The Fragrance Of Faith

Changing Your Mind

The modern Christian is more than likely led more by what he/she feels than what he/she thinks. In the American Church great emphasis is placed upon how we feel about God, how we feel about others, and how we feel about ourselves. While our emotions are gifts from God, we are not to be primarily led by them. We are to be led by our beliefs and convictions, and these are more a matter of what we think than what we feel. In this Truth Shot, we center in on the Apostle Paul’s call for us to change our minds and own our thoughts. If our thought-life is properly cultivated, the pathway for our lives will be healthy, holy, and much happier. This teaching is crucial for the modern Christian to recapture so that he or she can escape deception, depression, and degradation and, instead, embrace the life of victory that comes via a mind that is changed and renewed by the Spirit and His truth.

The Fragrance Of Faith

Every mother understands the crests of valleys of conceiving, carrying, birthing, and raising children. Motherhood can carry the highest joys and the deepest groans. More than any other figure on earth, it is the mother that shapes destinies by shaping children. Moses remains the titan of Jewish history. The great redeemer of ancient Israel had a mother whose name most people do not know. Through her brief story, coupled with Moses’ surrogate mom, the daughter of Pharaoh, we see how God used two different women to shape one of the greatest heroes in human history. This message calls God’s daughters to embrace the unique call to be those who intentionally shape the generation to come.

Truth: Wisdom in the Word

As we approach the end of the age, the teaching and learning of the Scriptures will no longer be hidden in a classroom with a handful of saints who choose to go deeper. God will promote the urgency to understand the truth of the written Word to a prioritized status as deception in the world continues to arise. The Bible serves as our guide into maturity, wisdom and power from God. So essential is the need for us to be anchored in the truth of God’s Word that Paul wrote to the church at Thessalonica that only those who love the Truth will survive the end-times deception and delusion that will rock the planet. How is your relationship with your Bible? Casual? Uninterested? Committed? Convicted? Consuming? What you believe from the Word will serve as your rescue as we approach the end of days. To neglect the written word will be for some the losing of their souls.

Curiosity To Conviction

If there has ever been a time of urgency for us all to get anchored in the truth, it is right now. Scripture is crystal clear that the time prior to the Second Coming of Jesus will be characterized primarily by an atmosphere of intense and persuasive deception. Jesus actually taught that the deception will be so strong that, if God did not sovereignly prevent it, even the elect saints of God would believe the lies. This should get our attention. In the first of several messages on the coming deception, we learn from Jesus how we all must take seriously our need to be people of the truth so that we remain untouched by both the spirits of deception and the messages that are coming forth from them.

Full & Final Victory

One of the healthiest and most helpful thing for a Christian to occasionally do is to remind himself of the end of the story. If we ever lose our grasp on the truth that WE WIN, we will likely find ourselves in a deep struggle. There is no denying that the Christian life is a war. It is more than war, but it is never NOT war. In the present day when evil is abounding, deception is increasing, division is multiplying, and warfare is exploding, we must stay locked in to the promise that an unavoidable victory belongs to the followers of Christ. In Revelation chapter 21, we are promised four new and never-ending realities that will be ours. These promises motivate and empower us to continue on during the wars and pains of this earthly life. Jesus Himself has promised all who trust Him a full and final victory.