Archives For Mike Mobley

What Great Love The Father Has For Us

Mike Mobley —  June 16, 2013

Great Love - Father Has For Us

This beautiful girl is nine months old. Nine months! Time goes fast. I can still remember writing the night before she was born. She is wonderful, silly, and happy all at the same time. The joy God gives me through her is priceless and words will never be able to articulate fully exactly what I mean. As you can imagine, since I am her father, I love her. Tears fill my eyes if I look at a picture like this or think of her for more than about ten seconds (not exaggerating there either). If I am sinful (which I am), and in no way am a perfect person or father, but I can love this girl that much, imagine how much God our Father who is perfect and sinless, loves us?

“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” (1 John 3:1)

We are children of God. For those of us who believe and have chosen to follow Christ, immediately our sins are forgiven and we are adopted as sons and daughters of the King. Adoption has nothing to do on the child’s part, but everything to do on the initiative and pursuit from the parents. In this case, it’s God taking the initiative and making a way for us to come to Him through His Son Jesus and what He did for us on the Cross. Continue Reading…

Category: Devotionals , , , ,
permalink

Head Knowledge vs Heart Knowledge

Mike Mobley —  June 14, 2013
Knowledge - Head vs Heart

Photo by joannawnuk

“Self-salvation through good works may produce a great deal of moral behaviour in your life, but inside you are miserable. You are always comparing yourself to other people, and you are never sure you are being good enough. You cannot therefore, deal with your hideousness and self-absorption through the moral law, by trying to be a good person through an act of the will. You need a complete transformation of the very motives of your heart.” – Tim Keller, The Reason for God

When you hear about Jesus, what comes to mind? Who is Jesus to you? Depending on where you live, chances are you might have heard the Gospel before. Even now as you read this you might be saying to yourself “bla bla bla, yes I know the Gospel…move on to the next topic.” When it comes to Jesus, do you know Him in your head or in your heart? Continue Reading…

Category: Devotionals , , , , ,
permalink

Welcome Chris Howard

Mike Mobley —  June 10, 2013

Welcome - Chris Howard

We are really excited to announce and welcome a new member to the Before The Cross team – Chris Howard!

Chris has written numerous posts for us already such as Jesus and John Elway, Truth and Dares, It Pays To Pray, and The Little Lady’s Hand. It has been awesome to get to watch Chris share his passion for Christ and allow God to work through him in writing. You can read more about Chris on our about page. Here is what Chris had to say about joining the team: Continue Reading…

Category: Resources
permalink

Let’s Build Each Other Up

Mike Mobley —  June 7, 2013

“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” – Hebrews 10:24-25

What does it mean for us to encourage one another? As the church we are to constantly encourage each other, continue to meet together, and build each other up each and every day. So then, how do we do this?

Build - Each Other Up

Photo by eyeidea

From Scripture we are to “spur one another on toward love and good deeds” meaning we are to fire each other up to go out and serve the Lord and to serve our neighbors. I think what happens too many times is that we are tempted to think “church” is the building we meet at each week. Then we are tempted to have a once a week Bible study, and then go live our lives throughout the week in our “routines.” The Church, according to Scripture, is the body of believers for those of us who trust in Jesus Christ. It has nothing to do with a building or with studies, and it has everything to do with us, we are the Church. Continue Reading…

Category: Encouragements , , , , , ,
permalink

How Should We Pray?

Mike Mobley —  June 4, 2013
Pray - Woman Praying

Photo by AlexMotrenko

“We do not pray at all until we are at our wits’ end.” -Oswald Chambers

I am guilty of this. I know I should pray and I believe in the power of prayer, but I certainly need to do it more. I tend to think of it as a higher priority when things are going wrong or I am completely at my wits’ end, but prayer is so much more than that. Can you relate with me on this? Maybe it’s because we don’t know how to pray or why we should?

Prayer has been proven many times in the Bible to be of great use to all of us. It is powerful and we don’t even realize it and I believe we take it for granted, if we even pray at all. It is certainly the single, greatest, untapped resource for believers.

Prayer to most of us is when we simply make a request to God for something or someone. We say things like, God, please help so and so, please help me obtain this or that, help me, help someone, do this, do that. Do we ever pray and just sit and listen? Prayer is a way of communicating directly to our Father. Think of it as an open communication channel that when we turn it on (start to pray) we can speak directly to God and listen for His word back to us. Kind of like a telephone call, but obviously a little more powerful than that. So do we pray because we feel obligated? Are we praying because we want something or want someone to have something? Continue Reading…

Category: Biblical Teachings , , , , , ,
permalink

What’s Wrong With Living Together Before Marriage?

Mike Mobley —  May 30, 2013
Living Together Before Marriage

Photo by phildate

This is a pretty popular question that comes up with believers and non-believers. I asked the same question myself years ago and luckily was pointed to the Bible for answers. Sometimes it’s difficult to answer something like this and I think it takes a little more discussion than just answering this one question. In my experience, it typically involves a similar question that goes something like “How far is too far?” or “When does sin actually become sin?”

In any case, let’s look and see what Scripture says about this. Let’s see how God defines marriage and why it would be wrong to live together before getting married.

The Bible describes marriage as a committed relationship between a man and a woman that is sanctioned and blessed by God (Genesis 2:22-24). Furthermore, God instituted marriage to be between two people, a male and a female. Jesus added that it is to be permanent (Mark 10:7-9 - ’Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate). Continue Reading…

Category: Biblical Teachings , , , , , ,
permalink
Page 1 of 3812345...102030...Last »