The White Stone Zone

Read the following passages of Scripture and tell me if I am telling the truth when I say that Any preacher or teacher who teaches that you must tithe to get God to bless you is blaspheming the Gospel of Jesus Christ . 3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5he[ c ] predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace 8that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.” EPH. 3 10All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written ...

Who is like the LORD our God, the One who sits enthroned on high, who stoops down to look on the heavens and the earth? 7 He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; he seats them with princes, with the princes of their people. (Psalm 113) All of mankind is poor and needy; not all of us recognize our need because we are meeting those needs ourselves, usually at the expense of others or the expense of our health and well-being. Examples of this would be the man who works hard and becomes successful, but he does not have enough time for his family. He may also neglect his health and diet. Another example, but less obvious is the wife who endlessly sacrifices for her husband and kids, always putting her needs last. Or the spouse of an addict who is always forgiving and “puts up” with all the addicts shenanigans to the point other folks say, “Oh, what a saint after putting up with him all these years.” More recently, we watched a great, larger than life pop-sta...

What is freedom? Our country values freedom. Soldiers are now fighting for our freedom. There are many misconceptions concerning the true definition of freedom. The USA is probably one of the freest nations that ever existed in the history of man, but individually most citizens live in personal bondage. Many citizens of this great nation are enslaved to things such as drugs and alcohol; others are enslaved to anger, fear, doubt, depression and various other emotions, and some of our fellow Americans are behind bars. So, just because we are citizens of a free nation does not necessarily mean that we are taking advantage of our freedom on a daily basis. Likewise, the Christian Life is to be one of freedom, but so many saints live in bondage to various taskmasters. They have been freed from these thieves and usurpers of freedom, but they have not taken advantage of it. Jesus said that it is the truth that sets us free. So, if it is truth that sets us free, it must be lies or ignorance of...

13If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. (1 Cor. 15) Paul tells us that our faith is useless without the resurrection. If we stop to think about that in light of the cross where Jesus died for our sins, we would think that this statement almost diminishes the work of the cross. What I failed to realize early in my walk with Christ is the personal significance of the resurrection of Christ. I thought that the resurrection was only to prove that Jesus was different and because his grave was empty, it set Him apart from all other leaders claiming to know the way to God. This is true, but the resurrection has a personal significance to each one of us that I think is often missed because we obsess about and focus on the sin problem...our eyes are on what we do or don't do--not on who we are in Christ. We were born into this world spiritually dead. Adam died spiritu...

1"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God[a]; trust also in me. 2In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am." (John 14) I was watching the play Annie with my daughter Grace Marie. There is a scene where Daddy Warbucks wants to show orphan Annie unconditional love by bringing her to his mansion for Christmas time and give her all the pleasanties of life. Warbuck's assistant asks Annie, "What do you want to do first?" Annie replies, "I think the windows, and then I will mop the floors..." She thought that Warbucks brought her there to work...to be used..." The assistant then told Annie why Daddy Warbucks brought her there...for her company...to share everything he had with her....for those few days it was all hers. Yep, you got it, God spoke...

12We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. The Spirit of God is our Counselor and Teacher who is with us always. The Spirit empowers us and equips us to love others, leads us into truth and testifies of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The work of the Spirit that Paul speaks about here is essential to our fellowship with God. We need the Spirit to understand what God has freely given us. In Christ, He has given us His very Self. And in giving of Himself, He has given us all things--freely. In his death, we are given complete forgiveness; in his death he has made us acceptable; in his death we are made righteous with the same righteousness of Christ. In his resurrection, we are made alive to God; in his resurrection, we have a spiritual life that is perfect, holy, and blameless. In his resurrection and ascension, we are joined to Christ inseparately--we have been joined to him......

Altough God has revealed Himself as Father and we call Him our Heavenly Father, and Although Jesus was the Son of God, God does have a feminine side; or better yet, since God is the Creator, and He made us in His image, it is better to say, "God revealed part of Himself when He created the women/feminity. One place where this truth could not be more clear but is often missed is in the Gospel of Luke, chaper 15. In this Chapter, Jesus tells three parables in a row. The last parable is probably the most well known, "The Parable of the Prodigal Son." In this parable God is represented by the father in the story; thus, God the Father is depicted here. The second parable, "The Parable of the Lost Sheep" is also well known. Here God is represented by the Shephard; thus, Jesus, the Good Shephard. So, we have God the Father and God the Son represented in these parables, but smack-dab in the middle of these two parables is "The Parable of the Lost Coin." In th...