The way to insure victory over our test is to patiently work to overcome our test as hard while performing successfully as we would work if we were not being successful, concluding that our patient persistence in working as hard as we can makes it more difficult for our opponent to catch us.

We mature Christians are called to restore other Christians that fall into temptation and then sin. But in order to really understand how sin is restored spiritually, the Master, the Lord Jesus Christ, gives us an object lesson that cannot be surpassed.

Peter informed the Gentile Christians that circumcision was unnecessary for those who believe in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. But Peter changed his tune and Paul opposed Peter and the Judaizing Christians to their faces when the Judaizing Christians came to instruct the Gentiles Christians that they did need to be circumcised.

Before Peter could preach the gospel to the Gentile Cornelius and those in his house, the Holy Spirit had to prepare Peter to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. For Peter to try to add Gentiles to the church would not be received well by the Judaizing Christians that inhabited the church. However, since the Holy Spirit told Cornelius to send his men to get Peter, that same Holy Spirit had to prepare Peter to go to Cornelius to preach.

The key to salvation is that we remember that salvation was accomplished for us on Calvary’s Cross by the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by His suffering and death, paid the penalty that we owe for the sins that we have committed. The devil wants mankind to want to reject that fact, and to take at least partial credit for our own salvation due to the good works that we have done.

We are all sinners, saved by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. And although we are saved by the goodness and mercy of the Lord, we all still have the sin nature, that carnal man that we inherited from Adam. But it is ours to recognize our shortcomings, and to do all that we can to avoid sin and improve our situation.

The church cannot afford to be oriented towards the things of this life. Possessions, earthly accomplishments, fame and reputation cannot be the focus of the church. The spread of the gospel has to do with convincing people that their objective should be everlasting life, and this physical life that we are living on earth is certainly not everlasting life.

I am reviewing the relationship between the Heavenly Father and His earthly sons, using the stepping off point of the parable of the Prodigal Son.