The Faithful Christian a blog of The Lighthouse Ministries

And He said to them,  “Take heed and beware of   covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses. Luke 12:15 Heaven is not parceled off into lots and estates. The angels own nothing and yet they possess all things and are eternally rich. And so with the true saint that trusts God and loves and obeys and is thankful. The stars in their courses fight for him. He is now in harmony with the elemental and heavenly forces and the eternal laws of the universe of God, and all things work together for his good. Not a hair of his head falls without God’s notice. Not a desire rises in his heart but God’s great heart throbs responsive to fulfil it, for does not the Psalmist say, “He will fulfil the desires of them that fear Him”? Not simply the fervent prayer, but the timid, secret desire that has not been voiced in prayer, shall be fulfilled. And how dare God do that? Because a holy fear will not allow a desire that is not in harmony with God’s character

Following his calling and commission by God, the first few chapters of Jeremiah's public ministry is a long, prophetic sermon that is a rebuke against Judah's willful apostasy and is a denunciation of the gross infidelity of the people.. and their apostate priests, corrupt rulers and lying prophets. The glory of Israel's past had become eclipsed by their deliberate wantonness, and Jeremiah cried out for the nation to repent. He warned of approaching judgement from the north if his words remained unheeded. Even the threat of Jerusalem's fall did not to bring Israel to their senses and failed to turn their hearts back to the Lord. Jeremiah mourned that he was unable to find one righteous person in their midst.   It is as if Judah's cup of moral infamy had been filled to the very brim. And so Jeremiah continued to speak of the impending doom of the nation and predicted the fall of the city of Jerusalem, whilst warning the people of approaching oppression, violence and

  Romans 1 Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God,   In the Greek, the word for (servant) “Doulos,” is actually translated “slave.”  “Bond slave.” Without any ownership rights of their own.  However, the slavery is a voluntary state.  It is used of believers who willingly live under Christs authority as His devoted followers.   Now I’m not going so far as to say that people that choose not to live as His 100 percent devoted followers are not saved, maybe they are, maybe not.  I am saying that as someone that claims to love Jesus, we should want to live like that.  We should strive in every way to bring honor to Him in all things that we do.   1.    Which He had promised before by His prophets in the holy scriptures, 2.    Concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, 3.    And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection of the

“Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Mathew 26:41 I took a group of 3rd graders on a field trip to a working farm last fall. It was a huge farm with goats, cows, chickens and even a couple of lazy pigs that spent the entire day lying in the mud. One other feature of this farm that you don’t see much of North Carolina was a pretty good sized vineyard. We all love grapes right? This was in early September so the grapes were ready to harvest and people were already busy picking them. After the days guided activities were over we had some free time to roam around. The owner of the farm told us that we could go anywhere on the farm we wanted, but to please stay out of the vineyard. The reason was that the grapes were being harvested for a local winery and they needed all of them. If you know anything about 3rd graders, a huge vineyard full of sweet, succulent grapes can prove too much of a temptation and unfortunately,

  “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.” Exodus 20:2-3 Growing up in our modern society, I think we sometimes struggle with the concept of false idols. In our minds an idol is an object with no real power. That is true, but it isn’t really addressing the issue. Some of us might try and make it relevant for us. Maybe we think of sports as an idol, or surfing the net, or grades, or . . . fill in the blank. That may also be true, but it’s also not addressing the bigger issue. Some might realize that idols are a bigger issue, because maybe all of our extended families aren’t Christian and maybe some of them worship idols or have an altar in their house or work. Some of them might even burn paper money to ancestors. What’s really going on? How does our understanding of this help us to understand what God is trying to tell us in His word? When Moses returned and saw what they had done, he was furious, and im

  An anonymous quotation making the rounds of the Internet this year runs, " Christmas   is weird. What other time of year do you sit in front of a  dead tree and eat candy out of your socks?" Though it may induce a chuckle from its readers, most people either miss or ignore the larger point: Christmas is a bundle of contradictions, inanities, and outright lies. The astounding fact is that most people are aware of this. On a Christmas Eve radio show, a local preacher substituted for the regular host. His topic of discussion centered on the greeting "Merry Christmas!" and he asked if, in our multicultural, multi-religious society, this was offensive. One caller said, no, Christianity was still the majority religion in America, but what really troubled her was the fact that Christians promoted the traditional lie that  Jesus  was born on December 25. The preacher/talk-show host then explained to the audience that his caller was correct, Jesus could not have been born

      I n my 20+ years of ministry and serious bible study, I’ve noticed that there are a lot of verses and passages that people tend to take out of context or just plain get wrong.  I think that most of these mistakes come down to people just not wanting to take the time to actually study the Bible, they would rather just listen to what their pastor or Sunday school teacher says, or they read commentaries or books by people that also would rather not do any kind of serious Bible study.     When I was in seminary, I had a very well-known Pastor and Bible teacher for one of my professors.  I won’t share his name, but He was teaching some very unbiblical things.  One of the things he teaches is that repentance isn’t necessary for salvation.  This is dangerously close to a heresy.  Repentance isn’t only necessary, its required.  Obviously, most people won’t have a perfect repentance, that’s very rare.  Sanctification is a lifelong process.   But you cannot come to Jesus and ask for forgiv