82 results for tag: Plain Truth Ministries

The Gate of the New Year – by Greg Albrecht

On Christmas Eve 1939, King George VI of England gave a BBC radio broadcast to the British Empire heard around the world. During his message, he quoted the preamble to a poem given to him by his daughter, Princess Elizabeth, written by Minnie Louise Haskins (1875-1957). Then titled “God Knows,” the poem later became known as “The Gate of the Year.”  Upon the death of King George VI in 1952, Princess Elizabeth became Queen of England – she was the longest living monarch in the world. She had “The Gate of the Year” engraved on brass plaques at Windsor Castle, where her father is interred. In 2002, when her mother, the Queen ...

God and Jonah: Ships Passing in the Night – by Greg Albrecht

Many, even those unfamiliar with the Bible, have heard of Jonah. Most remember the story of Jonah as it is depicted in children's books—a man named Jonah who was swallowed by a big fish and lived to tell the tale. As we go a little deeper into the story (deeper even than the whale went with Jonah) we see that Jonah is yet another biblical example of how humans can completely misunderstand God. We can misunderstand God as Jonah did, and in terms of our relationship with God, be, as he was, like two Ships that Pass in the Night.    The book of Jonah begins with God telling Jonah to go to Nineveh, the capital city of the Assyrian ...

New Creation in Christ – by Greg Albrecht

Friend and Partner Letter from January 2023: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation is come:  The old has gone, the new is here!  2 Corinthians 5:17 This New Year of 2023 is a great time to remember that we, as Christ-followers, and CWR/PTM Friends and partners, are friends of Jesus and we are, by God’s grace, New Creations! God creates us as new creations out of what we were. He makes us “something” in terms of our spiritual worth when before we were, by comparison, “nothing.” He finds us and we discover him, in the process we lose “the old” and we gain, by his grace, “the new”! We become new, ...

Great Exchanges – by Greg Albrecht

Your first thought at this time of the year might be those frenzied crowds in shopping malls and department stores on the days immediately following Christmas. People exchanging and returning gifts they received that were the wrong size, wrong color—or just plain wrong! But there's another exchange we need to keep in mind. This great exchange is the reality of the cross of Christ. Jesus Christ took our sin and died for it, paying the debt that we could not pay. In exchange, God, because of his grace, gives us eternal life. Our sin for eternal life! The great spiritual exchange. Great exchanges characterize the month of December for Christians ...

What If God Was One of Us? – by Greg Albrecht

"Stop Acting Like God. Start Acting Like Jesus." The message, on a poster being waved during a rally in support of a minority group, confronted and challenged me. It seemed to be directed at me and my fellow Christians.  If they really knew Jesus, I thought, they would know that he is God and he was God in the flesh!  I continued to ponder the poster until a free translation of its intended meaning occurred to me: "Jesus, save us from your followers who seem to be acting like our stereotype of the Old Testament God."  It was obvious they had a vague notion that Jesus didn't hurt people, that Jesus didn't abuse people, and that Jesus ...

The Gift of Time – by Greg Albrecht

Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near.—Isaiah 55:6 Time is the enemy of teachers, speakers and preachers—we are always battling with the clock. In the context of formal church services, this battle goes back to the so-called olden days when preachers walked up and took their place behind the pulpit. At the beginning of the sermon an hour glass of sand was turned on its end. The passing of time was determined as small quantities of sand passed from the upper chamber, which at the beginning of the hour was full, to the lower chamber.  When the last grains of sand filtered through the hour glass into the lower ...

The Visitor – by Greg Albrecht

The Visitor - Greg Albrecht       KEYNOTE SCRIPTURE: John 1:1-18   There are two biblical stories about the birth of Jesus. One is the factual story of who did what, when and where, given to us by Matthew and Luke. The other story occurs in our keynote passage.   The "other story" concerns itself with the profound significance of what happened at the intersection of time and eternity, when God in the person of Jesus came into our world to be one of us. The first 18 verses of the first chapter of the Gospel of John is powerful, majestic, and in some ways mysterious. As literature, this passage ranks among the most profoundly ...

Great Exchanges

by Greg Albrecht Your first thought at this time of the year might be those frenzied crowds in shopping malls and department stores on the days immediately following Christmas. People exchanging and returning gifts they received that were the wrong size, wrong color—or just plain wrong! But there's another exchange we need to keep in mind. This great exchange is the reality of the cross of Christ. Jesus Christ took our sin and died for it, paying the debt that we could not pay. In exchange, God, because of his grace, gives us eternal life. Our sin for eternal life! The great spiritual exchange. Great exchanges characterize the month of ...

What If God Was One of Us?

"Stop Acting Like God. Start Acting Like Jesus." The message, on a poster being waved during a rally in support of a minority group, confronted and challenged me. It seemed to be directed at me and my fellow Christians. If they really knew Jesus, I thought, they would know that he is God and he was God in the flesh! I continued to ponder the poster until a free translation of its intended meaning occurred to me: "Jesus, save us from your followers who seem to be acting like our stereotype of the Old Testament God." It was obvious they had a vague notion that Jesus didn't hurt people, that Jesus didn't abuse people, and that Jesus forgave ...

The Gift of Time

  Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near.—Isaiah 55:6 Time is the enemy of teachers, speakers and preachers—we are always battling with the clock. In the context of formal church services, this battle goes back to the so-called olden days when preachers walked up and took their place behind the pulpit. At the beginning of the sermon an hour glass of sand was turned on its end. The passing of time was determined as small quantities of sand passed from the upper chamber, which at the beginning of the hour was full, to the lower chamber. When the last grains of sand filtered through the hour glass into the ...

The Visitor

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. He was in the world, ...

Thankful For What?

For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land—a land with streams and pools of water, with springs flowing in the valleys and hills; a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey; a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills. When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, ...

Finding Your Way Home

One of our lifelong goals is to "find our way home." In the Gospel of John, Jesus assures his disciples, and by extension all those who would follow Jesus throughout all time, that he is preparing a place for us (John 14:1-3). He is preparing a place and he will return to take us with him, so that we may be where he is, so that we might be home. Do you remember the first time you were homesick? I remember as a young boy being homesick many times. My mother did not believe in allowing me to hide behind her skirts, so from an early age, five or six years of age, she encouraged me to spend time away from her with relatives and friends. On a few of ...

The Peace of God

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests" (Luke 2:14). The night seemed normal—nothing out of the ordinary. The shepherds were watching the sheep, just like they always did. But suddenly something abnormal happened—an angel appeared. The shepherds were terrified. After assuring the shepherds they had nothing to fear, the angel announced the coming of the Prince of Peace. Then God composed and arranged a musical anthem performed by a heavenly choir to emphasize the importance of the angel's message. The Bible uses a military term, host, to describe the angelic choir (Luke 2:13). A heavenly army came to ...

Be Still!

When in danger, when in doubt, Run in circles, scream and shout! The British Navy has a strange custom, I am told. If a sudden disaster happens, "the still" is blown. If you live in certain parts of the United States you may think of a still as a place where bootleg whiskey is produced. The "still" in the British Navy, as I understand it, is a whistle which calls the crew of a ship to a moment of silence in a time of crisis. It's a moment of calm that allows everyone to collect their thoughts before they respond to an emergency. My wife, Karen, and I recently witnessed the results of failure to be still in the face of a crisis. Thirty-five ...

Can We Lose Our Salvation? – by Greg Albrecht

Q: Do you believe we can lose our salvation once we are truly saved? My personal belief is that, yes, we can. While God will never take it away, through constant and willful sinning, we can turn our eyes away from God. This will eventually lead to a case of "Pharaoh's hardened heart," a state whereby we can reject God's offer, and create a wall between ourselves and God that even God will not cross—for to do so would be to break his promise to us of free will. A: No, I do not believe we can lose our salvation. Before explaining why, let me say that this discussion, in my view, is not a "make or break" theological perspective. Christians differ ...

Out of the Harbor – by Laura Urista

A recent news headline caught my attention – it said “If you have an office job – this is the most dangerous thing you will do all day.” Well, I work in an office so I had to read that article! Guess what it said? The most dangerous thing I do all day is sit. Our bodies were made to move around. We weren’t created to sit all day. The article said that even if you just stand up and move around for a few minutes every hour it can increase your life expectancy. Then I thought of my ancestors. My great grandmother lived to be over 100. My grandma, Olga, lived to be age 98. She was born in the late 1800s on a homestead in North Dakota. I ...

Grace on Trial – by Greg Albrecht (Interview with Steve McVey)

        Greg Albrecht: I'm talking with a good friend, Steve McVey of Grace Walk Ministries. Steve is the president of Grace Walk Ministries. Steve, I've got to tell you that I wish there were more people in this world who are proclaiming radical grace.         Steve: When we talk about grace we're talking about Jesus, and I think folks need to have that firmly in their minds, that grace personified is Jesus Christ. So to those who say, well, that's great to talk about grace but there are other things too, I say, well, what else is there? The grace of Jesus Christ ...

Whose Side is God On? – by Greg Albrecht

Have you ever noticed how many individual Christians and incorporated religious institutions assume that God is exclusively on their side? Many seem to think that God is a member-in-good-standing of their denomination. Many seem to assume that God carries the same national passport they do and that he always supports their country in any military altercation. Some even act and talk as if God supports their favorite athletic team and their particular political party. But if you think about the whole idea of God being polarized and politicized for about three seconds, it really doesn't make any sense, does it? After all the Bible clearly teaches ...

God-Given Freedom – by Greg Albrecht

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.  Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only ...