblical Jesus, or simply an imagined Jesus that we prefer to follow? The modern, American church in no way resembles the church that Christ founded in the First Century.  We have gone completely off the map.  We have essentially closed the Bible, the only real source of truth and we are off in another corner of the shelf scrounging around for for anything that is new and exciting and tickles our eyes and ears. We want to know how to "Live Our Best Life Now," how to be healthy, wealthy, and prosperous and still make it to Heaven.  I hate to burst your little bubble, but that is not biblical Christianity.  That is not the Christianity that the early believers gave their lives for, that the reformers died for. In fact, the word that is preached from many pulpits today is

  Everyone is pointing fingers of blame at everyone else for all of the violence going on around the nation today.  The Democrats blame the Republicans, the Republicans blame the Democrats, white people blame black people, black people blame white people, parents blame the schools and the government; it’s a never ending cycle.  The truth is, there is plenty of blame to go around.  No one is innocent in this.  We all have a part to play. But, the question is, who has the lions share of the blame?  Who is most at fault?  Well, consider this: It’s not entirely the fault of the Democrats or the Socialists or the Anarchists for the rioting and violence that is springing up in cities across America. Although much blame does lie with the godless heathens committing these criminal acts, and eventually they will stand before God and answer for their crimes.  But, the root of the problem runs much deeper than what we see on the surface.  All of the violence, rioting, looting, hatred, disrespect,

  This was a recent article by John MacArthur for DailyWire.  I wanted to share it because it accurately reflects the sad status of our culture today. Faith is on the decline nowadays, and it is no wonder. Most people in these postmodern times are convinced that it’s impossible to  know  anything with settled certainty,  so they can’t really  believe  anything, either. When you aren’t even sure whether objective truth exists, the suggestion that there is something to  believe in  simply doesn’t make any sense. Begin with the assumption that nothing can be known for sure, and religious convictions are automatically out of the question. In case you hadn’t realized it, that kind of thinking now dominates our society. The concept of settled, knowable truth is widely considered intellectually inept and politically incorrect. There’s “my truth” and “your truth,” meaning everything is ultimately just a matter of perspective. In other words, truth claims are really nothing more than just perso