A New Creature. . . an Apostolic Pentecostal blog

Matthew 22:36-39 Master, which is the great commandment in the law? (37) Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. (38) This is the first and great commandment. (39) And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Mark 12:28-31 And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? (29) And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: (30) And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. (31) And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. Jesus was asked point blank, what is most important and He responds th...

I came to God after being an atheist for the first 45 years of my life. It's funny to think back, but it really was far more than a disbelief in God. I actually actively hated Him. . . never really stopping to consider how logical it was to hate that which was non-existent. I regularly cursed television preachers when ever I ran across them while channel surfing on TV. I felt myself oh so morally superior to every Christian. I felt myself able to do good deeds altruistically, not needing the promise of heaven as the simpleton Christians did. How very relieved I was to learn after opening my heart to God and being baptized in Jesus name for the remission of my sins. Verses such as: Psalms 103:12 As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. As good as I thought my life to be, I was so very good at overlooking major sins of mine: oath breaking, lying, cheating, stealing, drunkenness in my own life. As long as I could see someone w...

Reading my Bible recently I was struck by how much we owe the skepticism of the Pharisees. Without their skepticism and critical questioning of Jesus, our knowledge of God and the doctrine of God would be much poorer. The disciples asked Him the respectful and kind, often naive questions as children trying to learn and we certainly learned along with them, but the Pharisees and the lawyers in all likelihood lay awake at night devising difficult rhetorical traps for Jesus. . . preparing, setting pitfalls for Him. Giving Him no advance warning to their hours and days of preparation. Jesus had to answer on his feet, in the charged atmosphere of their opposition and disdain, in full view of crowds of people that Jesus was trying to reach. What Preacher today would be able to withstand open skeptics throwing out critical questions in the middle of a sermon without losing control of the situation? Jesus not only did not allow the flaming arrows shot at Him by the Pharisees to disrupt Hi...