Examine Yourself – part 5 of 6

God doesn't want half of your heart. He wants all of you. He doesn't want weekend worship and weekday rebellion. He doesn't want lip service and life compromise. He wants the kind of faith that causes you to burn the bridges to your past, to set fire to your idols, to walk away from sin without looking back. True salvation is costly. It costs your pride, it costs your control, it costs your plans. But oh, what it gives in return...

Examine Yourself - Part 4 of 6

You cannot cuddle the very sin Christ was crucified for. Salvation is not just about going to heaven, it's about being made holy. It's about God reclaiming what sin tried to destroy. It's about restoration, redemption, renewal. It is the power of God that doesn't just save you from something, it saves you into something... into purpose, into destiny, into sonship, into the image of Christ. The blood of Jesus is not weak.

Examine Yourself - Part 3 of 6

You say "God knows my heart." Yes He does and that should terrify you if your life doesn't match your lips. He sees the bitterness you hide, the lust you tolerate, the pride you feed, the idols you protect, and He calls you not to condemnation, but to repentance. Repentance is not a one-time event. It is a lifestyle... a daily dying, a constant realigning with God's will. If you haven't wept over your sin in months; if you haven't felt conviction in your soul, then perhaps you've hardened your heart. The Spirit still speaks. The question is “Are you listening?” He convicts, He warns, He calls, but every time you silence His voice, every time you say not now... your heart grows colder, your ears duller, your soul more numb, and eventually the truth that once pierced you no longer moves you. Don't wait until your conscience is too callous to hear Him. Don't gamble with your soul.

Examine Yourself - Part 2 of 6

A tree is known by its fruit.
So what does your fruit say? Let the Spirit examine your heart; let the word be your mirror. Have you truly repented? Have you truly believed? Has grace changed you or just made you comfortable. 

Examine Yourself – Part 1 of 6, attributed to Billy Graham

You may carry a Bible in your hand, you may walk through the doors of a church every Sunday, you may wear the cross around your neck and even say grace before meals, but I stand before you today to declare this truth... none of that means you are truly saved. You think you're saved, but this proves you are not because salvation is not a performance, it's not a ritual, it's not a habit you picked up from your parents, or a culture you were born into. It is a radical transformation. It is a death and a resurrection and if your life doesn't bear the marks of that divine interruption, then I say this with love and urgency, you are not saved.

Resurrection

Job 14:14 asks, If a man dies, will he live again?

It sounds like Job wasn’t so sure. Perhaps he asks a rhetorical question? But then in chapter 19:25-27 he writes, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit we must remember... 
I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth; and after my skin is destroyed, this I know, when I awake in my flesh I shall see God, I myself will see him, with my own eyes; I, and not another. How my heart (or soul) yearns within me!

Rom. 15:4 says, For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.

Who Were/Are The Nicolaitans

Rev. 2:6, But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

Rev. 2:9, “I know your works, tribulation, and poverty (but you are rich); and I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a [e]synagogue of Satan.”

Rev. 2:14-15, “But I have a few things against you, because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality. Thus you also have those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.”

For ALL Have Sinned

 “...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Rom. 3:23

But let’s back up to verse 9 a minute...
Are we better than the Jew? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin. As it is written: