06 March 2022
Two-Minute Features | 13 March 2022

The Difference in the Christian's Character (TMF:1805)

Friday, March 11, 2022
Peace to Live By: The Difference in the Christian's Character (TMF:1805) - Daniel Litton
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       Instead of living with a significant other before marriage, we stay pure and eventually get married to the person. If we drink alcohol, we don’t drink too much. We say things that encourage others, believers or unbelievers, and not to discourage them. Or, take patience for example. How much our lives are bettered through using patience! In waiting on things, we know that a lot times we need up with something better than what we had even been waiting for. If we were to do things the world’s way, we wouldn’t have patience. We would demand things right now, and we would obtain whatever it is right away, and we wouldn’t have the best thing we could of had because we refused to be patient and wait. I mean, think about even in the short-term, say in traffic. A person is sitting in traffic. How many times does this individual blow his stack because he’s too impatient, when if he’d of just waited another two-minutes, the traffic would have picked up and he could have prevented himself from getting all upset. Even in the little things we shouldn’t be living as the world lives.

Learning Through Life's Experiences (TMF:1804)

Thursday, March 10, 2022
Peace to Live By: Learning Through Life's Experiences (TMF:1804) - Daniel Litton
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       And here, in the testing of our lives, in the experience of our lives, we are aware, or should be aware if we’ve been in the faith a long time, that our character is often developed by different life experiences. For some things, it seems that’s the only way that God can teach us. It would be nice if we could read the Bible and a couple Christian books and get everything we need for life out of them. But we realize that’s not how it works. Like with our careers, at our workplaces, we can be trained a good amount of things. It’s also true at work that a lot of things can only be learned through experience. We have to be hands on in order to get whatever it is—we have to be in the middle of it. That’s simply the way we really learn. The point in all of this is that God’s ways are the ways that really satisfy us. That’s how we actually come to enjoy our lives since we are doing things how God wants us to do them, and not the world’s way or in a duty-bound way.

We are Different after We Come to Christ (TMF:1803)

Wednesday, March 09, 2022
Peace to Live By: We are Different after We Come to Christ (TMF:1803) - Daniel Litton
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       A sacrifice to God out of obligation would be like a Jewish sacrifice without Christ; it is a dead sacrifice. Continuing on in Romans 12. Verse 2: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” This is how I’ve been talking about the fact that we desire to see a difference in a person who has come to Christ, the difference in that now the person doesn’t do things the way the world does. For myself, I’m not near as concerned with the presentation of a person here in how they look. I think what Paul is getting at is that a believer doesn’t do things the same way the world does anymore. He or she doesn’t fornicate. They don’t go get drunk somewhere on Friday and Saturday nights. They don’t cuss every five sentences. They are not frightened anymore by trials. Worry doesn’t consume their minds. They don’t follow the world’s behavior in thought, words, and deeds.

Presenting Our Bodies as a Living Sacrifice, Part 2 (TMF:1802)

Tuesday, March 08, 2022
Peace to Live By: Presenting Our Bodies as a Living Sacrifice, Part 2 (TMF:1802) - Daniel Litton
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       So, we know that when Paul presents a “therefore,” that it is there for a reason. What have we been touching on in the last three chapters? Well, as I already mentioned, we’ve been discussing the Jews, and how they think they’re right before God already. They don’t believe they need Christ. But Paul is saying here, in light of the current state of the Israelites, that we are not to be like them. He is saying they are a ‘dead’ sacrifice to God, but we are to present ourselves as a “living sacrifice.” The living sacrifice is obviously quite different from the dead one. Currently, if a Jewish person were to offer an animal sacrifice to God for his or her sins, as the Jews did in the Old Testament, that sacrifice on the altar is dead. On the contrary, for us as believers, we offer ourselves too, but what’s the difference? We are living. We are alive in Christ. Thus begets the second word that’s regularly deleted—that’s usually overlooked—and that is the word “living.” Yes, we are a living sacrifice to God, not a dead one.

Presenting Our Bodies as a Living Sacrifice, Part 1 (TMF:1801)

Monday, March 07, 2022
Peace to Live By: Presenting Our Bodies as a Living Sacrifice, Part 1 (TMF:1801) - Daniel Litton
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       Anyhow, go ahead and turn in your Bibles, or tap in your Bible apps on your mobile devices, to Romans chapter 12. Starting in verse 1: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” This is probably one of the most misunderstood verses in the whole entire New Testament, and it’s one that systematic Christians frequently flock to. For some people, this is their banner—this is their whole defense for their way of living. Yes, and they might throw a couple verses from Jesus also in the mix, like the ones where he talks about denying ourselves and taking up our crosses. I will say this verse certainly is not a call to be a monk, and Paul absolutely is not going into killjoy, or pro-sacrificing and suffering mode here. The verse is often read like this: ““I appeal to you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” See what happened there? Two words got deleted.