Dr. John C. Reddy

Home  “ I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.  Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”   [Romans 12:1-2]  “...present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God...”  P aul mentions here that we should present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God. Our bodies stand for all our members and, by extension, our entire lives.  Total commitment is our reasonable service. It is our reasonable service in this sense: if the Son of God has died for me, then the least I can do is live for Him. “If Jesus Christ be God and died for me,” said the great British cricketer and missionary C. T. Studd,  “then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make ...

Home  “ David and his men left and killed two hundred Philistines. He brought back the proof and showed it to Saul, so he could marry Michal. Saul agreed to let David marry Michal. Saul knew that she loved David, and he also realized that the LORD was helping David. But knowing those things made Saul even more afraid of David, and he was David's enemy for the rest of his life. The Philistine rulers kept coming to fight Israel, but whenever David fought them, he won. He was famous because he won more battles against the Philistines than any of Saul's other officers. ”   [1 Samuel 18:27-30]  “If God is for us, who can be against us?”  A s David continued to win battle after battle, Saul became extremely jealous. When he heard the songs of the women ascribing to David greater exploits than to himself, he became livid with rage. God sometimes uses evil to chastise evil; that is why he allowed Saul to be tormented by a distressing spirit. Twice the king...

Home  “ Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (which means “son of Timaeus”), was sitting by the roadside begging.  When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Jesus stopped and said, “ Call him. ” So they called to the blind man, “Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you.”  Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus. ”   [Mark 10:45-50]  Your Faith has Healed You  T he Lord and His disciples had crossed the Jordan and come to Jericho. There He met blind Bartimaeus, a man with a desperate need, a knowledge of the need, and a determination to have it met. Bartimaeus recognized and addressed our Lord as the Son of David. It was ironical that while the nation of Israel ...

Home  “ All I want is Christ and to know that I belong to him . I could not make myself acceptable to God by obeying the Law of Moses. God accepted me simply because of my faith in Christ. All I want is to know Christ and the power that raised him to life. I want to suffer and die as he did, so that somehow I also may be raised to life. ”   [Philippians 3:8-11]  All I want is Christ and to know that I belong to Him  I n these verses, it sounds like as if Paul was still seeking to gain Christ.  Actually, he had won Christ when he first acknowledged His as Lord and Savior. But the present tense indicates that this is still his attitude—he still counts all else as rubbish when compared to the value of knowing the Lord Jesus. The great desire of his heart is : “That Christ may be my gain.” Not gold, or silver, or religious reputation, but Christ. Paul had made his choice. He had abandoned all else in order to be found in Christ. The moment he believed on ...

Home  “ What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food.  If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead...As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead. ”   [James 2:14-17,26]  Faith apart from works is head belief, and therefore dead belief.  T hese verses are commonly misused to support the heresy that we are saved by faith plus works. In other words, we must trust the Lord Jesus as our Savior, but that is not enough.  We must also add to His redemptive work our own deeds of charity and devotion. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—  not by works, so th...

Home  “ On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life ?” “ What is written in the Law ?” he replied. “ How do you read it? ”  He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” “ You have answered correctly ,” Jesus replied. “ Do this and you will live. ”  But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” ”   [Luke 10:25-29]  You cannot earn eternal life by keeping the law!  T he lawyer, an expert in the teachings of the Law of Moses, was probably not sincere in his question. He was trying to trick the Savior, to put Him thoroughly to the test. Perhaps he thought that the Lord would repudiate the law. To him, Jesus was only a Teacher, and eternal life was something he could earn or merit. The Lord took all this into considera...

Home  “... knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires.  They will say, “ Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God,  and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.  But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. ”   [2 Peter 3:3-7]  Where Is the Promise of His Coming?  P eter writes about the scoffers who will be present in the last days. They won't think about anything except their own selfish desires. They will make fun of you and say, " Didn't your Lord promise to c...