The next characteristic of God we need to look at is His immutability. Immutability means God cannot change. He cannot become better or worse than He is. Hebrews 13:8 states the immutability of Jesus Christ: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” God’s immutability ensures that His essence and divine nature do not change (Psalm 102:27; Malachi 3:6). The immutability of God's character means that God never loses His integrity or lets others down. James 1:17 says that with God there is no variableness or shadow of turning.

God is eternal and His life is eternal. He does not have a beginning or an end. He has always existed and will always exist (Revelation 1:8, 22:13). God is above all creation, including time. 2 Peter 3:8b tells us that to Him, “one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” He is the only living and true God (1 Thessalonians 1:9). He does not possess life; He is life, eternal life. Jesus Christ is the source of all life (Hebrews 1:2). He brings everlasting life to all who believe in Him as Savior (John 1:4; 14:6; 10:28; 20:31). At the moment of faith alone in Christ alone, God gives His eternal life to every believer (John 3:16, 36).

God’s justice is His absolute, incorruptible fairness. It is impossible for God to be unfair in the function of divine justice. God is a wise, incorruptible, perfect, and fair judge of mankind. It is impossible for a perfect God to render a bad decision as Judge (Deuteronomy 10:17; Romans 2:11). The justice of God administers the penalties and blessings which are demanded by His perfect righteousness (Deuteronomy 32:4; 2 Chronicles 19:7; Job 37:23; Psalm 19:9, 50:6, 58:11; 89:14; Isaiah 45:21; Jeremiah 50:7; Romans 3:26; Hebrews 10:30-31; 12:23). God’s judgments and penalties are not God getting back at man for sin and evil; rather, they are God’s consistent, unchangeable condemnation and resultant judgment of anything that violates His will.

Righteousness is God’s absolute goodness and perfection. God has eternal, unchangeable, and absolute righteousness. Righteousness means God is perfect in His person and character. In fact, every aspect of God’s person, His will and His plan are perfect. As righteousness, God is totally free from sin. God has never sinned. God cannot tempt anyone or solicit anyone to sin (Deuteronomy 32:4; Psalm 7:9, 11:7, 97:6, 113:3, 119:137; Jeremiah 23:6; John 17:25; Romans 1:17, 10:3; 1 John 2:29). As perfect deity, God can have nothing to do with sin except to judge it. Therefore, Jesus Christ became perfect humanity so that he could be judged for sin as our substitute (2 Corinthians 5:21). In God’s deity, He could have nothing to do with sin except to judge it. Righteousness is the perfect standard by which the Justice of God acts. It guides the justice of God in all of His acts of judgment and acts of blessing.

The next few posts will examine the Essence of God. To love God, you must first know God. His Essence is revealed through His attributes, each of which is absolute and unchangeable. Through these attributes, God makes Himself known to mankind. As we study each attribute, we will also learn how it can be applied to the adversities of life. The first attribute we will examine is the sovereignty of God.

Satan is evil because he opposes God. Satan also loves good. Those statements seem contradictory, yet they are true. Let me explain.

As Christians, it is easy for us to make the Christian way of life complicated. It is actually very simple. Our God is not a God of complexity. He makes the Christian life clear and simple for us to understand.

At the moment of salvation through faith alone in Christ alone, we become new creatures in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). Our spiritual status goes from spiritually dead to spiritually alive (1 Corinthians 15:22). God the Holy Spirit places us in union with Christ. We are in God’s family. We receive His righteousness and eternal life. In fact, at the moment of salvation, we receive 39 irrevocable absolutes that can never be lost or taken away. God, in His grace, provides it all. None of us earn or deserve any of it. It is all a part of our permanent position in Christ. There is no progression in salvation. It is a once and for all time completed event at the time that we expressed our faith in Christ.

The three attempts by Satan to tempt the Lord Jesus Christ are covered in Matthew 4:1-11, Mark 1:12-13, and Luke 4:1-13. In the first two temptations, we have seen Jesus Christ remain totally subservient to the Father’s will and plan, and we have seen Him use the power of Scripture as His response to Satan. We learned that the Word of God must be the priority in our lives above all else and that we must be very careful not to distort the Word or twist it to say what we want it to say.

The three attempts by Satan to tempt the Lord Jesus Christ are covered in Matthew 4:1-11, Mark 1:12-13, and Luke 4:1-13. In the first two temptations, we have seen Jesus Christ remain totally subservient to the Father’s will and plan, and we have seen Him use the power of Scripture as His response to Satan. We learned that the Word of God must be the priority in our lives above all else and that we must be very careful not to distort the Word or twist it to say what we want it to say.

The three attempts by Satan to tempt the Lord Jesus Christ are covered in Matthew 4:1-11, Mark 1:12-13, and Luke 4:1-13. In each attempt, there is a common theme, and it is to get the Lord Jesus Christ to act apart from the will of the Father, and to depart from the guidance and power of the Holy Spirit.

The three attempts by Satan to tempt the Lord Jesus Christ are covered in Matthew 4:1-11, Mark 1:12-13, and Luke 4:1-13. When He answered Satan’s first test with the words, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God’” (Matthew 4:4). Jesus Christ was putting the emphasis on God’s Word as the solution for all of our problems, troubles, and adversities. When He said, “It is written,” our Lord was quoting Deuteronomy 8:3. In the context of that passage, the people of Israel were hungry and without food, and God in His grace provided daily manna to eat. The lesson of the daily manna was not the food itself, but rather that God promised to provide for His people, and He did, every day. The humanity of Christ knew that in His soul, and He trusted God for every provision for His life on this earth. He knew God’s Word, and He believed it. The same is true for us.

The three attempts by Satan to tempt the Lord Jesus Christ are covered in Matthew 4:1-11, Mark 1:12-13, and Luke 4:1-13. Our Lord was led out into the desert by God the Holy Spirit for 40 days and nights of fasting, which for Him was a concentrated time of prayer and concentration on God’s Word. It was preparation for what was next. Afterwards, with our Lord in a very weakened physical state in extreme hunger, Satan approached with the first temptation. “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” (Matthew 4:3)

The three attempts by Satan to tempt the Lord Jesus Christ are covered in Matthew 4:1-11, Mark 1:12-13, and Luke 4:1-13. Some say these temptations were not real temptations for Jesus Christ because God is not able to sin. His deity would not allow Him to sin, and so how could they be real temptations to our Lord. However, Jesus Christ is both God and man in one person forever. He had to be in order to be the mediator between God the Father and man (1 Timothy 2:5). He had to be a real human, just as we are. His humanity had to have volition or free choice to choose to sin or not to sin, just as Adam did, and as we do (Jesus Christ is the last Adam, 1 Corinthians 15:45-48).

Terry Wilson ministering at Bible Conference in Ghana.
Why does God allow adversity and suffering in our lives?

As believers in Jesus Christ, we must distinguish between our position as members of God’s family and the opportunity that position affords us to live the Christian life. The failure to understand this important distinction causes some Christians to question whether other believers are truly saved. This issue is very important because there is much, much confusion about this in Christianity today.

Charlie Kirk
He has been called many names like Nazi, fascist, racist, tyrant, etc. If you listen to what Charlie Kirk says, he was none of those things. He is not an activist. He is an apologist and evangelist. He is simply one who defends the faith and he was a genius at doing it. He is not an apologist just for freedom and truth (divine establishment truth); he is an apologist for Christianity; he defends Christianity. And the platform he uses is politics and current events and race relations and he presents them in the context of freedom and divine establishment.

Bad things that are out of our control can happen at any time. Most trouble, problems, adversity, and suffering, hit us at the worst of times when we least expect it. We are surprised! We are shocked! They catch us totally off-guard. It is easy for us to hit the panic button. We become discouraged especially if we see no way out. But none of those reactions reflect God’s plan for us.

In Liberia on a Sunday at a local church, I was asked to give a Mother’s Day message. I started with the question, what makes a great Christian mom? Then I gave several examples of activities that a loving and caring mother would do for her children. For example: Cooking tasty meals for her children. Washing their clothes. Helping them get ready for school. Walking with them to school (walking is the primary form of transportation in Liberia). Spending time playing with them. Helping them with their homework. Teaching and training them. Making sure they get a good education. Tucking them in bed at night. And setting the example for a good marriage.

When my two sisters and I were very, very young, my mom’s close friend, Janice, lost twins just one week after their birth. Mom decided to take some food over to her house and try to offer some encouragement.

In James 2:20-26, James speaks of justification by works, which deals with the Christian life and not salvation. The two examples given were Abraham when he was told to sacrifice Isaac and Rahab the prostitute when she hid the spies.

Grace4Grace with Abeiku Okai

Terry Wilson shares his remarkable salvation and how grace was extended to him during his teenage years. "Train up a child in the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not depart from it." Proverbs 22:6

Boom Supersonic is an American company building the world’s fastest passenger aircraft. This is a picture of the prototype aircraft (first of its kind) they are currently testing. They are flying “test-flight” missions. The test pilot for these missions conducts flights to measure the aircraft’s limits, test its systems, analyze its design strengths and weaknesses and ensure it meets intended performance standards. Once it is determined to be totally safe, it will go into mass production, and current air travel will be cut almost in half.

Beware of making God a liar! As believers in Jesus Christ, we do that when we question our eternal security. If you say, how can that be, please let me explain.

What does it mean to be righteous? We might say it means that we are virtuous, honorable, moral. But with God, righteousness has a different meaning. God’s righteousness is absolute perfection. Of course, none of us as human beings can even come close to that, at least not on our own. But at the moment of faith alone in Christ alone, God gives us His righteousness, His absolute perfection. And when He does, He declares us righteous. The highest authority in the universe, God Himself, declares a believer righteous. No one can come along later and say that is not true.

In the last few Facebook posts, we have looked at several reasons why a believer in Jesus Christ can never lose their salvation. Here is another. At the moment we put our faith in Christ, we are sealed by God the Holy Spirit. God the Holy Spirit places a seal or a signature next to the person’s name in the Book of Life. This is His sign of ownership of every believer. Anything to which God attaches His seal belongs to Him forever. No person can buy or steal the believer from the possession of God. We are marked or branded. God owns us.

When anyone makes a decision to believe in Christ, he or she is born again into the family of God. John 1:12.“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name.” The believer’s unbreakable relationship with God can never be terminated, repealed, or destroyed. Never!

Can a believer in Jesus Christ ever lose his or her salvation? Is there a sin or evil deed that can cancel what God has given us? The short answer is no! In the next few posts, we will look at several reasons why.

Mankind generally thinks in terms of merit. We get what we deserve. Our efforts earn rewards. We work hard and attain a level of achievement and with that comes recognition and approval. This merit-based thinking shapes the way we approach success, relationships, and even our sense of identity.

This morning at our church service, our Pastor was explaining how the resurrection of Jesus Christ is central to all of Christianity because it gives us as believers in Jesus Christ a confident expectation about our eternal future with Him. Our assurance of the resurrection is not just enforced from what the Bible says, but there were also numerous proofs. One of the strongest proofs is the 11 disciples who after our Lord’s death on the cross, they were in total despair and despondent, and yet once they saw our Lord in resurrection body, that changed everything for them.