1783 results for tag: Greg Albrecht

Q & R with Greg Albrecht – “Can I work out my own salvation?”

Question If our focus ought to be on God’s grace, expecting works to follow automatically from a life transformed by grace, what does the Bible mean when it tells us to “work out” our salvation?  Are we not expected to perfect the salvation we have received and grow to be more and more like him? Response It’s the ever-present question—if grace really is too good to be true, then won’t Christians just become slackers, goofing their way into God’s kingdom of heaven, expecting God to do everything for them? The major problem with this line of questioning is that it comes from our human experience/expectation/per...

Q&R with Greg Albrecht: Do tattoos honor God?

Question A sermon in our church regarding tattoos has stirred a debate in our home and I need your help to clarify a couple of things.  1.      Based on Leviticus 19:28 and 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, would someone who gets a tattoo be honoring God with his/her body?  2.      If so, how does this differ from ear piercing?  3.      How can we apply one law from the Old Testament and discard others, specifically the laws in Leviticus about cutting hair on the sides, mixing crops in the field, etc.? Response The new covenant is not ...

Have You Forgiven God?

  "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."—Isaiah 55:8-9 A few years ago I officiated at a funeral service for someone I had never known. I interviewed people who had known the deceased, and in the process I found out some dark and disturbing things. What do you say at a funeral when you can't find anyone who ever knew the person who has anything good to say about them? What can you say at a memorial service when surviving friends and relatives are having a difficult time ...

Two Brothers

by Greg Albrecht Jesus continued: "There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, 'Father, give me my share of the estate.' So he divided his property between them. "Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. "W...

How Far Will God Go For Love?

by Greg Albrecht Lending institutions place a cap or limit on the total amount of purchases you can charge to their card. They will only let you go so far before your credit runs out. How far can we go with God before he says to us "That's it—my grace has its limits!" Is it possible to use so much of God's love that our account will be "maxed out"? Of course God's mercy, grace and love are endless. As and when we request forgiveness, God will always forgive us. That's one of the attributes that makes him God. But, is it possible to take advantage of God's good graces? Surely he isn't like an indulgent grandparent who just sits on his throne, ...

Why Did Jesus Call a Woman a Dog?

by Greg Albrecht The Canaanites became mortal enemies of the Jews some 1,500 or so years before the time of Jesus when they resisted the new nation of Israel as it attempted to inhabit the Promised Land. Matthew 15:21-28 relates the story of a Canaanite woman who was so desperate to seek healing for her daughter that she defied social and religious conventions as she publicly spoke to Jesus (a man she didn't know) —beyond that, a Jewish man. We know, from everything else we read in the Gospels, that Jesus, God in the flesh, loved this woman, but it didn't seem that way to her when she first started talking to Jesus. She cries out, "Son of ...

The Gospel of Non-Violence – A Christ-Centered Perspective by Greg Albrecht

For some within Christendom the secular and highly politicized crusade to resist, end police brutality, overcome racism and stop hating people whose sexuality, gender or culture differs is one and the same as the gospel.   Cancel culture is a buzzword for standing against excesses of the North American culture, including the prosperity enjoyed by the “privileged.”  But are these goals one and the same as the gospel? In many cases it is not that hard to be against something, because the act of resistance appeals to the natural desire to minimize and condemn others in order to exalt oneself.  But the gospel is not self ...

Q & R with Greg Albrecht: “How can God sit on his own right hand?”

Question How can Jesus, the Son of God, sit on the right side of the Father and still be God (Romans 8:34; Colossians 3:1)? How can God sit on the right side of himself? Response The Bible speaks of God in human language, using human reality and mortality to describe heavenly eternity. When the Bible says that God is “in” heaven, it does not mean that God is confined to any place, nor does it mean that heaven is a “place.” Heaven is a state of existence that is outside time and space, but in order to think about it and talk about it, humans have to speak of being “there.” The Bible tells us that God is omni-present—everyw...

The Father I Never Knew – by Greg Albrecht

Elmer Otto Gustav Albrecht is the name on my birth certificate, but I never knew you. Had you lived long enough July 18, 2020 would have been your 100th birthday, but you only lived a few months past your 28th birthday. As I celebrate your 100th birthday I mourn a past that never was and a father I never knew.   My “memories” of you have fashioned a mosaic-like image, emerging like a jigsaw puzzle, pieced together from mementos and stories. Those cherished treasures have helped me fill the massive hole in my heart. I have gazed at old photos of you so often that it almost seems like I was there – I wasn’t in most of them and the few ...

Can God Be Too Good? Part 7 by Greg Albrecht

Love or Justice? The discussion of eternal torment and the fate of the “unsaved” is often framed, by the law and order crowd, as a matter of God’s love or his justice. Those who are intent on relegating those who, to their knowledge and satisfaction, have never heard or accepted their version of Christianity to eternal torture, often characterize those, like myself, who primarily look for answers based on God’s love and grace, as soft-headed, softhearted and weak. So which is it—love or justice? Is God primarily a God of love or a God ofjustice? Here’s what I see as the fundamental flaw in real, he-man, tough-as-nails Christia...

Can God Be Too Good? Part 5 by Greg Albrecht

How Free Is Free Will? by Greg Albrecht How much choice does any individual human actually have? We speak of "free will"—but how much of a choice to accept God's grace does anyone have, given the brainwashing and propaganda to which they are subjected? How much of a choice to accept God's grace does a young boy in a radicalized Muslim school have? How much of a choice to accept God's grace does someone have who is ensnared by some ultra fundamentalist church, where performance-based religion rules? Being in Christ is a divine invitation to an eternal relationship, open toeveryone. But being in Christ is not an automatic, divinely ...

Q&R with Greg Albrecht – “Are Christians commanded to *win souls*?”

Question I am continually told that Christians are commanded and obligated to spread God’s word to the corners of the earth and lead people to salvation through personal witnessing. Some actually teach that personal witnessing is the defining mark of a Christian. Is personal witnessing a commanded part of being a Christian? Soul-winning advocates even preach we are in a way responsible for friends/family burning in hell if we don't witness, a sobering thought. Response There is a great debate on the topic you raise. Many evangelical Christians believe (evidenced by their very name) that one of the primary duties of Christians is to personally ...

Love or Justice?

by Greg Albrecht The discussion of eternal torment and the fate of the "unsaved" is often framed, by the law and order crowd, as a matter of God's love or his justice. Those who are intent on relegating those who, to their knowledge and satisfaction, have never heard or accepted their version of Christianity to eternal torture, often characterize those, like myself, who primarily look for answers based on God's love and grace, as soft-headed, soft-hearted and weak. So which is it—love or justice? Is God primarily a God of love or a God of justice? Here's what I see as the fundamental flaw in real, he-man, tough-as-nails Christianity: ...

Browbeaten and Bullied at Church

by Greg Albrecht One of the most gratifying experiences we have at PTM is when we hear from someone for whom God has "turned on the light." By God's grace they realize their primary allegiance is not to a human religious authority. They realize that churches and church leadership are fellow-servants and laborers for the gospel—and that such organizations and authorities lose their credibility the moment they allow the gospel to be subverted by religion and its legalisms. The following letter is a wonderful example: I recently wrote an article about tithing for our church newspaper. My conclusion is the same as that of PTM—"­­tithing" is ...

Should We Boycott the Wedding?

by Greg Albrecht Recently I was asked to give my opinion about a married man, in the process of divorcing his wife, while dating a younger, unmarried woman. My immediate thought was the response of Jesus when he was asked by someone to get involved in a family about an inheritance. "Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?" (Luke 12:14). However, remembering that Jesus used the question as a way to discuss some of the more important spiritual issues surrounding it (see "The Parable of the Rich Fool"—Luke 12:15-21), I tried to respond in a similar way. The person who asked me the question said that the still-married man was ...

He’s ‘Friended” Us!

By Greg Albrecht What a friend we have in Jesus! So goes that great old hymn—and its message is the gospel truth. In John 15:9-17 Jesus encourages us to remain in him and with him. In the Authorized King James Version the word used is "abide." Jesus is requesting that we stay with him. He's saying, "Don't move away. Don't wander away. Stay with me. Remain with me." Jesus is saying, "Keep your eyes and focus on me. Don't ever stop looking to me as the absolute center of your faith. Don't allow religious ceremonies and rituals to confuse you—so that you think our relationship (your friendship with me) depends on you." This passage is a ...

July 2020

CLICK HERE to read now (PDF Format) Articles: I Will Give You Rest – pg. 1 Religious Games – pg. 2 Faith is a Choice – pg. 6 Forwarding to the Future – pg. 7 Quotes & Connections – pg. 8

Comforting and Being Comforted by Greg Albrecht

“Comfort, comfort my people, says your God” – Isaiah 40:1 These uplifting words, among the most studied and often quoted words of Isaiah, speak of a time of comfort after the nation of Judah would bring self-inflicted destruction on its own head.  Isaiah wrote at a time when corruption and injustice permeated the commercial, religious, and political culture – he prophesied that the end result of it all would turn the proud city of Jerusalem into a smoldering ruin, a heap of rubble.     Comfort, comfort my people, says your God is an assuring message for all of us during any time of desolation, bondage and ...

Citizens of Heaven

By Greg Albrecht— For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.—Philippians 3: 18-21 From the time I entered the mysterious world of adolescence, watching the 1960 political conventions on television, ...

Citizens of God’s Kingdom

By Greg Albrecht— Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. "Teacher," they said, "we know you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren't swayed by men, because you pay no attention to who they are. Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?"   But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, "You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? Show me the coin used for paying the tax." They brought him a denarius, and he asked them, "Whose portrait is this? And whose ...