Lifestyle

 Every so often I run into people that claim that they do not sin.

An inspirational message from Ty Houghtaling.

The point of that story is this: It is so important to know who we are and who other people are. If we know what makes us tick and what makes other people tick, we get along better.

Each team plays 13 games a night, taking up to two hours.

To serve more students, one of the primary drivers will be new programs.

An inspirational message for the day.

 Every congregation has some form of government. Our church is a mix of democratic and staff led principles.

Wheeler CowperthwaiteMeals with WheelsGrilling is the perfect way to spend the summer, so try this recipe for grilled Greek chicken Since summer is here,...

I received an email with a survey for evangelical pastors from a church curriculum provider the other day. In it, I was asked how often a Gospel presentation was offered at my church. Generally speaking, we offer an invitation to accept the Good News every Sunday. On occasion, there has been a Sunday where an invitation wasn’t offered to accept the message of Jesus. Church leaders can get fearful, maybe fearful is too strong of a word, of confronting non-church people (non-followers of Jesus) with the Gospel. There is pressure on pastors and church leaders to keep from running people off with the confrontational message about sin and our need for a Savior. Supposedly, many churches don’t even use terminology like “sin”, “salvation”, or “you must be born again”. The message of “love God and love people” (a critical message of Christianity) is typically what resonates with churches that are uncomfortable with evangelism. The survey I took brought up these types of concerns. I am nominally aware of the trends of churches and the concerns of pastors who do not wish to offend people due to the confrontational nature of Jesus’ message of forgiveness and transformation. The truth is, the Gospel message is confrontational. And, until a person can admit their sins and repent of those sins against God and then, by faith, believe in Jesus as the one God sent to die on our behalf, salvation isn’t possible. I accepted that message a long time ago and I am not ashamed of that message. I will continue to present it to anyone willing to consider it for it is the power of God for salvation (Rm 1:16). What are your thoughts? Are the concerns over the church’s invitation to respond to the Gospel at the end of a service merited? Why or why not? Email me at ty@fbcartesia.org and maybe we both can make sharing the Good News about Jesus easier and more effective. (FYI “Repent of your sins”: Mt 3:2, Rv 2:16, Mt. 4:17, Mk 1:15, Ac 2:38, Ac 3:19, Lk 13:3; “be born again” Mt 3:3, 2 Cr 5:17, Ez 36:26-27, Ti 3:5, 1 Pt 1:23, Rm 6:4, Ep 2:4-5, 1 Jn 5:1, Ja 1:18; “salvation” 2 Co 6:2, Rm 13:11)

I want to invite you to consider the phrase “The pursuit of happiness.”

  In a few short words Paul said that our debt of sin has been paid in full by Jesus. 

In the early 1920’s Philo Farnsworth was working on a farm, plowing a straight line on a potato farm. His mind was far away, thinking about the possibility of transmitting moving pictures through the air.