Have you recently given any consideration to what brings you joy or more complete joy? Perhaps this question makes you think of a new spouse, the birth of a child, acceptance into the college of your dreams, a job promotion, an astronomical amount of money that was not anticipated; the list is inexhaustible. Every genuine believer that has been gripped by God’s goodness and grace, however, knows the place of Jesus’s joy in our hearts!! Furthermore, the echo chamber of evangelical deduction decidedly declares the Lord Jesus’s gift of salvation gives us joy down deep in our souls. He is indeed the center of our joy!
Read MoreLast week, I concluded our blog with a summary statement which I hoped would help us submit our heart to our Lord’s heart of Holy living. As a review, Jesus calls us to be: fixed in a lifestyle that is faithful and focused on pleasing God and Free from hypocrisy, full of the Spirit, fixed in truth, and full of love, grace, wisdom and discernment…
Read MoreRecently I received a phone message from my eye doctor aka ophthalmologist reminding me of my annual check up. Every time I go to my eye appointment, I see that something is wrong (no pun intended) with my eyes. I have been diagnosed with an eye deficiency called nearsightedness which means that with your natural uncorrected vision, you can see closer or “nearer” but objects further away become blurry. Nearsightedness or myopia is a refractive defect of the eye lens in which an image is formed in front of the retina not on it. The way I mitigate my myopic malady is through contact lenses. I wear one contact lens in my left eye to correct for my nearsightedness and with the other eye I read things up close. So one eye is assisted in focusing on what is distant and the other eye focuses on what is close…
Read MoreWhen we are occasionally occupied with various observances on the Christian calendar such as Advent, Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving, they are each connected to certain passages in Scripture. As it pertains to Advent and Christmas, Isaiah 9:6 is attached to the season and abundantly applied to cards and posters. Because of our celebration of Christmas this week, I have chosen the word “given” captured in Isaiah 9:6 for today’s discussion.
Read MoreIn last week’s blog we initiated a discussion regarding the Provocateur's (Satan’s) methods used to provoke Adam and Eve to sin in the Garden of Eden. The closing statement turned our thoughts to the tempter’s tactics and that we must trust the truth in order to thwart all his tactics:
When the Provocateur purposes to park in your mind and heart make a power move and point him to truth of Gods word. Remember it is written, it is written and it is written!
As we continue our Christmas blog series, I invite you to direct your consideration toward a titanic trespass that threw the whole human race in brokenness and failure. This was Adam and Eve’s disobedience to God’s command in the Garden of Eden. But their fall and failure forwarded a faithful Redeemer that would rescue us from our rebellion and remove us from “Reprobate Road.”
Read More
I hope and pray that you enjoyed an exemplary and easy-going Thanksgiving that turned your attention toward giving gratitude to God. Now we turn from the turkey to focus on God’s Gift to mankind. For the month of December, I am directed to touch on the true meaning for the season because I want you to know (like I know) the real meaning of Christmas: it’s all about Jesus!
Light of the world
You stepped down into darkness
Opened my eyes, Let me see
Beauty that made this heart adore You
Hope of a life spent with you
The opening of today’s blog lifts us with a lovely and wonderful song of worship. It has marvelously ministered to millions of worshipers since its release on December 24, 2001. It reminds us that our Lord Jesus declared that He is the light of the world:
“I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” John 8:12c (KJV, emphasis added)
This coming Thursday, countless number of families in the United States of America will be observing the national holiday of Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving patterns itself after a 1621 mutual harvest feast between English colonists (also known as Pilgrims) of Plymouth and the Wampanoag people. In the United States, Thanksgiving is a holiday heaven of tradition, often including a meal composed of a compilation of turkey, bread stuffing, potatoes, cranberries, and pumpkin pie. My cultural pallet will translate into collards, yams, macaroni and cheese, honey-baked ham, cornbread, string beans, mash potatoes and turkey. Now let’s transition from “soul food” to faith-food for the soul.
Read MoreWhen you think about the word stability what comes to your mind? Maybe you are a fiscally focused person so you set things in place that you believe that will reward you with financial stability. If you regularly visit your relationships it is most likely that you intentionally invest in those relationships for stability. I believe that stability is an essential element in a relationship because stability provides legitimacy and longevity in sound relationships.
Read More