Author: Jojo Agot

Pastor at Victory. Faculty and adviser at Every Nation Leadership Institute (ENLI). MA in Theology and Mission at Every Nation Seminary.

Can We Be Saved if Mary Wasn’t a Virgin?

I threw this question during the opening of our Foundation for Victory Friday class two weeks ago and since then, I have been hearing divergent opinions about this question. Why is this question important? Because the entire Christian religion rests on the veracity of only two things: the virgin birth and the death and resurrection of Christ. No other events in the Bible could come close to the importance of this two.

If Mary wasn’t a virgin, that would mean that Jesus most likely had an earthly father. If Jesus had an earthly father, He couldn’t be God and therefore He couldn’t be a Savior. He would just be a mere human being, and just like the rest of us, He would need saving. In effect, all the things we ever believed about Him will crumble to the ground. Continue reading Can We Be Saved if Mary Wasn’t a Virgin?

I Need Thee Every Hour

I cried a little bit tonight while reading a chapter of Kevin De Young’s The Good News We Almost Forgot. The book is about the Heidelberg Catechism and the section I was reading was on questions 3, 4 and 5.

3. How do you come to know your misery? Answer: The law of God tells me.
4. What does God’s law require of us? Answer: Full quotation of Matthew 22:37-40; love God with everything you are; love others as you love yourself.
5. Can you live up to all this perfectly? Answer: No, I have a natural tendency to hate God and my neighbor.

Continue reading I Need Thee Every Hour

Why It Is Okay to Grieve

Because it is Biblical to grieve, in fact, if you read the book of Psalms, you will find many songs that tackle grief and pain in shocking ways. David’s Psalm 13, for example, opens with a series of questions that most modern day prosperity preachers will find faulty. It starts with nothing less than an accusation that God has forgotten the writer; and for the next four verses (out of a total of six verses), David expounded on the anguish of his soul.

We are told that we need to be careful with our confessions because what comes out of our mouths are self-fulfilling prophecies. We are told that death and life are in the power of the tongue. We are told that whatever we confess is bound to happen because our words have creative power (because we are children of God and God spoke the universe into existence). We are told that negative thinking leads to negative living. Each one of this is true. But that’s not the whole story. Continue reading Why It Is Okay to Grieve

Book Review: Max On Life

I have been reading Max Lucado for fifteen years now and all his books that I read were good. He is a good writer with great imagination. He builds his ideas slowly and paints word pictures before finally unveiling his point. He has a knack of restating Bible passages without twisting them. He can dramatize a particular Bible scene and give it a 21st century backdrop.

His 2011 release, however, was a bit different. In Max on Life, Lucado deviates a little from his usual writing style. The book is a compilation of 172 questions sent to him by readers. The topics are varied and because the format of the book is meant to give short answers even to tough questions, the quality of the answers seemed to suffer. Questions about the existence of God, pain, loss and eternity in heaven and hell are just too broad to be addressed in a few paragraphs.

Continue reading Book Review: Max On Life

The Cost of Discipleship

It is true that discipleship is costly and that you will have to give up some things. But the things you give up are nothing compared to the things you gain in Christ. And the things you gain by following Christ can never be taken away from you. The cost of discipleship is so much better than the cost of sin. Sin leads to death. Discipleship leads to eternal life, eternal joy and pleasures forevermore.

–Adapted from Joshua Harris’ Sermon