What if God was true, but on a limited basis? This would be a cause for great concern; however, this is quelled by the fact that He is both true and faithful.
The word religion has a bad reputation. Truly, religion that offers no change of heart is bad, but there is religion that changes a man’s heart before God.
One day, all who know the Lord as Saviour will cease from their labours. It will be a time of eternal rest experienced only by those who are born again.
Trials, afflictions, and heartaches may presently abound, but those who know the Lord rejoice, knowing that those things only exist for a season.
God calls people into different works. In the midst of this diversity, a common thread unites all the work—men ought to do all they do to the glory of God.
Many who understand the wickedness involved in murder fail to realize that the scripture also warns “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer.”
One day, the world’s hope will come to an abrupt end. Although the world (apart from Christ) derives its hope from several sources, their common ground revolves around the fact that their hope is not in God. The Bible points to the results: “the hypocrite’s hope shall perish” (Job 8:13), “all that forget God” (Job 8:13) will see their hope “cut off” (Job 8:14), and the hope of the wicked “shall be as the giving up of the ghost” (Job 11:20). Unfortunately, the world can only focus upon the here and now. They judge everything by how things are presently taking place. If they gain (riches, health, material goods, promotions), they assume that they have hope, yet they fail to see that there will be no hope when God brings judgment upon their souls (Job 27:8).
Christians frequently find it difficult to consistently make their practice align with their position in Christ. The saints of God are positionally blameless in Christ, but practically, each believer must strive daily to “be blameless and harmless . . . in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation.” In this world, believers represent the Lord as sons of God. As such, they should “do all things without murmurings and disputings.” Why is this so very important? The importance points to the fact that believers are to “shine as lights in the world.” It is imperative that every believer strives daily to live a godly life and preserves a godly testimony in a world that has little to no knowledge of God (Matthew 5:16).
Without a just and righteous cause for anger, it does not have a godly basis. Although Jesus was giving this admonition directly to the Jews concerning their kingdom, the principle remains just as accurate and applicable today. Many of the modern versions remove the phrase “without a cause” claiming that the so-called best manuscripts fail to include it. In following this faulty “scholarship,” they corrupt the verse and create a contradiction between Matthew 5:22 and Ephesians 4:26. Young David was no doubt angry as he heard the blasphemy from the lips of Goliath (1 Samuel 17:22-25). He was not going to let these words go without an appropriate response. When he asked about fighting the Philistine, others became angry and accused him of ungodly motives (1 Samuel 17:26-28), but he retorted, “Is there not a cause?” (1 Samuel 17:29).
The Bible says that God is angry every day. Yet, at the same time He may display His anger, the Bible also says that He is love (1 John 4:8), and righteous (Ezra 9:15), and compassionate (Psalm 86:15), and just (Deuteronomy 32:4), and merciful (Deuteronomy 4:31). The source of God’s anger and the means by which He acts upon His anger sets the standard for what is truly a righteous anger. If man’s righteous acts provoked God to anger, this would signify a sinful nature. The Bible is clear that the opposite holds true. God is provoked to anger by sin (1 Kings 16:2), vanity (1 Kings 16:26), and idolatry (1 Kings 22:53). His righteous anger in each case plainly declares God’s righteous nature. The source of His anger sets forth the only sources by which men should become angry.
