From the Blog
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This Is Your Legacy
When we pray, “God, this is Your legacy” we are recognizing that we are in fact His legacy. As believers we are the present day legacy of the Gospel. Generations of believers are responsible for your sitting here listening to God’s Word today. We are God’s legacy and His faithful family passing this on to future generations.
In the book of Ephesians, the apostle Paul prayed that God would reveal His gifts through the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in this age and the age to come. God gives us gifts to share through the revelation of His Spirit. -
These Are Your Kids
Some of our natural parenting methods might work from time to time, but we often feel like we fall short in parenting. We feel like we are just getting through it and basically surviving. But God desires to shoulder this with us and empower us to be faithful parents. “God, these are your kids!”
In the book of Ephesians, Paul instructed children and parents to completely focus their relationships on the Lord. We can completely focus our parenting relationship on the Lord. -
This Is Your Marriage
The instruction to the husband to love his wife and to the wife to respect her husband are simple in number, but they don’t feel simple in practice. But God does not merely give you His Word of instruction, but also the will and power to follow them. In the book of Ephesians, the apostle…
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This Is Your Family
The definition of marriage and family are being deconstructed and redefined. For those who care about God’s plan for the family, these are troubling statistics and trends. If you’re married with kids, you’re probably worried about your kids’ future. If you’re divorced and a single parent, you don’t want your family to be another statistic. If you’re single, especially if you’re a single woman, and you want to get married, you’re starting to panic that it won’t ever happen because of the decline of available, marriageable men. How can these statistics and trends be reversed? One heart and one family at a time.
In the book of Ephesians, the apostle Paul prayed that believers would experience God’s blessing on the family. We can experience God’s blessing on our families. -
Grace Matters
Have you noticed how grace-less our culture has become? The so-called “social graces” that used to guide our social interactions, like polite speech, good manners, etiquette, deportment, appropriate dress, have faded into a rude, rough and selfish disregard of others. Add to our declining social graces the political turmoil, the pandemic, the racial unrest, and other problems continuously broadcast to us 24/7 and you have the makings of the graceless and divided country we see today.
How can we change? How can we understand how much “grace matters” to God and how much it matters to how we should live as believers? First, we must understand that in the Bible, grace takes on an even deeper spiritual meaning than just good manners. In the apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he reminded them how much God’s grace mattered to their salvation. We can understand how much God’s grace matters to our salvation. -
Fatherhood Matters
It has been said, “As the father goes so goes the family and as the family goes so goes the nation.” What the family really needs are fathers who model their lives around God’s Word – men of God who display Christ-like fatherhood.
In the apostle Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians, he described his approach with them and how it was like a father with his own children. We can understand the importance of this approach of being Christ-like fathers to our children. -
Relationships Matter
Are you overwhelmed by the hatred and violence in our country these days? Don’t you wish we could all just get along? For some of you, the disunity is more than a news report or a social media post. It’s starting to affect your relationship with your neighbors, your co-workers, maybe even your relationship with your family and friends. Some of you have taken sides and made your positions known. Others of you are afraid to say anything, but even your silence is judged. Everyone has a different perspective on the root problems and the solutions. Everyone thinks they’re right and the others are wrong. How can we find reconciliation and peace again?
Where is God in all of this? Do our broken relationships with one another matter to Him? And if they do, how can we understand how much relationships matter to God?
In the apostle Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, he sought to make them understand how being reconciled to God through Christ Jesus affected all of their relationships. We can understand how being reconciled to God through Christ Jesus affects our relationships. -
Purpose Matters
What matters most begins with deciding whether Christ will be your Master, your Lord. Then second, learning what mission, what purpose, Christ has for your life. Then, who you choose as your mate or who you choose to fellowship with should line up with the first two.
In the apostle Paul’s second letter to Timothy, he charged Timothy to fulfill God’s purpose for him in Christ Jesus. We can fulfill God's purpose for us in Christ Jesus. -
Faith Matters
As we begin to return to life outside our homes, what have you learned about what really matters to you? Having so many things closed and isolated from school mates, neighbors, church attendance, even family… what have you missed the most? And have you considered whether everything in your formerly busy life should be just added back willy-nilly? Or should we carefully consider how we order up our lives going forward, asking what really matters?
In Paul’s letter to the Philippians, he challenged them to follow his conviction that faith in Jesus Christ is what really matters above all other things in life. We can choose to see our faith in Jesus Christ as what really matters most in our lives. -
Overwhelmed by Addiction
So many of us struggle with forms of addiction that we begin to believe the lies we’ve heard or formulated ourselves. Lies like “I don’t really have a problem, its just not that big of a deal, I can’t stop, or I can quit anytime I want, its not hurt anybody else, look … its just the way I am, or God made me this way, or I deserve this (I’m entitled to this).” We make excuses or believe lies, but don’t we truly know that we are in bondage to something, that we have become slaves to this substance or behavior.
If we can see it for what it is then we can begin to address the issue God’s way. You see, we are helpless to overcome our addictions but in Christ we are not hopeless. Where we are weak, God is strong.
In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, he reminded believers that as members of the body of Christ they no longer had to be overwhelmed by addictions. In Christ, we no longer have to be overwhelmed by addictions.