No Condemnation for Sin

On June 11, 2023August 27, 2024 By Robert W. PeckIn Blog, Christian5 Comments

Part 1 in the series “Knowing the Truth About Sin Will Set You Free”

Message delivered to ZChurch.life June 10, 2023

“You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). Knowing the truth about sin will make you free – free from condemnation for sin and free from bondage to sin. First, we need to know the truth of what sin really is. Sin isn’t just a list of dos and don’ts; our spiritual standing with God isn’t just a balance sheet of credits and debits. All your debts have been paid, and nothing more can ever be laid to your charge. But that’s only where the story of life in Christ begins.

Message Outline

WHAT IS SIN?

Is it a system of dos and don’t? If so, is it just the top ten? But there’s a bunch of other commandments in the Bible. Then there’s all the things that our religious traditions have taught us to think are sin. There ends up being more dos and don’ts than a person can keep track of, so how do you identify what’s sin and what isn’t?

Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

One definition for the word translated sin is “to miss the mark.” The mark is the glory of God. Anything outside the circle of God’s perfect glory in the center of the target is sin.

If you want to live by a system of dos and don’ts, then the do is to do all the fullness of the glory of God, and the don’t is don’t do anything inconsistent with the perfect glory of God.

Continue reading →

Gorsuch Condemns COVID Policies for Violating Civil Liberties: Where Are the Rest?

On June 5, 2023June 4, 2023 By Robert W. PeckIn Articles, Blog, Political4 Comments

In a statement relating to the case of Arizona v. Alejandro Mayorkas (Secretary of Homeland Security), US Supreme Court Justice, Neil Gorsuch, condemned government-imposed COVID policies that turned the legal and legislative process on its head and violated civil liberties. The justice’s review of actions taken by local, state, and federal governments over the past three years reads like a report on human rights abuses from the socialist Soviet Union era. Previous generations of Americans would have thought the justice’s statements were from a dystopian novel, not current events.

Here are some key passages from Justice Gorsuch’s statement.

Continue reading →

Question Everything… Even God

On March 11, 2023March 12, 2023 By Robert W. PeckIn Blog, Christian2 Comments

Message delivered to ZChurch, March 11, 2023

It has been said, “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” God says that His people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Whether the deficit stems from ignorance of the facts or the error of thinking a thing to be true that just ain’t so, the results are just as deadly. You can avoid a world of hurt by learning to question preconceptions and confirm the truth that will keep you from the pitfalls of the enemy.

MESSAGE OUTLINE

Question Authority?

There used to be a bumper sticker that said “Question Authority.” It was understood to mean “question the government,” or “rebel against the established order.”

I went from not questioning the government, to questioning some taxes and regulations, to questioning unconstitutional acts of government, to questioning where government got its authority from, to discovering government got its authority from we the people but then questioning where we got our authority from.

Continue reading →

In the Name of Jesus

On October 28, 2022 By Robert W. PeckIn Blog, ChristianLeave a comment

This message was presented to ZChurch.life, August 6, 2022 (see full service at https://youtu.be/ym2nYxgiqLI)

Most Christians are accustomed to ending their prayers “in Jesus’ name, Amen.” Many have even been told that we are to cast out devils and heal the sick “in Jesus’ name.” But what does it really mean to do these things in Jesus’ name? Is the name “Jesus” the Christian equivalent of a magic word? Is it like saying, “abracadabra, devil go away… in Jesus’ name?” Do we automatically get what we ask for in prayer simply by uttering the sound of Jesus’ name?

It may surprise you to know that there is no power in the mere letters, syllables, and sound of the name “Jesus.” Nevertheless, all authority both in heaven and on earth has been given to Jesus and made available to the new covenant church through Him.

Learn where the real power of the name of Jesus lies and how to access it in this message by ZChurch elder, Robert Peck.

___________________

In the Name of Jesus

Most Christians are accustom to ending their prayers with “in Jesus name, amen.” Many have even been told that we are to cast out devils and heal the sick “in Jesus name.” We get this from passages like:

Continue reading →

An Open Letter to My U.S. Senator Re Abortion, Rights, and Our Own Bodies

On June 5, 2022June 6, 2022 By Robert W. PeckIn Articles, Blog, Political9 Comments

Dear Senator Murray:

In a recent email to your constituents addressing what you call the “right to abortion,” you ask, “do you support a woman’s right to make her own decisions about her own body?” I regret that I cannot answer that question with the simple “yes” or “no” requested as the way it is presented constitutes a false premise.

The trouble is that we’re not talking about the woman’s “own” body, but another body that happens to be inside the woman at the time. This is a body with its own unique DNA that is distinctly different from that of the woman and therefore is clearly not the woman’s “own” body. The body we’re discussing aborting has its own genetic markers that distinguish it from the woman’s body as certainly as if a car parked in my driveway had a VIN number different from the one I hold title to – even if it happens to be in my driveway, it’s not my car and not mine to dispose of.

Whether a body is inhabited by a person at conception as some believe, or at birth as others might believe, it is nevertheless a unique human body that is clearly not that of either the mother or the father as it has DNA that is distinct from each. A human body can only be the possession of the one to inhabit it and no one not inhabiting that body may rightly claim it as their own.

Continue reading →

Why COVID Orders Are Not Law and the Many Ways They Could Be Stopped

On October 12, 2021 By Robert W. PeckIn Articles, Blog, Political5 Comments

When news of COVID lockdown orders began to be reported back in early 2020, my immediate concern was not over the virus but the lawfulness of the orders. Yes, the virus matters and should be researched by doctors so they can advise their patients as to the best methods of prevention and/or treatment. However, without the rule of law, we have no protection of our God-given rights, including the right to life. Therefore, rights and the rule of law are paramount, even above COVID.

I quickly observed that the lockdown and shutdown orders being issued violated God-given rights, were not constitutionally authorized, and therefore lacked the force of law. As the orders that were promised to be for only a few weeks dragged on into months, it became clear we’d been lied to and that action needed to be taken to restore the rule of law.

I had already been pondering the many ways such violations could and should be stopped and how the usurpation of power by governors could be put in check. However, neither elected officials, political leaders, political parties, nor the big-name organizations of the right seemed ready to step up to the plate and provide the bold and decisive action needed. Without such leadership, the rank and file were effectively sheep without a shepherd, able only to bleat out a modicum of disapproval at their rights being violated by executive orders.

Before discussing the actions that could and should have been taken to put an immediate stop to the violations, there needs to be an understanding of God-given rights and the rule of law that lie at the foundation of this matter.

Continue reading →

Healing is the Natural Effect of the Creator

On August 31, 2021September 1, 2021 By Robert W. PeckIn Articles, Blog, Christian2 Comments

“Healing is the natural effect of the Creator coming in contact with His creation.”

This thought actually came to me several years ago. My local church has a Thanksgiving testimony service the night before Thanksgiving Day. One of the guys shared about praying for another guy at the men’s prayer meeting and how the other guy was healed. To be honest, my flesh wanted to recoil a little and pridefully think to itself, “Why did that happen for him? He’s not that super-spiritual, gifted, or anointed.” But, on the other hand, I suppose the carnal mind thinks that healing has to be something spectacular that can only happen after a week of fasting to work up enough “super-faith.”

I believe the Spirit prompted me in that moment to realize that supernatural healing is the most natural thing there is. It’s what happens by nature whenever the Creator is allowed to come in contact with His creation. Healing is something that can occur whenever the smallest act of child-like faith opens the door wide enough for God to come in and come in contact with His creation. It’s actually impossible for anything in creation to come in contact with its Creator and not be saved, delivered, healed, redeemed, renewed, restored, and made whole.

I’m all for growing in faith, and it’s something I’m seeking for myself. However, I think we err when we get the idea that to receive healing, we have to be so super-spiritual that sparks fly off us when we walk into a room. Instead, I perceive it’s more important to simply get enough doubt and unbelief out of the way so that simple, child-like faith can open the door and let the Creator come in, have contact with His creation, and do what He naturally does.

An Open Letter to My U.S. Representative – Hypocrisy is Not a Virtue

On July 30, 2021June 5, 2022 By Robert W. PeckIn Articles, Blog, Political2 Comments

Dear Representative McMorris Rodgers:

I am taken aback by the hypocrisy of your July 21 newsletter entitled, “Inflation Hits Home in Eastern Washington.”

In the newsletter, you rightly point out that, “Hardworking families in Eastern Washington and across the country are being crippled by widespread inflation.”

Yes, inflation is harming hardworking families. Prices always increase whenever deficit spending necessitates creating new money at a rate greater than the increase in real goods and services in the economy. That inflating of the money supply always decreases the value of the dollar and diminishes its purchasing power for American workers, families, and the elderly on fixed incomes.

You go on to state that, “President Joe Biden and the Democrats’ out-of-control spending has caused prices on everyday goods to skyrocket, and our families are paying the price.”

Yes, this is true, but you fail to mention that prices began to skyrocket in the spring and summer of 2020 as the result of out-of-control spending under Donald Trump. In fact, debt actually increased more under the last six months of President Trump than the first six months of President Biden.

Continue reading →

The Declaration of Independence: An American Insurrection?

On July 4, 2021July 4, 2021 By Robert W. PeckIn Blog2 Comments

A couple of days ago, I listened to a special Independence Day edition of the Steve Deace Show. It included a reading of the Declaration of Independence by the show’s producer, Aaron McIntire. I’ve read, and/or heard the declaration read numerous times, yet this time it seemed I was hearing it afresh.

Aaron gave an excellent delivery, but more importantly, his tone and tenor made me feel like I was hearing one of the founders declaring from their own heart the causes which impelled them “to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them.”

Among the many things you might do this Independence Day, I implore you to include a review of America’s founding document. You can hear Aaron’s reading of the declaration here starting at the six-minute mark.

As I heard the words of the declaration being read, I found myself considering how similar many of the charges against King George sounded to things being done by our own government today. While the specifics may differ, the nature of usurpation and the inclination of human leaders toward tyranny remain the same and are quite recognizable both then and now.

Continue reading →

Prophetic Word of Increase Fulfilled

On June 23, 2021July 4, 2021 By Robert W. PeckIn Articles, Blog, ChristianLeave a comment

In May of 2020, Pastor Larry Huggins spoke a prophetic word of financial increase over me during a ZChurch service. It was in the early days of ZChurch before we had our online technologies mastered, so we failed to get a recording of that service to use for a transcript. Nevertheless, the message was to the effect that God had been watching my financial giving and seeing that it had been faithful and consistent, in season and out. Pastor Larry announced that a large increase, or a large sum, was coming and that it would be from an unexpected source.

Over the following weeks, I would find myself thinking about where such a financial increase could come from. But then I would remember that the prophetic word said it would be from an “unexpected” source, so, anything I could think of was automatically disqualified.

I’m a landlord and rental income is my primary source of revenue. I could imagine rents increasing, or expenses decreasing and thereby realizing a financial increase over time. However, that didn’t fit the wording of the prophetic message that indicated a more sudden increase from a specific source, and an unexpected source at that, which rental income was not.

Continue reading →