Pastor Marc Bertrand

How is Jesus a healer?. Jesus the healer is best understood as a folk healer in his culture. Some folk techniques that Jesus used were laying on hands or touching the sick person (Mark 1:41), using spittle (Mark 8:23) or mud (John 9:6), pronouncing pow- erful words—like talitha cum (Mark 5:41) or ephphatha (Mark 7:34)—and the like. Jesus healing - Why was healing so important in Jesus' ministry? Healing was essential to the ministry of Jesus because He had the power to perform miracles. They flowed from within Him as heat from the sun, as wet from a waterfall, as dry from sirocco winds. He knew it, people sensed it, and to Him they came in droves and multitudes. In unconquered confidence, Jesus welcomed blind, crippled, leprous, even dead people into His presence. No problem loomed too great for His skill; none intimidated Him into silence. He performed all the healings we would expect since He came as God's Healer. Healing was essential to the ministry of Jesus because He had...

Dear to the Heart of the Shepherd. Is Jesus God? Yes, Jesus is God, but the answer needs to be expounded upon. When we say that Jesus is God we're using the term "God" in reference to the divine nature. But we have to be careful because we don't want to say Jesus is God and fail to understand that God is a Triune. The Christian doctrine of the Triune is that God exists as three distinct persons:  the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. So, we have to be careful when we ask if Jesus is God because we have to be clear in the answer. If God is a Triune and we say Jesus is God, then we are saying that Jesus is a Triune. But that is not true. So in one sense, the term "God" can be used to designate the totality of God as a Triune, and in another sense, it deals with the divine nature. The correct answer is that Jesus is both divine and human. In other words, he is both God and man. God has a divine nature, and Jesus possesses the divine nature as well as the h...

If you doubt your salvation, does it mean you are not saved? If you doubt your salvation, it does not mean you are not saved. It means that you do not sufficiently understand and believe what the Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished on the cross to ensure your salvation. When you trust in what Christ has done and not your own faithfulness, then you will stop doubting. In other words, if your sal vation depends upon your faithfulness and your goodness, then you should doubt. Jesus fulfilled the law perfectly by never sinning (1 Pet. 2:22). He bore our sins in his body on the cross (1 Pet. 2:24). Jesus did everything that is necessary for us to be saved. We receive this salvation by faith in Christ (Ephesians 2:8-9). You must realize that your salvation does not depend upon your faithfulness. Instead, it depends on God's faithfulness. The Bible says that when we are faithless, he remains faithful (2 Tim. 2:13). He has promised to give us eternal life (John 3:16; 10:27-28), and God can...

What is True Love? This post is about “True Love.” You may need to read the rest of the post to get the full con­text. The world says love is about how some­one makes them feel or how they feel about some­one else, but God says love is about how you behave and treat others. The world says love is about how some­one makes them feel or how they feel about some­one else, but God says love is about how you behave and treat others. The Church needs to know what real love is for three rea­sons: In order to build unity among the saints. Keep friend­ships, mar­riages and fam­i­lies to­gether. Show an ac­cu­rate ex­am­ple of Christ to the world. Chris­t­ian mis­con­cep­tions about love Mis­con­cep­tion 1: We can’t love like Christ. His love is just some­thing to aspire to, not some­thing you can ac­tu­ally reach. False. The bible says, “we can do all things through Christ who strength­ens us” (Phil 4:13), for God called us to be con­formed to the image of Christ (Rom 8:29) and to love one an­o...

Sin Sin is a theological term for evil behavior, individual or corporate. It is to be distinguished from crime, a legal term applied to a breach of the rules that society imposes on its members, and from vice, a moral term applied to a practice or habit that is injurious to a person's moral nature. Sin specifically refers to conduct that involves a wrong attitude toward God and results in alienat ion from him. All the major religions have a concept of sin, although they differ widely in their interpretation of its meaning. Hinduism, for example, in the doctrine of Karma, presents a system by which human action works itself out in retribution or reward by rebirth in another existence. Good action loosens the grip of the world of the senses; bad action degrades and binds its victim more fully to the cycle of karma and the Transmigration of Souls. Final deliverance from the round of rebirths comes only when the soul ceases to desire or to act and is absorbed into the divine source fr...

Abraham and the Angels. Abraham sat in front of his tent's door and the Lord appeared to him in the form of Three Angels (or rather God accompanied by Two Angels). Abraham welcomed them (as Joseph and Mary would welcome the Wise Men to the manger), and they prophesied that even in her old age, Sarah would bear a son by the name of Isaac. Genesis 18 tells of a fascinating series of events in whic h three men appear to Abraham, and one of them speaks to Abraham as the LORD and promises Abraham that they will return the next year and Sarah will bear a son in her old age. Abraham then walks with the three men for a time as they continue on their way, and God reveals to Abraham the coming destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. All of these things transpire just as the man said. So who were these three men? The Jewish Talmud identifies them as three angels, and many Christians see them as an appearance of the Triune: that all three men represented the one true God. Neither of these explanat...

Raising Lazarus. The biblical narrative of the raising of Lazarus is found in chapter 11 of the Gospel of John. A certain Eleazer (whence Lazarus) is introduced as a follower of Jesus who lives in the town of Bethany near Jerusalem. He is identified as the brother of the sisters Mary and Martha. There are two men called Lazarus in the Bible. The first Lazarus is the subject of a story told by Je sus (Luke 16:19–31). Lazarus was very poor, probably homeless, and definitely a beggar (Luke 16:20). He often stayed at the gate of a rich man in hopes of getting scraps from his table. Both men died, and Jesus tells of how Lazarus was taken to “Abraham’s side,” a place of comfort and rest, while the rich man when to “Hades,” a place of conscious torment (Luke 16:22–23). Some Bible scholars believe that Jesus was telling a parable, that is, a fictional story not meant to be a literal account. However, Jesus uses actual names in the story, He does not interpret the story, and neither does He ad...

How To Be Saved. How to be saved -- Why does man need to be saved? How to be saved is the most important quest of any human life. This quest begins when a man or woman first realizes their true state before a holy God. The intimate and sweet fellowship that the Father longed for with man, the crown of His creation, was lost when Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s commandment in the Garden of Eden. When Adam and Eve sinned they lost their right to eat of the tree of life which would have enabled them to live forever. They were expelled from the garden and as such denied the loving relationship that God desired to have with them. Their sinful state made them unfit to linger in the presence of God. Far from being a minor event, this Fall and expulsion of man was the cataclysmic turning point of history and set humanity on a descent which continues to this day. Man without God makes his own plans, follows his own counsels and lives by his own rules. Nevertheless, because man was created for fel...

What Does It Mean to Be Saved? Many believe that if you just say the words “I accept Jesus as my Savior,” you will be immediately and permanently saved. Is that what the Bible teaches? Some religious people ask others, “Are you saved?” If the answer is no, the suggested solution might be to recite a short statement: “I accept Jesus as my Savior.” Such advice about being saved implies that a simple, albeit sincere, declaration explains both the how and the when of salvation. Yet Jesus Himself counseled, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven” (Matthew 7:21, emphasis added throughout). Wait! Have you been told that you do not have to do anything to be saved? If that is what you have read or been told, how does it square with what the Bible says? According to Jesus Christ, just words alone are not enough. You have to conduct your day-to-day life according to God’s will. And implied in Jesus’ statement...

Are you saved? The Bible says "Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves!" (2 Cor. 13:5). Well, are you in the faith? Have you examined yourself? It is easy to ask and sometimes difficult to answer. The Christian faith is as follows. There is one God in all existence who is eternally existent from the past through to the future. God is a Triune of three persons: Father,  Son, and Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 13:14); they are not three gods, but one God (Is. 44:6-8). Jesus is the Word who was God and was with God that became flesh (John 1:1,14) and was made under the Law (Gal. 4:4). Because we are sinners (Rom. 3:23), who have broken God's law (James 2:11), and because we cannot be saved in anyway by our own works (Rom. 4:1-5), Jesus bore our sins in His body on the cross (1 Pet. 2:24), died, was buried, and rose again on the third day (1 Cor. 15:3-4), in the same body He died in (John 2:19-21) so that as many as receive Christ (John 1:12) are justified by...

Saved from Wrath! Salvation from the power, guilt, and condemnation of sin — is a present blessing; but salvation from all the righteous consequences of sin — is a future blessing. There is no condemnation now — there will be no wrath at the end of our course. If we are now justified — then full salvation at death is certain. Hence we read, "Since we have now been justified by His blood — how muc h more shall we be saved from God's wrath through Him!" Romans 5:9 THE SINNER'S DESERT. He deserves wrath — the eternal wrath of God, which is most terrible. The wrath of man, a great man, a strong man, an incensed man is bad — but what must the wrath of God be! Divine wrath, is an expression of God's infinite hatred of sin, and his punishing the sinner for it, in proportion to its desert. It is represented as burning — burning to the lowest Hell. God's wrath is inconceivable — for we have no figure adequately to represent it, nor language to convey the full concept ...

"What does it mean to be a born again Christian?" The classic passage from the Bible that answers this question is John 3:1-21. The Lord Jesus Christ is talking to Nicodemus, a prominent Pharisee and member of the Sanhedrin (the ruling body of the Jews). Nicodemus had come to Jesus at night with some questions. As Jesus talked with Nicodemus, He said, “‘I tell you the truth, no one can see the k ingdom of God unless he is born again.’ ‘How can a man be born when he is old?’ Nicodemus asked. ‘Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!’ Jesus answered, ‘I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, “You must be born again”’” (John 3:3-7). The phrase "born again" literally means "born from above." Nicodemus had a real need. He needed a change of his heart—a spiritual tr...

How Can We Love God If We Don’t Know Him? If we can’t actually know or understand our Creator—if, as the Christian writings say, God is an “unknowable essence”—then how can we love God? How can we love something so unknowable? To answer those questions, let’s try to define spiritual love. Christianity says that “Love is the breath of the Holy Spirit in the heart of Man. Love is only of the four kinds … (a) The love of God towards the identity of God. Christ has said God is Love. (b) The love of God for His children—for His servants. (c) The love of man for God and (d) the love of man for man. These four kinds of love originate from God. These are rays from the Sun of Reality; these are the Breaths of the Holy Spirit; these are the Signs of the Reality. In his definition of the four kinds of love, Christianity describes human love for God as an inherent quality of the human soul. He defines all four different kinds of love, including humanity’s love for God, as “rays from the Sun of Re...

How do we trust God?. The Good News: When we put our faith in God, He will find ways to return that trust. ... "Trust in him at all times, oh people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us." The Good News: It's easy to trust God when things are going well, but we must believe in Him in all times — good or bad When all else fails in life, we have to trust God's plan. But even befo re anything goes astray, putting our faith in the Lord is a great way to get the assurance we need to press onward. The Bible has many verses about trusting God, because it's one of the most important things Christians can do. There's so much we don't know about how our lives are going to turn out, but God does know, and He can guide us forward on our journeys if we have faith in Him. Most of the scripture around trusting the Lord comes in the Psalms section of the Old Testament. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, this section is comprised of lyrical poems ...

Trusting others On the topic of trusting others, King David said, “It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes” (Psalm 118:8–9). David spoke from experience, having been betrayed many times by those close to him (see Psalm 41:9). Instead of becoming bitter or regarding all people as inherently untrustworthy and not  worth his time, he learned and taught a simple truth: sinful people will fail us, but we can always trust in God. David’s son, King Solomon, learned that lesson well and added to it, saying that it’s better to trust God than to trust our own minds (Proverbs 3:5–6). Even though others will fail us at times, and we ourselves are not always trustworthy, we can and should still trust people to varying degrees. Without trust, true relationship is impossible. It is precisely because we know that God will never fail us that we can trust others. Our ultimate security is in Him, so we are free to...