The Joshua Victor Theory

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In Matthew 10 Jesus sends out His apostles on the mission of His kingdom. Life in His kingdom is not an easy mission—quite the opposite—He promises it will be hard. Expect it. Thinking of quitting or surrendering? Jesus speaks courage to your heart! He transforms fear into courage in His kingdom. Let’s see how. In verses 26-33, Jesus uses the word “fear” four times. Three times it’s: “ Don’t fear ”; and once it’s to “ fear God .” What’s there to be afraid of? When you stand up and live for Jesus, you will be misunderstood and rejected, like Him. You can potentially face mockery, hatred, persecution, and in the worst cases, death. Many fears in life are exaggerated and blown out of proportion. But some are perfectly real. But whatever the fear, Jesus calls: “ Fear not.” Virtually no one is trying to kill us because we are Christian. We live in a free country. But that kind of extreme persec...

·          Jesus the greatest teacher and master storyteller ·          Stories convey deep spiritual truth; designed to get our attention ·          Unique among His stories, character of Lazarus has a name; significant to meaning of the story: “The one whom God helps” ·          Looking at his life—the rich man feasts lavishly, and living in luxury, while poor Lazarus suffers quietly in misery, licked by dogs outside his gate, until he dies—you might think it a cruel joke that his name means “the one whom God helps.” Ironic? Doesn’t his suffering show evidence that God had abandoned him? ·          Natural way of thinking: life is prosperous and well; God must be showing favor—but if life is filled with suffering and evil things, that God must be showing secret displeasure ...

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. In today’s reading from Mark 9, Jesus speaks to His disciples on a range of issues, from spiritual warfare to the deadly danger of hell. First of all, Jesus disciples try to stop a man from casting out demons in Jesus’ name. Apparently this stranger was not among the main group of Jesus’ followers, but was successfully casting out demons by the power of Jesus’ name. Jesus says that if he is doing these mighty works in His name, he can’t at the same time be an enemy of Jesus. In the same way today having the same earthly leadership and organization is not what matters—but whether one is under Christ’s authority and leadership. Jesus’ true followers are scattered far and wide, and what links them is true faith in Him. Even the smallest act of service for the sake of Jesus Christ, even offering a cup of cold water, will not go unnoticed or unrewarded by Christ. All true service for Christ is honored by Him, not wh...

·          Do you think you’ll have difficulty entering the kingdom of God? Thought about it? For many, this question is way off their radar. A hard place to enter? American confidence—assume we’re all virtually guaranteed a spot. A study by George Barna in 2003: 81% believed in an afterlife, 76% believe there is a heaven, 71% there is a hell. However, only one half of 1% believe they will go to hell, while 64% believe they will go to heaven. Not convinced of Jesus’ words? Way to heaven is narrow, path to destruction is broad and easy? Of course polls and statistics will never tell us whether 50 % will actually go to heaven, and 50% to hell, or 40/60, 20/80, or anything like that. Only God knows. But we’re not that different from the disciples—surprised at the difficulty of getting into heaven—first for the rich, then for anyone—then plain impossible! ·          Jesus’ conversation—after the rich young m...

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Welcome again to our Children’s Sunday, and I want to thank our children for their beautiful singing, and for your support and encouragement for them today. Today I want to talk to you about Important News. Several questions to think about: What is important to me? Am I listening to important news? How would I recognize important news? What do you do with important news once you’ve heard it? As we consider some of these questions, we’ll be looking at the story Jesus told about the rich man and Lazarus. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. So what is important to you? God? Your children? Your family? Your possessions? Your life? The things that are most important to us are the things that we give our greatest time, attention, and effort to. They’re the things that we want to protect and keep safe, or the things that give us protection and security. So ...