Articles by Randall E Howard

“Jesus spent his whole life helping the incarcerated, the poor, the hungry and the needy. He said, ‘This is the kingdom of God, when you help these.’” [1] Pastor Randy Howard. As we entered the New Year of 2016, Pastor Randy Howard has been emphasizing the need for community outreach and integration. He has stated several times the need to transform our mentality toward the poor, oppressed and marginalized. He has preached on the need to reach the incarcerated, the disenfranchised, the homeless, and the children that are hungry and in need of godly centered homes. Participating in social justice is indeed the work of the church. Jesus has expected it of his followers. So as we experience transformation through the power of the Gospel in the inner man, there should be a compelling drive by the Spirit to transform the community around us. The church has always emphasized the need of transformation. Transformation is the process that every believer is experiencing through the new ...

The church (and me specifically) has spent so much time on the subject of grace and the importance of faith to our salvation that we need to focus our attention equally to the evidence of faith and the spiritual work required of us in this natural world. The issue of faith and works has been such an issue over the centuries that it has created division in theological circles and a false sense of security in the church. What I mean by this is the perception that as long as we believe, we can live life as we want and there are no consequences. I want to bring balance to us by understanding James. I believe James was trying to bring balance to a misunderstanding of faith and grace. The same misunderstanding that exists today! James wrote to encourage and teach Christians to live VICTORIOUS in the midst of being dispersed to live throughout the world in a different way. They were being exposed to intense trials (James 1:1; I Peter 1:6), they were falling into sin through weakness ...

In 2006, I was asked to respond to a question posed by the Daily Press, Victorville, California. Please find the question and the response below. Question: What approach should Christians take to acts we are taught are immoral but have been legalized by a government, i.e. legalized drug use, gambling and prostitution. Our government says they trust in God, but God teaches us that these things are wrong. Response: St. Augustine made the statement, "An unjust law is no law at all!”   These words provided the foundation for civil disobedience movements across the world. Martin Luther King held this view and wrote in a letter written from a Birmingham jail: "one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws". The problem is that while the law is a matter of public record, justice is an intensely personal matter. This is why we need a standard.   The Bible addresses morality, ethics and righteousness.   All righteous laws derive their origin fr...

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9  not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." (Ephesians 2:8-10) True salvation does produce a response from the Christian! While we know that salvation is by grace through faith, we cannot escape the reality that this salvation proves itself out in peoples live in a particular way. A full reading of Ephesians 2 definitely communicates this to us. To understand the writings of Paul, we must understand the context and culture to which he was writing. Otherwise, we will misread Paul through the eyes of our 21 st century setting. This is the major problem with the contemporary church and modern theologians. We miss the true meaning of the themes and times and thus misapply it to ourselves. For example, Paul addressed things by ...