Tag: Talking About God

God’s Word Imparts Strength

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Keep this Book of the Law on your lips: meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:8-9)

God’s word imparts strength and courage. When we base our lives on His instructions and believe that what He tells us is true, we can have confidence to face great challenges, knowing He is with us. As you might have noticed, God does not usually remove obstacles from our lives, but He helps us as we walk through danger and trouble. In Joshua 1 we are given three keys to success: Obedience, faith and courage. We will need all three of these in great measure as we walk through the difficulties that lie ahead of us.

Talking About God …continued

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Good Theology requires a good perspective.

Three people were visiting and viewing the Grand Canyon – an artist, a pastor, and a cowboy.  As they stood at the edge of that massive abyss, each one offered his personal perspective.  The artist said, “Ah, what a beautiful scene to paint.”  The minister said, “What a wonderful example of the handiwork of God.”  The cowboy mused, “What a terrible place to lose a cow.”

If every Christian were a better theologian the world, instead of sitting on the verge of collapse into chaos, would be a far better place than it is currently.

True theology points to God.  In the summer of 2015, LifeWay Research conducted a survey which revealed that 45% of Americans claim there are many ways to Heaven.  Only 30% of Americans actually have Evangelical beliefs and of them only 70% believe Jesus is the only way of salvation.  The good news is that it does appear that those who believe Jesus is the only way also believe that they have a responsibility to encourage non-Christians to trust Jesus as their Savior.

Featured Image -- 18   Distinctly Christian theology, which the apostle Paul refers to as “sound doctrine” in 2nd Timothy 4:3 is founded upon the belief that God has revealed Himself to us in His Word, The Holy Bible.  Of course good theology is also focused on Messiah, the holy one of God, The Christ.  We read in the Gospel according to John in 5:39 that Jesus declared the Scripture testifies about Him.

Unfortunately, a large portion of Americans are getting their “theology” from Hollywood, television, and other unchristian, even antichristian sources instead of the Holy Bible.  Yes, even Christians have to be careful to avoid getting their theology warped by the wrong sources.

It is by knowing God that we come to love Him, and by loving Him that we come to know Him who first loved us.

Theology is undertaken so that our hearts might respond to God and that our lives might be conformed to His will, not the will of some mere ‘prophet.’  Loving God and loving people are made possible by a correct theological vision of God and the Christian life.

True theology, a correct speaking of the things of God, fuels our devotion to God, the God of Father Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and our passion for sharing the gospel of the holy one of God, Jesus The Christ.

Every Christian is, in all actuality, a theologian.  Imagine how blessed our world could be if every Christian were a good theologian in the distinctly Christian sense of the term.

–Pastor Ward Clinton

Talking About God

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Jesus v Muhammad

I’m a theologian.

Now I don’t know what thoughts just came into your head when you read that.  What I know is that I tend to have a slightly erroneous picture formulate in my own head. (But i’m getting better)

Many of us Christians tend to think of theology as an abstract academic discipline with little bearing on day-to-day Christian life and activity.  Therefore one of the first things we ought to do is to understand what theology is.  Theos (God) logos (word); it means a word about God.

There is Christian theology, Muslim theology and atheist theology as well as a few others.  …Atheist theology?  …Oh yes, some atheists absolutely obsess on the God whom they vehemently deny exists and then they go to great effort, expending lots of energy and time, to try to get rid of the God they claim to not believe in…is that weird or what?

It is no wonder, then, that God calls them what He does.

Muslim theology is based on the Koran while Christian theology is talking and thinking about God in a distinct way based upon the Holy Bible which, even the Koran acknowledges, is the uncorrupted holy book of God.  Sadly, for the followers of Mohammad, most of them don’t seem to be aware of that fact.  That is understandable because of all the confusing contradictions contained in each of the various versions of the Koran.

Every Christian, by definition, knows God, thinks about God, and makes statements about God.  Therefore every Christian is a theologian; some are better at it than others but every child of God is supposed to be a good theologian and that is accomplished by studying and knowing what is actually in the Holy Bible and what is not.  Some, if they are asked to open their Bible to something like 2nd Hezekiah 3:16 will search and search while others will quietly smile.  It is an indicator of the level of theological understanding, not the best indicator, but it is one.

I am an above average theologian but every Christian should be at least at my current level.  I did not get to my current level of theological comprehension without lots of study and help from fellow Christians; however I am far from where I really should be.

If every Christian were a better theologian the world would be a far better place than it currently is.

…to be continued…

–Pastor Ward Clinton