Pastor Marc Bertrand

  Where are you now in Christ? "Who are you in Christ."? Our culture is very interested in the journey of discovering individual identity. Personality tests, dream assessments, even Buzzfeed quizzes are available everywhere you look. It seems like everyone is searching for something to tell them who they are, where they belong and how they relate to the world. The Bible says that all men and women are created in God’s image. Humankind was created to reflect some of God’s attributes. You can look for your identity anywhere, but followers of Jesus are called to find their identity in Him. While our world encourages you to look within yourself for your identity, your natural tendency is to search for your identity in external things. One of the first places that you can be tempted to look to is your career. Spending your time and energy pursuing your career can cause you to feel like it is a defining characteristic of who you are. After all, a job that you are dedicated to is li...

  Bible Believer listen. In normal usage, a “Bible believer” means an individual or organization that believes the Bible is true and perfect. Bible believers hold the position that the Bible “contains no theological contradictions, historical discrepancies, or other such ‘errors.'” Many Christians have wrongly applied verses to their own lives which do not apply to the current Church age. A common example of this is a Bible verse where a person has to endure to the end to be saved (Matthew 24:13). However, this verse is applicable to those living during the Tribulation period, not Christians who have obtained eternal life upon their confession that they are a sinner in need of the Lord Jesus Christ for their salvation (Romans 10:9-10). “Christians are not called to ‘believe’ the Bible; they are called to acknowledge its authority, and to listen to it through the filter of the gospel proclaimed by Jesus. It is a serious category mistake to talk about ‘believing’ the Bible.” I certai...

  Worshiping lifeless idols. Isaiah 44:9-11 ,17-20 9. How foolish are those who manufacture idols. These prized objects are really worthless. The people who worship idols don’t know this, so they are all put to shame. 10. Who but a fool would make his own god— an idol that cannot help him one bit? 11. All who worship idols will be disgraced along with all these craftsmen—mere humans— who claim they can make a god. They may all stand together, but they will stand in terror and shame. 17. Then he takes what’s left and makes his god: a carved idol! He falls down in front of it, worshiping and praying to it. “Rescue me!” he says. “You are my god!” 18. Such stupidity and ignorance! Their eyes are closed, and they cannot see. Their minds are shut, and they cannot think. 19. The person who made the idol never stops to reflect, “Why, it’s just a block of wood! I burned half of it for heat and used it to bake my bread and roast my meat. How can the rest of it be a god? Should I bow down to ...

  All humans are welcome in hell. Berean Standard Bible :Isaiah 14:9 Sheol beneath is eager to meet you upon your arrival. It stirs the spirits of the dead to greet you—all the rulers of the earth. It makes all the kings of the nations rise from their thrones. Sin brings death—spiritually, physically and eternally (Romans 6:23). We’re born dead in our sins (Psalm 51:5, Ephesians 2:1). We will all die physically. And for those who don’t have their sins forgiven, they will also die eternally. Hell is called the second death (Revelation 20:14). Though the human soul exists forever, it does not live. Life is described as in the presence of God. He gives eternal life. Eternal death awaits those who have failed to place their hope and trust in Christ for salvation. Hell is real. Jesus, the Son of God, came from heaven to teach us the way to heaven. He promised that he would give eternal life and raise from the dead everybody who believes in him (John 6:34-40). At the same time, nobody in...

  A man of too many friends. Proverbs 18:24 24 A man of too many friends comes to ruin, But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. The man of too many friends [chosen indiscriminately] will be broken in pieces and come to ruin, But there is a [true, loving] friend who [is reliable and] sticks closer than a brother. What does a man of many companions may come to ruin but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother mean? It means commitment out of a passionate love. This kind of friendship brings something into your life that mere obligation cannot bring, and therefore nothing else comes close to a true friend. The Lord Jesus Christ gave us the definition of a true friend: "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I ha...

  During your courtship can you maintain a friendship without sex? In the age of social media we have more friends than ever, yet we lack depth and quality of relationship. Unfortunately, this seems to be true in the church as well as the larger culture. Yet there’s perhaps another and less obvious barrier to friendship than our screens and apps—sex. Having opposite-sex friends has long been perceived to be valuable by both women and men. It also raises the widely debated question: Can men and women be just friends? God wants us to have friends. And that can include having opposite-sex friendships. Where sex was involved, men valued that aspect of friendship more than women. Due to the intimate emotional and physical nature of some of these benefits, maintaining relationships with opposite-sex friends while in a romantic relationship can open up a can of worms. Depending on who’s complaining — the partner who’s unhappy about the opposite sex friendship or the partner who’s looked u...