“Sanctification” is one of those complicated “church words” that can confuse new Christians, and even those of us who have believed for many years. Being sanctified means that we are perfectly righteous in God’s sight, although we are still working out our salvation and growing spiritually on Earth.  The concept of sanctification can make being a Christian seem like a great deal of work. In fact, some Christians take sanctification to mean that they must become as close to perfect as possible, constantly policing and modifying their behavior. In reality, this is not a fulfilling Christian life. It can lead to mental and spiritual exhaustion, frustration with self and resentment toward God. Learn more about the Love Christian Center by visiting their website at www.lovechristrianctr.org

I know that you have little strength, but you have keptmy word and not denied my name. —Revelation 3:8bLittle, But MightyToday’s verse was written to one of the seven churches, the church inPhiladelphia. The Philadelphian church is one of the only two for which Jesushad only praise (Smyrna is the other). At first, this might seem confusing. Jesussays Philadelphia has “little strength,” so it would make sense for Him tocriticize some of what they were doing or not doing. However, He promisesthem open doors “that no one can shut” and to make their persecutors “comeand fall at [their] feet.”What did the church of Philadelphia do to merit such praise and promises?Jesus says they kept His word and did not deny Him. Learn more about the Love Christian Center by visiting their website at www.lovechristrianctr.org

Christians are told not to compare themselves to others. In fact, to do so issinful, because we are effectively saying God’s creation and His choices for usare not good enough. Yet, the comparison trap is one we all fall into.Sometimes envy motivates it—we want the job, the house, the car, or the jobour neighbors have. Sometimes it’s a matter of low self-esteem—we think theperson next to us is more beautiful, smarter or more spiritual than we are. If wecould just be more like that person, we would be happy and God would like usbetter. Learn more about the Love Christian Center by visiting their website at www.lovechristrianctr.org

St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland, with a shamrock as his symbol, butthat’s the extent of what most Christians know about him—except that hereportedly drove snakes from Ireland. The real St. Patrick was much morecomplex.  Patrick was not Irish by birth. He was born in Britain and taken to Ireland asa slave when Irish pirates raided his hometown. At the time, Ireland was made upprimarily of Druids and pagans. Patrick, though, converted to Christianity.During captivity, he wrote his memoir: The Confession. Learn more about the Love Christian Center by visiting their website at www.lovechristrianctr.org

God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. So God said to Noah … “I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. So make for yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out.”—Genesis 6:12-14The story of Noah’s ark is a familiar one. In fact, most of us focus ourattention on the ark without giving much of it to Noah. Noah only appears ina small section of Genesis, but he is one of the most important andcourageous figures in the Bible.Learn more about the Love Christian Center by visiting their website at www.lovechristrianctr.org

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble,whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely,whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent orpraiseworthy, think about such things.—Philippians 4:8 NIVPart of being a Christian involves watching and sometimes changing the thingswe think about and the way we think about them. This doesn’t mean policingour thoughts nonstop. Rather, it means focusing on the things that today’sverse says we should. At times, this simple call can be quite difficult. Our worldis full of negative events, hard-hearted people and actions that are neitherlovely nor praiseworthy. How can we realistically keep our thoughts positiveand pleasing to God while still dealing effectively with life? Learn more about the Love Christian Center by visiting their website at www.lovechristrianctr.org

Sometime later, Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us go back and visit the believers … and see how they are doing.” Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them, but Paul did not think it wise… because he haddeserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued withthem in the work. They had such a sharp disagreement,that they parted company.—Acts 15:36-39 Learn more about the Love Christian Center by visiting their website at www.lovechristrianctr.org

This is the introductory episode of our new podcast.  It explains what the podcast will be about and also talks about us and where we are from.Learn more about the Love Christian Center by visiting their website at www.lovechristrianctr.org