As ministers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and church leaders wherever God has planted us, we can learn much about church leadership from the life of Ezra in the Old Testament. Ezra was a priest, a scribe, and an expert in the law to the Jewish community in Jerusalem, exiles from Babylonian captivity, 458 […]
“Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name” (Psalm 100:4). I knock on the front door of a good friend. She is expecting me. In just a moment, she flings the door open, smiling ear to ear, gives me a big hug, and ushers me […]
No doubt, we are living in the last days. Should I be concerned about peace and provision as it pertains to my heart and needs, or is God only concerned with the bigger picture in this world? It is not my fault the nations are a mess and there’s chaos and sin everywhere I look. […]
There is a good chance you won’t read this if you have had a problem keeping a vow, a pledge, or a promise you’ve made. You know you’ve messed up, and you’ve already justified yourself right out of that responsibility, so you would rather not rehash that debate in your head. The truth is we […]
God is a healer, and He still heals today. Do we always see evidence of His healing power on earth? No, we don’t. Nevertheless, He heals His children every single day. “Praise the Lord, my soul…who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases” (Psalm 103:1, 3). Mark chapter nine records the story of […]
The face of the traditional American church is changing, and it must in order to reach the lost. Many older Americans love their traditional church, but those churches are getting harder to find because so many are either in hospice care or the cemetery. I am a born again believer in Jesus Christ; therefore, that […]
“I can’t read the Bible through in a year!” So you don’t read the Bible at all. That’s not good. Maybe reading the Bible through from cover to cover takes longer than a year for you, and that’s totally fine. There’s no written or unwritten law that says you must follow a certain Bible reading […]
Go ahead. Laugh out loud! These days, we probably text LOL more often than we actually do what it says. Think about it. Especially if you have children or grandchildren in your family or neighborhood, that in itself should create the stage for a lot of laughter (another LOL). What about playing peekaboo with your […]
There is a scene in the movie, The Passion of the Christ, where Mary the mother of Jesus takes white towels and wipes up Jesus’ blood from the floor following a beating before His crucifixion. That one act forever left its impression in my heart. I remember crying and thinking, “Oh, that precious blood! One […]
Jesus has no problem walking through walls (Luke 24:36). God has been known to divide a wall to set His people free (Exodus 14:29). When the situation warrants it, He will push walls down into the ground (Joshua 6:20). God still infiltrates, divides, and pulls down walls today—especially those we build up in our hearts […]