Christian Words of Encouragement

In II Corinthians 13:5, the apostle Paul commands his readers: Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test! OK, that seems straightforward enough. But what does it mean to examine yourself? What should you be looking for? How do you know whether or not you are "in the faith"? What is the "test" that we might fail? I wrote Am I Really a Christian? in order to try to help answer these questions. Well, we should all hope that we pass "the test" (again, Paul's words, not mine!). And Scripture gives us a few things to look for that would indicate that in fact we are not "in the faith". A few examples: You're not a Christian if you don't believe true doctrine: By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every s...

All Christians should be looking for ways to engage in spiritual conversation with others with hopes to talk about the gospel. Yet, many struggle to see when those doors are open or how to try and open them. Here is one easy way to engage others in a possible spiritual conversation that I was taught many years ago and has proven quite effective when asked at the right time. The only caveat is it has to get asked on Monday. The question is… “What was the sermon about yesterday?” You would be amazed at some of the responses I have gotten over the years. Responses have varied from a joyful response of a good, fruitful sermon heard by a grocery clerk to a tearful confession of skipping church from a bank teller. There is the common reaction of the awkward silence of shock from someone blindsided by the question. Of course, if you try to engage this way, you will eventually be asked the same question back and you’d better be ready to respond. Pastors, you have no excuse not to r...