1718 results for tag: Greg Albrecht
The First Chapter of Genesis – Literal or Not? – Greg Albrecht
Question:
I am beginning your online CWR Bible Survey. In your intro for Genesis you claim that it is not important whether or not I take all the accounts in Genesis literally or not. Are there any particular accounts that ARE important for me to take literally?
Response:
Your question is about literalism and your question includes the idea of “importance.” How one must read the Bible in a literal manner is often taught as the most important priority. However, much of the Bible is not written (in terms of the literary genre used) to be understood in a literal manner. Important? If I say to my wife, “your eyes ...
Reflections Along the Jesus Way
August 31, 2024 - Quote for the Day:
“Sensational predictive preaching and teaching about the book of Revelation is but one of the many tools used by legalistic religion to control its followers by keeping them ever vigilant and on edge about some eminent event, such as the Rapture. In order to maintain its control, religion keeps moving the finish line as to ‘when’ the prophecies will happen. The focus in such cases is almost entirely on the future. By contrast, authentic Christianity proclaims the second coming, but always in the context of the freedom we now have in Christ, because He has already conquered on His ...
Love, Honor and Respect
Have we become angrier, more confrontational, more in-your-face? Are intolerance, disrespect, criticism, castigation and put-downs on a Christian "to do" list?
https://www.ptm.org/mp3/FreeDwnld/PTR0212.mp3
Our Eternal House – by Greg Albrecht
Friend and Partner Letter from September 2024:
For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile, we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling… and we would prefer to be away from the body and present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:1-2, 8).
When I turned 50, along with nearly everyone else my age in these United States, I started receiving literature from the AARP (American Association for Retired Persons). I was surprised – to be honest, I was offended. What? My 50th birthday meant I needed help crossing the ...
Reflections Along the Jesus Way
August 29, 2024 - Quote for the Day:
“… in this computer age you can go through the day without ever getting up close and personal with a ‘real, live’ human being. You can watch television, you can listen to the radio, follow the news and pay your bills on our computer. Cell phones not only enable you to call others but to receive calls, text message others, send email messages, listen to music, as well as a host of other functions.
Have you ever wondered why some television shows are so appealing – you know, the ones that depict people walking into a diner, a bar, a pub, a small shop, or a Starbucks – places where ...
Watch the Lamb!
Oskar Schindler saved the lives of 1,200 Jews during WWII but agonized over the thought that he could have done more. Similarly we can never do enough to rid ourselves of sin. The central message of Christianity is, "Look to the Lamb of God! Only he can remove the burden of our sins."
https://www.ptm.org/mp3/FreeDwnld/PTR0210.mp3
Trapped By Religion
Has a normal, likeable friend of yours ever suddenly "got religion" and become an unreasonable, fire-breathing, hypercritical, placard-carrying, end-times-predicting kook? Why does religion do that? Is that what God wants? Greg discusses the dangers of religious fundamentalism.
https://www.ptm.org/mp3/FreeDwnld/PTR0209.mp3
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 ...
Reflections Along the Jesus Way
August 27, 2024 - Quote for the Day:
“Memories of hurts and pains inflicted on us by others haunt and torment us, and cause all kinds of emotions – guilt, shame, resentment and hatred. Looking back on our lives, hurts litter our journey like discarded trash on the side of some lonesome road. As painful as our memories of being hurt are, they can fester and grow into resentment and hatred of those who either hurts us or had some part in our pain… in all the stories of revenge and vindication, individuals who experience life without giving or receiving forgiveness live in an emotional and spiritual prison cell. They are slaves to ...
Overcoming Fear
People are afraid of change, the future, getting older, death, pain, loneliness, failure and others who are different from us. Fear leads to distrust, alienation, bitterness and hatred. Greg talks about the antidote to fear in today's program.
https://www.ptm.org/mp3/FreeDwnld/PTR0208.mp3
What God Expects
Science tells us we are blobs of protoplasm. Psychology likens us to rats running through a maze. But who are we, and what does God expect of us? Greg discusses both what God does not expect and what he does expect from us.
Isn’t Matthew 24 “Coming Alive” with what is happening in the Middle East Right Now? – Greg Albrecht
PTM is receiving questions about the significance of Matthew 24 and the news that we read and hear about virtually every day from the Middle East. Many mention what is called the Olivet Prophecy in Matthew 24 as a proof that we are really living in the “end times.” Here’s a brief summary of Matthew 24:
When we read the Bible we read it over the shoulder of its initial readers and listeners. We can only understand it fully if we understand its original meaning/message. Matthew 24 is a response by Jesus to his disciples when they were all touring the temple in Jerusalem and they, the disciples, were enamored and impressed with its ...
Reflections Along the Jesus Way
August 24, 2024 - Quote for the Day:
“1) Are you sure that you are saved? Askmost Christians that question. Seldom will you receive a dogmatic ‘Yes.’ Normally you will receive a prevaricating, hedging, two-step-like dance. ‘Well, yes, I think so – that is, as long as I continue to do such and such.’ Or the answer might be something like this: ‘I hope I’m saved, but I wouldn’t want to be so arrogant as to say I have it made. I still have a long way to go. I hope I make it.’ Those kinds of comments are by far and away the majority of comments in response to the question, ‘Are ...
Having the Experience — Missing the Meaning
There's a line in the musical "Cats" from T.S. Elliot which says, "We had the experience but we missed the meaning." Does that describe your life? Greg talks about spiritual maturity and how to avoid missing the meaning of our experiences.
Reflections Along the Jesus Way
August 22, 2024 - Quote for the Day:
“Grace is an eternal force that flows from God’s heart and soul delivering unmerited and undeserved favor to train wrecks like you and me.
Grace delivers us from the false and corrupt ideas that we are powerful enough to earn and deserve God’s favor, by teaching us that we are powerless to earn righteousness on the basis of our own obedience.
Grace announces Jesus. Grace announces that the old way of trying to please and appease God via obedience to laws is over – and that the new has come. Grace is the love letter from God that frees us from the condemnation of the law – the love ...
The Pale Horse – Legalistic Religion Produces Dead Men Walking
Greg uses the pale horse in this last program of our four part series, The Four Horsemen of Legalism, to show that legalism produces people who seem to have life but are dead-men-walking. In contrast he talks about the life giving grace God offers us.
The Black Horse – Legalistic Religion is Bondage
This is the third program in our four part series, The Four Horsemen of Legalism, Greg shows how legalism has no life to give -- that it only gives bondage and leads to death. He explains that religious and legalistic teachings often become the "gospel" that is proclaimed rather than Jesus.
A Lion and A Lamb – by Greg Albrecht
Will a cure for cancer ever be found? Will there ever be a time when little children don't go to bed hungry? Is there a way to end crime?
Don't you just wish that someday, some way, the abuse of the very young and the very old would stop? Will anyone ever find a way to disarm all armies, to melt down all weapons of warfare—to beat swords into plowshares, as the Hebrew prophets foresaw?
We all long for peace for the entire world. We all want solutions to the misery and suffering of our world. We want the hatred and violence to end. Of course, you're way ahead of me—but don't get too far ahead—because what I want to talk about may surprise ...
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