Exulting in God's Magnificent Love for Us
A question came up last week, whether the maxim “Once Saved Always Saved” is correct. In other words, if a person is saved, is it possible for them to lose their salvation? We will address this question when we look at Gal 3:3-4. Let me just say this for now. This question has a theoretical Read More …
The Situation (Gal 2:11-13) Part of the life of the early church was that they participated in a communal meal called an “Agape Feast”, or “Love Feast”. Here the whole congregation came together to share a meal prepared from them pooling whatever resources they had. For some slaves, this may have been the only nice Read More …
Last week we talked about how there is only one gospel, and to add or to take away from it is to invite God’s curse. This gospel is about how we are saved by faith in Jesus Christ alone without any good works. Relationship between faith and good works So a question came up about Read More …
Paul Wishes His Readers “Grace and Peace” (Gal 1:3) We just completed an introduction to the book of Galatians by looking at Gal 1:1-2. Here Paul greets the Galatian church, and reminds his readers that he is an apostle of Jesus Christ who was directly appointed by Jesus. He goes on to greet the Galatians: Read More …
Here is a recording of the session. Notes of the content are below. We are beginning a new study of Paul’s letter to the Galatians, and today we will focus on what we can look forward to learning from this study. Here is the first sentence in Cole’s commentary of Galatians. “The epistle to the Read More …
The following talk was given as a Lifeline Connect zoom talk at the Deborah Rise Movement on October 31st, 2020. Following the recording is a transcript of the talk. The title of my talk is “Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing” with a sub-title of “Identifying Spiritual Abuse and Narcissism”. Why Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing? This was Read More …
The “Lowly Brother” and the “Rich Brother” (James 1:9-11) We need to remember that James’ readers are Jewish Christians who have been scattered due to persecution. Most of them were poor. For example, in Acts 11:28-29, we read about a severe famine that extended throughout the Roman world, so much so that some needed help Read More …
James 1:2: What does James mean by “trials of various kinds”? Temptations and snares (1 Timothy 6:9, Hebrews 12:4) Difficult circumstances (death, divorce, loss of job, sickness, etc) James 5:14; Social and economic persecution (James 2:6) God’s discipline (Hebrews 12:5-11). Can also be consequences of sin (addiction, jail, etc) Due to choices we make in Read More …
Introduction to the Epistle of James Who is the Author of James? The half-brother of Jesus, likely from Mary and Joseph after the birth of Jesus. We know that the author is not James the apostle because he died a martyr’s death in AD 44 (Acts 12:2) James the brother of Jesus died in AD Read More …
November is Adoption Awareness Month. on November 12th this year, many churches across the globe celebrate Orphan Sunday and think about adoption and God’s care for the orphaned and vulnerable children. Saturday November 18th is National Adoption Day. For these reasons, this is a good time for me to share a truth from Scripture that Read More …