Salvation cannot be accomplished by a bath. John 4:2 says Jesus baptized no one. If baptism were a condition of salvation, He would have been baptizing people; after all, He came to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10).The Gospel According to Jesus 3e(54)
Sixteen of the thirty-eight parables of Jesus deal with money. One out of ten verses in the New Testament deals with that subject. Scripture offers about five hundred verses on prayer, fewer than five hundred on faith, and over two thousand on money. The believer's attitude toward money and possessions is determinative.
A true Christian does not see God's promise of forgiveness as a license to sin, a way to abuse His love and presume on His grace. Rather, he sees God's gracious forgiveness as the means to spiritual growth and sanctification. He continually thanks God for His great love and willingness to forgive.
Scripture does what psychoanalysis can't do-it pierces the heart, penetrates deep into the soul and judges the motives. To see yourself in the light of Scripture, is to see yourself as you really are.
Prayer is not an attempt to get God to agree with you or provide for your selfish desires, but that it is both an affirmation of His sovereignty, righteousness, and majesty and an exercise to conform your desires and purposes to His will and Glory
Why is discipline important? Discipline teaches us to operate by principle rather than desire. Saying no to our impulses (even the ones that are not inherently sinful) puts us in control of our appetites rather than vice versa. It deposes our lust and permits truth, virtue, and integrity to rule our minds instead.
A man of ripe and rich development will rather become a voluntary exile, will rather suffer imprisonment, nay, even sacrifice life itself, than tolerate constraint in the form of conscience.
The power of evangelism comes from holy, transformed lives lived out in the world, and the proclamation of the glorious reason for that transformation -- the gospel of Jesus Christ coming out of the lips of credible lives.
If you preach the Gospels, you have the history of Christ. If you preach the Epistles of the New Testament, you have the theology concerning Christ. If you preach the Revelation, you have the eschatological presentation of Christ. But it's always Christ!
The Savior emphasized that God Himself is the determinative factor in salvation. We who witness for Christ are not ultimately responsible for how people respond to the gospel. We are only responsible to preach it clearly and accurately, speaking the truth in love.Gospel According to Jesus 3e(117)
The mark of a true disciple is not that he never sins, but rather that when he does sin he inevitably returns to the Lord to receive cleansing and forgiveness. Unlike a false disciple, the true disciple will never turn away completely. He may occasionally turn back to his fishing nets, but ultimately he is drawn again to the Master.Gospel According to Jesus 3e(114-115)
Much of contemporary evangelism is woefully deficient when it comes to confronting people with the reality of their sin. Preachers offer people happiness, joy, fulfillment, and everything positive. Present-day Christians are taught that all they have to do is find a person's psychological needs then offer Jesus as a panacea for whatever the problem is. It is very easy to get a response, because people are looking for quick solutions to their felt needs. But if that is all we do, it is not legitimate evangelism.Gospel According to Jesus 3e(95)
The gospel is not a sterile set of facts; it is the dynamic through which God redeems sinners from the bondage of sin (Rom 1:16).Gospel According to Jesus 3e(81)