How Uncle Johnny Got Rich

As I was meditating on Philippians 4:19 (“my God shall supply all of your need”) my thoughts shifted to Dad’s uncle Johnny. Let me explain. Like most promises in the Bible, this one comes with strings. As the whole of the book and especially the preceding context demonstrates, this promise belongs to generous people. Philippians…

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God’s Power to Transform

This article first appeared on the website of Gospel Fellowship Association Missions, here. We republish it here with permission. The Gospel’s transforming power in the hearts of individual people will always be one of the great joys of the ministry. Helen Stevens and Stephanie Marnoch demonstrated this miraculous transforming power when they were saved to…

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Thankful for a Life Changed by Grace

Paul wrote to the Thessalonian believers “We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers” (I Thessalonians 1:2). Thanksgiving to God for his grace in the life of others was a common practice of the Apostle Paul. He related this thanksgiving in his epistles to the Romans (1:8),…

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Steps of Assurance Counseling

My last post discussed how to talk to your children about salvation. I mentioned that I spent some time at a Christian camp in southern California working with children. During my time there, I developed a worksheet that we gave to the junior camp counselors each year. This worksheet dealt with counseling campers who were…

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Repentance and Salvation

Several years ago, a couple attended the services of our church, but after a few months they stopped coming. They told me I said something in a sermon with which they strongly disagreed. What did I say that they found so troubling? I said that repentance was necessary for salvation. How is that problematic? Did…

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It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad World!

That’ s my impression from my stroll down the main drag of Gatlinburg, TN, recently. Few people smiling or laughing. Harsh words being spoken to others, especially to children and other family members. One woman hollering out foul language because she has pulled into a blocked street and folks would not “ part the Red…

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Eternity

On December 31, 1999, I, along with millions of others, was watching television early in the day as the New Year arrived in far off New Zealand and Australia. Normally, the arrival of the New Year in other countries would hold little or no interest for me. However, this was the year of “Y2K.” Everyone…

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Do This and Live: Leviticus 18:5

Leviticus 18:5 looms large in law-grace discussions. The verse states, “Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in [or, by] them: I am the Lord.” Given the Bible’s emphatic teaching that salvation is a gift, the reader naturally struggles with this verse. Is it saying…

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Contention Over the Chosen

One man wrote, “Not from the world’s ‘beautiful people,’ but for the most part from the lower classes, the ‘nobodies,’ God chose those who would make up God’s new people.”1 Early on in church history, Christianity was deemed the religion of slaves, women, and children. Many unbelieving people today look at Christians as weak-minded, not…

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Salvation through Christ: The Heart of the Faith

March/April 2020 | VOLUME 30 | NUMBER 2 — The Fundamentals: Salvation [The latest FrontLine is available now online at www.fbfi.org for subscribers. Printing awaits, but we wanted you to know this edition is now available — and we want to encourage new subscriptions! — Ed.] My mother is a modern-day “Mary of Bethany.” Until…

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