Chris R. Quinlan

Is it ever appropriate to speak out about sin even though we all have sinned? Worded this way most of us would say, "sure!, of course. Especially if the Bible calls it sin."  And I would agree. What if I worded the question like this? "Since we have all sinned, and many of us sin terribly in secret, is it hypocritical to condemn the sin of someone else?" This one should make us all think a little more before answering.  I think Jesus spoke to this matter. In his famous Sermon on the Mount, Jesus spoke these words in Matthew 7:1 ff “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?  How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?    You hypocrite, first take

Recently, a question was posed regarding overcoming temptation as a Christian. I deal with temptation the same as everyone else, and I've come to realize certain truths about this subject that I thought would be good to share. I found myself convicted by my own words. The following is what I wrote: Remember that sin is what required the sacrificial death of our Lord on the cross. As Christians we need to see the temptation as the nails that would be driven into Christ's body, and see ourselves as the Roman Soldier about to drive them in. We give into temptation when we are not believing sin is as abominable as God believes it to be. When we choose sinful pleasure, we (at least temporarily) reveal our disbelief that Christ suffered the full wrath of God to purchase our freedom from the clutches of Satan and the eternal suffering of hell. We defeat temptation only when we are so repulsed by sin that the disgust of that sin outweighs the temporary pleasure that it b

As a Christian, I must always be careful not to get caught up in the wisdom and philosophies that grow popular. With the recent death of Steve Jobs, there has been an outpouring of praise and adoration for this man who brought us really neat gadgets, and by many accounts was a tremendous success. With that success, many have wondered how they can also have such success for themselves. One way is to look at the life of someone like Steve Jobs and study his methods of doing business and his leadership techniques, and then try to imitate these things. But to really get at the core of someone like Steve Jobs, you need to understand the values and principles that led to his actions. Over Ten Million people have viewed Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford Commencement Address on YouTube and other places on the web. In this speech Steve tells his life story and gives the hearers a glimpse into the philosophies that drove him. Many of the statements were very motivational and inspirational to th

I was having a pleasant conversation the other day with someone who I haven't seen in a while. The subject of Calvinism came up. Without knowing my personal position, this person began to express disdain for people who embrace any form of Calvinism. To which I politely replied, "Well, I'm a Calvinist." After squirming a bit from my unexpected statement, I was smugly asked the following (I assume, rhetorical) question: "So, which one of your children did God create to go to hell?" I guess that's supposed to be the ultimate gotcha question from the anti-Calvinist.  I, without hesitation, politely answered, "God does not reveal to us who is elect and who isn't, so I have no idea." My aquaintence squirmed a bit more and replied, "I just know that God does NOT create people just to send them to hell." At this point, to debate further would have made the situation terribly uncomfortable, so I wrapped things up by saying something t

Our culture’s view of cussing is obvious from observing TV and movies. Everyone cusses, even children and religious people. It’s the “grown-up” and “cool” thing to do. It’s fun, it makes people laugh, and makes you feel more powerful and popular. The clear message that is caught is: cussing is normal and expected, therefore there’s nothing wrong with it. It’s just words. As vulgarity becomes more and more accepted in our culture, the media that most people consume becomes more and more filled with it. The question to be asked by the Christian should be: What does the bible say about this subject?   The bible does not give a list of cuss words to abstain from using. The bible wasn’t written in English, and we’re not interested in legalism anyway. In the bible we find several passages that give us principles to apply to this matter. It is my belief that anyone who calls him or herself a Christian should completely abstain from using any word that is, or even sounds like a cuss

I had a few more thoughts regarding 9/11 that I wanted to get out. On Sunday, Sept. 11, 2011, I watched a documentary about how people responded to 9/11 from a spiritual perspective. There were some that grew closer to God through the tragedy, and many that became bitter and turned away from their faith. The ones that turned away just couldn't seem to get good answers to the questions they were asking about what happened that day and why. I am of the strong belief that we should always use the bible to inform our world-view. That way, we can at least hope to understand the world around us as close as possible to how God sees it since He made it. Otherwise, it's just guesswork. The scriptures provide a firm foundation on which to understand not only the world around us, but how God interacts with the world. So, what does the bible say about 9/11? Here are two thoughts. 1. There is the story about the tower of Siloam. In Luke 13:4-5 we read: "Or do you suppose tha

The events that occurred on that date will never be forgotten by those old enough to remember. The senseless murder of thousands of people by a few Muslim terrorists seems so utterly wrong, that many have questioned their faith in God. They reason, if 9-11 was so bad, and God is supposed to be good, it doesn't make sense that he would allow such a terrible thing to happen. Where was God? Why didn't he intervene? Could he intervene? Is there even a God at all? I want to look at the question everyone is asking, "Where was God?" Many have concluded that God is supposed to be good and fair, and so they come to "believe" in a deity that represents their idea of what is good and fair. They then expect God to behave in keeping with their ideas of fairness and goodness, that are all too often adopted from cultural or political ideas. So, when something happens that seems unfair, we get angry at God because he didn't behave as we would have if we were God.

  2 Peter 1:16-18 16 For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. 17 For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory, "This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased"-- 18 and we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain. Peter has just been saying that his martyrdom was imminent and that his goal was to remind Christians of the things he thought were important. From what I can tell, Peter thought that it was important to live in a manner worthy of Christ. The other item, that was very important to all the original apostles, was the preservation of the true gospel message as given by Jesus. The passage today begins the emphasis on this subject that carries through as the main theme of this entire book. In today's passage Pet

2 Peter 1:10b-15 "For if you do these things, you will never fall, 11 and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 12 So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have. 13 I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, 14 because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. 15 And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these thing s This verse needs to be understood with care. If one isn't careful, a conclusion could be drawn that would be in opposition to the truth that the verse is proclaiming. Verse 11 is key, but I included the end of verse 10 so that the entire thought could be seen. The reason this is so critical to understand is because what we see here in verse 10-11 is what, at first glance, looks like

2 Peter 1:9-10 9For he who lacks these qualities ( moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love) is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins. 10Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble; I included the qualities from verses 5-7 to remind you of the most important qualities that a Christian can strive to make a part of their lives. Moral excellence - Striving to live a life free from sin. Knowledge - Placing a priority on reading and studying the Scriptures. Self-control - Disciplining yourself to say "No" to temping desires, even when no one is looking. Perseverance - A determination to stay true to your faith, no matter what the circumstances. Godliness -  A desire to learn what God is like and adopt those characteristics into your own life. B

2 Peter 1:5-8 5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. If I've learned one thing about what it means to be a follower of Christ, it's that there is a reason that I am still here and not in heaven right now. One thing is very clear to me, and that is it would be cruel of God to "save" me from my sins and then leave me in a fallen world, full of suffering and evil, for no reason except to wait for a natural death. What is that reason? The bible is clear that Christians have a mission. Let me describe what that mission is NOT . It is not to accept as true, that

I'm posting the missing parts of my series on 2 Peter in four parts. So if you enjoy these you can go back and finish the rest . It is my hope that you will benefit from this study I wrote years ago. Enjoy!  2 Peter, Verses 1-4 1 Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ:   Welcome to my devotional study of 2 Peter. Hopefully those that read this devotional will be blessed as we open up God's word. I will attempt to explain the text when I feel like that is required, but I will also make comments, offer commentary, and give insight as I do my own personal study on this book. I fully understand that I may make errors as I go through, and I welcome discussions and correction if needed. Here we go. As we read this letter, we should be aware of the context. Peter is most likely writing this from a Roman prison and most likely written sho

‎"True Christians delight to read the Scriptures, because they tell them about their beloved Savior." ~ J.C. Ryle

Proverbs 3:1 "My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments," In this verse we find two very simple appeals from a Father to his son that at first read seem quite straight forward, and they are, but there are three words that I believe, give this verse special meaning. Those words are "let your heart."  The psalmist could have simply wrote, "keep my commandments," but we see the wisdom of God as he instructs us to not simply obey commands for the sake of blind obedience, but to "let our hearts" be at the center of the action. Our "heart" is simply the true us. The us that other people may not be able to see, but God surely does. Out heart is not an outward emotional display, but reflects the sum-total of our true inner physical and spiritual desires. If we're honest, most of us, including me, have a divided "heart" to some degree or another. We find ourself with conflicting desires. Thi

I have learned as an adult, that very few of the warnings we give to children are simply embraced as truth. Children always want to find out for themselves. You tell a child, “That’s hot…don’t touch it or you’ll get burned.” What’s the first thing they want to do? Reach out and touch that thing to see for themselves. We are all very stubborn when it comes to listening to the wisdom of others. As we grow into adulthood, we can’t understand why young people won’t listen to us and heed the warnings we give. As adults, we forget that when we are young, we have very little appreciation for the wisdom that comes from age and experience. Once we get to the age of about 13, we think we must be as smart as any other human being on the planet, and at least in my case, thought I could handle just about any situation that came my way without any help. Of course, in my own life this describes my 6 year old perfectly. So, is it worth pouring wisdom into the life of a young person, knowing

As I observe humanity, I see that most people by their mid 20's have made up their mind about certain spiritual things and political things. So, my point in this short blog post is not to try and change your mind about anything, but just to mention some things I've observed and hopefully spark some thought. I've been thinking a lot lately about what makes people believe what they believe. I know that much of what we believe (our worldview) comes from our experiences in life. Specifically, the people that we've grown to trust. Our parents, our church, and our friends. So, the question... what causes perfectly reasonable and rational people to believe so differently about things? I've been thinking about politics and how divided our country seems to be.  I've been trying to figure out the core differences between the various political parties. I'm not talking about the current issues, so much as I mean the deeper differences. The issue that has me most

Is there a God? Is there a judgement after death? How can I know that I'll go to heaven when I die? These are the big questions that truly matter. As a Christian and follower of Jesus, I need to tell you that there's good news and bad news. First, the bad news. The bad news is that the answer to the first and second question is, "yes." This is bad news because God is perfectly holy and only permits perfectly holy creatures into his presence. Unfortunately, it only takes sinning one time in your entire life to disqualify you from heaven. If that seems too harsh, it's because we don't understand how how truly blasphemous sin is in God's eyes. So, we are all rightfully banished from eternity with God because all of us are repeat offenders. Fortunately, there is good news...no, great news! It's called the Gospel in the bible, and here it is: The "Gospel" is the story of the creation, fall, and redemption of mankind. Because of the h

Gambling is blight on our nation, a cancer that eats away at the souls of millions. In spite of the fact that increases crime rates, degrades morals, and destroys families, gambling has thrived. Why? http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GTYBlog/~3/jeoswxX6qpc/B110630

If we want to be eminently happy, we must strive to be eminently holy. ~ J.C. Ryle

After hearing the news about Osama Bin Ladin, I was left wondering what the proper attitude should be regarding his demise. Many questions raced through my mind: Is it ever right to rejoice in someone's death? Is it within the boundaries of Christian character to take any amount of satisfaction at all in this particular man's death? Should I have been praying for this man's salvation? If Osama was the enemy of my countrymen, was he my enemy as well? If we are to love our enemies, according to the teachings of Jesus, is it right to cheer the death of someone who we were to have been showing love? Here's where I stand right now. I believe God instituted government to punish evildoers. Our government did their job. I feel some amount of satisfaction that this man who plotted evil against innocents, has been brought to justice. I also feel some amount of sadness that Satan has deceived another soul and dragged that soul down to hell.  So, I'm happy that justice has b

The Devil is Alive and Raising Hell by J.C. Ryle   The Devil is Alive and Raising Hell Posted: 04 Apr 2011 12:00 AM PDT Does anyone foolishly suppose that the devil is asleep, or dead, or less mischievous now than in the past? Nothing of the kind! He is still "walking about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour." He is still "going to and fro in the earth, and walking up and down in it" (1 Peter 5:8; Job 1:7). It is he who goes among heathen nations and persuades them to shed oceans of blood in the worship of idols or murderous wars. It is he who goes to and fro among fallen Churches, persuading them to throw aside­ the Bible, and satisfy people with 'formal worship' or groveling superstitions. It is he who walks up and down in Protestant countries, and stirs up party spirit and bitter political strife, setting class against class, and subjects against rulers, in order to distract people's minds from better