Greetings BA Readers, This is my last “First Word” of 2023. I thank the Lord for His blessings this year, and I thank you for your continued support. According to Crosswalk.com, the two most searched Bible verses are John 3:16 and Jeremiah 29:11. I bet you can quote the first one, but do you know […]

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Is sanctification essential for salvation? Salvation is what God does for humanity. Based on His sovereign will, He reconciles those to be redeemed to Himself (Romans 5:6-11; Colossians 1:20-23; 2 Corinthians 5:17-21). God’s saving plan is grace toward all those who receive Him with faith in Jesus Christ (John 3:15-18; 1 Thessalonians 5:9, 10; Romans […]

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Arteriosclerosis is a physical health condition brought on when plaque and cholesterol form in our arteries and cause them to harden and lose their elasticity. Over time, arteriosclerosis can completely close an artery, thus depriving the body of vital oxygen-rich blood and leading to physical death. However, if discovered in the early stages, the condition […]

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Have you ever felt like Peter in Matthew 26, when he loudly and proudly proclaimed to Jesus that even if everyone else fell away, he would remain loyal — that even if faced with death, he would never deny his Lord? We all know the rest of that story. Peter not only denied Jesus three […]

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How do we reconcile divine grace and human responsibility in the work of salvation?     Ephesians 2:8 is maybe the best verse for understanding the divine-human dynamic in the work of salvation. Through this text we can assert, by introduction, that these two are reconciled within a particular covenant relationship. Let’s look: “For by grace […]

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Prison life has beat the hellion out of me. It has helped me to learn not to be hardheaded when God is trying to teach me something. For these lessons, I thank God. Life is a painful struggle, but only the dead need not struggle. For these struggles, I thank God. Trials and tribulations have […]

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“Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again” (John 3:3, NIV). “Please be prepared to share a brief testimony next week about how you came to know the Lord.” Our Bible study leader looked around our small circle of women and smiled. “I’m sure we’ll […]

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And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed” (Galatians 3:8). In the above passage, Paul writes that God announced the gospel in advance to Abraham. It’s an interesting statement, and one that raises questions. Why was […]

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Do Christians lose salvation when they sin? We do not lose our salvation by sinning. If we did, none of us could remain saved very long. More than a few scriptures affirm the reality of sin’s presence in us all — all our earthly lives (1 Kings 8:46; Psalm 53:3; Isaiah 64:6; Romans 3:23). The […]

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The average U.S. church will see just one unsaved person come to faith in a typical calendar year, according to research from the Barna Group. Groundwire.net will welcome about 250,000 into the kingdom of God this year alone, its president says. Sean Dunn’s organization led more than 116,000 mostly teens and young adults to Christ […]

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I find myself struggling with the concept of perfection on a daily basis. I feel the need to be as close to flawless as possible in everything I do. This is called perfectionism. It appears in my school work, my art, and my music. It is hard for me to acknowledge that I cannot achieve […]

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Does being made righteous refer to a status or a process? The short answer is both. Let’s take a closer look at this great word, starting with its background in the Old Testament.  In both Hebrew and Greek, the basic meaning of righteousness is “conformity to a norm.” In its biblical context, the norm that […]

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