Dr Paul Allen

Those who trust in riches now will have their reward now, and those who trust in full bellies now will have their reward now. Those who trust in the coming kingdom will receive their reward — the greatest reward — when Christ returns. Some questions to ask as you read and study Luke 6:20–26: Why do you think God often mentions rewards when he calls for obedience? Does this make us selfish or selfless? Read Luke 6:34–36 and Hebrews 11:24–26. What role did reward have in Moses’s obedience? What role should reward have in ours? Read Luke 6:20–26. Identify the specific rewards God offers to those who follow him through hard things on earth. What would you say to someone who says it is wrong to follow God to gain a reward?

Have you heard of the 92nd Comrades Marathon Race in South Africa ? Since the first race in 1921 the Comrades Marathon has become one of the most famous and prestigious of all ultra-marathons. Winning the race is a coveted achievement. But there are many ways to win the Comrades Marathon. You can win it simply by finishing first, like Bill Rowan did in 1921 by coming in a mere minute under nine hours. You can win it five hours and 35 minutes, like Bongmusa Mthembu did. You can win it more times than anyone else, like Bruce Fordyce did: nine times. You can even win by running against people who are not running. Yes, you can win a Wally Hayward medal if you finish in under six hours or a Bill Rowan medal if you beat his time of nine hours. But you can also win the race by beating the real competition: pain. It is the pain and fatigue that most runners are trying to conquer, not the person in front of them. It is a challenge of body and mind, and runners are racing...

Author: RC Sproul. Historically speaking, both Roman Catholicism and Protestantism have understood that there are degrees of sin. The Roman Catholic church makes a distinction between mortal and venial sin. The point of that distinction is that there are some sins so gross, heinous, and serious that the actual commission of those sins is mortal in the sense that it kills the grace of justification that resides in the soul of the believer. In their theology, not every sin is devastating to that degree. There are some real sins that are venial sins. These are less serious sins in terms of their consequences, but they don't have the justification-killing capacity that mortal sins have. Many Evangelical Protestants have rejected the idea of degrees of sin because they know that the Protestant Reformation rejected the Roman Catholic distinction between mortal and venial sins. As a result, they've jumped to the conclusion that there are no distinctions between sins in Protesta...