Soul Talks with PB

Some people find it hard to reconcile the concept of God's wrath with what they perceive to be the character of God. In other words, if God loves us, how can He judge us? For many, God's wrath is inconsistent with His loving, kind, and merciful character. They cannot reconcile those two concepts. It's either one or the other. It cannot be both. Thus, they stumble. But God's wrath is not contrary t...

What does it mean to be truly spiritual, pious, or godly? Many people today claim to be pious or religious and so they do not think that they need to be saved. They reject the Gospel because they believe that being dutiful in their religious duties and obligations is enough to please God. So, they continue to practice their religion and reject the true righteousness of God revealed in the Gospel w...

God will be fair to everyone on judgment day. He will judge both Jews and Gentiles (and all of us) based on truth and impartiality. But how will this be applied? How can Jews and Gentiles be treated equally and fairly, especially since the Jews have a certain advantage -- they have the laws of God and claim to follow them! Or, to put it in another way, how God can treat those who claim to be relig...

Some people think that they will escape God's judgment of sin because they are more righteous than others. But God's judgment will be fair and no one will be saved except through the Gospel. He will not be unfair to anyone, whether Jew or Gentile. This sobering truth should lead all of us to sincere repentance. We should call upon God's grace to save us and not trust in our self-righteous appraisa...

We all need salvation. But not all of us understand why we need it. We assume the Gospel is good news, but we can't appreciate the good news unless we first hear and understand the bad news first. Once we understand the bad news of our sin situation, we will surely cry out to God for His help for our salvation. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/soultalkswithpb/me...

We may know someone who has slowly drifted away from sincere faith in Jesus. Maybe he or she has chosen to disconnect himself or herself from the community of faith. Maybe they think they have valid reasons. Others may have chosen to go back to their previous lifestyle of sin and disobedience together with their unbelieving friends. A few may have hardened their hearts already. How do we help them...

Putting our faith in the Gospel and living according to it requires confidence in the Gospel. At the same time, we cannot share the Gospel with others if we are not confident about it. Some Christians today do not fully understand why the Gospel is so vital to their existence. They may go through the motions of Christianity without that inner conviction that the Gospel is the most important truth...

People need to know the truth about the Gospel in order for them to experience God's salvation. Unfortunately, they cannot know the Gospel unless there are Christians who are committed enough to share God's truth with them. Most Christians today are just interested in their own concerns, needs, or problems. They are not thinking about those who do not know Christ yet. But we can grow in our commit...

Everyone is being called by God through faith in Jesus Christ. He is not calling just a few people but everyone. Of course, not everyone responds to that calling. To understand the meaning of the word "calling" is to understand God's purpose for our lives. We are being called by God because He has a good purpose for us. Our response to God's calling will determine whether we will be able to experi...

As followers of Christ, we must learn how to guard our faith in the Gospel. There would always be systems of thought or philosophies that would try to alter the Gospel and make us believe that our sincere trust and obedience to Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit is not enough to please God. We must be courageous enough to repel these false teachings. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcas...

The key to successfully living the Christian life is through the power of the Holy Spirit. Only by walking in the Spirit can we fulfill the will of God and experience the kingdom of God. But how do we know if someone is walking in the Spirit? We would know them through their godly behaviors. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/soultalkswithpb/message Hosted on Acas...

People who still have faith but have become lukewarm or discouraged want to know how to go back to Jesus. People who have completely lost their faith don't think they can ever go back. But everyone needs to know that there is a way to go back if only they are willing to seek and find Jesus again by God's grace. It's not an impossibility. Jesus, Himself, is calling them, and us, to go back to Him a...

It's crucial to always remember the death of Christ on the cross. Thankfully, because we are predominantly a Christian nation, we are reminded of this once a year. But through the years, many people, even Christians, are no longer interested to remember this very important event. They would rather use this occasion to do other things. Of course, there is nothing wrong with doing other things. But...

The only way to live the Christian life is by trusting and obeying the Holy Spirit. But some people think that this is too open-ended, too subjective. It would result in evil and chaos. Instead, they believe that what is needed to control evil and guarantee true righteousness are rules, not just a few but many rules. If there are rules, people will behave and do the right thing. But experience, as...

Everyone wants to be free. But true freedom is found only in Christ. Apart from Christ, what people call freedom is just slavery in disguise. They are not really free from sin and selfishness. Consequently, they are also not free to be what God wants them to be and to do, which would result in experiencing life as it was meant to be by God (which is also called eternal life in the Bible). In Chris...

Once we stand for our faith in the Gospel, we will encounter some form of opposition, whether it is subtle or overt. Some people will make us feel in subtle ways that they do not approve of our convictions. In some cases, some people will really show us by their words and actions that they reject us because of our beliefs. They may even punish us or hurt us because of the truths that we stand for....

God cares for His people. He doesn't want them to get lost. He doesn't want wolves to attack them or scatter them. This is the reason why He calls some of His people to shepherd them. Some of those He calls become full-time shepherds or pastors. Others He calls to help in shepherding God's people on a part-time basis only. But, whether full-time or part-time, the important thing is that God's peop...

Those who walk away from faith in Christ will lose a lot. It's a detrimental decision that can affect our whole relationship with God. We must not make this fatal choice, for we will regret it. Instead, we must continue to trust in Him and live our lives in full surrender and obedience to Him. Every spiritual blessing that God desires for us to receive as members of His family can only come to us...

It is God's will that we continue in the Lord, trusting in His grace until we finish the race. He does not want us to get lost. But this does not happen automatically. He created us and the universe in such a way that it's possible to get lost. In fact, if we do not make the effort to guard our faith, we can get lost. Based on 2 Peter 1:1-11, there are three crucial efforts that we must practice c...

How do we relate to or read the Old Testament as followers of Christ? Should we disregard it, especially now that we are in Christ? Is it a useless part of the Bible that we no longer need to read or even consider as important? Or do we still need to follow the various food laws and commandments found in the Old Testament? Are we still governed by it? Christians are divided about this issue until...

People today are looking for happiness and fulfillment in all the wrong places. The world promises these things but it never really delivers. People may experience temporary pleasures but in the end they pay such a high price for it, i.e. they pay with their souls. Consequently, their hearts are pierced with many sorrows and they lose everything in the process. People can only find true salvation...

Holding on to our faith in the Gospel is the most important decision we can ever make. It's the only way we can be saved, not just in the beginning but until the very end of our lives. Unfortunately, some do not think it's that important. In fact, some would let go or set aside their faith in the Gospel because of various reasons (e.g., trials, testings, temptations, thorns, etc.). We must always...

Conversion is not a mere intellectual exercise. God confirms our faith in the true Gospel by giving us experiences that no one can deny. Since they are personal experiences, we can remember them and testify about them. Others also can confirm them because they are externally observable (not just internal realities like thoughts or beliefs). These experiences are important because they remind us th...

Salvation is the most important gift we can ever receive from God. This is why we must be certain that we have received it. Unfortunately, not everyone, especially in the church, can honestly say with conviction that they have really received salvation and are experiencing its power on a day-to-day basis. Many will say that they are doing their best to receive it. But not yet. They are still tryin...

The pandemic has revealed the shallowness of faith of many people. Consequently, many have either become lukewarm or have backslidden altogether. Now that the health situation is beginning to allow people to go back to their previous activities, although under the new normal (i.e. with the virus still being present but less threatening), we need to ask, "What are we going back to?" Or, better yet,...