Greg Koukl from Stand to Reason has an excellent article entitled Enhanced Solid Ground-Silly Putty Bible Study that helps you apply biblical promises to your everyday life. Koukl writes:

To many Christians, the Bible is like silly putty. Just add the Holy Spirit and it can be molded into almost anything at all.  That’s why I’ve devoted this issue of the Enhanced Solid Ground to offering a biblical argument against this practice.  I hope you give careful attention to the Scriptural case I present.

You can read the article in PDF format by clicking HERE. You will also want to download a helpful worksheet by clicking HERE.

Summary

    We can only legitimately claim a biblical promise if it is rightfully ours.

    We know if a promise applies to us by answering four questions: Who? What? Why? When?

    If the promise is for us, and we have satisfied the conditions, and the promise is for our time, then we can count on God to keep His word.

    If not, then we must leave the promise to its rightful owner and profit from the text by learning what we can from God’s faithful dealings with them.

Wasn’t Jesus just another great religous teacher? from A Passion for Life on Vimeo.

Paul’s approach with non-Christians in Athens is instructive for us (Acts 17:16-34).  First, Paul is provoked that the city is so full of idols (16).  His preaching is not guided by his disappointment with other Christians, but by his anger over unbelief.  Next, he gets permission to speak (19-20). Paul did not berate people. He spoke to those who were willing to listen.  But then look at what he does.  He makes some cultural connection (22-23, 28), but from there he shows the contrast between the Athenian understanding of God and the way God really is (24-29). His message is not about a way of life, but about worshiping the true God in the right way.  After that, he urges repentance (30), warns of judgment (31), and talks about Jesus’ resurrection (31).

The result is that some mocked (32). Who in the world mocks the New Gospel? There is nothing not to like.  There is no scandal in a message about lame Christians, a loving God, changing the world, and how most of us are most likely not going to hell.  This message will never be mocked, but Paul’s Mars Hill sermon was. And keep in mind, this teaching in Athens was only an entre into the Christian message.  This was just the beginning, after which some wanted to hear him again (32).  Paul said more in his opening salvo than some Christians ever dare to say. We may not be able to say everything Paul said at Athens all at once, but we certainly must not give the impression in our “pre-evangelism” that repentance, judgment, the necessity of faith, the importance of right belief, the centrality of the cross and the resurrection, the sinfulness of sin and the fallenness of man–the stuff that some suggest will be our actual evangelism–are outdated relics of a mean-spirited, hurtful Christianity.

PLEASE read the entire post HERE.

DeYoung has written several books, two of which …. Why We Love the Church: In Praise of Institutions and Just Do Something …. I will be recommending in my year end book review.

How do I know God exists? from A Passion for Life on Vimeo.

Click HERE and download an interview with Rev. Tim Pauls of Higher Things magazine in which he addresses some of the issues commonly raised against baptizing people at every age, including infants..in MP3 format..26 minutes long.

Why should anyone bother to be a Christian?  This is one of those great questions that more and more people seem to be asking these days. And many ask it with a sincere conviction that as a believer you are probably not making the best use of your precious time and energy.

There are many excellent ways to explaining who Jesus Christ is and why we should follow him. One of the more popular ways of sharing Jesus seeks to "sell" the "practical benefits" of the Christian life.  It appears that many people in our culture have picked up on the utilitarian thrust of this message and, after shopping around, have found other venders in the marketplace of ideas and emotions who can satisfy their wants in a more timely and cost effective manner.  It makes a lot of sense that people would ask "why bother?" when they see being a part of church marketed in this way.

In a recent interview in Christianity Today entitled Tim Keller Reasons with America the senior pastor at New York’s Redeemer Presbyterian Church gives a far better reason to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.

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Q: You reject marketing apologetics like, "Christianity is better than the alternatives, so choose Christianity." Why?

Marketing is about felt needs. You find the need and then you say Christianity will meet that need. You have to adapt to people’s questions. And if people are asking a question, you want to show how Jesus is the answer. But at a certain point, you have to go past their question to the other things that Christianity says. Otherwise you’re just scratching where they itch. So marketing is showing how Christianity meets the need, and I think the gospel is showing how Christianity is the truth.

C. S. Lewis says somewhere not to believe in Christianity because it’s relevant or exciting or personally satisfying. Believe it because it’s true. And if it’s true, it eventually will be relevant, exciting, and personally satisfying. But there will be many times when it’s not relevant, exciting, and personally satisfying. To be a Christian is going to be very, very hard. So unless you come to it simply because it’s really the truth, you really won’t live the Christian life, and you won’t get to the excitement and to the relevance and all that other stuff.

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Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6

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So what might all this stuff about having the right reasons for following Jesus mean for the people Peace Lutheran? Well, for one thing we need to keep first things first. And the first "first thing" to keep in mind is that what GOD has done in Christ, and in our live takes precedence over everything else. We need to be constantly reminded that the greatest blessing that comes from being a part of Peace is the privilege of being a part of a "household of faith" where God is working to give us the things of "first importance", namely the faithful preaching and teaching of "Christ crucified" and "raised from death, as the guarantee that those who sleep in death will also be raised." (1 Galatians 6:10; Corinthians 1:22-24, 1 Corinthians 15:1-22). 

It also means that we need to fight the temptation to practice fraudulent "bait and switch" techniques as we walk with the people in our area who are looking for "a better life now". We must, with God’s help, commit ourselves to always tell the TRUTH about Jesus Christ, and be brutally honest about the real cost of discipleship (Luke 14:26-35). When Jesus calls us to find rest in him he also tells us that we will find ourselves in a yoke, and although it is a light one, it is still a burden (Matthew 11:28-30). We need to be clear that every single follower of Jesus Christ will experience hard times because we are disciples, whether it is from the world, the devil, or the need to make sacrifices (1 Peter 5:6-11; Matthew 5:11-12, Matthew 10:17, Matthew 24:9; Luke 21:12; John 15:20; John 16:2; 2 Timothy 3:12; 1 Peter 2:21-25). Of course we also have the privilege of making it clear that even with all the struggles, the Bible and generations of faithful Christians can testify that being a disciple is still "all joy" (James 1:2), or as the missionary martyr Jim Elliot wrote in his diary: He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose (Matthew 10:29-42).

Finally, I hope that every person who reads this post will be reminded that on the Cross, Christ’s blood set you free from bondage to the power of sin and death. This is the TRUTH that sets us free. The Cross sets us free to live a Christian life where we are able to relate to God and others (especially the poor, our enemies, and lost sinners) in way that truly glorifies God (Matthew 5:43-48, Matthew 25:34-40). If you are a sinner like me, then I’m pretty sure that this Christian life will not deliver the kind of "personal fulfillment" that the selfish part of us always craves, but by God’s grace I am certain that together we will receive the kind of authentic peace and joy from God that is much better than the kind we naturally desire or deserve! (Mathew 19:28-30; Romans 5:7-8; 1 John 4:19; John 14:27-31, John 17:13-21, Hebrews 11).

You can watch a larger version of this video that allows you to skip around ..or download a video/audio version to your own computer by going HERE

You can read an outline of the sermon and find links to additional reading materials HERE

By clicking HERE you can find a reader’s guide for the book along with some downloadable audio files and study guides on the following topics: