Mark Ballenger | AGW MINISTRIES

How to Get Someone to Forgive You

May 19, 2018December 8, 2015 by Mark Ballenger

how to get someone to fogive you — Luke 17:3-4, Colossians 3:12-17

How do you get someone to forgive you? As hard as we try not to, we all sin against those we love. Sometimes it is difficult for them to forgive us.

Whether it’s because we keep sinning against them the same way or because the sin we confessed was so hurtful (like cheating/adultery), there are times in life when we will confess our sins to those we have hurt, but they will struggle to forgive us.

Thankfully the Bible talks a lot about forgiveness. Here are five truths found in Scripture that will help answer the questions, “How do I get someone to forgive me?”

Purity Equals Power in Prayer

December 6, 2015 by Mark Ballenger

Prayer Purity Power — 1 Peter 4:7, 1 Peter 3:7, James 5:16 (NIV), Psalm 66:18

God’s grace is a free gift which we cannot earn or lose due to our own actions. God saves, justifies, blesses, and loves us all because of his undeserved grace. And yet, it seems our obedience and personal effort to be pure are directly related to our spiritual power, especially in prayer. Here are three facts about the biblical connection between prayer and purity.

Impurity Cannot Steal Our Salvation, But It Does Hinder Our Power in Prayer

Sin does not cancel the grace of God. However, sin hinders are experience of God’s grace. When we become a Christian and then we sin, we will never be in jeopardy of losing our salvation. Once we are truly brought into the family of God, there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God (Romans 8:38-39). If, however, we forsake God in word or deed to such a degree that it shows we are not saved, this simply means we were never truly saved to begin with. It does not mean we lost our salvation since this is impossible according to Scripture.

What Should You Do When You Hit Rock Bottom?

December 4, 2015December 4, 2015 by Mark Ballenger

Bible Verses:

And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him, “Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly. – Luke 22:61-61

Follow me. – John 21:19

What should you do when you finally hit rock bottom? Where can you go when you’ve landed face first? What should you do when you don’t know what to do?

If anyone knew the feeling of being at the lowest point of life, it was Peter. Peter truly hit rock bottom when he betrayed Jesus. But the thing that Peter learned, the thing that we all must learn when we are at our lowest, is that rock bottom is the best foundation to build upon.

What is Sin?

August 17, 2018November 29, 2015 by Mark Ballenger

. . . for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. -Romans 3:23

What is sin? The literal translation of the word “sin” means to “miss the mark,” used to describe an arrow missing the intended target. To understand how we miss when we sin, we must first know what we were supposed to be aiming at.

What is Sin? Sin is Concealing Rather than Revealing the Glory of God

Man was made for the glory of God (Isaiah 43:7). The glory of God is the visible manifestation of the invisible qualities of God. Therefore, man was meant to expose, bear the image of, and reveal more of the beauty of God.

Romans 3:23 states, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” You’d think this verse would say “all have sinned and fall short of obedience” but sin is not merely a lack of obedience. Sin is missing the mark of glorifying God.

What is Gluttony?

December 14, 2015November 27, 2015 by Mark Ballenger

Perhaps the most overlooked sin in America is the sin of overeating. The Bible calls this sin “gluttony.” But what is gluttony? When is the line crossed from simply enjoying a feast that is a blessing from God to overeating in gluttonous ways?

What is Gluttony? Gluttony is Eating Too Much for the Wrong Reason

Sin in general is when you take a good thing and use it in wrong ways. Food and eating are good things. Even “feasting” can be a good thing if done for the right reasons. Throughout the Old Testament God told the Israelites to celebrate him through feasts.

3 Reasons to be Thankful for the Gospel

November 26, 2015 by Mark Ballenger

It’s Thanksgiving and there is so many reasons to be thankful. James 1:16-18 states, “Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.”

It’s so easy to “be deceived” in thinking that we should accredit God’s blessings to other sources. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above,” therefore God is the primary one who deserves our thankfulness.

Above all God’s gifts is the gospel of Jesus Christ, for “Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.” The gospel gives us endless and countless blessings. Here are at least 3 reasons Christians can be thankful for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

How to Have More Sex in Your Christian Marriage

February 23, 2016November 22, 2015 by Mark Ballenger

God made sex for married Christians to fully enjoy. So how can you have more sex in your Christian marriage? Believe it or not, the Bible does directly give instructions for the marriage bed. And the main message regarding sex in marriage is the main message regarding marriage in general: focus on giving more than on taking. Here are 5 truths the Bible gives about marriage and sex that will help your intimacy flourish.

What Should I Do When I Am Struggling to Pray?

May 10, 2016November 20, 2015 by Mark Ballenger

Struggling to pray? All true Christians want to pray more than they do. But all Christians, if they are being honest, go through seasons where praying is a challenge. To help overcome this barrier to prayer, it helps to ask, “How did Jesus pray?”

By studying Jesus prayer time in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:36-46, Mark 14:32-42, Luke 22:39-46), we can discover at least four practical things Jesus did in prayer.

Part 4: How to Overcome Temptation

November 18, 2015November 16, 2015 by Mark Ballenger

Bible Verses:

And he said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”. . . ⁴¹And he came the third time and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? It is enough; the hour has come. The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. ⁴²Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.” – Mark 14:36-42

Jesus said in Mark 14:36, “Abba, Father, everything is possible for you.” We are to look for our deliverance from God and not worldly pleasures because God is the one who is in total control of everything.

One way God has sought to show us that he is still in control even though Satan is active in the scenes in our life is through his preordained use of the number three throughout the pages of Scripture. Mark 14:41 states that Jesus returned to the disciples sleeping a “third time.”

Part 3: How to Overcome Temptation

November 16, 2015November 13, 2015 by Mark Ballenger

And he came and found them sleeping, and he said to Peter, “Simon, are you asleep? Could you not watch one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak…” Mark 14:37-42

Again, Jesus said to Peter in Mark 14:38, “Watch and pray that you might not enter into temptation.” That’s gold if you’ve ever been plagued with a reoccurring sin. If you’ve ever wondered how you are going to stop indulging in addictive sins over and over again, Jesus just told us, but so often we skip over this advice because it sounds so simple.