Ironworks

            Does almost count? There are a good amount of people that would think so. If you have ever had employees that you have managed, you would be familiar with this idea first hand. Over the years, I had many employees that were almost on time. Perhaps the most telling was a young man who worked for me whom we will call Pete. Pete was one of my line cooks who was scheduled quite often to open. I enjoyed working with Pete, he was a hard worker, and fun to be around. When it came to opening, the company policy was that there must be at least two employees present to enter the building. Pete would not show up on time, but was consistently 5-10 minutes late. He would even at times say, “I almost made it on time.” I tried all sorts of approaches to getting him to show up on time, but he rarely was there at 8, if ever. Our conversations usually ended with “sure boss, I’ll try.” I suppose he was almost persuaded. However, does almost count? Why do ...

“Come now, ye that say, To-day or to-morrow we will go into this city, and spend a year there, and trade, and get gain:  whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. What is your life? For ye are a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.  For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall both live, and do this or that.  But now ye glory in your vauntings: all such glorying is evil.  To him therefore that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”  James 4:13-17      What is your life? The answer may be scarier than the question itself. Yet, the Holy Spirit asked, “What is your life?” It is a vapor, something that is seen briefly. It appears and it is gone. So why do we try and hoard the time that we have on this earth instead of willingly giving it up for God? When we plan in such a way that we leave God out of our lives, we hold onto the temporary brevity of life rather than the eternal desire God has...

Of the men therefore that have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and went out among us, beginning from the baptism of John, unto the day that he was received up from us, of these must one become a witness with us of his resurrection.  Acts 1:21-22 What is an Apostle?      There are some in the religions of the world that claim that they are apostles. There are some religions that believe in what is called “Apostolic Succession” (i.e. Roman Catholicism, Mormonism, et al). So what does the Scripture say regarding such a claim? To begin with, we must define our terms. The term apostle (apostolos) means in the original Koine Greek “one sent, or one commissioned.” In a general sense, we understand our obligation of the great commission that is given to Christians (see Mark 16:15-16; Matt 28:18-20). We are sent out to teach, baptize, and teach more. Is this the same as the apostles of our Lord that we find in the New Testament? No, it is not the sa...