In every field or profession, we can find people who seek to excel, but often there are more who settle into a place of just doing enough to get by. They may have spurts when they decide to do more or do better, but they usually do not last long before they begin to settle again. Unfortunately, Christians are generally the same about their faith with most seeming to just do enough to get by. As the Lord said to the church of Laodicea in the Book of Revelation, to be lukewarm is so repulsive to Him that He...

        There is a false concept found almost exclusively in Western Christianity—that everyone will be the same in heaven. The Scriptures refute this. Americans seem especially devoted to this concept, but the phrase in our Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal” was a political statement, not a theological one. This was addressing equal rights under the law, which was one of the greatest and most noble concepts ever promulgated by a government, but it is not true in any other way. Some are created taller, some stronger, some smarter, and so on, but all of these should...

     As we continue the theme of why we must have our own personal relationship with the Lord and not just follow others, we see an exhortation for this in The Song of Solomon. This Book was especially written for those whose life’s pursuit is to become the bride that our King so deserves. A key verse that all of these must learn is 1:7:

     Tell me, O you whom my soul loves, where do you pasture your flock, where do you make it lie down at noon? For why should I be like one who veils herself...

     We discussed how difficult it is to communicate and how culture affects this, so we must have the Spirit of God and be a part of His culture, the kingdom, to really understand His communication to us. This includes both prophetic revelation and His written Word. If we have the spirit of the world and try to read God’s Word, we will not understand it the way it was intended. This is a primary reason there can be so many different interpretations of the Scriptures. We must become one with the Author to understand it as intended.

     As...

     In our pursuit of the Lord and knowing His voice, we must always keep in mind the basic truth given to us in I Corinthians 2:12-16:

      Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God,

      which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.

      But a natural man does not accept the things of the...