Mike Winger

01/01/2025

The internet.

12/29/2024

Lying is a gateway sin that opens the door to a ton of different sins. Just be honest.

“But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.” Matthew 5:37

12/28/2024

Next time you read through the Bible notice how big of a deal it is to be thankful and not complain. It shows up many times in the Old and New Testament.

I say this as someone who often catches myself complaining and has to intentionally be thankful. But I suspect this is true for most of us.

In Scripture it’s not just an issue of, “Don’t complain and be thankful because you’ll be a happier person and people will like you more.” Though I do think that’s true and actually is affirmed in Scripture.

Still, there is a LOT more. The issue of gratitude versus complaining shows up in God’s judgment of Israel on multiple occasions. It’s part of the general condemnation of mankind in Romans 1. This shows that it is an issue of great consequence and even a sin/righteousness issue.

We often think of gratitude as an unforced attitude that just sort of happens to us. As if it originates in our emotions and we must wait on them to produce it as we are passive participants in being thankful. It would be very disempowering to think that thankfulness works this way. Thankfully (pun intended) this is not the case. While some gratitude rises spontaneously with a thrust of emotion, we are free to simply choose to be thankful at any and all times. This is how the Bible can command us to be thankful, just as it commands us to do all things without complaining.

I still have a long way to go in applying all this to my own life. But I see how important it is and realize that just as it’s a choice to refuse to complain (here I mean complaining in a bad sense because not all complaining is evil) it is a choice to be thankful. And, in Christ, we have more than enough reasons to be thankful no matter what else is going on in our lives.

Thank God for his grace, love, patience, promise of eternal life, sovereign plan to work all things together for good, for the wonderful taste of food, the blessing of friendships, the invention of smiles and laughter, pets, a nice breeze on a hot day, old wise people in our lives, electricity, and every good and perfect gift that we enjoy far too often in the absence of gratitude.

12/27/2024

“I wish there was something I could do to help.”

One of the hardest things we experience in life is our powerlessness in the face of death. We are wounded in the core of our hearts at the fact that we can’t do anything to fix this.

In Christ, the good news is that you don’t have to do anything. He already overcame death and now we simply wait in faith.

12/25/2024

Numerous prophetic passages in the Old Testament show that the Messiah of the Jews will cause the Gentiles to turn and worship the God of Israel.

Consider for a moment how incredibly unlikely this seems historically. A single descendant of Abraham causing a massive change in the Gentile world such that they abandon their paganism and polytheism and turn to acknowledge the God of Israel.

This is just one of the many prophecies Jesus fulfilled. An example of it can be found in Psalm 22, which describes the crucifixion in detail hundreds of years ahead of time, and then goes on to talk about this event causing Gentiles to worship God.

“All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you.”
Psalm 22:27

Christmas is a great example of the success of Jesus. Gentiles around the world are here gathered to acknowledge Jesus, the Messiah of Israel.

12/23/2024

Did you know Charles Spurgeon, John Wesley, and John Calvin all thought Michael the Archangel was likely Jesus?

But they thought this in a way VERY different from the heretical Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Here’s the next study in my Hebrews Series. I’ll cover why I disagree with these wise men and cover a lot of Old Testament prophecy about Jesus in Hebrews 1:4-6

Stop Saying Jesus Is Michael the Archangel: The Hebrews Series pt 4 (Heb 1:4-7)

This is part of an ongoing series of serious Bible studies going through the book of Hebrews verse by verse. You can watch the whole Hebrews Series here (mor...

12/22/2024

Our relationships with unbelievers should be that of outreach.

Our relationships with believers on the other hand, is that of family.

12/21/2024

People who claim that all religions worship the same God do not know the meaning of the word religion, or God, or worship, or all, or same.

It feels nice but it’s ignorant.

12/16/2024

We are called to be holy because God is holy.

The standards we aspire to are generally too low.

12/13/2024

Be cooler than a top G - be a top D-A-D

12/11/2024

Christians, Jesus’ problem with religious leaders was NOT that they were religious.

This is a modern twisting of Scripture that we’ve been absorbing from our anti-religious culture.

12/09/2024

I had a great time with Ray Comfort the other day.

12/09/2024

In light of the new Mary movie from Netflix using this book far more than it uses the Bible, I present to you…

A full read-through of the Protoevangelium of James.

I'm reading every single word of this forgery today. You'll see the clear agenda of the author as well as how it changes the biblical story to promote the ex...

12/09/2024

This is what it’s come to in current day culture. And good luck finding a good, Christ exalting Christmas card.

The new LGBTQ cards for dad and his partner.

12/08/2024

Christians are called to be humble yet unshakably confident because God's love is assured to us through Christ.

12/07/2024

We all understand shame when we see that somebody has been caught on video doing something despicable.

But what we often forget is how incredibly shameful the cross was.

12/06/2024

Netflix’s movie about Mary begins with Mary narrating, “You may think you know my story. Trust me, you don’t.”

Oh great.

12/05/2024

I’m blown away by the fact that when we study the Bible we are learning from a compilation of ancient documents the youngest of which are nearly 2,000 years old.