discipline – Grace Evangelical Society

What Does the Word Condemnation Mean in Jude 4?

October 17, 2022 by Kenneth Yates in Blog - Condemnation, discipline, Judgment

Though often blind to it, we are all influenced by our religious traditions. If we aren’t careful, these traditions may cause us to see things through an inaccurate lens. An example is the way we interpret certain words in the Bible, without considering how those words are being used. Take, for example, the word condemnation

When Bad News Is Good (Jeremiah 30–33)

September 21, 2022 by Kenneth Yates in Blog - consolation, discipline, Hebrews 12:7, Jeremiah

When you read commentaries on the book of Jeremiah, chapters 30–33 are often called the Book of Consolation. This is because those chapters contain really good news for the Jews. They talk about when Christ will return, set up His kingdom, give them a new covenant, and gather them from all the nations of the

Hananiah Bites the Dust (Jeremiah 28:13, 17)

September 14, 2022 by Kenneth Yates in Blog - discipline, false teachers, heresy, Jeremiah 28

[The Lord told Jeremiah], “Go and tell Hananiah, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD: “You have broken the yokes of wood, but you have made in their place yokes of iron”’”…So Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month (Jer 28:13, 17). We live in a day when many believers do not think

Is It Likely That a Born-Again Person Would Rape, Pillage, and Murder?

September 14, 2021 by Shawn Lazar in Blog - discipline, divine discipline, Sin Unto Death

“What if?” questions are handy for testing the consistency of a plan or theory. Philosophers love hypothetical scenarios. For example, the trolley problem helps test the consistency of your moral intuitions (see here). And the brain-in-a-vat problem tests theories about what you can and cannot know (see here). If a hypothetical reveals a self-contradiction within

What Can Eternally Secure Believers Lose? Their Joy

July 22, 2021 by Shawn Lazar in Blog - discipline, Eternal Security, joy, Once saved always saved

Then he said to them, “Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the LORD is your strength” (Neh 8:10). I have spoken with hundreds of people who were

What Can Eternally Secure Believers Lose? Your Local Church

July 19, 2021 by Shawn Lazar in Blog - discipline, Eternal Security, lampstand, Local Church

Not every local church is spiritually healthy. Some prosper, while others languish. Some are united in loving purpose, while other churches are divided, divisive, and declining. When someone believes in Jesus for eternal salvation, from that moment on, nothing can separate him from the love of Christ (cf. Rom 8:35). The believer is guaranteed to

What Can Eternally Secure Believers Lose? Kingdom Privileges

July 14, 2021 by Shawn Lazar in Blog - discipline, Eternal Rewards, Eternal Security, Kingdom, spirituality

When eternally secure believers sin, they cannot lose eternal life, but they can lose their eternal rewards. Not many critics of eternal security have a doctrine of eternal rewards and therefore have trouble interpreting Biblical warnings about losing those rewards. Instead, they misinterpret those passages as references to losing salvation. For example, in Jesus’ letters

Zacharias’ Disbelief and Divine Discipline (Luke 1:18-22)

October 14, 2020 by Shawn Lazar in Blog - discipline, Doubt, Luke, Zacharias

Did you know that even the oldest, godliest believers can doubt God…and be disciplined for it? If you were a member of the clergy, a priest of God, and a blameless man who had served the Lord for many decades, and an angel appeared to you announcing that God heard your prayer and would answer

Faithfulness in the Family (Ephesians 6:1-4)

June 4, 2019 by Bob Wilkin in Blog - Child Training, discipline, Ephesians 6:1-4, parenting

Introduction The following is a condensed version of a message I delivered at the recent GES national conference. I think that the main application of most of Scripture is to believe what is being taught. If we believe what God’s Word says, then we gain what Paul calls “the mind of Christ” (1 Cor 2:16).

Splash Pad or Trash Pad?

May 23, 2018 by Shawn Lazar in Blog - common sense, discipline, Matthew 25:29, resources, Stewardship

I took my kids to a newly opened splash pad or “sprayground” in town. It opened on May 12th. I took them the next day, on May 13th. What is a splash pad? Think of a half-basketball court with different kinds of sprinklers. The water shoots from nozzles in the ground, pours down from buckets