Minister Moose Tracks

"Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?" - Romans 2:4 For many years, my walk with God lacked knowledge of the above truth; I knew God was kind, forbearing and patient towards me, but was ignorant of how I should respond to it. Various passages of Scripture confused me such as Exodus 34:6-7,  “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.” For some years I felt self-condemned over patterns of sin in my life. I would think to myself, "Am I among the forgiven or am I among the guilty?" Was I one of God's enemies or one of His children? After all, my pattern of sin ...

When it comes to the powerful parables told by our Lord Jesus Christ, one that sticks to me is found in Luke 18:9-4, known as "The Pharisee and the Tax Collector." Back in Jesus' day, the Pharisees were the religious elite among the Jewish people and we read throughout the gospels how Jesus confronts them for being outwardly religious but spiritually dead on the inside (cf. Matt 15:8; Mark 7:6). In this particular parable from Luke 18, the Pharisee thinks he is doing just fine by God and even thanks God that he is not a wretched sinner like tax collectors. Although there may seem to be a kind of righteousness in the words of the Pharisee, the tone is undergirded with an unhealthy pride and failure to recognize one's own sin nature (cf. Rom. 3:23). The tax collector, on the other hand, is very aware of his sinfulness and spiritual poverty and cries out to God for His mercy to be upon him. In our day, there is a pride that stems from many who profess Christianity an...

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?...

Romans 10:21 "But of Israel he says, 'All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.'" The man whom God used as a vessel to bring me the gospel message was an automotive mechanic at a Tire Kingdom shop, where I too was an employee in my early adult years. He told me that God was patiently sitting at the edge of His seat holding out His hands to save my soul. This statement was very different from what I was taught in the past; it was as if God wanted a personal relationship with me or something. Why hadn't I ever heard of something like this before? You see, I grew up in the Roman Catholic Church where I was taught to say certain prayers, regularly attend Mass, pray the rosary, and attend confession/penance in order to maintain favor in God's sight (for more on this, visit http://voiceofvision.org/assets/articles/rome.pdf ). In other words, I was taught that I had to do works  in order for God to bless...