Month: February 2020

This is a book by retired preacher Charles Capps, first published in 1976. I purchased this paperback a long time ago in a Goodwill thrift store for 50 cents, thinking it was about public speaking. The book turned out to be real gem on channeling the Christian faith to be more effective in our walk with God. The Bible affirmations I have on index cards and repeat regularly are from this little book.  I gave my original copy away to someone I thought needed to read it. I recently went on Amazon and bought it again for my reference library. This is an interesting book that will get you thinking about your relationship with God. In my old files I kept notes on the concepts from this book which I’ll put in my blog.

CONCEPTS FROM THE TONGUE BY CHARLES CAPPS:

God’s Word is spiritual law.
The spirit world is controlled by God’s Word.
The spoken Word of God is creative power.
Spiritual law is for your good.
Pray the desired outcome and not the problem.
Walk by faith and not by sight.
Don’t pray to Jesus. Pray to the Father in Jesus’ name.

Pray according to the Word of God. God’s Word will produce after its kind.

Prayer is your spiritual right to use faith-filled words to bring God on the scene on your behalf.

If the Word is in you then faith is in your words. God wants to answer your prayers because God is glorified when our prayers are answered and our needs are met.

Your faith will make prayer work. Faith will work without prayer but prayer will not work without faith.

God’s Word is all-powerful and has creative power. The universe was created when God spoke words.

God gave the earth to Adam and after he ate the forbidden fruit Satan became the god of this world and held Adam and Eve in spiritual bondage.

God can do anything and upholds all things by the Word of his power (i.e. God’s power is in what He says).

Jesus came to take back authority over this world from Satan.

Whatever the Word declares comes to pass with faith.

Upon salvation God gives every believer the same measure of faith and it’s up to us to develop it.

When praying in faith those things you say will come to pass. Start praying the answer and start believing and confessing what the Word says. Invoke the name of Jesus.

The Apostle John wrote his gospel in exile on the Isle of Patmos off the Turkish coast around 95 AD when he was a very old man. John became a disciple of Jesus when he was a 17 year old teenager and became a part of Jesus’ inner circle along with Peter and his brother James.  John was once sentenced to the prison mines for preaching the gospel and evil men even attempted to boil John alive but he was rescued by God so he could write the book of Revelation. John was the only Apostle to die a natural death in old age.

As an eyewitness to the life of Jesus John wanted to write his personal account while he was alive. John read the other three gospels first and wanted to fill in the areas that were omitted in the ministry of Jesus. John is not a synoptic gospel because it didn’t focus so much on the life of Jesus as much as His divinity and His office. John also wanted to dispel the rumors by some sects that Jesus was only a man and not God in the flesh.  John was illiterate so he dictated his gospel to a scribe.  The gospel of John was written in Greek for the whole world. Consensus is that John was written around 95 AD give or take a year or two. The Encyclopedia of the Bible says 90-100 AD, Nelson’s Bible Facts says 90-100 AD, and the Bible Handbook says 80-90 AD. John’s goal was to show that Jesus is the Word of God send down from heaven and came to draw all people to faith in Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

The other three gospels are set in Galilee but John’s gospel is set exclusively in Jerusalem. The teaching methods of John’s gospel do not use parables but instead rely on longer conversations by Jesus to His disciples. There is more personal teaching of the disciples in John’s gospel.  The gospel framework of John utilizes seven miracles and seven sayings to show Jesus is divine which show the only way to eternal life is through faith in Jesus Christ. The gospel of John kind of ties up all the loose ends of the life of our Savior and the truth set before us in all the gospels shines like the noonday sun!  Praise God in heaven for providing us with His written Word for our salvation!

Luke was a Gentile physician and disciple of Paul who accompanied the Apostle on many of his missionary trips. Luke made it plain at the beginning of his gospel of the life of Jesus that he never knew Jesus personally but had interviewed those who did know Jesus, like Paul, and he investigated all the evidence available and his gospel is an accurate account of the truth.  Luke heard the preaching of Paul everywhere Paul went and wanted to preserve what the Apostle taught. Luke also wrote the book of Acts which was about the activities of the early church. As a believer and disciple of Jesus Luke also preached the gospel message to the nations and was preaching in Greece when he was martyred by hanging.

As a Gentile, Luke wrote his gospel for them and in Greek. There is a dispute about whether Luke or Matthew was the second gospel to be written but they were written about the same time.  The consensus is Luke was written in 64 AD, give or take a year or two.  The Encyclopedia of the Bible say 60-85 AD, Nelson’s Bible Facts says 58-63 AD, and the Bible Handbook says 60-61 AD.  Luke is the fullest and most well-rounded account of the life of Jesus Christ and 60% of the material in this gospel is not found in the other gospels.  Luke focuses on the humanity of Jesus and has more information on the birth, youth and ministry of Jesus.  Luke stresses Jesus was the perfect human who rose from the dead to save sinners.  Luke focuses on the humanity of Jesus.

Luke stresses that Jesus, as Savior, brought people back to God and out of their sins.  Even thought Jesus died unjustly, God still worked His salvation plan for man.  Luke highlights the fact that Jesus came first to save the Jews, as heirs of God’s promise.  When Jesus was rejected He took salvation to the Gentiles.  Luke’s gospel begins and ends in Jerusalem with the focus on the final journey of Jesus from Galilee to Jerusalem.  Luke contains the only ascension story in the gospels.  Luke alone contains such well-known Bible stories as the prodigal son, the good Samaritan, the death of Lazarus and hades, the Pharisee and the tax collector and Zacchaeus along with other resurrection stories.  Luke was with the Apostle Paul when Paul was imprisoned in Rome and Luke wrote his gospel there around the time Paul was beheaded by the Roman Emperor Nero.

The gospel of Mark was penned by John Mark, a Jew from Jerusalem, who was an associate of both Peter and Paul. Mark wrote his gospel while he was in Rome as a disciple of the Apostle Peter. Mark never knew Jesus but wrote the account of His life based on the teachings of Peter as he preached to the Jews and Gentiles in Rome.  Since Peter was an illiterate fisherman it fell to Mark to record the eyewitness testimony of Peter about the life of Jesus. Mark did this at the request of the Christians living in Rome. Mark wrote his gospel in Greek, which was the universal language of that day.

The consensus is Mark was written around 55 AD, give or take a year or two. The Encyclopedia of the Bible says 60-70 AD, Nelson’s Bible Facts says 60 AD, and the Bible Handbook says 50-60 AD. There is consensus that Mark was the first gospel written and it was used as a reference for the writers of the other gospels.  Mark is a synoptic gospel, which is just a fancy way of saying it chronicled the life and actions of Jesus Christ. Matthew and Luke are also considered synoptic gospels. Mark was written to help the Christians in Rome witness to unbelievers. Mark was also active in the church in Jerusalem from the early days.

Mark was a disciple of Jesus in his own right and went on to preach the gospel of Christ to the nations just like the Apostles. For his preaching in Alexandria, Egypt, Mark was martyred by being drug through the streets of the city by a team of horses.  Mark’s focus was showing Jesus was the Son of God, the Messiah foretold in Scripture. Anyone who openly declared themselves to be God in those days would be stoned to death as required by the law. Jesus referred to Himself as the Son of Man to hide His identity from the Gentiles.  The Jews understood that moniker was the one used in the book of Daniel to describe God coming to earth on his Shekinah glory cloud looking like, “a Son of Man.”  The Bible uses this term  in Daniel to say God will look like a human being when he arrives in His glory.

Jesus was saying He was God but not in a way that would get Him stoned to death.  Jesus was also making reference to His Second Coming when He called Himself the Son of Man, which the Jewish people never understood.  Mark shows Jesus as a suffering servant of the Lord and a man of action. Mark focuses on three main points, the Galilean ministry of Jesus, Jesus’ last journey to Jerusalem and the passion week leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus in Jerusalem during the Jewish Passover.  Mark spent more time on the last eight days of Jesus’ life than any of the other gospels. The purpose of Mark was to call on all people to repent of their sins and follow Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

Many years ago a young Christian man wanted to witness for Christ. He was also a cartoonist. He merged the two loves of his life, God and drawing to create the first Christian tracts. These are cartoon booklets that contain the gospel message. This young man was Jack Chick and he went on to establish Chick Publications (www.chick.com) as the first and largest provider of Christian tracts with distribution worldwide.  For years I used to pick these tracts up everywhere and read them. They were free and interesting. This was back when I was a backslider but I had never lost my interest in God. God pursued me for years before I finally restored my fellowship with God and began to live for Christ in earnest.

My Bible study revealed I was commanded to witness for Christ. I prepared myself to do that but nobody came knocking at my door. Approaching people about the gospel cold turkey was not very productive for me.  I was reading a Chick tract one day and it dawned on me that I could reach unbelievers the same way, by “passive witnessing,”  through the use of Chick tracts, just like someone did for me. I started by leaving tracts in Walmart bathrooms and doctor’s offices.  I had a goal of passing out a certain number every week and I had a supply of over a dozen different tracts. I eventually worked up to getting stores to let me place plastic racks in their businesses and I would go around weekly to replenish depleted stocks. When I retired and moved away I passed my tracts on to someone else to maintain.

The point is, these tracts are short and easy to read and they have a clear message for the reader about salvation. Many people have been saved by reading these tracts alone. What I like is on the back page they all contain a concise sinner’s prayer with easy instructions how to be saved unto eternal life.  You must understand that when someone reads a tract that you leave somewhere you are sowing the gospel seed and you’ll be given credit for that by God. You are obeying the Great Commission of Jesus when you do this passive witnessing.  Although my passive witnessing is now mainly through my Christian blog, I still value the passing out of Chick tracts.  I plan to start it up again where I’ve relocated in retirement. Instead of buying a dozen different tracts this time I’m going to go with only one.

I’m buying the #1 best seller, “This was your life,”  and buying by the case to save 38%. You can go to their website and read every Christian tract they publish. I have and this one is my favorite. These tracts are 17 cents apiece and a case of 1,000 tracts costs $105 plus shipping.  I have ample opportunities where I live to pass out these Christian tracts. This is just one more way to reach unbelievers while there is still time. Their souls are in great danger and we owe it to them to try to make them aware of the truth, which is all God asks of us. The reason for this blog is to encourage readers to consider passing out Christian tracts where you live.

There’s no doubt in my mind that one day in heaven I’ll meet someone who was saved, directly or indirectly, because of one of the Christian tracts I handed out. Even if I do this for 25 years and it only help save 1 person for God’s kingdom it will have been worth it.  Think about what it would mean to help a brother or sister escape the fiery lake of hell for an eternity. The value of every soul is priceless and worth our best effort to save as many as possible.  Someone helped us cross over from death to life and we can do no less than pay it forward and try to help other lost souls.

These are the five ministries of the Holy Spirit:

1. REGENERATION: When we are saved unto eternal life by the grace of God through our faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour God gives us a brand new spirit that is not tainted by the original sin of Adam. Our first spiritual “birth” occurs at conception when God gives us a part of His eternal Spirit. When we are saved we are “reborn” with a new spirit.

2. BAPTISM: When we are saved God washes us with the “living water” of the Word of God. The Holy Spirit translates us from death to life by placing us in the body of Christ and our names are placed in the Book of Life whereby we have irrevocable eternal life in fellowship with our God and Father for eternity. Praise God for His mercy and grace!

3. INDWELLING: Upon salvation God’s Holy Spirit comes inside us to take up residence with our spirit. We are weak and can do nothing in the spiritual realm without God’s help. God has graciously given us a part of Himself to be our helper in our walk with God. The Holy Spirit will guide us, protect us, and control us if we allow it in order to overcome the flesh and the attacks against us from Satan and his demons.

4. SEALED: Once God, in His mercy and grace, saves us unto eternal life God seals us as His possession by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. This is proof to us and to every being in the spiritual realm that we belong to the Father and Scripture say nobody can take us out of His hand and our salvation is irrevocable. Think of the Holy Spirit like an earnest deposit in a real estate transaction.  When we are ushered into heaven God will complete the purchase by welcoming us into to His heavenly family. God cannot lie and God will never change His mind and cast us away.  If God puts down an earnest deposit on our eternal soul with His Holy Spirit then the transaction will happen just as the Scriptures indicate. Praise God for His faithfulness!  The first four ministries of the Holy Spirit happen instantly when we accept Jesus Christ as Lord and are saved. They can never be lost and we need not ask for them again. They are irrevocable. With these four ministries we are justified by faith in Christ and we have peace with God.

5. FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT: This is the one ministry of the Holy Spirit that is not automatic and permanent.  The full power of the Holy Spirit is a special gift from God.  We have to pray for this gift from God and He grants it to those who would do great things for the kingdom of God.  Once we have the full power of the Holy Spirit it can be withdrawn by God if not used properly. This is the same power of God that turned the weak-kneed disciples into fearless Apostles who spread the gospel to every corner of the earth. We can have this same power of the Holy Spirit if we pray for it for a specific purpose that fits the needs of God.

God has five primary purposes for your life:

1. WORSHIP: “Love God with all your heart” – You were planned for God’s pleasure, so your purpose is to love, worship and praise your God to His glory.

2. EVANGELISM: “Go and make disciples” – You were made for a specific mission and that is to spread the gospel of Christ to all the nations of the earth in order to save souls.

3. MINISTRY: “Love your neighbor as yourself” – You were shaped for serving others as Jesus also served as an example for you to follow. Caring for others shows your love.

4. FELLOWSHIP: “Baptize them into…” – You were formed for God’s family, so your purpose is to identify with fellow believers as part of the body of Christ, His church.

5. DISCIPLESHIP: “Teach them to do all things” – You were created to become like Christ, so your purpose is to grow in spiritual maturity and glorifying God by your deeds.

John 3:16 – For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Romans 3:23 – This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Mark 1:15 – The time has come. The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!

1 Peter 3:18 – For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit.

Romans 10:9 – That if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

1. Know the Bible! – Read the entire Bible several times. Read the New Testament yearly. Read you Bible daily and study God’s Word.

2. Test the spirits – Compare all teachings and reject those that do not agree with the Scriptures. The view of Jesus must be Scriptural and glorify Him. Beware of false teachings and false prophets in these end times.

3. Seek God’s guidance – The Lord wants to guide you so be willing to listen and then ask God over and over in prayer until you receive what you ask for.

4. Avoid immorality – Ask for the Holy Spirit’s help in resisting lust and all forms of sin in your life. Rebuff Satan when he tempts you. When you do sin immediately ask for God to forgive you. God still loves you and He will forgive you. Keep trying to do better.

5. Share faith agressively – Don’t be ashamed of the gospel of Christ. You are right and unbelievers are wrong. All the evidence is on your side and all they have is baseless assertions. If unbelievers brace you ask them to review the evidence with you and let the facts speak for themselves. Very few will accept because they fear you’re right.

6. Walk in the Spirit – When you’re praying you are in the Spirit with God and in direct communication with the Creator of the universe. When you are reading God’s Word you’re in the same Spirit with God and He is talking to you. This two-way communication with God is walking in the Spirit.

Live like Jesus Christ by emulating His ways. Don’t think about the enormity of doing this. Just try, one step at a time, one act at a time, one day at a time. You will never get there but it’s the journey that is important. Living a life of faith, honor, integrity and humility will earn you the respect of everyone around you and glory in heaven.

You have to continually affirm what God’s Word says until it gets into your spirit and becomes a part of you. Nothing happens overnight. Your spirit man must dominate the natural man and bring it into submission with God’s Word, which is obedience.  The body will obey words. The body has to be trained to act upon the Word of God. Your body will obey the commands of your mind. What you speak out of your mouth is because it is abundantly in your heart. What you say can cause sickness and disease or it can stop it.  Jesus was given all power in heaven and on earth. Jesus delegated God’s authority back to man making him a joint-heir with Jesus to the kingdom of God. The law of Genesis says everything produces after its kind.

God has given every man the same measure of faith at conception so that they can be born again should they so choose. This spiritual seed of faith we all receive needs to be developed. The goal is to grow our faith into the God kind of faith, or as close as we can make it.  How do we grow our faith? Scripture say faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Basically, listen to the Word of God, but also read it and speak it. God’s words in your heart spoken out of your mouth release the God kind of faith. God’s Word plus faith is what works. It’s not the prayer in itself. The devil can say a prayer but it’ll never work because he doesn’t have the faith it takes to create spiritual power.

Sanctification is a lifelong process whereby you become more like Christ over time by agreeing to the process through your prayers, worship, meditation, service, giving and Bible study, etc. The active partner who will change you and do all the work is the Holy Spirit who will lead you to the fruits of the Spirit, namely love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness and self-control.  When we stand before God at our death hopefully a lot of our remake will have been completed. In any event, God Himself will make the final changes in us to make us fit for heaven in a process we call glorification.  Sin is not allowed in heaven and God will remake us so that we cannot sin. I used to worry about that but God has it covered so let’s relax. God has thought of everything so not to worry.  God is for us all the way.

God gives each believer seven gifts upon salvation:

1. A new relationship – We were at odds with God and our fellowship broken while we were still in our sins. Once God has forgiven our sins unto eternal life by His mercy and grace we are restored to fellowship with our maker. God will now communicate with us. God is now our friend. God so loves us He has adopted us as His own children into His family. We are joint heirs with Jesus to all the riches of Almighty God. Rejoice!

2. A new citizenship – As Christians we become legal citizens of heaven and have equal rights with every other resident. God was expecting us and our abode has been made ready for our appearing. We are only visiting on this earth until we can return to our eternal home. We were made for heaven.

3. A new family – We are royalty in heaven as adopted children of God and members of God’s family. All believers are our brothers and sisters. While we’re on earth all believers are members of the body of Christ, the church, and we are to fellowship with each other, support each other and worship together.

4. A new purpose – Once we moved from death to life through faith in Christ we gained a new purpose in life. God has prepared good works for us to do from the foundation of the world and now we are to do them. God commands us to witness for Christ and bring glory to God by emulating Jesus in all we do. We were made for this moment.

5. A new power – On our own we are weak but upon slavation God Himself indwells us through His Holy Spirit and we can do all things for the kingdom of God through His glorious power. Once indwelt God will never leave us, God is always present to help us in our walk with God while we live in the body.

6. A new destiny – Once we accepted Jesus as our lord and Saviour by faith our names were written in the Book of Life. Our calling is irrevocable and we will spend eternity in heaven with our Father who will shower us with affection and His riches in glory.

7. A new journey – One we’re saved, if we love Jesus, we are commanded to live for Him by witnessing for Christ, doing good works and trying to emulate Jesus in all we do, thereby bringing glory to the God who made us in love to fellowship with Him forever.