Bible Studies

• God's Plan of Salvation

• Does Hard Work ALWAYS Guarantee Success in life

• What does the Bible say about drinking alcohol / wine?  Is it a sin for a Christian to drink alcohol / wine?

God's Plan of Salvation

All People Have Sinned Against God
The Bible says, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). The word sin means to miss a target by falling short of that target. Sin is the failure of a person to live the life which God has planned for him to live.
Everyone has sinned, it is universal.

The Price of Sin Is High
The Bible says, "the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 6:23). The person who lives without God in this life will pay the awful price of an eternity separated from God. The Bible calls this place of separation hell. Hell was never meant to be the eternal home of mankind, but God could not allow rebellious people to enter into heaven. Heaven is the eternal dwelling of God's people, and it is a place where God lives in perfect harmony with His people.

God Loves us in Spite of Our Sin
The Bible says, "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8).

Because of the righteousness of God, man must pay the penalty for sin, or someone who is acceptable to God must pay the penalty. The death of Jesus is the greatest demonstration of the love of God for sinners. It is a great love for someone to die in place of a loved one. But Jesus died for those in rebellion.

Repent, Turn Toward God, and Have Your Sins Completely Taken Away
The Bible says, "Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;" (Acts 3:19). The word repent means to turn around and go in a different direction. It means a change of mind and life toward God. If you are willing to turn to God, then God will restore you to purity. Jesus described this experience as the "new birth." Your part is to confess your sin, and God's part is to forgive and restore.

By Grace You Receive His Free Gift (Eternal Life) through Faith Which is Also from God
The Bible says, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:" (Ephesians 2:8). The word grace refers to the kindness and love of God in His willingness to forgive and save. Faith means to trust to a point of commitment. You cannot just believe in God. You cannot just come to CFC. You must be willing to give your life to God's teachings and God's will. Salvation is God's gift if you will receive it with a commitment to turn and follow Jesus.

Confess Jesus and Believe That He Was Raised from the Dead by God
The Bible says, "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." (Romans 10:9). The word confess means to acknowledge that Jesus is Savior and Lord, to believe with all your heart that Jesus died on the cross for you and came out of the grave, believe that He is alive and will change your life as you follow and obey His teachings.

Pray (call upon) to the Lord and Be Saved:
The Bible says, "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." (Romans 10:13). Whoever means anyone can ask God for forgiveness of sin and turn from sin and follow Jesus.

If you believe all of the above then pray this simple prayer and mean it and you will be saved!

"Lord Jesus, I know I am a sinner and need Your forgiveness. I know You died on the cross for me. I now turn from my sins and ask You to forgive me. I invite You into my heart and life. I trust You as Savior and will follow You as Lord. Thank You for saving me. Amen."

If you prayed this prayer to receive Jesus Christ as your Savior, would you call or email and tell us? First Armenian Evangelical Church cares about you. We want to be here to help nurture you and bring you into the full knowledge and fellowship of our Lord, Jesus.

This prayer of faith starts you on the greatest journey you can ever make.

"Does Hard Work ALWAYS Guarantee Success in life?

...Does the Book of Proverbs Offer Us False Promises?"

The Question:

"Many people will always tell you that hard work in life leads to success and to prosperity. And some Bible texts seem to back up this view, including these:

'Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth.' (Prov. 10:4)

'Diligent hands will rule, but laziness ends in slave labour.' (Prov. 12:24)

'The sluggard craves and gets nothing, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied.' (Prov. 13:4)

'Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will serve before kings; he will not serve before obscure men.' (Prov. 22:29).

My husband was a hard and loyal worker all his life and we always had enough to eat but we never really prospered. He was the most diligent and faithful employee in his company but he usually got passed by for promotion and less worthy people who just knew how to keep flattering the boss got the promotion. Just a year before he died he actually lost his job despite 30 years of loyal service.

I don't think my late husband is the only one like that. I remember a successful business man saying,

'For every successful man who makes a lot of money, I could show you another ten who work just as hard but who just don't get the luck or the breaks!'

Does the Book of Proverbs offer us false promises?"

My Reply: (Rev.Robin A. Brace)

Okay. I think this is a fair question and I want to tackle it in a fair manner. I think I will tackle your question by making a few points:

1. Those Scriptures are not "promises." They are, if you will, 'general proverbs of life' which can only be helpful to us - especially to the young. Under all normal circumstances - all other things being even - a person who works hard and is diligent and loyal will prosper more than somebody who is lazy and who avoids work and ducks responsibility.

2. The Bible may speak of "prosperity" or "wealth" but that is not necessarily prosperity in any modern western sense, you know, two cars in a home, three televisions, three foreign holidays every year. 'Prosperity' in biblical terms would be to have enough to eat and to buy nice clothes plus a little extra to share with those who are less fortunate.

3. When Proverbs 22:29 speaks of the diligent serving "before kings" it is best understood in the sense that if you find a man or woman who actually serves before a king or a ruler you will never find that such a person is lazy or somebody who avoids responsibility - he or she will be a diligent person. But to return to point one, this is obviously not a promise that every hard and diligent worker will get to work before a king or a major ruler.

In a somewhat different sense, this is a little like Psalm 103:3. That verse assures us that the Lord "Heals all your diseases." That means that when we have been ill and we get that marvelous feeling that we are well again and can go out and face the world with real zest once more, then it is God alone who healed us. God grants healing, but of course, He also decides when He is going to bring our physical lives to a close! So that Psalm is not a promise of healing "if you will just have enough faith" as some so unwisely teach.

Maybe God put Ecclesiastes straight after Proverbs in order to 'balance up' the way things often happen in this life. If you consider Proverbs, it is true to say that one could get the impression that as long as we all work hard, life cannot fail us, but - as we all know - it often just does not pan out that way. So to bring us all back to the reality that life can often seem quite unfair, we have verses like this,

'I have seen something else under the sun:

The race is not to the swift

or the battle to the strong,

nor does food come to the wise

or wealth to the brilliant

or favor to the learned;

but time and chance happen to them all.'

(Ecclesiastes 9:11).

There can be a frustrating randomness about life which we all experience at times. We might work and study long hours, going 'above and beyond' to prepare ourselves for something, then along comes somebody who has not worked so hard and who may have far less knowledge but the 'golden apple' falls to him! We could all scream with rage on such occasions!! Yet Christians, at least, still have a wonderful promise, that of Romans 8:28, which I will finish this with in a moment.

I am really sorry that your husband worked hard throughout his life but never really got the breaks, and I think that many thousands of people are just like that. Yet you ate well and probably could afford good clothes and even to share a little with others at times. That would make you prosperous in a biblical sense. If you also had a relationship with Jesus Christ for many years that is also spiritual prosperity which will ultimately be far more important than material prosperity which none of us can take with us from these brief physical lives which we all lead. It is this spiritual prosperity in Christ which leads to Life Eternal!

'And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.' (Romans 8:28, NIV throughout).

Please take the time now to read the remainder of that wonderful Scripture from Romans 8:28 until the end of that chapter, which is verse 39.                                           

Robin A. Brace

The Bible says, "wine is a mocker, intoxicating drink arouses brawling" (Proverbs  20:1).
The Bible also says, "Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbor, pressing him to your bottle, even to make him drunk" (Habakkuk 2:15).

Yet the Bible does not say that drinking a glass of wine or beer, or a cocktail with dinner, is a sin.
Drunkenness is a sin, forbidden by the Bible, but having one drink may not be wrong. My conduct, however, could cause someone else, who is weak in his faith, to stumble.

The apostle Paul established a rule of conduct that I think is valid for all.-  He said he would not eat meat or drink wine or do anything else which would cause a weaker brother to stumble.

Romans 14:14-21
14 As one who is in the Lord Jesus, I am fully convinced that no food^[a] is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean. 15 If your brother is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy your brother for whom Christ died. 16 Do not allow what you consider good to be spoken of as evil. 17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, 18 because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men.

19 Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. 20 Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. 21 It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother to fall.

1 Corinthians 6:9-10

9 Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

God forbid that someone should stumble into the sin of drunkenness through one of us.