To Be in the Faith One more time let’s go back to our focal text—the passage we’re digging into. It says we have to test ourselves. Remember? Okay, so we test ourselves, but for what reason? What’s the testing about? It’s to see whether we are in the Faith or not. The Bible says: Test  yourselves   to see if you are in the Faith ; examine  yourselves ! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you —unless indeed you fail the test  (2 Corinthians 1

A Clear Conscience Those of us who are in the New Covenant know that its demands for holiness are much higher than the Old Covenant's demands. In other words, keeping Jesus' commandments is much more challenging than keeping Moses' commandments. To follow Jesus is much harder than following Moses. Compare the Sermon on the Mount to the Ten Commandments, and you'll see what we mean. Keeping the Ten Commandments is easy compared to loving your enemies, having a pure heart, fast

King Uzziah King Uzziah was the tenth king of Judah, in the line of Kings David and Solomon. You may have heard of the prophets Hosea, Isaiah, Amos, and Jonah. Well, they all ministered during Uzziah’s reign, a reign which lasted 52 years (790 to 739 BC). Remembering their ministries may help you to recall the times of this amazingly successful king. Uzziah did well as king and prospered. He was one of the few good kings in Israel's history, having begun his rule at age 16. T

Our Passage The Bible passage we are unpacking is about testing yourself to see whether you are in the Faith. This is part II of our explanation of a verse that says that we should test ourselves to determine whether we are in the original Christian doctrine--the doctrine handed down to us from the Apostles. Here is the passage again. In it, Paul addresses the Corinthian believers, and says to all of us: Test yourselves  to see if you are in the Faith ; examine yourselves ! O

Mandatory Testing Women who suspect that they are pregnant can take a test to see whether they’re going to have a baby or not. Young...

Perseverance As Paul pursued a ministry of building up churches, he wrote to the Corinthian church that they should stand firm in the...

A Formula for Growth Churches were strengthened in the Faith in the times of the Apostles because believers avoided four particular sins....

John Warns Us John ends his first epistle with the ominous words: ‘Dear children, keep yourselves from idols ’ (1 John 5:21) and although...

A Formula For Growth New Testament churches were strengthened in the Faith by avoiding four special sins. Most people ignore the way...

Four Restrictions Why would overcoming four specific temptations strengthen a congregation in the Faith and make it grow? Let’s consider...

Delivering Decisions After a fallout with Barnabas over whether to take Mark with them or not, Paul continued his missionary journeys...

First Stop: Cyprus The Faith has faced opposition from the start. You don’t have to wait for the Apostasy to encounter opposition to it....

The Role of a Deacon We’re going to dig into a passage about deacons, and we're going to investigate what it says about deacons'...

Adhering to a Mystery Paul employed an expression people don’t often use in churches these days— the mystery of the Faith . When was the...

Trending Towards Apostasy You'll recall that the term apostasy means a falling away . So the Apostasy can be defined as "the Great...

The Apostasy Have you observed how sound Christian doctrine— the Faith —has become less common as history marches on? It has. Every day...

Baby Steps When parents teach their children to walk, their goal is firmness. They want to see their child standing with stability. They...

A Revival? In many Evangelical circles there is talk of an end-times revival—but where is this mentioned in the Bible? Sure, it would be...

Illustration: A Tree There are unique kinds of faith. The faith you start the Christian life with is different from what the apostles...

Progress in the Faith The Apostle Paul pushed for his churches’ progress in the Faith. What does progress in the Faith look like? Has...