Hidden Treasures

For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame. For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God; but if it bears thorns and briers, it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned. I want to start by saying that, if you wear the lenses of performance-based Christianity, this could be a scary scripture, for it sounds like your salvation hinges on your behavior. Do good, get good, but fall away and you’re lost forever. We need to understand that the book of Hebrews was written to a group of Jewish believers in Christ who were tempted under the threat of pers...

Do you know that God calls us Beloved too? At the River Jordan the Voice from Heaven said of Jesus, This is my Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. (Mt 3:17, KJV) Ephesians 1:6 tells us that God has accepted us “in the Beloved” (KJV). This means that God relate to us in the same way that He relates to Jesus. He accepts us, is well pleased with us,  He calls us His beloved sons. Joseph Prince writes about this in his book, Destined to Reign. He notes that in Matthew 3 God says of Jesus, “this is my beloved Son,” but in Matthew 4 the devil says, “If you are the Son of God…” The devil did not remind Jesus that He was the beloved Son of God and neither does he remind us. The devil doesn’t want us to know what God thinks of us because once you know you are beloved, says Prince, everything changes. We rise up against the enemy’s temptations and we stand secure in our God-given identity. Beloved, there is nothing you can do today...