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Beth Moore. | (Photo: Facebook)Popular Bible teacher and author Beth Moore has sparked a fiery debate online about whether spending time reading the Bible is the same thing as spending time with God.“Spending time with God and spending time with the Bible are not the same thing. The Bible is the Word of God, crucial to knowing Him, but it’s not God. We can study our Bibles till the 2nd coming & leave God completely out of it. We can grow in facts & never grow a whit in faith,” Moore declared in an initial tweet on the subject...

Chinese communist authorities forced a church in China’s Henan Province to take down the first of the Ten Commandments given to Moses, as it was deemed offensive.Bitter Winter Magazine, which reports on religious freedom violations in China, said that the incident occurred in November, when 30 officials conducted an inspection of a government-approved Three-Self church in Henan’s Luoning county.Inside the church, they saw the Ten Commandments displayed on the wall, and declared that the first commandment must be removed and proceeded to wipe it off.The Ten Commandments, given by God to the Jewish people through Moses, became the bedrock of...

“A voice out of the heavens said, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased’” (Matthew 3:17). No Old Testament sacrifice, no matter how carefully selected, was genuinely and completely pleasing to God. The people could not possibly find an animal without some imperfection. Furthermore, the blood of the sacrificial animals was at best only symbolic, “for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Heb. 10:4; cf. 9:12). But the Cross would effect a sacrifice that would be “with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of...

“The heavens were opened, and he [John] saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him” (Matthew 3:16). About the supernatural sign that occurred at the conclusion of Jesus’ baptism, one commentator has suggested, “Just as the veil of the Temple was rent in twain to symbolize the perfect access of all men to God, so here the heavens are rent asunder to show how near God is to Jesus, and Jesus to God.” But did Jesus really need an anointing from the Holy Spirit? When He came to earth, Jesus retained His full deity. In...

Do you see my children I Am moving through the storms in your life even now sweeping up all your circumstances into the forgetful sea, Therefore do not look back for I AM God and not man . Come to Me ~ Run to The Lord of the battle for I command Peace and it is My Peace I SPEAK OVER YOU EVEN NOW . . . I hold the very Matrix and Tapestry of ALL CREATION in My Hand and as I move so it surrenders its movement to me. So come and Be one with Me My children...

Southern Baptist Convention President J.D. Greear has recently tackled the question of whether God still speaks to people audibly as described in the Bible. In a video posted by The Gospel Coalition, Greear discussed the question by noting that he has “never been comfortable putting God in a lot of boxes that He doesn’t put himself in.” “I don’t know of anywhere in the Bible that says, ‘no, He will absolutely never speak audibly again to man on the earth,’” explained Greear. “I will say that the Bible does indicate that the way that His Spirit speaks is obviously through...

“After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water” (Matthew 3:16). Christians, especially new believers, sometimes wonder what mode of baptism Jesus underwent, and therefore wonder which is correct for them to experience. Since genuine baptism represents cleansing from sin and symbolizes the believer’s identification with Christ’s death and resurrection, the ordinance must involve immersion, not merely sprinkling or pouring. The Greek word (baptizo) literally means to dip or submerge an object into water or another liquid. Confusion regarding the word’s meaning resulted largely because Latin and more modern-language translations of Scripture simply transliterated many occurrences of the Greek...

Al Fadi is a former Wahabbi Muslim from Saudi Arabia. He is the researcher, editor, writer, and translator for numerous ministries, including "Answering Islam" and runs an outreach ministry designed for non-Muslim and Christians. Al Fadi came to America to convert people to Islam, but was challenged by his own faith.

“Simon Peter replied, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ ” - Matthew 16:16 In John 1, Jesus is presented to us with a number of different names or titles. He is given the names Word, the Son, the Lamb of God, and several others, all of which help us better understand the nature of His mission. Indeed, the New Testament calls Jesus by many names, and the more we know about these names, the more we know about our Savior. We will now take a break from our study of John’s gospel in order to study some...

“Jesus answering said to him, ‘Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness’” (Matthew 3:15). The most important symbol Jesus’ baptism gives us is a perfect example of obedience to God the Father. Our Lord always modeled obedience in all things (e.g., Phil. 2:6–8; cf. Matt. 17:25–27). In submitting to baptism, Jesus affirmed the validity of John’s standard of righteousness and demonstrated that baptism was God’s will to which every believer should be obedient. Furthermore, Jesus’ baptism is a profound, symbolic identification with sinful humanity. Hundreds of years earlier the...

Spark Networks Inc., owner of ChristianMingle.com, LDSSingles.com and other faith-based dating websites, will make its services more LGBT-friendly after settling a discrimination lawsuit filed by two gay men. The dating sites previously “required new users to specify whether they’re a man seeking a woman or a woman seeking a man,” The Wall Street Journal reported. Now, people will simply sign-up as a male or female. Additionally, “Spark Networks agreed that within two years, it would adjust other searching and profile features to give gay and lesbian singles a more tailored experience,” the article noted. The lawsuit focused on a California...

“John tried to prevent Him, saying, ‘I have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?’” (Matthew 3:14). John the Baptist’s initial reluctance to baptize Jesus is a testimony to Jesus’ sinlessness—and John’s awareness of his own sinfulness. In effect, John said to Jesus, “I’m a sinner, just like everyone else I baptize, so why should You, the sinless Son of God, want me to baptize You?” In an indirect yet definite fashion, John agreed with the later description of Christ by the writer of Hebrews, “One who has been tempted in all things as we...

“Then Jesus arrived . . . coming to John, to be baptized by him” (Matthew 3:13). In the original text of this passage, the wording “to be baptized” emphasizes purpose in this momentous appearance by the Lord Jesus. But it was extremely difficult for John the Baptist to understand why the God-Man would need to be baptized. John’s baptism was for the confession of sin and repentance (3:2, 6, 11), but Jesus as the Lamb of God (John 1:29) had no need for such a baptism. It is hard to see why One who would take away sin would need...

“Then Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan” (Matthew 3:13). There is something majestic about Jesus’ baptism that brought all the previous events of His earthly life into focus. Here He came fully onto the stage of the gospel story and His work and ministry truly began. Following an eternity past in heaven and thirty years of obscurity in Nazareth, God presented the Savior publicly to the world. John the Baptist, as “the voice of one crying in the wilderness,” had heralded the coming of the Messiah (3:3; cf. Isa. 40:3), and now He was fully and publicly prepared to...

"Assuredly He does not give help to angels, but He gives help to the descendant of Abraham. Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted" (Heb. 2:16-18). Jesus came to sympathize with us, so He could be our merciful and faithful High Priest. In his letters to...

“[Christ] is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the first-born from the dead; so that He Himself might come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fulness to dwell in Him” (Colossians 1:18-19). Christ has preeminence in everything. The apostle Paul presents four great truths in Colossians 1:18 about Christ’s relation to the church. The first is that Christ is the head of the church. This concept looks at the church as a living organism, inseparably tied together by the living Christ. He controls every...

Greetings, To the churches of God that are in the United States, Israel, the severed province of Judea and Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth; to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. For the commandments, 'You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,' and any other commandment, are summed...

"Since . . . the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil; and might deliver those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives" (Heb. 2:14-15). Christ came to break the power of Satan which He did by conquering death. To be free to live with God and share in all His blessings, someone had to shatter Satan's death grip on us. Sin is what gives Satan his powerful hold on...

“[Christ] is before all things, and in Him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:17). The eternal Christ sustains His creation. When the universe began, Christ already existed. The apostle John spoke of Christ’s eternal existence this way: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him; and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being” (John 1:1-3). Christ Himself testified of the same truth when He told the Jews, “Before Abraham was born, I...

And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him. And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And he came by the Spirit into the temple: and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him after the custom of the law, Then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said…(Luke 2:25-28)One of the...