153 results for tag: God’s love

He’s Only Just Begun – by Greg Albrecht

Christmas is the hinge and fulcrum of all history. Points in time before the first Christmas are B.C. or B.C.E. (before the Christian era) and events after that first Christmas are A.D. (anno Domini – year of our Lord). The birth of the Christ child, God in the flesh, is a new beginning…his new beginning and our new beginning. But make no mistake, Christmas was not the end of God’s revelation to humanity, it was only the beginning.   God has gradually revealed himself and the abundance of the gospel over time with greater clarity and fullness. In the beginning, Genesis speaks of God as “we” by saying let us make mankind in our ...

God’s Love and Grace Lifts Us Up – by Greg Albrecht

Civilization is a stream with banks. The stream is sometimes filled with blood from people killing, stealing… and doing things historians usually record, while on the banks, unnoticed, people build homes, make love, raise children, sing songs, write poetry…The story of civilization is the story of what happened on the banks. Historians are pessimists because they ignore the banks for the river.         – Will and Ariel Durant   We cannot ignore the warfare, bloodshed, brutality, oppression, poverty and disease that are a part of the river of history, a noxious, defiled sewer that contin...

Name It and Blame It – by Greg Albrecht

Many churches and ministries today claim that God heals everyone who requests relief of physical afflictions, as long as they ask in faith. This assertion is made on the assumption that Jesus' death on the cross, his atonement, was for both "spiritual" and "physical" sins. Further, some even claim physical healing is a "right" that one who is doing all of the things that God commands and demands might "claim" from God. Some call this claim a "prayer of positive confession." Others who have reservations about this practice believe it to be naive and perhaps superstitious and thus call the practice "name it and claim it." Of course, since the vast ...

Does God Have a Strategic Plan for You? – by Ed Dunn

We are in the midst of an exciting strategic planning process here at Plain Truth Ministries (PTM). This planning process, which involves our team here in the Pasadena office, along with Brad Jersak in Canada, gives us an opportunity to take a fresh look at PTM’s mission, magazines and partner letters, books, on-line content, as well as the operations and procedures that support all we do in this ministry. As a closeknit team, we approach every aspect of this planning process prayerfully, as careful and conscientious stewards, asking God for guidance and wisdom as we look to the future. By definition, Strategic Planning is a type of planning ...

Is God Disappointed With You? – by Greg Albrecht

There is no doubt the "disappointed God" must be included in the Top Ten Misunderstandings of God. Here's the heavenly picture this erroneous stereotype creates: the "disappointed God" sits, slumped forward on his heavenly throne, head in hands, peering down, sighing and frowning, disillusioned and frustrated with you and me. This misconception of God presents God as dismayed and despondent because of our seemingly never-ending failures. The "disappointed God" wonders whether you and I will ever learn. Of course, dissatisfaction exists in our relationship with God, but the frustration is on our part, not that of God's. The disenchantment we feel ...

How Big Is God? – by Greg Albrecht

Many Christians seem to believe that Jesus came to this earth as a kind of Plan B. They've been taught that Jesus came to this earth to save us because Adam "fell"—and further, they've been told that when Adam "fell" God had to, in effect, scurry around and come up with Plan B. This reasoning is of course, unbiblical—and beyond that, it doesn't make sense. Why would Christmas, the incarnation of God, be Plan B? Why wouldn't Christmas have been on the drawing boards from the very get-go? Why wouldn't Jesus have been planning to come anyway? Years ago I read a little book by J.B. Phillips titled Your God is Too Small. J.B. Phillips wanted the ...

CWR Video – Is God Angry When We Sin? – by Steve McVey

Short video by Steve McVey about God and sin. https://player.vimeo.com/video/115937708

Does God Have a Strategic Plan for You? – by Ed Dunn

We are in the midst of an exciting strategic planning process here at Plain Truth Ministries (PTM). This planning process, which involves our team here in the Pasadena office, along with Brad Jersak in Canada, gives us an opportunity to take a fresh look at PTM’s mission, magazines and partner letters, books, on-line content, as well as the operations and procedures that support all we do in this ministry. As a closeknit team, we approach every aspect of this planning process prayerfully, as careful and conscientious stewards, asking God for guidance and wisdom as we look to the future. By definition, Strategic Planning is a type of planning ...

Downward Mobility – by Greg Albrecht

Jesus tells his disciples, in no uncertain terms, if you think that my kingdom is going to replicate the power-hungry, authoritarian, serve-the-big-shots-first-and-foremost kind of authority this world often sees, then think again. "Not so with you." Jesus tells his disciples that if they choose to be ministers in his kingdom then they will choose love over power. If we want to follow Jesus, serving others in his name, then our lives will be exemplified by sacrificial love as he demonstrated on his cross rather than the crass control mechanisms of authoritarianism, whereby Christ-less religion and its leadership always gets served first, many times ...

You Are Loved – by Greg Albrecht

This week is Mother's Day here in North America, and we extend a huge thank-you to all mothers, as we celebrate their role in our lives. Having said that, in the midst of all our Mother's Day celebrations we should remember that the outward trappings of Mother's Day often overwhelm the spiritual elements. Phone calls and greeting cards and flowers and lunches and gifts have come to be an expected part of observing this special time. But sometimes grown children, free from the prompting of teachers at school or reminders from their fathers, can forget to call or send a card. Sometimes grown children resent their mothers, for one reason or another, ...

What Is Our Eternal Reward? – by Greg Albrecht

Q: What is our eternal reward? A:The Bible does speak of a reward, but should that reward be viewed as a prize given as a response for our diligent performance of deeds, then our reward would not be by grace through faith, but of works. According to the gospel of Jesus Christ a measured reward we receive on the basis of our own efforts cannot be the reward the biblical writers have in mind. The New Testament is clear and absolute: our eternal reward is given, rather than earned. Everything we as Christ-followers are able to produce by ourselves here in this temporal life is physical and has a shelf life. Nothing we can produce, apart from God, is ...

The Ministry of Death OR the Ministry of Life – by Greg Albrecht

He looked at me and said, "It happened while I was in church. It was the end of the service, everyone was standing, and so was I. I was doing the same religious thing that everybody else was doing, the same religious thing I had done for over 25 years. My family was there. My mother was there. It was the same place we always went. We did the things they told us we should. The sermons usually either scolded us or berated us. "That week the sermon had been another 'you're not good enough' sermon. After the sermon, during the final prayer, the thought hit me, 'You know. This is ludicrous. I am never going to be good enough. I've been trying to do all ...

The Exclamation Point of God’s Love – Albrecht and Jersak

Greg Albrecht and Brad JersakGreg Albrecht: Hello everyone, this is Greg Albrecht. We’re going to remember and discuss our Lord’s ultimate sacrifice for us and reflect on his life, death, burial and of course the significance and meaning of his resurrection. Helping us with his insights and observations is Brad Jersak. Brad is Senior Editor of our magazines and a Christ-centered professor, speaker and author from Abbotsford, British Columbia. Brad, in one sense it seems to me that these two events, the crucifixion and the resurrection, are the crowning jewels in God’s demonstration and revelation of his love for us. When I think of the ...

A Love That Really Does Conquer All

God, in the person of Jesus, didn't just lecture us from on high, instructing us to love other people. He came down here and provided a demonstration of his love. https://www.ptm.org/mp3/FreeDwnld/RCWR200.mp3  

The Love of God Revealed in and Through Jesus – Greg Albrecht

The significance and meaning of Christmas is critically important – it is far too easy to miss the forest of the gospel while tunnel vision focuses on trivialities such as a Christmas tree. The Christmas tree serves as an example of the less than monumental and momentous aspects of the birth of Jesus, fitting the idiom of “don’t miss the forest for the tree.” There are many trivial pursuits and distractions aren’t there? The meals, the gifts, the music … an endless list of diversions that detour us away from the Christ-centered forest of faith.  The Apostle John provides Christ-centered focus:  “In the beginning was the ...

Q&R: A Six-Year-Old Wrestles with the Problem of Pain – Brad Jersak

Question: My 6-year-old fell down the stairs and hit his head, and got a concussion. Before bed tonight, he asked me, "If God is in control, and is powerful, and loves me, then why did he watch me fall and not help me?" Response: Your child certainly is a deep thinker! And deep thinkers have been asking that question for a very long time. At least since the philosopher Epicurus (about 300 years before Jesus). And those who try to answer the question always seem to stumble into rationalizations that end up calling good evil and evil good. So I've been praying and pondering about this for days... how to respond to a sincere child who ...

CWR Video – All About Put Back, Not Pay Back – by Steve McVey

Short 2 minute video about God by Steve McVey.

God Is Love

Our human experience with love may well get in our way with a relationship with the great God, who is love. https://www.ptm.org/mp3/FreeDwnld/PTR0057.mp3

For those Who Are a Little Banged Up – Greg Albrecht

A Little Banged Up: In the Academy Award nominated movie “Seabiscuit” the phrase “You don’t throw away a whole life just because he’s banged up a little” initially refers to a horse no one wanted. Seabiscuit was a feisty, hard to handle, undersized and overlooked thoroughbred race horse with a temper—a horse with an attitude—a horse who only seemed to eat and sleep too much. No owner wanted to risk investing in such a horse. The movie tells us about Tom Smith, a trainer who specialized in rehabilitating injured and abused horses who was hired to work for Charles Howard, played by Jeff Bridges, who was beginning to acquire a ...

Love Never Fails

Someone once said that as old as the human race is, you would think we would have learned to love one another by now. Isn’t that odd since "I love you," are the three most powerful words we can hear? https://www.ptm.org/mp3/FreeDwnld/PTR0031.mp3