Author: Phil Rehberg

God Always Enables Us To Do Good Works: Weekly Word Of Encouragement

Posted on by

 “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.”  (II Cor. 9:8) God will provide what we need so that we can do good works. From the context we see that God isn’t just “able” but He is also willing if we trust and submit to Him. And it is important that we understand that God provides for us in order that we can do good works, not just for ourselves. Presumably, that is the desire of our heart. So the good news is that God will fulfill our desire to do good works (a desire that He gave us) by supplying us with what we need. In other words, when we abide in Christ we will always be able to do good works. Sometimes we may feel like we don’t Continue Reading →

rewards

Should We Be Motivated By Heavenly Rewards?

Posted on by

When we think about our blessings in heaven we usually think about the immense pleasure of just being in God’s presence and enjoying his love. We may not think so much about the rewards God will give because that seems too self-focused. Moreover, how much good is a reward compared to being directly in God’s presence with Jesus? In Bernard of Clairvaux’s (b. 1090 – d. 1153) famous work On Loving God he says that “God is not loved without reward, although he should be loved without regard for one” (Sec. 6.17). Bernard rates loving God for the rewards as only the second of four levels of loving God. And yet scripture repeatedly uses rewards to motivate us to be Christlike. God assures us in Ephesians 6:7-8 that we should do “service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, knowing that whatever good anyone does, Continue Reading →

Weekly Word Of Encouragement: God Walks With Us Now

Posted on by

“For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them,”” (II Cor. 6:16) In this passage Paul is explaining to the Corinthians that God has fulfilled his promise from Leviticus 26:12 “And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people.” This promise is fulfilled by the fact that the church is the temple of God. Since we are the temple of God, He walks among us now! This is a return to the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3:8 when God actually walked in the Garden with Adam and Eve. Likewise, God walks with us now, even if it is not completely obvious yet (“we see in a mirror dimly” (I Cor. 13:12).) Keeping this truth in our heart helps us stay connected to His presence. Application: pick some words from the Continue Reading →

Weekly Word of Encouragement – Our New Self Is Our True Self

Posted on by

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” I Cor. 5:17 (ESV) In I Corinthians 5 Paul has been explaining how our inner self has been transformed even though our outer self, our body, has not. In verse 2  he says that “in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling.” (ESV) We groan because our body drags us down, not only with physical weakness and disease but also with it fleshly lusts. We don’t want to be influenced by our old corruption but we are. All who long for holiness and love and communion with God wish that they did not have to contend with their weak body. But scripture comforts us by teaching that this is normal. We do not have to be discouraged about our weaknesses; it is just part of Continue Reading →

christlike creed

The Christlike Creed

Posted on by

When the church wanted to clarify its doctrines in the early centuries it developed the Apostle’s Creed. It would also be helpful to have a creed that summarizes the practice of the faith. That is why I wrote the Christlike Creed. It contains 9 stanzas of 3 lines each and summarizes the important attitudes and practices of the Christian life, including identity and destiny. It describes what a Christlike person looks like. In other words, it describes spiritual growth and discipleship. Consider how important it is to have a description of what a disciple of Jesus looks like. How can a church or ministry make disciples if the leaders or the people don’t know what a disciple looks like? Don’t we need to know what we are aiming for? This creed describes what a disciple of Christ looks like so we know what is important and what is less important. Continue Reading →