Tag: gospel

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HT Video Shorts

Fun Word Friday – Name It and Claim It (A Higher Things® Video Short)

The problem with “Name It and Claim It” and prayers, is that we turn the gift into a work in order to control God, and make Him be the God we want Him to be. But we forget that because of Jesus, He’s our Father and we are His children. Because of Jesus, God is happy to hear our prayers. Because of Jesus, everything He does, He does for our good.

If you have questions or topics that you’d like discussed on Higher Things® Video Shorts, email them to support@higherthings.org or send a text to 936-647-3235. ► Subscribe to our channel to get notifications when we go live: https://dtbl.org/youtube. To support the work of Higher Things®, visit https://support.higherthings.org.

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HT Video Shorts

Theology TuesThursday – Jesus Takes Orders from a Centurion? (A Higher Things® Video Short)

Jesus is ordered by the Centurion to heal his servant. And Jesus does it! And Jesus marvels at the Centurion’s faith. Not the ordering part, but knowing that Jesus is such a God that His words do what they say. Faith is not that the guy orders Jesus but that he knows Jesus’s words do, deliver, and gift what they say — for you and for your salvation.

If you have questions or topics that you’d like discussed on Higher Things® Video Shorts, email them to support@higherthings.org or send a text to 936-647-3235. ► Subscribe to our channel to get notifications when we go live: https://dtbl.org/youtube. To support the work of Higher Things®, visit https://support.higherthings.org

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HT Video Shorts

What’s UP? Wednesday – Sports Superstitions (A Higher Things® Video Short)

The superstitious things we do when it comes to sports don’t affect the game. They don’t work! Now, if they calm you down a little bit…whatever. But they don’t work. The One that works is your Lord, Jesus. The One Who saves is Christ. The One Who is going to be for you if your team wins (or loses) is Jesus. And He’s always doing good for you.

If you have questions or topics that you’d like discussed on Higher Things® Video Shorts, email them to support@higherthings.org or send a text to 936-647-3235. ► Subscribe to our channel to get notifications when we go live: https://dtbl.org/youtube. To support the work of Higher Things®, visit https://support.higherthings.org

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The Uncultured Saints

Ep. 1: What Do We Call This…??

What’s the big deal about saying my nature is sinful or my nature is corrupted by original sin? It seems like a puny detail to focus on…but it’s really not. If we get this wrong, it messes up all our theology. Sin isn’t just the actions we do, it’s hereditary, a fatal disease we ALL inherit. And yet, sin is not who we are, it’s a condition we have. Original sin means that something has changed from the way we’re supposed to be, the way that God created all of humanity to be. This doesn’t mean that we have an excuse to sin just because it comes naturally to us. It means that we need a Savior.

 

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The Uncultured Saints

Ep. 2: The No-Jesus Coin is Bad

In spite of all the smiles and material successes, at the end of the day, most of us know we’re not doing and being our best selves. We can always do better. There is a huge chasm between who we are and who we want to be. The entire self-help industry has been built up to try and bridge that divide. When Christians talk about sin, the world hears it as a religion trying to prevent people from fully and freely living out their lives the best they can. But the reality of the situation is that sin is exactly WHY we fail, and why we never really get to where we want to be.

 

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The Uncultured Saints

Ep. 3: A Horse Named Sin

When we change the clear words and teachings of Scripture to make things more palatable for sinners, the meanings change too. We actually begin to believe we can say things better and more logically than God’s Word. Applied to the doctrine of original sin, the way we talk about sin affects the way we talk about God. If God wants things to be this corrupted, sinful way and does nothing about it He’s an evil god. But if He wants it to be better, and doesn’t want to just burn it all down and start over, He works through brokenness and sin to bring about good for us.

 

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The Uncultured Saints

Ep. 4: Free Will(y)

We can make choices about all sorts of things in our lives. But the theological doctrine of free will is not about whether you can choose what to eat for breakfast or which color shirt to put on. It’s about whether we’re able to contribute anything to our own salvation, whether we can choose to believe, whether we can “help” God help us. When it comes to worldly things, we are free to make choices as we encounter the different options. But when it comes to the things of God, not only can we not choose to help ourselves be saved, we even fight against God saving us.

 

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Ep. 5: Jesus over Journey

Justification is a fancy $5 church-word that makes us sound smart when we use it. But what does it mean? It’s all about how we are saved and made right before God. As sinners, we look to ourselves — our choices and our actions — to gauge whether we really are Christians and measure how we’re doing to stay Christians. That’s probably not the best way to go about things. It actually gets dark and twisted. When we put the focus on us, even just the tiniest bit, it’s not on Jesus. If our faith is a process, it’s not finished. If it’s about our journey, it’s not about Jesus or what He did on the cross for us.

 

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Ep. 6: Good Works…Are Still About Jesus

It makes for viral social media statements to say that not only do good works not save you but they’re harmful to salvation. But it’s totally not true. Necessary doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to be forced to do something. It can also mean that it just happens through you, necessarily, and make you love it. Nobody is saying that sinning is great, you should go out and sin more! But bragging about how we are fulfilling the law, demeaning others for not talking enough about good works, measuring of other peoples’ good works…all of it pulls away from Christ. Our peace is not in saying we should talk more about doing good works. Our peace is found in Christ forgiving sinners and making us so holy that good works would manifest themselves.

 

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Ep. 7: The Law is Bullwinkle. The Gospel is Rocky.

Moose meets Squirrel

Sometimes we think it’d be helpful to use character voices to distinguish Law and Gospel. The Law is that which God demands from us. And if you don’t fulfill it, the Law will also threaten punishment. It kind of offers salvation…if you keep it perfectly. God gives the Law to us for three good purposes, none of which are to frustrate us, but to show us who God is. In contrast, the Gospel has no threats, demands nothing from us, and doesn’t command anything from us. Instead, it proclaims that everything that needs to be done to save us all been done for us through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross, and that all of our sins are forgiven in Him.

 

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