“What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.” - Philippians 4:93. Choose confession, repentance, forgiveness, and lament. Much of my own walk with Jesus has been learning how to submit my anxieties regarding relational conflict over to Him. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jes

1. I’ve Been Rescued by Grace “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God” (Eph. 1:1).Paul begins by establishing his authority as an Apostle. God, not human authorities, chose Paul for his role in God’s kingdom. What’s so amazing about this is who Paul was when God chose him.Acts 9 records Paul’s conversion. On the road to Damascus to cap

A Simple Fasting Prayer Lord, please forgive us for craving food more than you. Forgive us for craving anything more than you. Lord redirect our hunger. Be our God. Open our eyes to the benefits of fasting. Open our hearts to you like never before. Give us the desire to turn to you with all our hearts, with all our souls, with all our strength. May

1. Isaiah “Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty!” (Is. 6:5).Many of us know about Isaiah. He has a book in the Major Prophets section of the Bible (prophets who had longer books) and he existed during one of the greatest times of upheaval

1. Where Was Eden? Life for Adam and Eve began so lovely. They had a relationship with God, a home with God, and they ruined their blessing. Their actions introduced the world to sin.Where was the glorious home they were cast away from?A river went out from Eden to water the garden. From there it divided and became the source of four rivers. The na

How Does the Holy Spirit Work? As I mentioned earlier, there are many ways that the Holy Spirit works in the lives of Christians, but they all share one common goal: to make us more like Jesus Christ.He works in believers by renewing our minds to be like the mind of Christ. He does this by convicting us of sin and leading us to repentance.Through r

Principle One: Pray Based on God’s Promises We can easily see these three principles of prayer at work in the life of one of the heroes of the Bible, the prophet Elijah, and his two famous prayers: that the rain would stop falling over backslidden Israel, and then, three and a half years later, that the rain would begin again, and end the drought.

Who Is the Holy Spirit? Just to be clear so there is no confusion, the Holy Spirit is God. In fact, he is God, the Holy Spirit. Co-equal, co-eternal, and co-existing with God the Father and God the Son or Jesus.The reason it is so important to recognize him as God is that first of all, that’s who he is. But second it is so we can give him the respe

How Will Others Know That We Are Disciples by Our Love?After Jesus instructed his disciples with this new command, he explained that when they love as he loved, that is how others would know they are his followers. That means when we love people just as Jesus loves us, they too will know that we are his disciples because of the radical love we show

“Has God not come down to deliver us? Christ on the cross is the One who rescues. Grace stoops low to show kindness to the lowly. He delivers.“Has God not raised us up, seating us in the heavenlies at the present time? Our citizenship is in heaven, and one day grace will carry us into the presence of God, for He will bring us up.”God’s grace is pra

What Does It Mean That "Man Does Not Live on Bread Alone?" When Jesus was tempted by the devil to turn stones into bread Jesus responded “Man cannot live by bread alone.” But was he speaking literally?It’s well known that bread is the most widely consumed food in the world. It’s an important source of essential carbohydrates for daily energy. But i

This is true of God today: He wants to be with us when we eat our Cheerios, pay our electric bills, and fold the laundry that’s been sitting in the dryer all week. Without the Old Testament, we wouldn’t know that no detail is too small for our God to care about.3. It Teaches Us How to Praise GodWhen most Christians think of praise, they think of si

1. Pray Nothing is hidden from the Lord and He knows how we are feeling before a word is uttered on our lips or before our thoughts are turned towards Him (Psalm 139:4). If we want God to speak to us and we are honestly seeking Him with our whole heart (Jeremiah 29:13), He will meet us.He is our loving heavenly Father and we can come before Him hon

Now, let’s pivot to the issue of vaccination.Scientific Facts About Vaccination Kanye West’s claim that vaccines paralyze children is simply without basis in scientific fact. I’m sure you’ve also heard claims that vaccines cause autism. That is simply untrue.In 1998, a researcher named Andrew Wakefield published a study that claimed the measles, mu

What Does the Bible Say about Music? In Scripture, we see that music is used for glorifying and worshipping God, telling of his great deeds, offering outlets for both lament and praise, and providing unity to God’s people. We also see that an appreciation of the songs recorded in the Bible provides a fuller understanding of a greater story: God cla

3. We Don’t Always Have to Prove That We Are RightI don’t know about you, but right about now I kind of wish Jesus would have just let the devil really see the power Jesus held. He could have made a powerful display of His deity and put the devil in his rightful place.But when we are faced with trials and temptations, we don’t always have to prove

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”7. Psalm 22:7-8“All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads. ‘He trusts in the Lord,’ they say, ‘let the Lord rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him.’”8. Psalm 22:16-18“Dogs surround me, a pack of villains encircles me; they pierce my hands and my feet. All my bones ar

God’s Forgiveness Reaches Up to Where We Are Peter’s sin was the product of his pride and stubborn will. Pride is that high place we live in when we perceive ourselves to be something that we are not. It can be very subtle and we must be careful not to allow this attitude to overtake us.The Bible says that a man should beware when he thinks he is s

Now, O my God, let your eyes be open and your ears attentive to the prayer of this place (2 Chronicles 6:40)Our Father wants us to pray. He loves when we come to humbly with our requests. He’s a good God who loves to bless his children, and he really and truly does respond to our prayers of faith.Charles Spurgeon said:My heart has no deeper convict

Satan Uses Scripture to Cause Confusion “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?” Those were the serpent’s famous words to Eve in Genesis 3:1.“We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden,” she replied, “But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will