Author Archives: Steve

I Pledge Allegiance to Jesus – Colossians 1:13-14

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“He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13-14, ESV).

Just as God rescued his people from slavery in Egypt under the old covenant, He has now delivered us from the domain of darkness, that is, from the realm of Satan and the powers of evil.

The moral dilemma each of us must confront is not how sinful we are but whose side we are on. You are either a citizen of the evil kingdom or a citizen of God’s Kingdom (unfortunately, the default is the evil kingdom).

While this conflict between good and evil is of cosmic proportions, its legal resolution is individually transacted when one transfers citizenship from the evil kingdom to God’s Kingdom as a result of God’s redemption and the forgiveness of one’s sins through God’s Son, Jesus.

There is no middle-of-the-road, no opting out, no riding-the-fence in the matter of your eternal destination.

Your citizenship is either in the evil kingdom or God’s kingdom.

So, don’t put Kingdom citizenship off any longer. Take the pledge!

Swear allegiance to Jesus and become a citizen of God’s Kingdom today!

Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. By myself I have sworn, from my mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return. To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance. (Isaiah 45:22-24, ESV)

Turning Disobedience Into Blessing – II Samuel 24

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“So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. And David built there an altar to the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the Lord heeded the prayers for the land, and the plague was withdrawn from Israel” (2 Samuel 24:24-25, NKJV).

In this final chapter of II Samuel, King David sent Joab, his military commander, to take a census of Israel. By numbering the people for military purposes (vs. 9).

David apparently showed a lack of trust in God to supply the necessary men when needed and wrongful pride in the hundreds of thousands of forces at his command (see vs. 10).

As a consequence of David’s sin God offered David three choices: 1) three years of famine in the land; 2) three months of fleeing from his enemies; or 3) three days of pestilence in the land.

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Supreme Faux Pas? – Ephesians 1:4, 9-10

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“Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him…making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth” (Ephesians 1:4, 9-10, ESV).

The way we usually begin the story of God’s redemption of humanity is that that God created a perfect world—a beautiful, wonderful place where communion with God was as easy as an afternoon walk through a garden.

Then Adam and Eve, who were God’s own created beings, disobeyed Him resulting in a catastrophic rift between God and His own creation. Seemingly, God’s perfect world was defiled and so He developed a plan to fix it.

When we begin the story in this way, it suggests that God made a big mistake when He created a universe that resulted in human beings falling out of fellowship with Him.

In Paul’s greeting to the Ephesians he begins the redemption story from its actual beginning. Paul makes it clear that God planned for the redemption of humanity even before the creation of the world! God wondrously and purposefully created this world and its redemption has always been God’s plan before the beginning of time.

So God is not trying to fix any supreme faux pas He made during creation. Instead, God is expressing supreme love through His creation.

And supreme love is best demonstrated through redemption: “For God has consigned all to disobedience, that He may have mercy on all.” (Romans 11:32).

God’s love and the redemption of His creation and human beings has always been God’s plan–let’s tell the story that way.