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Having an Attitude of Gratitude

1 Thessalonians 5:18 in all things give thanks, for this is the desirous will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Often times we think of thankfulness in regard to things that are good. We are thankful when life is going the way we would like, when we are at peace, and when, for the most part, life is wholesome. What about the difficult times in our lives or the problematic people? Should we be thankful for them? Why would God want a saint to have a mind that is thankful for all situations?

Having an attitude of gratitude comes from knowing who we are in Christ, what God expects of us, and how God controls the situations in our lives to bring about His glory.

What is the purpose of our life? Before we were saved, our focus was to fulfill the desires of the flesh. But now it is to glorify God. We glorify God by a life that manifests His opinion of who we are in Christ. By setting our minds on God’s opinion of us and living according to His view of us, we can be thankful in any situation because when we are loving God, He will work out any situation to our benefit to make us happy; a true happiness that can only come from living a life that enjoys all the benefits of who we are in Christ.

If we are not thankful, it is because our mind is not focused on the things of the Spirit, but rather on the things of the flesh. Having an attitude of gratitude is not being happy all the time. We can be displeased about something but still be thankful.

Difficulties in our lives expose who […]

Having an Attitude of Gratitude2013-02-14T06:19:00-08:00

Stewardship and Dispensations: The Significance of Οικονομός and Οικονομία

Stewardship and Dispensations:

The Significance of Οικονομός and Οικονομία

The sixty-six books of the Bible span thousands of years of human history and beyond. They begin before God created man and end with the creation of new heavens and a new earth where righteousness settles down and feels at ease[1]. Within the pages of the Bible, we see changes in God’s relationship and standard for mankind and the failure of mankind to live up to God’s expectation, which ultimately brings judgment. In the Garden of Eden, Adam was not allowed to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil[2]. Upon eating the fruit from this tree, his spirit was separated from God[3], he became subject to physical death, and he was expelled from the garden[4]. Having been expelled from the garden, God’s expectation for humans was for them to properly govern the manner of their lives by the knowledge of good and evil, now that they possessed it. However, again, men failed, and God judged the earth by bringing a flood[5]. After the flood, God instructed Noah that men are to govern themselves and that capital punishment is to be implemented[6]. Again, men fail to follow God’s instruction, reject God, and seek their own way. Therefore, God brought judgment and forced man to separate and spread across the earth[7]. This judgment brought about multiple languages and the division of the continents, which caused man to spread out across the earth[8].  Having scattered man across the face of the earth, God then approaches Abram and ultimately offers him four covenants[9]. These covenants included a promise of land that Abraham and his descendants […]

Stewardship and Dispensations: The Significance of Οικονομός and Οικονομία2024-09-08T17:47:28-07:00

Feeling at Ease with Who You are In Christ

John 15:1, 2, 4 I am the true vine and the Father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me not bearing fruit He lifts up and every branch bearing fruit He cleanses in order that it may bear more fruit…. Abide in me and I in you. Just as the branch does not have the natural ability to bear fruit from itself except it abides in the vine, thus neither can you, except you abide in me.

When we believed the Gospel for Salvation (Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures) we were placed into the body of Christ by the Holy Spirit. This body is a new creation by God in which Christ is the head and we are the body. In this new creation, old thing have passed away. We are no longer in Adam and therefore no longer condemned. Behold, all things have become new. We are in Christ, were we are now counted to be righteous before God, our spirits are connected to God, we are no longer a slave to the sin nature, we have a quality of the mind of Christ, and share in a quality of the Divine Nature. The change that happens at salvation is not a visible change because it begins in our spiritual part, and ends with our full redemption at the rapture with a resurrected body and a saved soul. Nonetheless, this change is very real. We are now able to receive the things of the Spirit and live a life that manifests the character of the resurrected Christ.

How comfortable are you with who you are in Christ? When Jesus first revealed the […]

Feeling at Ease with Who You are In Christ2023-11-23T10:32:24-08:00

SET APART CHRIST AS LORD: Always ready to give a defense

1 Peter 3:15 But set apart Christ as Lord (Master) in your hearts and always be prepared towards a defense to all who ask you a word concerning your hope, with objectivity of mind and respect…

If someone asked you why you believe what you believe, could you answer intelligently?

When we are asked about the hope that we have, it is not much of an answer to say, “We believe because we believe.” Or, in other words, we are not able to give a reason, or articulate, why we accept as truth the things we believe. We cannot have faith for the sake of having faith. Since a promise is always the basis for faith there is no such thing in Scripture as blind faith.
In the context of the book of 1 Peter, the author is encouraging Christians who are suffering unjustly and facing false accusations against their character because they are not getting involved with the lifestyle of unbelievers around them. When we live a life the follows God rather than the ways of the world, we are discernably different to unbelievers because of our actions, not our words, which can give the perfect opportunity to share with an unbeliever the Gospel for salvation and the resulting hope from believing when we are asked why we are so unusual and dissimilar to others.
You do not have to be a theologian to know what you believe. You may not be able to read the Bible in the original languages, or explain every verse, but that does not mean you cannot know what you believe and why you have the hope that you have. All Christians can and should mature enough to know at the very least […]

SET APART CHRIST AS LORD: Always ready to give a defense2023-12-14T12:31:19-08:00

To “Be” or to “Bear” a Witness

Acts 1:8 …but you will receive natural ability, when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be to me witnesses in both Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and up to the ends of the earth.

Do your words line up with your actions?

True evangelism does not come from speaking to everyone you meet about God, it is a natural result of you living your life according to who you are in Christ because by doing so you will show others a quality of God’s character. The threat of hell and damnation never saved anyone. Oh, it may bring hoards into the Churches at times, but they are not truly seeking to know the Lord. How a person comes to a saving faith in Christ is by the kindness of God, never by an expression of His wrath.

Actions always speak loader than words. Telling a person that you are a Christian and living a lifestyle that is no different than an unsaved person is no testimony at all. It just simply shows that you do not really believe what you are saying.

Before Christ ascends to the third heaven to sit upon the throne, He informs the apostles that the Holy Spirit will give them the natural ability to be His witnesses in all the earth. Christ did not instruct them to bear a witness, but rather, he told them they would be a witness. It is the same with us today. We are never told to go out and evangelize the world; rather, we are told to always be ready to give a defense for the hope that we have when we are questioned about it. Even the verse used for the Great […]

To “Be” or to “Bear” a Witness2023-12-14T12:31:55-08:00
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