Slave to the King

Unworthy rebels, redeemed by the King of Kings and made servants fit for His use.

Tag: Gospel (Page 3 of 3)

Book Review: “Cross Encounters: A Decade of Gospel Conversations” by Tony Miano

November 18, 2016 / / 0 Comments

tony-bookApproximately two months ago, my friend and mentor, Tony Miano, provided me with a copy of his book, “Cross Encounters: A Decade of Gospel Conversations.” I promised Tony a thorough read and a review for our followers. Unfortunately, I was a bit slow on the read part. Life as a law enforcement officer, a husband and father, a podcast host, and the fact I simply cannot read with noise around me, caused me to take longer than should have been warranted. I wish to extend an apology to Tony and those who awaited my review. I will work to serve all of you better in the future.

For purposes of transparency, I worked with Tony for nearly three years as co-host and chat room manager of Cross Encounters Radio. It was Tony who recruited and mentored me for that program. We went through many adventures during that time, some good, and some bad. But, not one day do I regret serving along side him in that capacity. Thus, some may feel that my positive review of this book is influenced by that relationship. I hope to assure you that simply is not the case. Tony himself will tell you that we did not always agree on matters and I had no qualms discussing those things, privately. Thus, my view on this book is it is worth the time to read because it is an excellent book.

Tony documents in “Cross Encounters” a plethora of one to one gospel conversations he has had on the street in his years of evangelism. His stated goal in this book is to encourage believers to be obedient to the command of Scripture to make disciples of every nation. I believe this book accomplishes that goal.

Rather than being an instructional manual, a “how to” guide on being an evangelist, “Cross Encounters” puts you in the shoes of a Christian desiring to see God glorified and lost souls saved. Each encounter is transcribed from audio or video recordings made by Tony as he witnessed to people. This gives the reader the feeling of being directly in the conversation and seeing the gospel message work in the hearts of unbelievers. More than being just scripts of two people talking, however, Tony includes his motivations and thoughts that occurred during the conversation. Not only do you hear the words spoken, but you see the mind of an evangelist at work. This is an important piece because it allows us to understand where our hearts and minds need to be when we share the gospel ourselves.

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Modern Day Jonahs

September 15, 2016 / / 0 Comments

angry-man-1441834773gytJonah Was a Prophet

In the Old Testament, God often spoke to His people through the prophets. These were people specifically chosen by God to speak His messages to His people. They were not to misrepresent God in any fashion. If they spoke falsely, or gave a prophecy that was not 100% accurate, they were to be stoned to death. To be a prophet was serious business, it was never to be treated lightly. Prophets spoke not only the foretelling of future events, but also the commands of God to His people. Often those messages included the command to repent of the sins against God which had brought judgment on them. If the nation of Israel would repent of its collective sin, God would deliver them from the judgment He had poured out.

Jonah was such a prophet chosen by God. Jonah had a unique mission in that he was commissioned by God to preach coming judgment, not to Israel, but to the Gentiles in Nineveh. The Ninevites were a pagan people who had oppressed the Jews. Such a nation was not viewed favorably by Jonah or any other Jew. When God directed Jonah to preach to Nineveh that His judgment was forthcoming, Jonah did not leap at the chance to preach to them. Rather, he booked the first ship to Tarshish he could find (Tarshish is NOT in Nineveh, just in case you were not aware). God sent a storm and a giant fish to forcefully bring Jonah back to the Ninevites.

Three days later, Jonah was spit up on shore and he was once again sent to Nineveh by God. Jonah arrived and preached the message he had been given, forty days and God would judge them. Then he sat back and waited for the judgment to come. But Nineveh understood what this meant. They had sinned greatly against the one, true God of the universe. They understood that his judgement would be righteous and true. They did not fall back on false worship of false gods to deter this judgment. They bowed the knee in utter repentance, seeking the gracious mercy of God. And God, because He has already promised that those in repentance toward Him will be saved, abstained from pouring out His wrath upon them. God mercifully spared them, a picture of the glorious gospel which was later fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

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You Will Never Make Lamb Chops Out of Goat Meat

March 26, 2016 / / 3 Comments

Sometimes, a comment or post comes across your screen and you can’t help but want to respond. This is the case for me now. While there is much floating around cyber-space that is nowhere close to biblical, this one really got my goat, so to speak.

We see it everywhere (at least some of us do), so much within American Evangelicalism that has gone off the rails. It’s even worse when the derailment is perpetuated by so called leaders within the Christian Community.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like to introduce to you one of the many problems within American Evangelicalism, “Goat Herding.”

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How Fast Can You Go?

December 1, 2015 / / 0 Comments

213732-muscle-car-wallpaperHow fast can you go? That seems to be the mantra of the modern age. Everything is a race of one sort or another. “The faster the better,” seems to be the motto of nearly everyone. Get me there fast! Fast cars, fast planes, fast trains, fast internet, fast, fast, fast. You never see anyone advertise, “we have the slowest” anything.

The world speeds by at a neck breaking speed. We want instant access, instant news, and instant messaging, and all under the “give it to me now and as fast as possible” mentality.
I have a question for you. When you die, how fast will you go into eternity? It will be the quickest trip you ever take. In the blink of an eye, you will go from being a breathing citizen on Earth, to either a citizen forever in Hell or Heaven. This fast fact is undeniable, you will die one day.
This should concern you greatly. Some may say, “When I die, I will just rot away in the ground and that’s the end of it.” But, what if that’s wrong? What if you will either spend eternity in Heaven or Hell? Then what? Where will you or anyone else be? Do you know?

The fast fact is this; you can actually know for sure where you will spend eternity. The Bible makes it clear that all who die will either be justly sentenced for their crimes against God in Hell or they will be given the reward of Heaven. The problem is, once you die there will not be a day in court to plead your case. The only time to have your sin crimes pardoned is now. Today is the day of salvation. That can only be accomplished through the work of Jesus Christ. The only way a person can be truly forgiven and escape the wrath to come is by the gift of salvation from Jesus Christ.

Pride is the fast track to destruction. It’s the humble of heart and the repentant person that receives the adoption of Christ. I ask you, are you ready to stand before God and give an account of your life? When you die, you will stand before God and give an account for every word spoken, every secret thought, and every public or private deed. Because God’s very nature is perfect goodness, He is going to judge you according to the perfect, moral standard of His Law. If you’ve ever lied, stolen, or taken His name in vain, He will find you guilty of breaking His Law. Because God is good and Holy, He must punish your sin. And the only punishment for all sin against God is eternity in Hell. But, God is also merciful, loving, and kind. He provided one way to escape that punishment and that was through the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was and is fully-God and fully-Man, without sin. He died on the cross a death He did not deserve, in order to take upon Himself the punishment you and I rightly deserve for our sins against God. He then forever defeated sin and death when He rose from the grave three days later. What God requires of you is that you repent (turn from your sin and turn toward God) and by faith alone, receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. Throw yourself on His mercy today, and beg He grant you the eternal gift of salvation.

The Danger of The Christian Social Media Star

November 6, 2015 / / 4 Comments

spotlightWe Christians can be an interesting lot. As much as we see ourselves as not being a part of this world, far too often we think, look, and act just like it. It wasn’t long ago that I made the strategic error of entering into a Twitter discussion between professing Christians. Wisdom should have taught me better by now, but sometimes I just don’t listen to those klaxon warning sirens going off in my skull. I’ll spare you the details of the discussion, but suffice it to say that I simply attempted to defend a professing Christian who still had an old post on their Twitter page that was, shall we say, less than Christian. The person in question claimed it was from a time when they were not a Christian. I simply defended that, given their statement, I was willing to give benefit of the doubt and not see it as reflective of their current profession.

Now, you’d think a person would appreciate being defended. You would think. However, this person not only did not show gratitude, but accused me of pride because I used the phrase “I am willing,” stating that somehow, in some sort of warped perception, I was taking the place of God in His judgment seat. Given their irrational response, I attempted to heed the warning sirens in my skull and bow out. Sadly, I ended up blocking the person I was trying to defend because they simply showed a lack of wisdom and maturity. Yet, the issue did not end there. Another professing Christian, who apparently was a fan of the less than mature, and now blocked, Twitterite, decided to lecture me and defend his social media darling. Once again, the block button became rather useful.

The point of this trip down memory lane isn’t to regale you with less that logical behavior of immature Christians, far from it. When I walked away from that conversation, I realized that this was not the first I had watched a professing Christian act in less than a charitable manner. Nor was it the first time I had watched an irrational defense of someone simply because the defender could not fathom their “star” as having done anything wrong.

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Doctrinal Disputes and Loving Our Brethren

July 10, 2015 / / 0 Comments

bible-open-to-psalm-118 (1)It can be safely said that, since the birth of the church on Pentecost, for every opinion expressed there have been divisions in the body of Christ. Professing followers of Jesus always have and always will struggle with temptation and sin until the day we are glorified in Heaven with the Savior. Prior to being redeemed, sin permeated every last aspect of our nature. We were enslaved to it, there was nothing we did or thought that was without its foul taint. Yet, in Christ, we have been set free, no longer slaves to the passions that drove us. From that day until we are called home, we go through the process of sanctification. We are changed day by day, being purged and purified. God brings our sins to the surface so that we might repent and be changed. This takes a lifetime, and it is hardly an easy journey.

With that said, we must understand that divisions in the church come as a result of sinful pride. Were we already perfected in our flesh, we would all rightly understand the Word of God and we never would be in disagreement. However, given our lack of perfect comprehension, we must understand that as we grow in knowledge, so we can also grow in our pride. We are prone to lifting ourselves and our accomplishments up high. So, when we begin to grasp the greater and deeper truths of scripture, there is a great temptation to act as though this knowledge was gained of our own accord. And as doctrine becomes more open to us, we begin to have disdain for the shallowness of understanding in which we once walked.

If you have ever engaged in doctrinal discussions, especially on the internet, you know just how easy a rigorous debate can transform into a vile argument with character assassinations and name calling in abundance. Sadly, much of the public face of Christianity today, especially in the arena of social media, has reflected this. I am not referring to the debates between liberal or false theology and sound doctrine. Those debates will clearly be contentious as though who seek to downplay biblical truth will almost always engage in emotional rhetoric in order to claim victory. Rather, what I am referring to are the heated arguments between Christians who fall within diverse, but orthodox, doctrinal views. Such debates can be necessary to help us grow and understand the nature of God and the Christian faith. However, pride in our doctrinal stances can often result in a lack of grace being shown to our brethren. It doesn’t take long for us to move from debate, to argument, to anathematization of one another when pride gets in the way.

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