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...