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Before attempting to serve God, we must first know whose ministry it is. By this I mean we must examine our motive for service. We must ask the question, am I doing this service for personal recognition, that people might say, "What a devoted servant he (she) is!" or am I serving because God has called me to serve Him in some way? The call of God is essentially expressive of His nature; service is the outcome of what is fitted to my nature. Service becomes a snare if it is based on self-will....
In each article, I have been walking through the Lord's Prayer phrase by phrase. Rather than a rote prayer, the Lord's Prayer is an outline of how we can learn how to pray, on our own, following the example of Jesus Christ. Matthew 6:12 directs us to our need for forgiveness and our need to forgive others, "Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors." Prayer flows out of a relationship with our Father in heaven. This relationship has been established because of Jesus Christ, and...
"After these things Jesus showed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias, and he showed himself this way" John 21:1. We are in the time between Easter and Pentecost (Acts 2). Jesus is, as it were, making his rounds. For 40 days, Jesus will appear, interact with individuals and then be on his way. One of the most famous post resurrection appearances is his appearance to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. (Luke 24:13-32). Often it is difficult for those who encounter the...
Easter is the Christian holiday celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. After Christ died on the cross, His body was placed in a sepulcher, where it remained, separated from His spirit, until His Resurrection, when His spirit and His body were reunited. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints affirm and testify that Jesus Christ was resurrected and lives today with a glorified and perfected body of flesh and bone. Following His Resurrection, Jesus appeared first to Mary Magdalene...
From the Bible in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4, the apostle Paul writes, “Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to Scripture, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to Scripture.” Looking closer at this Scripture, we...
...have mercy on us and on the whole world" (Divine Mercy Chaplet). Genesis, Fall of Man: God commanded Adam and Eve not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil but the serpent/Satan deceived Eve who ate, then gave some to Adam who ate, disobeying God, causing Original Sin, which we inherited, breaking the God/human relationship, closing heaven for millennia. AD 30-33 Divine Mercy Chronology: Jesus said, "Amen, amen,...Except you eat [my] flesh...you shall not have life in you. He that...
Dear Mary of Magdala, I hear your voice sometimes, softly, almost like a whisper in a dream. Straining to hear you I close my eyes, try to block out all the other voices that want to tell me you're just a whore, therefore easily dismissed. Whore or not, you were there at the cross, when so many others fled. You were there in the garden seeking your teacher and friend. You were there in the Upper Room, I am sure of it, praying, united with the other women, the disciples, and with his mother, who...
One of the most popular movies in the last several decades is “The Shawshank Redemption.” For those who have not seen it, the basic plot is about a man named Andy who has been wrongly convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. However, after a number of years, he is able to escape. The main focus is mostly between ostensible criminal Andy and the Warden, who presents himself as a godly man. The dichotomy here is that each man’s true actions are the opposite of what they are purported to be outwardly. The Warden, for example, is anyth...
After a couple of years of uncertain times due to COVID-19, we now find our lives hit with new uncertainty due to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. We are again undergoing an historic event that will alter the world we know going forward both in the immediate future and potentially for generations to come. The questions continue to mount: Is this the start of World War 3? Will the United States be drug into war yet again on another continent? Will this escalate into a nuclear conflict? What should our involvement be? Will energy prices cause...
Why is the local church so important to believers in Christ? Can't I stay home and listen to a sermon, pray by myself or go outside and worship through the beauty of nature? Yes, in fact, you can, but that is not church. When you have this mindset, you minimize the importance of what the local church stands for. It is not merely a place to go to sing songs and listen to a sermon; it is the community of believers. Church is not a building; it is the body of Christ. I'm a car guy, so when I'm arou...
“And why do you call me Master, Master and do not the things that I say? Whoever comes to me, and hears my sayings and does them, I will show you to whom he is like.” Luke 6:46- 47. Making confession in Messiah as the Master and the only begotten Son of the Father is the easiest part of the journey. Holding onto that confession without succumbing to deception and seducing teachings is the challenge for all in their life’s journey. How you run the race/journey is what determines if you enter into the eternal shabbot. Our faith picture begin...
To wear a mask or not to wear a mask, that is the question. Based on the title and the question you might think that I am going to write about the issue we have been dealing with since Spring of 2020. But this article is not about the mask mandates or the ever-changing rules by our government officials or the science of whether wearing a paper or cloth mask is effective in stopping an airborne virus. This article deals with people wearing different type of masks as they walk through this life....
I told this story many, many moons ago but it is so profound and stirring I must tell it again, best as I remember. If I thought I was going to Alaska again just to cut big timber, I was wrong. The good book sez “many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” I had the habit of visiting the different small churches at the logg’n camps or villages that I could drive or walk to. I wasn’t into denominational idolatry. I like what John Wesley said, “does thou love and fear God? I extend thee the hand of fello...
When we ask ourselves this question, we must look for the answer in the light of the Biblical definition of seeking, as described in Deuteronomy 4:29: “But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find Him if you seek Him with your whole heart and your whole soul.” We have become so commercialized that we must ask ourselves this question: “Do I truly seek Him, or am I instead seeking a cleaned up version of myself that is filled with the Holy Spirit? Do I find myself, like the man described in Luke 9:59, saying, “I will follow...
In his book, "Praying the Lord's Prayer," author Elmer Towns tells the story of a salesman who attended one of his Bible classes. The salesman worked in the appliance section of the local department store and was known for always wearing a straw hat. Everyone simply knew this man as the tall man wearing the straw hat. Most people assumed he always wore the hat because he was bald but that's not why he wore the hat. The man in the straw hat loved to talk to people and was a very good salesman....
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran pastor in Nazi Germany, was a staunch critic of Hitler and a resistor of Hitler's euthanasia program and genocidal persecution of the Jews. In April 1943, he was arrested by the Gestapo and imprisoned at Tegel prison in Berlin for a year and a half. He was then transferred to the Flossenburg concentration camp. On April 4, 1945, the diaries of Admiral William Canaris, head of the Abwehr, were discovered. In a rage after reading them, Hitler ordered that the Abwehr...
We should care for the earth, be wise stewards over it and preserve it for future generations. And we are to love and care for one another. We are to build families and be sealed in holy temples. We are to build the Church and kingdom of God upon the earth. We are to prepare for our own divine destiny-glory, immortality and eternal lives. These supernal blessings can all be ours, through our faithfulness. Your body is a magnificent creation of God. The marvel of our physical bodies is often...
“Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” (1 Corinthians 13:12) The Message paraphrases that verse this way – “We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!” My wife and I recently watched a documentary on the life of Fanny...
Do we love with mere sentimentality repeating words such as "I love you," saying to a person in need "I wish you well," or listening to or reading God's Holy Word all without further action? Apostle John said, "Children, let us love not in word or speech but in deed and in truth" (1 John 3:11-[18]). "For God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting" (John 3:1-[16]-21). By believing in Jesus, we act upon...
At this time of year, when daylight is in short supply, I am reminded of the restorative blessing of darkness. My chickens first alerted me to the necessity of the dark. As daylight fades in the fall, so does their egg production. The sunlight signals their bodies to produce. Darkness gives them much needed rest for their little bodies. For most of my life darkness has always meant something bad or scary. Unknown. Mysterious. Frightening. I slept with a nightlight growing up to keep "monsters"...
“In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.” John 1:4-5 There is an old analogy that goes as follows: Imagine a room with no windows or outside light coming in. In the middle of that room there is a thick curtain that, when drawn, allows no light through it. On one side, it is completely dark to the point where one cannot even see their own hand in front of their face. The other side is fully illuminated by the light of a bright candle. When the curtain is pul...
It seems like we are regularly bombarded with conflicting truth claims. From advertising (who makes the best truck/dishwasher/phone) to politics (which candidate or issue should we support) to sports to religion and other everyday conversations, we constantly have opportunities to evaluate what we believe is true. If you have had the opportunity to sit on a jury, you were involved in a process of trying to evaluate the truth of the case. Christmas is nearly here and is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. He was born a couple of...
"In the beginning..." You might be thinking the next words in this quote are: "...God created the heavens and the earth." But today we will be finishing the quote in the gospel of John. Often, when we read the Christmas story, we turn to Matthew or Luke. But I'd like to look at the birth of Christ through John's perspective in his gospel. Instead of looking at the story narratively, as Matthew and Luke do, we will be looking at it theologically. The first verse of John's gospel starts with the...
1 Corinthians 10:21 “You are not able to drink the cup of the Master and the cup of demons. You are not able to partake of the table of the Master and the table of demons.” Our journey takes us past two cups and two tables. We can choose one cup and one table. We can choose the Master’s cup and table or the demon’s cup and table. The righteous cup and table is uncluttered and has its start and finish in the word of Elohim; easy to discern because it will set you apart from the world. You may not choose from the Master’s table and the demons’ t...
The apostle Paul writes, "in everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you" (1 Thess. 5:18). As Christians celebrate Thanksgiving each year and enjoy time with loved ones, we hope they will continue to display the same kind of gratefulness to God for our many freedoms and blessings in the sincerity exemplified by our courageous forefathers. Every Thanksgiving season I sit down and write a list and then meditate about all the blessings I have been provided from...
