Posts by Jim Elliff
Getting John 1:12 Right: Should You Invite Jesus Into Your Heart?
Is it useful to critique any person’s or ministry’s method of evangelism? For one thing, there are not enough people calling on others to follow Christ. Should I attempt to cripple anyone’s efforts in the slightest way, even for the few who might listen to me? I hope I will not. I would rather think that I’m improving our evangelism. And it does need improving. The apparent results of the method of evangelistic appeal built upon the verse in question…
Taraxacum Terrorists
Ah, the dandelion season. Military activity sited.
Outlines on The PRESERVATION and PERSEVERANCE of the Saints
Quote from John Bunyan: “To be saved is to be preserved in the faith to the end. ‘He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.’ (Mt. 24:13) Not that perseverance is an accident in Christianity, or a thing performed by human industry; they that are saved ‘are kept by the power of God, through faith unto salvation.’ (1 Pet. 1: 3-6) But perseverance is absolutely necessary to the complete saving of the soul….He that goeth to…
The Abiding Life is the True Christian Life
The abiding life is the true Christian life. Jesus said, “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch, and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.” (John 15:6) John 15 gives us the pattern for spiritual growth and effectiveness as believers. In the passage, we are called branches, Christ is the vine, and the Father is the vinedresser. What are the characteristics of authentic branches?…
If God is Good, Why Do So Many Bad Things Happen?
My visit to the small apartment of an Asian couple in the Chicago suburbs was disturbing. Here was a man who had innocently gone to work one day, but was caught in the crossfire of a gunfight. He was paralyzed from the neck down. What do you say to a man like that? “If God is all-powerful and is also good, why is there pain in the world?” The question is among the most difficult to answer, especially when we…
Leaders, Did God Call You to Provide a Haven for Those Who Pretend to Follow Christ?
Leader, God did not call you to provide a haven for those who pretend to follow Christ. You don’t do that? Please think more carefully. If you have members on the rolls of your church who show by their behavior that they don’t love Christ, the family of God, and God’s word enough to even attend, you are surely complicit in making them feel comfortable and approved in their supposed status. For many of our churches only 35-40 percent of…
The Ten Plagues
The Ten Plagues One, water to bloodTwo, toads in mudThree, thriving gnatsFour, flies that splatFive, flocks that dropSix, sores that popSeven, storms and stormingEight, eaters swarmingNine, nighttime bumblingTen, tykes are tumbling Copyright Jim Elliff 2010
The Unrepenting Repenter
The believer in Christ is a lifelong repenter. He begins with repentance and continues in repentance. (Rom. 8:12-13) David sinned giant sins but fell without a stone at the mere finger of the prophet because he was a repenter at heart (2 Sam. 12:7-13). Peter denied Christ three times but suffered three times the remorse until he repented with bitter tears (Mt. 26:75). Every Christian is called a repenter, but he must be a repenting repenter. The Bible assumes the…
Don’t Just Tweet Your Proverbs: Lessons from Solomon
I don’t quite understand it. Everyone knows that King Solomon was the wisest man in the Old Testament. Yet, he had the most precipitous moral freefall of all the kings. The early Solomon loved God. “Now Solomon loved the Lord” (1 Kings 3:3). But the later Solomon was out of control morally: “Now Solomon loved many foreign women.” “Solomon held fast to these in love” (1 Kings 11:1,2). What went wrong? In fact, the marital alliances he made with the…
You Talk About What You Love
Leading a retreat for men several years ago, I remember being aware of the spiritual immaturity of some men who had been part of their church for years. The first night I discovered that these men were capable of knowing a lot, including much detailed information. They stood in the stairwell and talked a very long time about baseball, quoting numbers of obscure statistics effortlessly. Their knowledge and obvious passion about the game was quite impressive. Here’s one thing you…
Bread Out of Heaven? Can You Believe John 6: 30-33?
In John 6:30-33 Jesus does not say that the children of Israel were given bread or manna from heaven by Moses. Jesus also does not say that the bread or manna that fell on the ground from heaven came from his own Father, even though the inquirers said correctly, “Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it has been written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” However, he does say that bread came from heaven. Confusing?…
The Fear of Death and God’s Grip
Whatever hard thing you are facing may turn out to be more frightful in the projection than the reality of it. Like all things that bring us fear, there is truth behind that fear, however. The truth that chokes us is that all of us will die (unless escaping at the coming of Christ). It is only a matter of time. We’re sure, as well, that our lives could end in an unexpected way. And, beyond this, most of mankind…
My Father Said to Me
My father tried to teach each of his children those great lessons he learned in his long life, some from the crucible of failure. Here is one. His mother, an exemplary Christian, had a weakness in the area of worry. She fought it and worked to turn her worries into prayer. It was a besetting sin, often showing up to hassle her. My father fought against worry also. He considered worry to be a true battleground in his life. I…
The Place of Love in Evangelism: A Letter From Jim
Dear CCW family, We were by the water on a lakeside vacation when I was perhaps perhaps five or six years old. The four kids were playing in the water and our parents were on the grass in those kind of beach chairs that looked like hammocks. My father had a special camera around his neck which was called a Rolleicord. It was expensive and “the best.” He really liked that camera. And he liked to develop photos himself. All…
Seeking Assurance?
The “security of the believer” is the unchanging objective reality that God has forgiven us and has accepted us through Jesus Christ forever. The “assurance of the believer” is the sometimes shifting subjective confidence that God has forgiven us and has accepted us through Jesus Christ. Do you have assurance? And do you have good reason to have it? Faith is assurance, true, yet the faith of real believers is sometimes weak allowing doubts for a variety of reasons. An…