Truth Inspires

Recently my wife was speaking to a young mother of five about her relationship to her children's father. The young woman had brought up the subject and my wife told her that as a Pastor's wife and Christian how she felt about getting right with God. She said, you really need to get married. The woman said she agreed and was indeed concerned about it. Then, point blank, and no doubt because of current world events and the anti-Christian cultural shift, she asked my wife, "Are we in the last days?" Brenna was able to share with her the love of Christ and how close we are to His return. People are ripe to hear the truth. They have questions and we have answers. Evangelism does not come easy to most people but if we pray for the Lord to use us in the special way that only He can then opportunities will arise for us to share our faith. All we need to do is listen to His voice and say, "Yes Lord. I will." Ray Comfort is one of the foremost evangelists of...

A lot can be said about why today's young people are leaving the church, why nearly 1 in 5 adults have no religious affiliation,* and why our churches are full of lifeless adults who like to attend services but rarely get involved in unplanned spontaneous Holy Spirit induced service. I have read the opinions, the books, and listened to the excuses over and over. But as I have told our church and my family time and time again, unless one has a living, vital, and always ready and obedient  relationship with Christ there will be no or very little Real Christian Life seen. God did not call us to be wall-flowers in the church building. He called us to love one another and to serve all who will allow it in the name of Christ. We are called to take the message of reconciliation to the world. We are called to fulfill the calling for which we were saved. We often think it was just heaven but that is only a byproduct, He called us to be enlisted in His army and to be His ambassadors of ...

Heron Pond in Winter I have been out of commission for a couple of weeks concerning this blog. My family and I went on a vacation to Southern Illinois where we experienced an adventure in the Lord that will be forever memorable. There are times like these that God gives us wherein reflections can teach us a lot about His forever presence and guidance. On Tuesday the 25th of September, we started a 6 mile hike toward a place called Heron Pond in the Shawnee National Forest. It is in this place that is normally swamp-like where cypress trees have grown in very large proportions. A floating dock allows visitors to walk throughout the pond and admire the beauty of God’s handiwork. However, the summer drought of 2012 had taken its toll on the area causing the dock to rest upon the bottom of the swamp at angles rather than flat. Nonetheless it was a beautiful sight. But the pond was only an afterthought of what happened on the way there... After about 5 miles we were sto...

I have spent a lot of time lately reviewing the teachings of Jesus concerning following Him and what it really means. I have always taught that to follow Christ meant to listen, wait, use discernment, and then always say Yes when called - no matter the purpose. 57 Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, "Lord, I will follow You wherever You go." 58 And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head." 59 Then He said to another, "Follow Me." But he said, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father." 60 Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God." 61 And another also said, "Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house." 62 But Jesus said to him, "No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the...

I will trust You!! Psalm 143:8   The toughest thing Christians struggle with is by far, “faith.” Faith to believe there is a God. Faith to trust that He knows who we are (He is personal). Faith to believe He is sovereignly in control of our lives. Faith to trust that He will follow through on His promises (that is, his promises are true and trustworthy). Faith to trust that he will do what we ask in accordance with His will. Faith to continuously trust Him even if the answer we received was not included in our request.   Faith to believe and accept that He knows what is best for us. Faith is part of the Christian’s growing process. If we are to be conformed to the image of Christ, Rom. 8:29, then the very word “conformed” must by proxy include process of transformation. The process God uses is the same at its root level for all, but the experience differs. I believe the difference in experience is directly related to the call that God places on each life. Aft...

“When trouble hits home things are a different story,” she told her friend as they stood staring at the aftermath of the mind-wrenching and gut-aching tornado that had just flattened their neighborhood. That same sentiment is expressed a thousand times a day in disaster-stricken and war-torn areas of the globe. It is easy for us to discuss our faith in God and His willingness to bring help and hope into our lives and to other people in times of peace. Why? Because the message is simple and it is attractive. But to the person or family who, in a moment, has lost all they ever worked for and in many cases, the life of a loved one, it is a different story. It’s an age old question that has bobbed up and down for millenniums, like a goose peering precipitously, cautiously over a fence row always appearing in times of distress and quietly vanishing in times of ease. Somehow, we cannot get a firm grasp on why he appears when disaster or loss strikes. The truth is he has never vanished. Lik...

Then He said to His disciples, "The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Matthew 9:37 (NKJV) I was thinking today about a couple of things I recently read, and while pondering them, I thought of the verse above. Today, as in all years past, God has had His remnant of obedient and believers who have never failed to take forth the gospel to the world of despair. The passage above follows with a request to pray for the Lord to bring forth laborers into His harvest (vs. 38). As a believer there have been many times I have felt like doing something for God and many others when the Lord requested I do something for Him. The difference in the two is the Lord was in one and I was in the other. God provided the laborers in the one, while I was the laborer in the other.  It is a simple principle that teaches listening, responding through prayer, and obeying Christ’s call will result in provision for His harvest. God always provides the needs for His missions. What God...

The times we live in are turbulent. No one would disagree. They are tough and for many they are overwhelming on many levels. The Christian has been given an arsenal to use in times like these. We have the Scripture, the Words of Jesus, and the Bible's many promises, ....all given to help succor the inner hope and peace that we need to face life each new day. It is this inner place of the soul that we need to feed with the living presence of God. This is the place we can run to when trials of any sort cross our path.  The Scripture reveals that many times Jesus went off by Himself away from the crowds. Although we are not told, on many of those occasions why, we can surmise it was to commune with the Father. When He was facing the biggest trial of his human life, the crucifixion, He gathered His disciples and He simply said to them, "Sit here while I go and pray over there." Matthew 26:36 (NKJV) Even as the Son of God, He knew there were times when He needed to seek th...

1 It is good to give thanks to the LORD,          And to sing praises to Your name, O Most High;   2 To declare Your lovingkindness in the morning,          And Your faithfulness every night, (Ps. 92:1-2). Faithfulness means to give praise to God when the heavens are as steel and the words do not roll easy from the tongue. We all have these days and find it very hard to bow down before the Lord. But for a moment, maybe we should consider if the shoes were on the other foot. How does God feel when He does not hear from us? How does He respond? 22 Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed,       Because His compassions fail not.        23 They are new every morning;       Great is Your faithfulness. (Lam. 3:22-23) Simple enough, His mercies are new every morning. Today I will give ...