 When you think about being ready, it might bring to mind thoughts of making plans. If you were going to go on vacation and take a road trip, there is a lot that goes into being ready to take that kind of trip. You have to make sure your vehicle is in good working condition, that you have the funds set aside to make the trip, and know all the places you will be staying if it's more than a day's trip. You plan ahead for these things so that you don’t have any hiccups, as far as you can control. You invest your time on planning the route you will drive and possibly even where you will need to stop for snacks or to eat a meal. If you can spend all that time in preparation for a road trip, we should realize that planning to share the Gospel with others takes time and preparation as well. Not so much on what to say-- because the Gospel is something we should know by heart because it is how we were saved--- but rather, practicing to share with others on the street, in our workplaces, at the store, or even a park. We never know when the opportunity will arise, but we should be prepared and ready. There are many other worldviews, all be it, wrong ones, other than ours; It helps to have a basic understanding of them as well. However, the main focus of ours while getting ready should be the study of God and His word, the Bible. He and it are the only solid foundation on which we stand. Knowing Him and His word helps us as we speak with others. You can see what He says on every issues we deal with as humans here on this planet. God has laid up all the wisdom we need in His Word. We should take the time to read it and “renew our minds” with His word. It's like the old adage: “garbage in-garbage out." The same is true for your thoughts and speech and how you will deal with others either throughout your day or witnessing to them. The more you saturate yourself with God's Word, the more it shows in your speech. You will start to notice it in your conversations and in your thought life. In Scripture, we are all told to be ready. One of the many places were told to be ready is in 2 Timothy 4:1-2. “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.” You can clearly see that we are told to be ready to “preach the Word” at all times for many reasons. We are also told to do it “with complete patience." If you notice at the beginning of the section we have here, you'll see that God will be the Judge over all and not that we should have a man centered reason for us sharing the Gospel. It should however concern us that others are going to go to hell if they aren't born again before it's too late. Verse 2 speaks of a time coming when people won't listen because they would rather listen to false teachers than God. They will gnash their teeth at the sound doctrine found in the Word of God. When man speaks, it's comforting to the flesh of the unsaved because they want what the worldly man wants -- not God. Let us be ready, brothers and sisters, because the time is coming, and is coming soon, when we will be faced with the same thing about which we are warned. There are already many false teachers out there wooing the world into a slumber on their way to hell. Be ready and share the Gospel. Jonathan Eckel
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 When we look at Scripture, we see some very clear statements on how we are to live our lives and how we are to handle things that come our way. Many say that the Bible isn't very clear on some things, like anxiety and while that may seem true, we must use Scripture to truly understand what Scripture says. If you see a subject about which you think the Bible isn't clear, keep searching. You must seek the entire council of God and His word before you can make such a statement. People who make statements such as that haven't spent the time to search out the will of God in His Word. It's the lazy way out. This subject, however, is very clearly attended to by Jesus Himself. It just takes a cursory search to see what God says about anxiety. It's something with which some of us, if not all, deal. Just with this following verse you can see the direction on how to deal with anxiety. I think it's the application that most people aren't getting nowadays. “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. If you read what Jesus is saying here, we see He says not to be anxious three times. He also gives examples as to why someone might be anxious and some good reasons not to be anxious. God is in control and is sovereign. It sure is easy to tell someone who is going through tough times, "Just remember that God is sovereign." Really what we should be doing is reminding them to seek after the kingdom of God and His righteousness first. What are we seeking after in our times of need or stress? What are we thinking about? Is it, how can I control my surroundings? How can I pay this bill? How can I get my kids to listen to me more? Is it something with a relationship? God truly is sovereign. We can't add a day to our life, we can't add a hair to our head. Often, we have this false sense of power and control when we focus on ourselves. I, however, believe, such as scripture and Jesus states here, that when we focus on God and His kingdom and His righteousness, we won't be so self-focused on our problems. This peace that God offers us will become real. When we focus on Him, when we trust in and on Him, we truly will have peace. That's the real application. Be eternally focused and not so much on what is happening right now. No matter what happens, if you are saved, you have that assurance that God will provide for you. As I have said before, it may not be your wants, but He will provide for your needs. I have often found myself focusing on myself and my worries and had to remind myself that I'm not applying God's direction for me in my own life. Why? Well, my flesh and the world and its troubles take over. It's a fight to stay eternally minded and to remember this simple fact: God is in control; not me and not you. Do we make plans? Yes. Do we plan for the future? Absolutely. But we do so with God and His kingdom in mind. Let's spur each other on as we deal with the troubles of the world. Pray with one another, rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep and always remember that God has everything under control and we don't need to fret. Our eternity and lives are in the hands of the One Who made it all. Let that comfort you in your times of need and strife. The God of peace can and will comfort you. The Holy Spirit, the One Who is in you, will bring that peace. Jonathan Eckel
 As we go about our day through this life after God has shown us grace and saved us from the wrath we deserve, what is our focus? Is it the worry of our day ahead? Is it our financial situations? Is it our marriage? Is it our children? What truly is your and my main focus whilst we live this life day by day? I can imagine this might be something most of us have read about at some time throughout our Christian life. Yet for some, this might be the first time you are reading about this subject. I can most assuredly tell you — I don't have “it all together” in every part of my life. I do, however, know what the Bible says about this subject. As I did a short study on this subject to prepare to write what I thought would be an easy post, turned out to be a lot more detailed than I thought. In this short study — that anyone can do — I found over 32 scripture references on holy living. One of my Favorite scriptures on this would have to be Psalm 119:9 which says: “How can a young man keep his ways pure? By guarding it according to your word.” It may seem to be a simple statement but I assure you, it isn’t. As we have mentioned before here on this website's posts and in our videos, we stand firmly on the Word of God. It is the standard by which we measure and live our lives. It is the Inspired, living, breathing Word of God given to us for everything we need to know on every subject and situation in our life. God knew what He was doing when He gave it to us. The scriptures speak time and time again on the subject of keeping our thought life pure, our speech clean and holy. Let's look at just one of these scriptures. “Therefore, preparing our minds for action, and being sober minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold bit with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.” 1 Peter 1:13-19 Just in this one little section we see that we are told to “prepare our minds for action." What is this action? It could be simply explained as living your life and while you live your life, “always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15). We’re told to be obedient children; obedient to God and His Word. Jesus said if we loved Him we would obey His commandments. I encourage you to read your Bible and find these commandments. They aren’t hidden from us. This passage also tells us not to be conformed to the passions of our former ignorance. The life we led before we were born again, wasn’t the one we were meant to live. Not only did we obey the desires of our flesh, we clung to them as a child does their teddy bear. We held them close to our hearts. They were dear to us. That life is gone now, and so should our love for that life as well. We are called to live God-honoring, holy lives in all situations and in all aspects of life. Will we always succeed at this? No. Is His grace sufficient? Yes. This doesn’t give us a license nor an excuse, but it should make us that much more thankful for the salvation and forgiveness that we have in Jesus and because of His sacrifice on our behalf. I urge you to read your Bible and follow what it says. Apply it to your life and obey God. Share the Gospel with everyone at every chance you get. To live a holy life is to be obedient to God and His Word: not a legalistic lifestyle, but an obedient one. Not looking down on others for not living that way, but loving them by sharing the Gospel and showing them, as you have been shown, mercy and grace. Forgiving one another and having patience for everyone even when you don’t want to. Jonathan Eckel
 As I sit here thinking what had happened these past few days, I keep stewing over the same undeniable fact. God is in complete control, and I derive my peace from Him and that. The verse that comes to mind is from the book of John. “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” - John 14:27 This peace as stated here “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” - Philippians 4:7, will keep us on that solid rock that is Christ Jesus our Lord. For those of you who don’t know, a storm that hasn’t been seen in a long time, and was ill prepared for, hit Texas. Many people including us were without power for more than 30 hours. It caused freezing conditions in homes causing an immense amount of damage to many properties. Not to mention the deaths that have happened from the cold, the conditions that have happened from COVID, and the inability of the trucks to deliver food to the grocery stores due to road conditions. I’ve seen first hand the chaos at the stores from the mass of people who are doing emergency buying and taking more than they need. All of this has caused a frenzy all over. People are fearing for their lives and for the lives of their families. Seeing how the world reacts to this kind of catastrophe, I sit back and see those who have this peace live and react. Either prepared or not, we move with peace and eternity in mind. This is how we should live. This is how we should live. No matter if it’s a financial storm, a rain storm, an ice storm, a power outage, a death and yes even a war, God had given us this peace as a gift. He has made His children to be Holy (set apart) from the world and to lead as an example -to lead the people of this world to Jesus. He is the Lord of peace. The King above all kings. In times of sorrow, and in times of struggle. In times of sorrow and pain, He gives us this peace that confounds the wise and the people of this world. Let us not forget that this peace we have, that was given us, can shine like a light to those around us as a beacon of hope to a lost and dying world. Let your light shine and let it shine bright for the Glory or God and the furtherance of the Gospel! Jonathan Eckel
 I have been reluctant to write on this subject because it is a difficult one to approach. The continual sin in a Christian seems odd and a highly contested issue. There are even people who claim to never have sinned after they became Christian. So, instead of listening to what people say, we should look at what Scripture says about this issue, or any issue for that matter. If we don’t get our answers from there, we are starting from the wrong point. When we stop and think about what sin is, an offense to God, we often wonder, why would I or anyone else after being saved do such a thing? Well, it has to do with your 2 different natures you have. Your flesh, or natural part of you, cries out for darkness and sin. You also have the spiritual side, that is made new, when you are born again that seeks out the righteous God honoring things. Being a Christian though is a process. It’s not perfection but direction. Going off of that idea of the “process”, there are 3 different “fied’s” when it comes to the salvation of a Christian. When you get saved you are (1) justified, where you have been made right in the sight of God, cleansed of penalty you owe God for your sin. Then as you live your life, you are (2) sanctified, a gradual growing in holiness. When you die and stand in front of God you will be (3) Glorified. This final one is when you will finally be free of this vile side of you. Where you can finally be cleansed of that sin nature that we have lived with all of our life. We look at what scripture says and we see that, 1 John 1:8 says ... “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” This is describing the fact that, we have this sin nature still in us while we are still here on this earth. It’s a battle that takes actual fighting of the spiritual nature. Prayer, renewing your mind, and taking up the shield of faith are all involved. A speaker once said “Two natures beat within my breast. The one is foul, the one is blessed. The one I love, the one I hate. The one I feed will dominate.“. It’s so true if you think about it. What are you feeding? Your flesh? If so, you and many others will notice. The exact opposite is true as well if you are focusing your energy on your spiritual life. Brothers and sisters, let our focus not be on, making ourselves presentable to man but rather to God. May we love Him with that same love that He loved us with first. Christ is and should be the focus of our life. Remember, if we love Him, we will obey His commandments. Not perfectly but with the heart of submission towards the one we love, and our thankfulness in recognition of the sacrifice He paid to save us. Jonathan Eckel
 “You have been weighed in the balances and found wanting;” Daniel 5:27When I became a Christian I knew my life wasn’t guaranteed to be easy. I knew that, Jesus said to pick up my cross and follow him (Matthew 16:24). Not to long after I became a follower of Christ, the real estate bubble popped and down went the market. Shortly after that, the company I worked for had to shut down (real estate title insurance) because the business just wasn’t there. I couldn’t find a job making what I had made, so I started a cleaning career. I worked as hard and long as I could but, we still lost everything. House, cars, credit cards, and savings. This seemed like the hardest time of my life but, truly it wasn’t. There have been tougher times, but God has always been there. I know that, I could have wavered in my faith through these times but I didn’t because my hope is built on nothing less, than Jesus blood and righteousness. I remember being so down that I could almost hear a whisper “curse God and die”. The worse it got though, the tighter I clung to Him. We aren’t promised an easy ride. In fact we are warned that we will have troubles. We are told to count the cost, and not to take it lightly. Many say, you are who you are when no one is around. What about when your kids or wife see you in those times? They see how your faith in Christ leads you in times of trouble and need. How do you act in the rough times? Are you lashing out in anger or depression? Both are easy to fall into but Christ is our strength. Let me encourage to draw near to Him in your times of need and in your times of plenty. If you can’t rely on Him for everything, your statement of faith is nothing more than that, a mere statement, not a real faith. Jonathan Eckel
 The fear we think of as Christians should be this kind of fear. We should always remember who it is we call Father, the God of all creation who spoke everything into existence. The one to whom the mountains bow down, is the one we call Lord. Before I was saved I imagined Him as this angry old guy in the sky and I did have a healthy fear that he would crush me if I sinned (not like I wasn’t a specialist in it) and cast me out. I had a completely unbiblical view of Him and didn’t know God or Jesus as I should. No one ever showed me in Scripture His attributes. As a Christian though, I have learned to study and see that, the one who I was afraid of, wasn’t even real. True, God could squash us like bugs, and honestly that’s what we deserve for sinning against Him, but He has grace and mercy for us. The fear I now have, is a Biblical one. I hate my sin, I hate my pride. Really, the beginning of wisdom and knowledge, is hating what He hates, and loving what He loves. When we stop and think about it, doesn’t this just make you want to praise Him more?! How much different is the God of the Bible than what you where taught as a kid? The true God of the Bible is amazing and loving, the just judge for sure but truly more than I could have ever imagined. I can’t wait to open His Word and get to know Him better. I hope you feel the same. Jonathan Eckel
 It has been our objective to write a Biblically sound evangelism book. While many fantastic books exist that teach Biblical evangelism, presuppositional apologetics, and creation apologetics separately, there aren’t any that put everything together into one easy-to apply book. In this book, you will learn how to evangelize properly, using the Law and the Gospel, and to handle the most common objections using presuppositional and creation apologetics. The book will also address one of the biggest lies today – we will demonstrate why evolution is wrong and why the Christian evolutionist must attempt to serve “two masters” – man and God. In the end, he is only serving man. Dr. Anthony R. Silvestro, Jr. & Jonathan Eckel, Ev.
 How does a church grow Biblically? As we take a look at this “popular” subject, we have to remember that, as Christians, we must start and stand on God's Word (The Bible) for all of our views. This is no different, although you might get confused while walking around a "Christian" bookstore. You will see all kinds of strategies and different “ways” to manipulate people into coming through your doors. One of the things that you have to remember is that it is not your doors. The doors (as well as the rest of the church) belong to Christ. He gave you the lamp stand. If He chooses to grow the body of believers in your church, that's His prerogative to do so.
 This list should look familiar to you - it is the top 10 New Years’ resolutions most commonly made in America. I'm not sure what yours were, but, if you notice, there aren't any resolutions here involving faith or religion. Most people (63%) who make New Years’ resolutions break them within a month. Does this list match up with yours?
More than that, most people make "deals" with God, and they break their promise all the time. Think about it: How many times have you said, "God if you help me here, or if you help me out of this, I will..."? Far too many times people view God as a genie instead of the God of the universe! |
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