My Take

John 11:5 " Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus." Yes, this is an odd verse to quote from my devotions, but it reminds us of a great truth: God's love for does not change in the midst of a trial. Remember, Mary, Martha, & Lazarus were going through the great trial of their lives in this chapter. They may have been inclined to question God's love. BUT THE TRIAL ACTUALLY PROVES HIS GREAT LOVE! It shows us His love is not altered because we are facing a trial. The trial is always meant to grow our faith, strengthen are walk, to correct us or to guide us - but never is it meant to question His love for us.

I was thinking about how that Lord is the Groomsman and the church is the bride.     He calls us unto Himself.     He calls us to fellowship.     We get that primarily through daily walking with God and through attending church.   The Song of Solomon is beautiful book that illustrates not only what marriage between a man and a woman should be like – but also what the church should desire in meeting with Christ.     Each day may God help us to seek Him with passion and when our church meets – we would come with the zealous spirit to meet with Him there as well.     I look forward to seeing you all in church tomorrow so we can zealously pursue the Lord. Song of Solomon 2:10-13 10  My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.  11  For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone;  12  The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds...

Praise God for His mercy and grace upon America this election season.  We need to recognize that we have been blessed by the Almighty.  He has given us more time to enjoy our freedoms.  While our hope rests in the Lord always – we do thank Him for allowing us to enjoy our freedoms in our country into the near future – freedom to worship, freedom to assemble peaceably, freedom of speech, and the right to bear arms.     BUT NOW…   LET"S DO THE WORK!  With these freedoms come responsibilities.  We have asked God to give us the outcome we have received – but that same merciful God has a will for our lives that involves loving Him and serving Him faithfully.  If those who proclaim to be “born again” believers in this nation do not use these liberties we have been afforded to live for God and instead continue to use them for license to selfishness, greed, and pride – then this nation is doomed for we have already tested God...

Often, I hear complaints about what is going on in the world today and in churches.  People have become disillusioned with society and even with church.  They are mad at their government, upset with society with its wicked pop-culture, critical of churches, and always blame someone else for whatever woes have come there way.  We blame politicians for their corruption, the government for deceiving us, the schools for brainwashing the children, the church for not being exciting enough or having enough ministries and the pastor for not being deep enough/hard enough/soft enough/or inspiring enough or whatever criticism we have.  Then everyone seems to have a “disease,” a trauma, or a disability, giving themselves an excuse for what they do or why they allow sin in their own life.   As bad as all these things are, they are going to continue. The world will still be wicked and hate God as the Bible says.  When the world speaks well o...

We live in a generation that loves to interpret the Bible in a way that fits their lifestyle.  I have heard this a lot lately and even this week as I was talking to someone about the Lord when I was out running an errand.  They said: “I just think God has such a sense of humor and that Jesus is displaying his sense of humor throughout the Gospels.”  The notion being that Christ was a light hearted jovial Savior and wanted everyone to have a good time.  We often don't have a clear picture of who Christ was because we often only see what we want to see.   Even at Christmas time, we tend to place an overly glorious emphasis on it.  Certainly the angels proclaimed "Glory to God in the Highest," the shepherds came and worshipped that first night, and later - the wise men came from afar.  Other that those three instances the circumstances around the birth of Christ were at best mundane, often straining, and even terrifying.  Imagine, living in a da...

Living in a culture that is constantly worried about self-image and self promotion, we are all consciously or unconsciously working at making ourselves look better and even sound better. I think we all do want to be better versions of ourselves and make nominal or all out efforts to improve.   Many people (especially those who are trying to become famous or at least hope to score effortless income on the internet) are trying to make that image something even greater or tweak it to look or sound a little better. Often, in this effort, they are perceived in a way that is very unpopular in social media and then try to fix it. We have all heard of many being cancelled for saying what causes others to be upset. All but of few of these have come back and apologized for it with a statement such as: "The words that I used do not reflect who I am, what I believe, and what I stand for."    God says, NO - THAT IS NOT TRUE. YOU ARE LYING TO SAVE FACE AND FORTUNE! The product of your ...