DISCIPLE

by William MacDonald Like every other good thing, grace can be abused. Fire and water can be great blessings, but they can be used wrongly. People can twist the sovereignty of God to teach fatalism: what is going to be is going to be, and there's nothing you can do about it. The doctrine of election is sometimes perverted to suggest that evangelizing is a waste of time and effort.     Sad to say, it is possible to use the grace of God as an excuse for careless living, for believers to use their freedom as a pretext for launching into all kinds of indulgence. This does not mean that the doctrine is faulty. It simply means that some people are desperate to justify ungodly behavior, and if they can do it by using Scripture, so much the better, or so they think.     It is true that believers are not under law but under grace. But that does not mean that they have a right to be lawless. They are not under the law, with all the penalty and condemnation that is...

  Are All Things Lawful for Believers 1 Corinthians 6:12 by Bob Wilkin "All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any" (1 Cor. 6:12) .     Some people charge those of us who hold to Grace with antinomianism. That is, some say we promote sin and tell people that they can do whatever they want and God won't care since they are in Christ. We don't teach that; but the charge is made nonetheless.     On the other hand, others charge us with legalism. They say that since we call believers to obey God's commands we are legalists. These are those who do say that since we are in Christ there are no laws or rules for us anymore.     Recently while tracking down verses that show that NT believers are under law (e.g., Rom. 8:7; James 1:25), I ran across 1 Corinthians 6:12. What on earth did Paul mean when he said that "All things are ...

by Vance Havner Some time ago a friend of mine took me to a restaurant where they must love darkness rather than light. I stumbled into the dimly-lit cavern, fumbled for a chair, and mumbled that I needed a flashlight to read the menu. When the food came I ate it by faith and not by sight. Gradually, however, I began to make out objects a little more clearly. My host said, "Funny, isn't it, how we get used to the dark?"      We are living in the dark. The closing chapter of this age is dominated by the prince and powers of darkness. Men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. The night is far spent; the blackness is more extensive and more excessive as it deepens just before the dawn.      However, early Christians set the world aglow because absolute Light was pitched against absolute darkness. The early Christians believed that the gospel was the only hope of the world, that without it all men were lost and all...

by William J. Randolph commenting on Ezekiel 5:5, he writes:      "While placed in this privileged position, Israel became enamored with the ways and the women of the pagan nations to whom she was to be a witness.  Soon Israel's position of privilege became a position of punishment.      "Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD: Behold, I, even I, am against thee, and will execute judgments in the midst of thee in the sight of the nations" (Ezekiel 5:8).  "Moreover I will make thee waste, and a reproach among the nations that are round about thee, in the sight of all that pass by" (vs. 14).      In my very early years, I found myself in a similar situation.  I had a part in a special children's program.  The part assigned to me required a delayed entrance onto the stage.  When I was given my cue and a helping push, I suddenly found myself looking at a sea of adult faces all looking at me....

FIVE REASONS WHY WE FAIL TO OVERCOME SINFUL HABITS: 1. We try to conquer habits in the energy of the soul. God wants us to exercise spiritual power over habits. Satan wants us to fight habits with the energy of our souls. Our souls (Greek: psuche) consist of our mental power, our will power, and our emotional power. These are no match for the bondage of sinful habits. Only by spiritual power can we conquer sinful habits. "For if ye live after the flesh ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify [conquer] the deeds of the body, ye shall live" ' (Romans 8:13). 2. We are double-minded. A double-minded person has a desire to overcome sinful habits and a conflicting desire to enjoy them God warns that such a person cannot hope for any consistent victory over sin. A double-minded (Greek: dipsuchos soul) person has not yet learned to hate evil; he will be unstable in all of his ways (See James 1:8). 3. We fail to understand what it means to be in Christ. The only wa...