“For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” Romans 15:4 (NIV) Lets’ not be too quick to despair because the world seems to be darkening. Into a seemingly dark and despairing time, God choose to send his Son and offer salvation not only to those in that time—but to us as well. In the mid...  Read More

“For it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy."” 1 Peter 1:16 (NIV) God is holy. The result of our sin is that our relationship with him is broken. God can’t look at sin or have it in his presence. He loves us, but he can’t embrace us as long as we embrace sin. We deserve to be punished by God for our rebellion. We have a problem that we cannot, on our own, make right.I watched the TV in horror ...  Read More

“Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”” Mark 12:29-31                                                                                                             ...  Read More

“Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain.” Psalms 127:1 No one could have guessed that years ago the world trade center would disappear from the New York Skyline. We seem to be threatened at every hand with impermanence. Things that we thought would last don’t. Job security is constantly threatened—if not from layoffs and shutdowns, then from disaster or drought.George Boschke...  Read More

Deuteronomy 8:3 says, “He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.”        Sometimes we Christians look more like goats than sheep, at least as far as our eating habits are concerned—especially regarding spiritual food....  Read More

Matthew 5:3 says, “God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.”         Blessed are the underprivileged, the downcast, and the have-nots. Blessed are the marginalized—those who know they are spiritually bankrupt. There is no particular virtue in poverty; but there is virtue in knowing your poverty.Of course, the world has a different standard...  Read More

“I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God’s law with all my heart. But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind…” Romans 7:21-23a (NLT)           Talking to Christians, one would think that our problem with sin is simply a discipline problem. Maybe we should try harder. Many of us get caught up in a...  Read More

“So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.” Romans 6:11 (NLT) The purpose behind Satan’s realm is to ruin the Christian’s life and therefore his testimony. Our faith conquers by clinging to eternal realities. So what about when a Christian does not live this victory?When you become a Christian, Paul says ‘you are dead to sin and al...  Read More

“The Lord now chose seventy-two other disciples and sent them ahead in pairs to all the towns and places he planned to visit.” Luke 10:1 (NLT) Jesus trained the disciples with a show and tell model; or more accurately—a tell and show model. He went out and proclaimed the good news, healed the sick, cast out demons, and raised the dead—all while his disciples watched.Jesus then sent out first the t...  Read More

“No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame” Psalms 25:3 (NIV) Guilt comes from doing wrong things; shame comes from a sense of something’s wrong with us. Guilt says “I have done something wrong.” Shame says, “There is something wrong with me”.We deal with our shame by creating a facade. It is an image that we project to everyone around us. It is a lie. We want people to believe that we...  Read More

“This is what God told us: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life, but whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” 1 John 5:11-12 (NCV)           It is not uncommon for believers of Christ to struggle with thoughts like, “maybe I’m just not good enough to be a Christian”, or “nothing really happened to me when I gave my life to Jesus,...  Read More

“He replied, "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it will obey you.’” Luke 17:6 Saving Faith needs to grow in us. But not in the way a seed grows to maturity. Faith must take root in our hearts—we must grow in our ability to let faith really grab us. It is never a question of how large or how mature our faith; i...  Read More