Dr Paul Allen

What do I have to do to be saved? (John 3:3) To be saved you must turn away from sin , believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus , and receive Him as Lord and Savior of your life. Here is the step–by–step process. First, you must consider your life and then turn away from everything in it that is contrary to what God wants. This turning away from selfishness and toward God is called repentance ( Matt. 3:7–10; Acts 3:19). Second, you must acknowledge that Jesus Christ died on the Cross to forgive you of sin. You take Him as your Savior to cleanse you from sin—as the substitute who paid the price due for your sin (Rom. 5:9, 10; Titus 2:14). Third, you must ask Him to be Lord of your life, acknowledging openly and verbally that Jesus is not only your Savior but your Lord ( I John 2:23). The Bible says that as many as received Him were given the power to become the sons of God (John 1:12). So when you open your heart and receive Him, He comes into your heart—your inner perso...

Gustave Doré, Depiction of Satan, the antagonist of John Milton's Paradise Lost c. 1866 (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) I am not certain by any means, nor do I have an exhaustive knowledge of the powers of Satan . I know that Satan has more power than one would normally find among human beings . At the same time, I know that Satan is not divine; he is not God , does not have divine powers or attributes. He is a creature with the limitations that are found normally with creatureliness. He is an angel. The Bible doesn't give us an exhaustive list of the powers of angels. They are more powerful than people but far less powerful than God. Obviously God can read your mind. God is omniscient. He knows your thoughts as you think them—"There is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O LORD, You know it altogether" (Ps. 139:4). The tendency is for Christians to think that since God is a supernatural being and can read our minds, then Satan, also a supernatural being, mus...

Worship voices often celebrate the theme that we worship on earth like they worship in heaven. This emphasis has roots in Scripture and many clear benefits. Worship in heaven will be passionate, whole-hearted, and multi-ethnic — and the church is, in some sense, already seated with Christ in heaven through faith (Ephesians 1:3; Hebrews 12:22–24). No one should disagree with exhortations to worship God like that. But the great complication with worshiping now as if we were already fully in heaven is this: we are not actually there yet. We are here on earth, called by God to worship him in ways we cannot escape in our current location and circumstances. As Mike Wittmer writes , “We are earthlings, for heaven’s sake.” Three aspects (at least) of our worship during this earthly age should differ from the heavenly worship of the age to come : confession of sin, mission to the lost, and lament over brokenness. If we diminish or remove any of these aspects, our worship will suffer in the...

English: Ezra Reads the Law to the People (Neh. 8:1-12) Русский: Священник Ездра читает народу Закон (Неем. 8:1-12) (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) “This Ezra went up from Babylon ; and he was a ready scribe in the law of Moses , which the LORD God of Israel had given: and the king granted him all his request, according to the hand of the LORD his God upon him.” ( Ezra 7:6 ) Neither Ezra, who was a scribe, nor Nehemiah , who was apparently a butler, had been prepared by either study or experience to supervise a great construction project, rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem and the wall of the city, both of which had been destroyed many years before by the armies of Babylon. Yet God called them to these ministries and led them and protected them as they carried them out. They were both careful, then, to give God the credit for what they had accomplished. No less than six times in Ezra and twice in Nehemiah they reminded their readers that God’s hand had been upon them as they supervi...

“For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little.” ( Isaiah 28:10 ) The setting of this unusual passage is most sobering. Both the people and their priests in Israel ’s northern kingdom (personified by “ Ephraim ”) were in gross rebellion and drunken disobedience to the Lord. They were even ridiculing God ’s prophets who were trying to call them back, complaining that they were being treated like school children. In effect, they were saying: “Are you presuming to teach us as you would freshly weaned infants, going line by line, with rule after rule?” Whereupon God replied that He would use people of another tongue to come in and teach them what they refused to learn from Him. These precepts He had been trying to teach them should have provided true rest and refreshment, but now learning these lessons would prove to be their undoing. What should have been a blessing to them would become their condemnation....

English: Moses striking the rock (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) “And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ .” ( 1 Corinthians 10:4 ) One of the most amazing miracles recorded in the Bible occurred when Moses smote the rock on Mount Horeb and water came forth sufficient to satisfy all the multitude there in the wilderness ( Exodus 17:6 ). In describing this great event, the psalmist later sang: “He clave the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink as out of the great depths. He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers” ( Psalm 78:15-16 ). In our text above, Paul indicates that the miracle had great symbolic significance as well. “That Rock was Christ.” The Greek word used here for “rock” is petra, the same word used by Christ when He said that “upon this rock I will build my church” ( Matthew 16:18 ). Christ is the one foundation upon which the church i...

Trumpet (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) “And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice.” ( Exodus 19:19 ) This is the first reference to trumpets in the Bible, and it is significant that the “voice” of the trumpet was coming not from man but from God. The setting was the awesome scene at Mount Sinai, when the Lord gave Moses the Ten Commandments for His people. The last reference in the Old Testament to trumpets again refers to God’s trumpet. “And the LORD shall be seen over them, and his arrow shall go forth as the lightning: and the LORD God shall blow the trumpet, and shall go with whirlwinds of the south” ( Zechariah 9:14 ). The trumpet, as used in Israel (Hebrew shofar), was made of ram’s horns and was used on many important occasions. One of the most notable was when the Israelites finally entered the Promised Land at Jericho. “So the people shouted when the priests blew with the trumpets: and . ...

“All scripture is given by inspiration of God , and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” ( 2 Timothy 3:16 ) The Bible insists its writers were supernaturally influenced by God to such an extent that their words were given divine accuracy. The unique word translated “inspiration” in our text could be rendered “God blowing” or “God puffing.” Peter speaks of “holy men of God” who “spake” as they were moved by the Holy Spirit ( 2 Peter 1:21 ). David was conscious that his own “tongue” was speaking words that the Holy Spirit of the Lord gave him ( 2 Samuel 23:2 ). Jeremiah was given audible instruction and told to reproduce those words precisely ( Jeremiah 30:1-2 ; 26:2), as was Isaiah ( Isaiah 6:8-10 ), who clearly knew he was being controlled by God ( Isaiah 59:21 ). These are samplings of some 2,600 claims in the Old Testament for direct inspiration of the text of Scripture. God used several methods to make sure that His word ...

We live in a culture that is a quick and dirty culture. We want to become mature Christians in five easy lessons. We want to become saints by fifteen minutes a day. We want to have flat stomachs and strong abs by three workouts a week. That may work over a given period of time for your abs, but it's not going to work for your soul. Attending the school of God takes time and labor and energy and deeply committing oneself to prayer, to the study of Scripture, to fellowship with other believers, to ministry within the life of the church. We need to listen to Paul: "When I became a man , I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror , dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love" (1 Cor. 13:11-13). Paul was the most mature Christian alive in the world in his day, a man who had the equivalent of two doctorates in theology by the ...

Jesus entering Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Fresco in the Parish Church of Zirl, Austria. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Passion Week begins with palms. Branches are cut from trees, hands are raised in praised, and the most important figure in history enters the greatest city in the first century for the most important week that’s ever been. This unrecognized prince has a rightful claim to the throne of his people as the heir of their most celebrated king. And yet he rides in manifest humility, on the back of a donkey’s colt — like no other ruler in the first century, or the twenty-first century, would dare stoop to do. And this, of course, is not the extent of his meekness and lowliness. He will stoop yet further this holy week, and then further still when he is “raised up” to the lowest of all places, to the utter shame and ignominy of a brutal public execution, even death on a cross. The Glow of Palm Sunday But for now, the week begins with the strange and wonderful glow of ...

oil on wood panel (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) If an angel comes in here and says, "Wait a minute. You can't get to heaven by trusting Christ and Christ alone, and having the imputation of His merit." And the angel came here and said, "For you to really be justified you have to have inherent righteousness. You have to add works to faith, merit to grace, you to Christ." If an angel from heaven came in here and said that this afternoon, I would take him by the seat of his celestial pants and kick him out of here! Paul said that if anybody teaches you any other gospel, even if it's an angel from heaven, let him be anathema. Let him be anathema; let him be damned. If the pope, the bishop, the priest, your preacher, teaches any other gospel than that which you have received, let him be anathema; because there is no other gospel. Here's where, when the gospel is at stake, as Luther said in His great hymn, "A Mighty Fortress," in the last...

Crossing of the red sea (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) I’ve been reading through the book of Exodus again. When I look at all that Moses went through as a leader, it tends to make me feel a bit better about my own challenges. This time as I read I paid close attention to every time the Israelites grumbled against or quarreled with Moses in the early days of their exodus from Egypt… and it was a lot! But here is what is curious to me… each time they grumbled or quarreled with him, Moses went to God . He didn’t argue with them. He didn’t try to reason with them. He didn’t try to explain himself or his decisions. He didn’t try to make them happy. He went to God.  Moses got what I often forget – He knew that he was simply an instrument for God. Moses understood that he was leading these people for and with God. I get this wrong all the time. I’ve never considered myself a people-pleaser and yet if I’m honest I feel a whole lot better about my leadership if people like me ...

The Creation stained glass window at St. Matthew's Lutheran Church in Charleston, SC. Franz Mayer & Co. of Munich, Germany represented by the studios of George L. Payne of Patterson, New Jersey 1966. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) “Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.” ( Isaiah 43:7 ) There are three main verbs used to describe God ’s work of creation in Genesis . These are “create” ( Hebrew , bara), “make” (asah), and “form” (yatsar). The three words are similar in meaning but each with a slightly different emphasis. None of them, of course, can mean anything at all like “evolve,” or “change,” on their own accord. All three are used in Genesis with reference to man. “And God said, Let us make man in our image. . . . So God created man in his own image. . . . And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground” ( Genesis 1:26-27 ; 2:7). Although the subject of creation is commonly associated...