Atlanta Braves Clinch The Division!

The Atlanta Braves secured their fourth consecutive National League East crown on Thursday, defeating the Philadelphia Phillies 5-3. 

The Atlanta Braves have done it all before — many, many times before — but this one felt a bit different. More satisfying, for sure.

The Braves may have been the reigning champions, but their continued dominance was hardly assured. Atlanta finished the first half with a losing record, at 44-45, and entered August trailing in the division by five games. Nevertheless, the Braves were able to rally by winning games in the second half at a 98-win pace overall.

And there they were Thursday night, swigging champagne, puffing on cigars and celebrating an NL East championship.

"Giving It All To Christ" (Part III of the Salvation Series)

Getting started as a new Christian can be intimidating. So many voices, so many paths, it can be a overwhelming season as you take your first steps as a Christ-follower. I think C.S. Lewis would suggest that we don’t dip into this new life, we dive in! In this Devotional Classics excerpt, Lewis encourages us to abandon the idea of just ​“being good,” and to embrace utter abandonment to God. Step by step, Lewis walks us through the challenge and then offers us a practical exercise for getting started. 

1. How Much of Myself Must I Give?

The ordinary idea which we all have before we become Christians is this, we take as the starting point our ordinary self with its various desires and interests. We then admit that something else — call it ​“morality” or ​“decent behavior,” or ​“the good of society” — has claims on this self: claims which interfere with its own desires. What we mean by ​“being good” is giving in to those claims. Some of the things the ordinary self wanted to do turn out to be what we call ​“wrong”: well, we must give them up. Other things turn out to be what we call ​“right”: well, we shall have to do them. 

"Knowing You Have Eternal Life" (Part II of the Salvation Series)

Some people doubt that they are actually Christians. They want to be, but feel like they are missing the joy of the Christian faith. In this blog we will discover how we can determine if we are indeed a follower of Christ and how we can put to rest our doubts and fears about this matter for good.

This blog is based on an article by Billy Graham. 

The dreadful uncertainty that haunts many people grows out of misunderstanding what the Christian experience is. Some people don’t seem to know the nature of Christian conversion, while others have been misinformed concerning conversion and seek an experience that is not biblical. But for most, it comes down to confusing faith with feeling.

Faith always implies an object—that is, when we believe, we must believe something. That something is what we call the “fact.” Now let me give you three words that will help you understand the Christian life: fact, faith and feeling. They come in this order, and the order is essential. In this order, you will have the joy and confidence of one who can say, “I know whom I have believed” (II Timothy 1:12).

"The Narrow Path" (Part I of the Salvation Series)

The New Testament is filled with information on what it means to be a Christ follower, what Jesus Christ beautifully described as “the narrow path.” This path can be summarized as: Embracing Jesus’ sacrifice for mankind, Believing He died for our sins and Living life for Him.

Jesus purposely left no wiggle room when it came to the topic of salvation, explaining that the pathway is exclusive, and that path is through Him.

In Matthew 7:13-14 and Luke 13:23-24 we see Jesus saying that "narrow is the gate" and "narrow is the way." So without question Jesus is saying that Christian way is not one that most will follow. In fact, He says that only "a few will find it."

A lot of people speculate about the number of people who will embrace Jesus as the way, but that's not the point God wants us to take away from that scripture. We know from John 3:16 that God's desire is for none to perish but for all to have eternal life. God's desire is clear, His desire is for everyone to be saved.

Let's take an overhead view of the entire third chapter of John. We start with the story of  Nicodemus, a Pharisee and member of the Jewish ruling class, who visited Jesus to discuss how he could be saved.