Sorted by date Results 151 - 175 of 421
As we seek to follow Jesus Christ and walk the path of discipleship, line upon line, the day will come that we will experience that unimaginable gift of receiving a fullness of joy. As we nurture and prepare our children, we allow for their agency, we love them with all our heart, we teach them God's commandments and His gift of repentance, and we never, ever, give up on them. After all, isn't this the Lord's way with each of us? Young men and young women, as you grow older, making fun of...
In his book “Ordinary Church”, Joseph S. Beach has a section titled “The Ordinary Pastor of an Ordinary Church.” When you have gone through the process of “Church shopping,” one of the first things you probably considered was the Pastor. The first point regarding Pastors that Mr. Beach makes has to do with what Pastors are. They, first and foremost, are human beings, folks trying to make their way through life just like you. Secondly, your Pastor is also a fellow “regular” Christian (no super Christian), someone trying to follow Christ j...
Because a spirit cannot die without a body, the Word of God humbly and obediently took on flesh from the Blessed Virgin Mary as Jesus, Son of God, to be the perfect sacrifice meriting our redemption from the slavery of sin. Amazingly, the Word of God who is the summation of the entire revelation of God in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 1:20) offers us sacrificial, merciful love because of our sins so by cooperating, we can spend eternity with Him. In the Old Testament, God commanded the Israelites...
This is Holy Week for Christ-followers. The time when we intentionally contemplate the events and attitudes which lead up to the crucifixion. It is a challenging week, focusing on all the moments where Jesus offers life and freedom, and those in power--the political and religious elite--try to find ways to silence him, kill him. At first glance, the crucifixion seems to show how those in power always win--they seemingly succeed in silencing the voices longing for healing, for wholeness, for rest...
Prompted by a friend to explain his beliefs, Thomas Jefferson cut out of his Bible, among many other things, all of Christ’s miracles, and in re-making his own version of the Scriptures, retained Jesus’ crucifixion while ending the text with His burial, yet not the resurrection. Christ does not ask us to believe only what is comfortable for us and to discard anything that isn’t. Were that an option, most all people would likely create an ever widening doorway of verses to be taken out. Our sinful flesh seeks its own comfort, and the light...
Lilies and Sparrows... That most likely means nothing to you right now, but it will soon. I've been using the phrase "lilies and sparrows" for years now to encourage myself and my wife. Whenever hardship comes up, I say this to myself. To explain why, I encourage you to read Jesus' words in Matthew 6:25-31 and 10:29-31. Are we not worth more than the lilies and sparrows Jesus mentions in Matthew? Absolutely we are! We have been made in the image of God! Even the language used in the creation...
One provided way to life’s journey and prize that can begin right now is the life without regret/sin. “Everyone doing sin also does lawlessness and sin is lawlessness” 1 John 3:4. That is a life of regret. Getting cleansed of self-life and letting that cleansing continue until you are free to do His will equals a life of no regrets. This information is more valuable than life itself. Self-will is so much that hinders us from set-apartness. Yeshua’s life of power is “not my will but thy will be done,” His meat was to do the Father’s wi...
Do you desire more faith? We can have it by developing a loving relationship with our Lord. It is a personal connection with someone of good character that causes us to have faith. Well, our heavenly Father has perfect character and He already loves us. Does it not make sense to exercise the "measure of faith" that we already have and let it grow? Faith, like a muscle, grows when it is exercised. As faith grows, the more of God's love we receive. This is expressed in one sentence in Galatians...
Many, many moons ago winter always had some time to hunt the big cats. There were always some guys who would show up at the old place on the Summit to give chase. My dear wife, who in 53 years never shirked her responsibilities, was up at 4:30. Known as "the queen of hospitality" she was gett'n ready to feed the crew pancakes and eggs. And for a perfect morning she had some soothing Christian music on the stereo. One of the Mennonite men came down the stairs say'n "even pleasant music to get up...
Having spent 40 years attending church, I was offended when a Christian friend announced she was a "Born Again Christian." I brought her to tears arguing that "Born Again Christians" were simply snobs that thought they were better than other Christians. This dear friend is one of the primary reasons I am a "Born Again Christian" today. When Nicodemus questioned Jesus as to how someone who had already been born from the womb could do so again, Jesus explained the first was a physical birth, the...
I find great encouragement from the Lord's Prayer to give shape to my own prayers. Rather than just a rote prayer, Jesus gave us the Lord's Prayer as an outline to teach us how we should pray. When we pray through the Lord's Prayer, phrase by phrase, we understand how God is leading us to pray. The opening phrase, "Our Father in heaven" is a powerful reminder and truth of the personal access we have to God through our prayers. During the Apollo space missions to the moon, there were long, uncomf...
"If my people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land," 2 Chronicles 7:14. Repentance is a nasty business. An election has brought us a new president and a new administration. The last four years have been quite unsettling. Some of it the result of the former president's behavior and some of it the behavior of his opposition. The Wall Street Journal, while...
God makes and keeps His covenants. The scriptures record, preserve and reveal God's covenantal nature. God covenanted with our ancestors Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He promised them property, posterity and prosperity (see Genesis 12, 15, and 17). He acted through mighty acts of wonder to save our ancestors from Egyptian bondage. At Mount Sinai He invited our ancestors, and by extension all of us, to covenant to be loyal to Him (see Exodus 20 and the Book of Deuteronomy). God's recorded...
If you’re like me, you are familiar with the words of the first and maybe second verse of many Christmas carols, but perhaps not-so-much with some of the later verses. One such example for me is the carol “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear.” The song is based on a poem written by Edmund Sears in 1849. The first verse is similar to many carols and at least for me is the most familiar: “It came upon the midnight clear, that glorious song of old, From angels bending near the earth to touch their harps of gold: “Peace on the earth, goodwill to men fr...
and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means, ‘God with us.’” Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23 The Perpetual Virginity of Mary is one of the Marian Dogmas of the Catholic Church. Dogmas are formalized truths from the apostles or sacred Tradition revealed by God to His Church and declared to be binding by the magisterium. Overshadowed by the Holy Spirit, the Blessed Virgin Mary took the Son of God into her womb while remaining a virgin, see Luke 1:26-[35]-56. “And the LORD said to me, ‘This gate shall remain shut; it shall not be opened, and no on...
I think I have both heard and used the word pandemic more in the last 10 months than in the previous almost 50 years of my life combined. Along with the word pandemic, many other previously rarely used words have become commonplace, such as r-naught, COVID, asymptomatic, social distancing and on and on. It’s been an unusual year. Along with these newly used words, I thought I would introduce another one: pan-Christmas. The prefix “pan” simply means “all.” So pan-Christmas would mean all-Christmas - all, as in, for everyone and everywher...
Throughout all human history, most all cultures have found themselves in times of turmoil, division and disarray. In some ways, we can arguably say that about our own society currently as we contend with a number of different issues. On the surface it can be, and is, overwhelming for many. So the overriding question is...what is to be done about it? It really all depends upon what...or in Whom...one places their trust. As of this reading, Christmas Eve/Day may have already passed. For many, it is but a day’s respite in a year fraught with a m...
"The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness doesn't extinguish the light." John 1:5 Common English Bible I grew up in a violent, alcoholic home. I remember dreading the holidays. More drinking. More fighting. My hand-made ornaments lying broken in the street as the tree was thrown out of the house. The literal darkening of the days was compounded by this other darkness. I think this was one of the reasons I needed the Advent season--the focus was on light. As an adult looking back, I...
1 Peter 1:23 “Having been born again - not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible – through the living Word of Elohim, which remains forever.” Two seed/word lines, one incorruptible, one provided way: a word – birth from the beginning. The Word/Torah of Elihim, an eternal truth, the same yesterday, today and forever. 1 Peter 1:25 “but the Word of Elohim remains forever.” And this is the Word, announced as the Good News to you.” The other seed line, corrupted by the evil one, is ever changing by the desires and self-life of man. Sold as...
The Scriptures frequently speak about the "Christian Walk" as a description of a believers' behavior. For example, we are told to walk as children of light, walk in truth, walk according to the Spirit and walk in love. Colossians 2:6 uses this expression to give us an important command, "Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him." The question we must ask is: What does it mean to "Walk in Christ?" Here the word in does not have a literal usage, like "the hammer is in...
Down Arizona way, near a place called Camp Verde, for several winters I hauled a load of log furniture to sell at Old Grumpy Dave's Auction. He rented the entire fairgrounds to sell western memorabilia and even mules and horses. It was a great place, I miss it. Anyway, while wait'n fer this here event to take place I was look'n for some midweek fellowship. Having overcome my denominational idolatry, the Spirit led me to a little ad in a local advertise. It sez something like "join us for...
I'm guessing that often we can fall into the category of having just enough knowledge to be misleading, or even dangerous. As Christians, it is possible, though we may have memorized some verses, to still overlook others. In so doing, we miss the big picture painted by Scripture. Homosexuality is a very difficult subject in today's society. Often we hear someone say, "You are being judgmental," or "they were born that way." Actually, considering the whole of Scripture, they are right in both...
Our country has gone through a very troubling year to say the least. The anticipation of the recent election defined as much of 2020 as has the coronavirus. Everything that has taken place this year has caused many sleepless nights and anxiety. A large part of the uncertainty hinged on the outcome of the recent election. The results of elections are also described in terms of who won or lost, or what issue won or lost. The elections end up being about sides, and what side ends up winning in the...
We are having quite a week. Tuesday the election, last Saturday Halloween. In both cases COVID has again proven quite disruptive. But then disruption is becoming the norm. But Halloween wasn't the only event of October 31st. Another quite disruptive event took place. On that date in 1517, Martin Luther a mendicant Augustinian monk and university professor posted on the Wittenberg Castle Door 95 thesis for debate. The church door was where you posted public announcements so as those citizens who...
President Russell M. Nelson issued the challenge to “think deeply and often about this key question: How do you hear Him?” He then promised, “When we seek to hear—truly hear—His Son, we will be guided to know what to do in any circumstance.” The scriptures preserve the precious words of God to His children. In the past His faithful saints heard Him and recorded His truths. Now in our day we can hear Him again as we read and ponder the scriptures, listen to and follow modern day prophets, and keep our spirits open to regular inspiration from hea...
