Category: Articles

How You Can Have and Keep the Holy Spirit

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As recorded in Scripture, the Holy Spirit was given to the Church of God on the day of Pentecost following the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

“When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues [languages, as each listener heard the message in his own language, verse 6], as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:1-4).

This was obviously a special manifestation of the Holy Spirit, as the phenomena mentioned is not typical of the giving of the gift of the Holy Spirit.

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Is This the Only Day of Salvation?

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Is it true, as has often been taught within professing Christianity, that the question of eternal salvation is sealed at the time of one’s death? Are some of your loved ones, simply because they did not profess faith in Christ during their earthy pilgrimage, destined to suffer eternal torment forever?

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God Is the Giver of Every Blessing

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Since Adam and Eve, in the Garden of Eden, chose the rulership of Satan in the Garden of Eden over that of God, their Creator, human beings have suffered many calamities and sorrows.

Yet, God has also greatly blessed humanity, as well, especially the descendants of Abraham in the latter days. The apostle James, a half-brother of Jesus Christ, wrote, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning” (James 1:17).

We may look around us and see all kinds of evils, and things to be concerned about, but we also need to be mindful of our blessings. And the Bible promises that in a future age, there are even greater blessings to come. In this article I want to explore the subject of God as the Giver of every blessing.

I’m going to show you from the Scriptures, that testify of God’s intervention in human affairs, how God is the source of specific blessings. Those discussed below are by no means an exhaustive list of God’s blessings, but they are fundamental to life and happiness, and too often we take them for granted.

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Firstborn From the Dead

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“Firstborn from the dead” is how Jesus Christ is referred to in Revelation 1:5 and Colossians 1:18 (New King James and other translations, some translations into English phrase it somewhat differently, but with essentially the same meaning). In this article, I want to discuss the implications of the title “Firstborn from the Dead,” as it applies to Jesus Christ.

Is this term to be understood only as a title denoting preeminence, as some have suggested? Or does it also imply that Jesus Christ is the first, in time order, to be “born” from the dead, as a metaphor for the resurrection? We know that others were resurrected from the dead before Jesus Christ was. He himself had resurrected his friend Lazarus, who had died, and had also resurrected others from the dead during his ministry (Matthew 9:18-19, 23-25; 11:5; Luke 7:11-16, 22; 8:41-42, 49-56; John 11:11-45). So why is Jesus Christ called the “firstborn from the dead,” and what significance does that have?

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Follow God

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Since the year 1789, when the government of the United States began to operate under the newly adopted Constitution, there have been periodic elections to select a President as head of the executive branch of the Federal government, and representatives to serve in the Legislative branch.

Political parties emerged, led by influential politicians. Implied in this system of government is an appeal by the various office holders or would-be office holders to “follow me.”

Those chosen write the laws, set the policies, and administer the government in line with their ideas of how the nation should be governed. Fortunately, the framers of the Constitution had the wisdom to limit the powers of government, ostensibly guaranteeing certain rights to the citizens that the government could not impinge on, such as freedom of speech, freedom of worship, etc.

At times those rights have been respected, but on other occasions they have been violated. Under slavery those enslaved had no rights to speak of. Since slavery was outlawed, theoretically everyone is to have equal rights under the law, including individual freedoms recognized by the Constitution.

Today, in the year 2021 as this is being written, we live in a time when those who wield power over the country seek more and more aggressively to impose their views on its citizens with or against their will. Freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and other individual rights have rarely been less secure on a national scale in the United States than they are today, because of the leaders the people, at least many of them, have chosen to follow.

Government oppression in the United States and some other western nations has not yet reached the level prevailing in many other nations, but it is headed in that direction. Oppression has been the rule among the governments of mankind throughout history.

Human beings are by nature social creatures. In any organized society there have to be leaders, and there have to be those who follow. Most of us function in some way as leaders in certain situations, and as followers in other respects.

We all make choices in whom to follow, and what to follow. The leader or leaders you choose to follow can have far reaching consequences on your own welfare. So, whom should you follow?

The Bible has a lot to say about leading and following. And the Bible is very specific in telling us whom to follow. We are to follow God. Any other choices about this question are subordinate to that choice. Either we are following God, or we are not. And the choices we make determine the answer to that question.

The title of this article is “Follow God.” And we will explore briefly what the Bible has to say about this subject.

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