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Isaiah 6 gives us a grand vision of the holiness of God and reminds us that He is “holy, holy, holy.” When the prophet Isaiah saw this grand vision, he cried out because he was a man of “unclean lips.” Because of Isaiah’s sinfulness, a seraphim promptly flew to him, touched his lips with a coal, and pronounced him clean. Like Isaiah, we need cleansing to dwell with God in His supreme holiness. In this session, Dr. John MacArthur considers God’s holiness and why it matters both now and forever, explaining that God is holy and that He has made...

I saw a commercical recently that proclaimed, “Freedom has no limits!” It sought to capture the modern imagination with what is a patently absurd statement. Everything in creation has limits – that is the nature of created things. It is nonetheless the case that we can imagine our life without limits – a shameless existence where nothing impedes our pleasure. This was the inner world of a young woman in Alexandria who would later be known as St. Mary of Egypt. She left home, according to her own testimony, and took up a life of unbridled pleasure: sex, alcohol, whatever...

I saw a commercial recently that proclaimed, “Freedom has no limits!” It sought to capture the modern imagination with what is a patently absurd statement. Everything in creation has limits – that is the nature of created things. It is nonetheless the case that we can imagine our life without limits – a shameless existence where nothing impedes our pleasure. This was the inner world of a young woman in Alexandria who would later be known as St. Mary of Egypt. She left home, according to her own testimony, and took up a life of unbridled pleasure: sex, alcohol, whatever...

“The temptation of the age is to look good without being good.” — Brennan ManningOver the past year, we have witnessed key Christian leaders and pastors’ moral failures get exposed. It happens every year, but it feels like the Church has taken a huge hit more recently. Leaders who have personally impacted me through their teachings and writings are no longer in ministry. Every time I learn about what was happening behind the scenes, my heart breaks for the leader, their family, their organization and for the body of Christ. We all suffer when someone falls. I’ll never forget a...

Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. (Romans 13:8-10)I believe that in God’s providence, Love has been my theme of late. It is a serious subject...

We love him, because he first loved us. ( I John 4:19)The World is heading into a dark night. Daniel chapter 8:23 puts it well, we have arrived at , “… the latter time …when the transgressors are come to the full…” . All of us will be put to the test of our faith and love by circumstances and pressures brought to bear, within and without. I asked the LORD for a teaching to help us prepare for this, and HE gave me a sermon on “Loving God”. I would like to share some of the highlights of what...

I will hear what God the Lord will speak: for he will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints: but let them not turn again to folly. Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him; that glory may dwell in our land.Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. ( Psalm 85:8-10)Psalm 85 is a prayer for revival. The psalmist is speaking for all of the godly, pleading in view of previous mercies from God, that wrath would be turned aay, and that God’s people would be brought back to life again....

Here it is NKJV: Leviticus 19 33 And if a stranger dwells with you in your land, you shall not mistreat him. 34 The stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as [a]one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

The root of the Catholic Church’s sex abuse crisis is “sin and a retreat from holiness, specifically the holiness of an integral, truly human sexuality,” Bishop Edward Scharfenberger wrote to the priests and seminarians of his diocese. In a letter released by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany on Sunday, Scharfenberger blasted Cardinal Theodore McCarrick without mentioning his name, noting that the abuser prelate engaged in “incestuous” predation toward those in his spiritual care. “No doubt you have been and will be hearing from your people about how shaken and discouraged they are over public revelations of despicable behavior on...

The Chinese pastor, author and martyr, Watchman Nee, in his book “What Shall This Man Do ?”, made an interesting observation about the careers of the three apostles, Peter, Paul and John. Nee observed that there is spiritual significance in the occupations that these three were engaged in when they were called by Jesus. We are told in Scripture that when Peter was called, he was busy as a fisherman, ‘casting his nets into the sea’. Paul happened to be a tentmaker by trade, crafting portable dwelling places. John, the beloved apostle, was also a fisherman, but when Jesus first...

The media has been abuzz with reports that President-elect Donald Trump intends to honor his pre-election promise to act on the 1995 Jerusalem Embassy Act –– whose implementation has been deferred by six-monthly waivers invoked by successive presidents, most recently last week by President Obama –– and move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Why has the Act, passed by massive majorities in the Senate (93-5) and House (374-37), remained a dead letter for 21 years? Fear of enraging the Arab street and the Muslim world, most of which has neither reconciled itself to Israel’s existence nor even...

The Baptism and The Filling  The Baptism in the Spirit and The Filling of the Spirit ***A Comparison and A Contrast*** THE BAPTISM THE FILLING Definition: The Baptism in the Spirit is that work of God whereby the believer is immersed into Jesus Christ and into His body which is the church (1 Corinthians 12:13 and Gal. 3:27). Definition: The Filling of the Spirit is that work of God whereby He fills and controls and enables the believer who is yielded and dependent and fit for the Master's use (Ephesians 5:18). The BAPTISM is presented as a fact to be...

The link above (not the picture) will take you to this somewhat prophetic song.

A large part of Christianity does not understand the holiness of God and because they fail to understand His majesty, they have a very difficult time with God's judgment against sinners. What aggravates the problem even more is when people only talk about the love of God as if His wrath is outdated and wrong. I present that we will never truly understand nor appreciate just how much God does indeed love His people unless we understand how "HOLY, HOLY, HOLY" HE is which includes vindicating His name in pouring out His judgment on sinners. The beautiful thing about the...

I have a growing concern that younger evangelicals do not take seriously the Bible’s call to personal holiness. We are too at peace with worldliness in our homes, too at ease with sin in our lives, too content with spiritual immaturity in our churches. God’s mission in the world is to save a people and sanctify his people. Christ died “that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised” (2 Cor. 5:15). We were chosen in Christ “before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy...

“And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit.” (Ephesians 5:18) This classic verse on the filling of the Holy Spirit can be rendered as follows: “And don’t begin to be drunk with wine, which involves profligacy, but be continually being filled with the Spirit.” That is, one cannot be filled with the Holy Spirit (which implies complete control by the Holy Spirit) if he has come to even the slightest degree under the control of wine (or anything else, for that matter). Being fully controlled and guided by the Spirit is not just...

Sunday’s Super Bowl was dubbed by some as the “pot bowl,” as the Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks hail from the two states where fans can soon get marijuana as easily as they can get pizza. As public opinion has shifted in support of legalized marijuana, religious leaders are wrestling over competing interests, including high prison rates and legislating morality. According to a 2013 survey from the Public Religion Research Institute, 58 percent of white mainline Protestants and 54 percent of black Protestants favor legalizing the use of marijuana. On the other side, nearly seven-in-10 (69 percent) white evangelical Protestants...

We live in a time that has tended to reduce holiness to merely being nice and agreeable. In this manner of thinking holiness tends to be variously thought of as: getting along well with everyone, being kind, agreeable, helpful, likable, generous, pleasant, mild mannered, amiable, good humored, middle of the road, even tempered, placid, benevolent, friendly, forbearing, tolerant, thoughtful, and the like. It can all be summed up by saying that “so-and-so” is “basically a nice person.” And thus the goal seems more to be nice than holy.If you think this isn’t so, listen to how people talk at funerals....

In the sixteenth century, Martin Luther formulated the concept of the priesthood of all believers. Contrary to widespread misconceptions of this doctrine, Luther did not mean to reduce the supernatural concern of personal redemption to a core or essence of social concern. In reaction to the modernist-fundamentalist controversy, many evangelicals, zealous to retain the biblical concern for personal redemption, began to minimize or even reject the social agenda of the New Testament. Social concern and relief ministry became identified with liberalism. Ministry to the poor, the homeless, the hungry, and the imprisoned was often all-too-willingly surrendered to the state or...

Gay couples who seek spiritual affirmation of their relationships can now sanctify their unions with special blessings at South Florida's Episcopal churches. Priests in the Episcopal Diocese of Southeast Florida have been given permission to perform a distinct rite, different from the marriage between a man and a woman. Called "The Witnessing and Blessing of a Lifelong Covenant," the ceremony, to be introduced this month, was approved by national convention delegates over the summer. Lorraine Michels and Joan Van Ness were married in 2009 in Massachusetts, but decided to participate in a nine-couple blessing ceremony in April at All Saints...