Minister Moose Tracks

*Adopted from a sermon on 1 John 1:5-10 preached at Riverside Christian Fellowship in Hernando, FL* Forgiveness of sins is a work accomplished by Christ alone. God has been more than generous to us by sending His Son to shed His blood on the cross, where we find forgiveness and new life (Eph. 1:7). Because of that, Christians ought never to think, "I need to forgive myself." There is no power in that notion; there is no real forgiveness in "forgiving self." Self-forgiveness, as humble as it may look on the surface, is a form of self-idolatry. Let me explain. A Christian sees his forgiveness in Christ as all-saving and all-sufficient, but does he see it as all-satisfying? When you commit a sin, you feel bad about it, you confess it, and repent...but there is something that lingers in your mind. You've believed what God has declared in His Word, you ARE forgiven of your sins, but there remains an empty space in your heart that hasn't been satisfied; there i...

"Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God." -1 Corinthians 6:9-11 In our day, such biblical passages such as the one above are condemned as being judgmental; indeed they are, but rightfully so (John 7:24). During a St. Patrick's Day local festival last month, I took God's Word to the street in an area where a saint of God is being celebrated with leprechauns, pots of gold, and drunken debauchery. While my wife and others with us were handing out gospel tracts, a man who walked past me became angry about what I was preaching and thought I was being judgmental ...

About two weeks after the Lord saved me from my sins, my pastor confronted me one day and said,"You know, now that you're a Christian, you better clean up that mouth of yours." I was immediately convicted by this; by the grace of God, I was finished using foul language a few weeks afterward. This was one of my first tastes of the pure life that God desires for me to live. I see, however, many who profess to be Christians and still strongly sound the bell of worldliness. The Holy Spirit, of course, works at different speeds when it comes to sanctifying people, but there still is evidence...if indeed the Spirit does reside within a person. These people are not new to the faith, but rather proclaim to have a faith in Christ without any transformation. Such people have "cheapened" grace by simply wanting to escape the fires of hell and nothing more. Does God just save people to save them with also allowing them to live their lives as the world leads them?...

Ruth 1:19-21 19  So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. And when they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them. And the women said, “Is this Naomi?” 20  She said to them, “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. 21  I went away full, and the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi, when the Lord has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?” Distraught, sorrowful, and likely confused due to the death of her husband and two sons, Naomi understood these events to be signs that God was against her and therefore treated her harshly. Her reaction is somewhat reminiscent of Job's wife who said, "Curse God and die" (Job 2:9). While having a finite understanding of their own circumstances, both Naomi and Job's wife witnessed the events that surrounded them and subsequently developed a bitterness toward their Creator. While a backstory ...

Ruth 1:15-18 15  And she said, “See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” 16  But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. 17  Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.” 18  And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more. When the Spirit stirs within a person to fervently pursue the ways of God, the person's will is conformed to His own and diligently seeks ways to please Him. In this brief wonderful story found in the Old Testament,  we read of a woman named Ruth who dwelled in the pagan city of Moab. Ten years after two Israelite men took Ruth and Orpah, another Moabite woman, to be their wives, they both died, leaving Naomi, th...

Genesis 3:8-13 8  And they heard the sound of the  Lord  God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the  Lord  God among the trees of the garden.  9  But the  Lord  God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10  And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”  11  He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”  12  The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.”  13  Then the  Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” In the verse before our passage (v. 7), we read that the eyes of Adam and Eve were opened and so they sewed fig leaves together to co...