Log In
Log In

Blog1 Left Sidebar

14
Sep 2023

Psalm 119:11 (ESV) “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” Coaches constantly warn their players not to let the other team get inside their heads.  The other team wants to trash-talk and intimidate and sow doubt about your abilities and chances of winning the game.  There are all kinds of ways things can “get inside your head” as a Christian.  Constant attention to the wrong messages via all the things you watch, people you listen to (drama), or messages you read can keep......

Read More


16
Aug 2023

You and I speak English, read English, and write in English.  Yet we all had different teachers growing up. We each know addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Yet we all had different teachers along the way.  For math and reading, it really doesn’t matter who teaches them.  After all, math has nothing to do with my sixth grade teacher, Mr. Card.   And English doesn’t necessitate knowing my fourth grade teacher Miss. Bonn.  But if you want to know God, and know how to have life and live life then it is of......

Read More


16
Aug 2023

My daughter and I are doing a 500 piece puzzle together. There are 4 pieces that have two straight edges (so far we have found only 3). There are many more that have one straight edge.  The vast majority have no straight edges at all. Every piece requires other pieces and all 500 need the other 499 to reveal the picture promised on the cover of the box. The church is a gathering of many different pieces. As disciples, Christians need each other to see the big picture of what Jesus intends......

Read More


16
Aug 2023

Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons, in an article posted by CNN on Thursday, January 24, 2019, declared that “Christianity’s future looks more like Lady Gaga than Mike Pence.” At stake, in Graves-Fitzsimmons’ mind, was which Christian self-identity will win out in the end. It is no wonder that, in our current culture, Christianity is not defined by God’s word, but by man’s self-identification and popular opinion. This is not new to those who know a little about the history of Christianity. The massive influence of Christianity on western civilization has led many seeking power or......

Read More


05
May 2020

Jeremiah 29:32 “. . . therefore thus says the LORD: Behold, I will punish Shemaiah of Nehelam and his descendants. He shall not have anyone living among this people, and he shall not see the good that I will do to my people, declares the LORD, for he has spoken rebellion against the LORD.’ ” Shemaiah stirred up trouble against Jeremiah.  He called for him to be shut up and even locked up because of his prophecy of a long captivity.  As a result, Shemaiah and his family were cursed.  His line would end. ......

Read More


24
Apr 2020

In Jeremiah 32, the Lord instructs the prophet to buy a field. The timing is important because the economy didn’t look good and the prospects for Israel didn’t look good. It was the “tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar.” The armies of Babylon had besieged Jerusalem. All of life was in shambles and there was no end to the troubles in sight.  The purchase was to be done as a redemption of family land.  How it was lost by his uncle and how it......

Read More


08
Jan 2019
Pig Pile!

As boys, my brothers and I, along with the other boys in the neighborhood, played “pig pile”. The rule of the game was simple: whoever had the ball would get tackled and then everyone else would pile on. The boy at the bottom could not move and breathing was hard. The weight of 3, 4, or 5 others prevented it. Immobility and difficulty breathing were the consequences of being the guy with the ball. Paul wrote to the Romans (Romans 5:20) that the law came in to “increase the trespass.” The law......

Read More


11
May 2018

What if all God had to offer was a box of tissues? You know, like that commercial where the man sits out in the street and people come and bear their soul only to be sent away with a tissue and a hug. That’s not much help is it? God is much more serious than a box of tissues. He is more than a hug and a wave goodbye. He is the God who can actually do something about our troubled lives. That’s great news, because, the truth be told, we are......

Read More