God is the fountain of life; and when one chooses the service of sin, he separates from God, and thus cuts himself off from life. He is “alienated from the life of God.” Christ says, “All they that hate Me love death.” God gives them existence for a time that they may develop their character and reveal their principles. This accomplished, they receive the results of their own choice. By a life of rebellion, Satan and all who unite with him place themselves so out of harmony with God that His very presence is to them a consuming fire. The glory of Him who is love will destroy them. ( The Desire of Ages )
Because of the pride and ambition of the human race, God has chosen to perform His mighty works by the most simple and humble means….
His care for the works of His creation is unwearied and incessant. When men and women go forth to their daily toil, as when they engage in prayer; when they lie down at night, and when they rise in the morning; when the rich feast in their palaces, when the poor gather their children about the scanty board, all are tenderly watched by their heavenly Father….
With humble prayer and trusting faith, we would seek counsel from God…. Then all our acts would be governed by discretion, our energies would be rightly directed.
As Christians, we have two natures at war within us—the spirit and the flesh. “The flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish” (Galatians 5:17). The carnal, or physical, desires of the flesh want to be satisfied selfishly. However, the spirit strives to be pure, do God’s will, and obey His commandments. The latter is the higher nature we should aim to please. Peter and other New Testament writers speak about this war between the spirit and the flesh.
In Romans 8, Paul is encouraging Christians to walk after our spiritual natures and not our fleshly desires. He describes this difficult battle in Romans 7: “I am carnal, sold under sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do”. There is a simple, but not always easy, solution to this dilemma.
Here is a crude but effective illustration. Imagine you have two dogs of the same breed. You feed one of your dogs the very best dog food, and you pet and groom him for attention, take him out for walks, and provide plenty of fresh water and rest. But the other dog you chain to a post, don’t provide food, water, exercise, or attention at any time. Now imagine releasing the two dogs in the same area. Eventually, they’ll do battle for the territory. Who will win? It’s easy to guess that the dog that is well nourished and exercised will conquer the starved animal.
It’s the same with the battle between our two natures. The way you win the battle is decided by which nature you feed. If you feed the spirit by reading God’s Word, praying, fellow-shipping, and sharing your faith, you will strengthen your spiritual nature and make more room for the Holy Spirit.
As we work toward strengthening our spiritual nature, we need to keep our focus on the things of God. “Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit” (Romans 8:5). Furthermore, there are certain pitfalls to avoid. Whenever we choose to feed our fleshly nature with worldly amusements and sensual gratification, for instance, our carnal nature will be on the throne and our spirit will lose the battle.
The devil uses worldly reading materials, music, television, and movies, often disguising them as “family entertainment,” to tempt us and numb our spiritual sensors. But these instant satisfactions have potentially terrible eternal consequences. They will make your spiritual muscles limp and weak. Remember, when temptation comes, whatever side we have strengthened will win the battle. This is literally a life-and-death struggle, “for to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace” (Romans 8:6).
The good news is that if we put our trust in Him, the Lord will make sure we succeed in this effort. He promises to strengthen us. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). He reminds us that He is “able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us” (Ephesians 3:20). And He assures us that we can triumph through His power. “Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:57).
Every day, we’re making a series of little decisions to walk after the flesh or after the spirit. Pray daily, even hourly, for God’s protection and always be mindful when investing time and resources in worldly amusements. Real satisfaction is found in the Prince of Peace, not in empty worldly pleasures.
To focus on problems makes us loose our faith in Jesus. We need to turn our eyes on Him to see His wonderful face. What a failure if we have eyes but cannot see.
The angels of heaven do not come to the earth to rule, and to exact homage, but as messengers of mercy, to co-operate with men in uplifting humanity. (Desire of Ages, p. 551)
FOF was a revival and reformation series in November 2017 presented by Pastor Doug Batchelor, coinciding with the 500th anniversary of the start of the Protestant Reformation—when Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses to a church door in Germany. Foundations of Faith will be a stirring, convicting call for Christians of all backgrounds to return to the Bible and reaffirm scriptural teachings so vital in these last days!
9-Series Program Listing
1. The Truth About the Truth There’s so much confusion about religion, can we really know – is there any absolute truth?
2. The Law of Life and Love If we’re going to understand salvation, we must understand something about sin and how it is defined.
3. Good God, Bad World If God is love, if God is all-powerful, if God is good then why is there so much suffering?
4. The Day of Restoration One of the 10 Commandments begins with the word ‘remember’ because God knew there would be a possibility we would forget. Sabbath is a day of rest and a day of restoring.
5. A Matter of Life and Death There’s a lot of confusion about what happens when we die. How does the Bible consistently refer to death?
6. True and False Prophets What does the Bible say about prophecy in the church in the last days?
7. Cleansing the Temple How did the temples represent the three parts of Salvation? Justification, Glorification, Sanctification
8. Healing, Health and Holiness God says we are to treat our bodies as a temple of the Holy Spirit and to not defile our bodies.
9. The King Returns The great climax of the world’s history is going to be when Christ comes and He sets everything right.
Can we disregard the truth of Scripture without any impact on our lives. What is your life built upon?
Standards and practices are lived and taught. Every one of us knows that conditions in society are but a reflection of conditions in the homes of the nation. We likewise know that a change in the home will be mirrored in a changed society.
Society is composed of families, and is what the heads of families make it. Out of the heart are “the issues of life”; and the heart of the community, of the church, and of the nation is the household. The well-being of society, the success of the church, the prosperity of the nation, depend upon home influences.
The elevation or deterioration of the future of society will be determined by the manners and morals of the youth growing up around us. As the youth are educated, and as their characters are molded in their childhood to virtuous habits, self-control, and temperance, so will their influence be upon society. If they are left unenlightened and uncontrolled, and as the result become self-willed, intemperate in appetite and passion, so will be their future influence in molding society. The company which the young now keep, the habits they now form, and the principles they now adopt are the index to the state of society for years to come.
If we do not have the personal assurance of salvation in Jesus, it is not possible to share it with someone else. We cannot share what we do not have ourselves. There are conscientious Christians who live in a state of perpetual uncertainty, wondering whether they will ever be good enough to be saved.
As a wise, old preacher once said, “When I look at myself, I see no possibility of being saved. When I look at Jesus, I see no possibility of being lost”. The Lord’s words ring with certainty down through the ages, “Look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other” (Isaiah 45:22).
Our Lord wants each one of us to rejoice in the salvation that He so freely offers. He longs for us to experience what it means to be justified by His grace and be free from the condemnation that the guilt of sin brings. As Paul says in Romans 5, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1, NKJV). He adds that we can have the assurance that “there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1, NKJV). The apostle John confirms that “he who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life” (1 John 5:12, NKJV).
If by faith we have accepted Jesus, and He lives in our hearts through His Holy Spirit, the gift of eternal life is ours today. This is not to say that, once we have experienced the grace of God and salvation in Christ, we can never lose it (2 Peter 2:18-22, Hebrews 3:6, Revelation 3:5). We always have the free choice to walk away from Him, but once we have experienced His love and understood the depths of His sacrifice, we should never choose to walk away from One who loves us so much. Day by day we will look for opportunities to share with others the grace given us in Jesus.
Do you have assurance of salvation in Jesus? If so, on what do you base it? Why do you have that assurance? Where is it found? On the other hand, if you are not sure, why are you not sure? How can you find that assurance?
With the high level of volatility in our world, and so many “hearts failing for fear” as they consider the future, I believe one of the most powerful things Amazing Facts can do is to present the truth about biblical prophecy.
But tragically, most of the prophecy teaching out there on TV, the Internet, and radio is inaccurate—if not completely bizarre—leading millions astray.
For example, wild speculation abounds about the Mayan calendar, which supposedly predicts the end of the world on December 21, 2012. Documentaries on the doomsday predictions of Nostradamus play everywhere. TV specials on Americans preparing for Armageddon cause nervous laughter for some and inspiration for others.
Even among Christians confusion is rampant, sending a mixed signal to the lost that the Bible is unclear or perplexing.
During the Battle of New Orleans in 1815, Andrew Jackson and his militia fighters took on the British in a bloody battle—and won despite being outnumbered 2 to 1. The British lost about 2,000 soldiers, but only 330 Americans perished. Yet this costly battle turned out to be unnecessary. A peace treaty had been signed between Britain and the United States a month earlier, but the good news was too slow to reach the battlefield. Likewise, millions are lost every day because the message of Christ’s victory is too slow in reaching them!
