In the video below Pope Francis says the following: “there are those who believe that you can have a personal direct and immediate relationship with Jesus outside the communion and mediation of the Church. These temptations are dangerous and harmful. They are, as the great pope Paul VI, “absurd dichotomies.” He went on to say: “Remember being a Christian means belonging to the Church. “ The Church: While that last statement is true we must understand that the Popes definition of “the Church” is different then the biblical Church. When the pope says “the church” he means The Roman Catholic Church today under his authorityRead More →

I’m unsure who the author of this article is but a friend of mine posted this and I had to share it. I am my greatest relational problem—me. And your biggest problem is you. Now, don’t misunderstand me. I know you’ll be sinned against; I know people suffer abuse of all kinds; but my greatest and deepest difficulty in relationships actually exists inside of me and not outside of me. That’s why Paul offered the cure when he said Jesus came to rescue you from you. Grace alone changes the whole relational paradigm, our whole lifestyle of inward-bentness. Grace liberates you from you, so you canRead More →

If we are going to go out and share the Gospel with others I believe it’s important to understand what other faiths believe in. This enables us to speak the truth in Love (Ephesians 4:15) because it shows respect to the other person who will see that you took the time to understand their point of view thus opening the door to give them the truth of the Gospel. Here is a summary of my understanding of the Jehovah Witness core beliefs based on my studies. Most of the information here is quoted and summarized from the articles, video, and the JW’s website which containsRead More →

Continuing with our believe theme from Part 2 We’re taking a walk through the entire book of John from beginning to end focused on Salvation. Amount of times the word ‘believe’ is used in John 17-21: 8 Total amount of times – ‘Believe’ is found: 89 John 17 John 17:2 2 even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to [a]all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life. 3 This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. 4 I glorified You on the earth, [b]having accomplished the workRead More →

Continuing with our believe theme from Part 1 We’re taking a walk through the entire book of John from beginning to end focused on Salvation. Be sure you open up your Bible and follow along. If you haven’t read John I encourage you to start from the beginning. Amount of times the word ‘believe’ is used in John 9-16: 34, ‘believe in Him’: 5 John 9 John 9:2-3 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might beRead More →

In order to best understand a story you simply must read it from the beginning to the end. It seems we have a tendency to skip around the Bible from book to book. I decided to step through the entire book of John from beginning to end, with the primary focus being how we are saved, can we lose that salvation once it is gained, and/or is salvation Faith PLUS ‘working it!’ to ‘keep in the faith’? The message of the scripture seems overwhelmingly clear: It is God who calls us, God that enables us to believe You must Believe in Him in order toRead More →

A lot of times we, myself included, tend to take for granite some of the things we have readily available to us, food, water, grocery stores with the shelves always packed with food. In these times we tend to worry about insignificant things. It was either last year or the year before we had a major snow storm. Roofs collapsed, people got trapped in cars, etc. My Aunt who has cancer had to go to Roswell and the fireman had to come get her because vehicles couldn’t get through. Tops markets is right around the corner from me. I went there to stock up onRead More →

For many years I played in Heavy Metal bands. I determined my own self worth by how many people would be at a show. I craved the attention of people praising me, and telling me that I was a good vocalist. I would especially love to hear phrases like “you’re the best vocalist in Buffalo” or “you’re the best singer I’ve ever heard.” Although that is highly debatable I still would eat it up and get a temporary sense of satisfaction from it. I constantly craved the attention of women hoping they would notice me if I sang to them. Then I’d add high dosesRead More →

I recently attended a Roman Catholic Confirmation, and was extremely unsettled by the things I seen and heard. Walking in I see to my right a statue of the virgin Mary with candles, and a place to kneel to pray before her. Behind the statue was a picture of people kneeling before her, and praying to her. What was further unsettling was the overall message from the Bishop about baptism, confession, how a Christian becomes born again. Mary If Mary was here today among us she would never allow anyone to kneel before her, and certainly point to Christ not herself. This is made everRead More →