Soul Talks with PB

A lot of people waste their lives, including Christians. This should not be. To live with integrity, we need to plan our lifestyle wisely. We cannot live haphazardly, letting things happen to us rather than choosing what needs to happen in our lives in order to please God. Our choices each day must reflect how we see ourselves. In other words, our true identity in Christ should determine our prior...

We learned that integrity is knowing who you are in Christ and living accordingly. Consequently, we are to pursue holiness, practice thanksgiving, and purify our hearts from idolatry because of who we are already in Christ. This is discipleship, integrating the Gospel in our lives through the power of the Holy Spirit together with others. In addition, we are to please God alone, not people. This i...

Integrity is knowing who you are in Christ and living accordingly. This is the most important aspect of discipleship. It's also the ongoing process of discernment that a Christian engages in each and every day of his or her life. To live with integrity is to practice discernment together with others. If we do not discern what is in accord with our true Christian identity, we will always be shaped...

Previously, we saw the importance of our participation in a community of faith (Eph 4:25-28), which is the context of our discipleship. Today, we want to talk about imitation (Eph 4:29-5:2), which is the process itself of being transformed into Christlikeness. The Holy Spirit wants to work in our lives to transform us from the inside out in the context of a community of faith. This requires our co...

We've been talking about the elements of discipleship. First, we talked about the importance of revelation (Eph 4:17-19). This is the beginning of discipleship. From there, we talked about identification (Eph 4:20-24), which is the basis of discipleship. Who we are in Christ is the foundation of our walk with Christ. Now, let's talk about participation (Eph 4:25-28). In a nutshell, it means that w...

The year 2022 is just around the corner. Some are excited, hoping for the best. Others are anxious, not sure of what would happen. Although many are wishing for a better new year, in reality, no one can really be sure. The only thing we can do is to stand on the promises of God. But which of the promises? And how do we stand on those promises? --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotif...

Resurrection? Why talk about the resurrection at this time? It’s Christmas time, right? The reason why most of us are probably wondering is that we believe Christmas is just a holiday season. Because it’s just a holiday season, we expect food, fellowship, family reunions, festivities, and fun times. Nothing less, and nothing more. To talk about the resurrection seems out of sync with this general...

Those who are young in the Lord are often passionate about reaching out to their loved ones and friends who do not know the Lord. But over time, they lose their passion. Some of us today are probably like that. We are not that excited anymore about reaching out and leading others to faith in Christ. We have lost our passion for the lost. What has happened to us? --- Send in a voice message: https:...

Our transformation through the Holy Spirit begins with the right understanding of our need for revelation. Without revelation, there is no transformation. Now, according to God's revelation, we are a new creation in Christ. This is our new and true identity. We may not see it right away in terms of our experience, but that is the reality of who we are because God says so in His word. This is calle...

Aside from reconciliation with God and elevation with Christ, salvation also includes transformation through the Holy Spirit. Now, the key to the transformation of our being or character is discipleship. Discipleship is a familiar term to those who have been Christians for a long time. Unfortunately, this term is often misunderstood. What does discipleship mean and how does it happen? --- Send in...

The goal of our faith is to become spiritually mature. Every true follower of Christ must aim for this. At the same, every leader in the local church must make this their priority goal. Everything else must be secondary. But what does spiritual maturity mean? How do we know that we are becoming spiritually mature and not spiritually immature over time? --- Send in a voice message: https://podcaste...

Today, the body of Christ is not as effective as it should be because many Christians believe that only some are called by God to serve in the ministry. The rest are simply obligated to attend worship services and to give financially. This is not taught in Scripture. Instead, what we see is that everyone is called by God to serve the Lord in some form of ministry. according to God's grace. The goa...

A lot of people criticize born-again Christians for being disunited because they see a lot of Christian churches. Of course, unlike some denominations, born-again Christians do not belong to one local church. But, if we understand what true unity means, we can see that they are actually more united than what most people think. They are united in the essentials. In addition, born-again Christians d...

It seems that we might have more freedom this December. Who knows? We might even have Christmas parties! But as followers of Christ, we may have mixed feelings. As we see our friends enjoying themselves, we might ask, “Can we do the same things as they do?” We know there are some things that we must not do as devoted followers of Jesus. And maybe this is the reason why some of us may not be very h...

Our reconciliation with God as well as our elevation in Christ are wonderful blessings that we have received from God. They are gifts of His grace. We can only receive them by faith. But these are not the only gifts of grace that God wants to give to us. There are two more spiritual gifts: transformation through the Holy Spirit and restoration together with the rest of creation. Transformation is...

Many Christians today are easily satisfied with a kind of faith that is less than what the word of God says they can actually experience. They are willing to settle for something that falls short of what is genuine and true. They reason, "This is as good as it gets. There's nothing more to desire or expect." What they don't understand is that there is more, if they are willing to trust God through...

8 Although I am less than the least of all the Lord’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ, 9 and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things. 10 His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and autho...

Salvation is by grace. We don't deserve it. It is given to us as a gift through our faith in Jesus Christ. We should be thankful for it. But many of us who have received this grace does not see it as a call or a responsibility coming from God. We only see it as a gift or a privilege. But grace calls us to serve also. Although Paul is called to a particular kind of ministry because of God's grace,...

During this time of the pandemic, some Christians have decided not to be connected with God's people anymore. They imagine that it's not essential as far as their relationship with God is concerned. Others think that the church is just a physical building. It is enough to attend worship services even without any real connection with the people of God. What they don't understand is that it's crucia...

If you have been to the malls recently, you will notice many people, even children, walking around. They all seem to be very happy and excited to be there. As we hear more and more about the number of cases going down, many of us are looking forward to doing the normal things that we used to do prior to the pandemic. Naturally, we are all very happy. Finally. But something tells us this may not be...

14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostil...

11 Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (which is done in the body by human hands)— 12 remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus...

8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith —— and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God —— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:8-10) God changed our spiritual identity even before we can do anything for Him. He took the initiative to elev...

4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions —— it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Chris...

Most of us understand salvation as referring to forgiveness only and then going to heaven after we die. As a result, we do not see salvation as an ongoing experience of discipleship with very practical implications in the here and now. Once we pray the "sinner's prayer", we assume that it is a done deal. We are now "saved". All we have to do is just fulfill our religious obligations (i.e., go to c...