From last week: "And now these three remain: faith, HOPE, and love. (1 Corinthians 13:13). Humankind has always struggled with the plague of discouragement; it is one of Satan's favorite tools to prevent us from being effective Kingdom servants. Discouragement is a disease; a universal, repeating, contagious, circumstantial and deadly disease. Everyone has contracted this disease. Last week we cited [...]

"And now these three remain: faith, HOPE, and love." (1 Corinthians 13:13). Humankind has always struggled with the plague of discouragement; it is one of Satan's favorite tools to prevent us from obeying our Mathew 28 mandate. Scripture provides many examples of  leaders who faced discouragement with their circumstances. For example: Moses: Ministry Failure; John Mark: Rejection by a Christian leader; Nehemiah: The Wall; Peter: Denying the Lord; Joseph: Rejection by [...]

I graduated from Biola College a several years ago. Many years later it became Biola University. Primarily the change from College to University is specific to the percentage of professors who possess advanced degrees in their fields of study. One of the benefits of this level of professorial expertise is the creation of amazing fields [...]

Happy New Year! "Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 37:4.  Our Father longs for us to be so delighted in Him that we would want what He wants. With the passing of 2020, take the time to reflect on what God has done, and allow Him to [...]

Happy New Year to you and yours! In Psalm 125:3, the Lord states: "The scepter of wickedness shall not rest on the land allotted to the righteous, lest the righteous stretch out their hands to do wrong." The word scepter to which the psalmist refers is kingly power held by Israelites who do not serve God and His [...]

Merry Christmas to you and yours! Pastor Jim Denison of the Denison Forum recently wrote about the need for believers to use this Christmas season to Redeem the Tipping Point within our culture. He comments: "As with every other season of this year, the many tragedies and challenges of 2020 are affecting Christians. But there is an opportunity in [...]

I was thinking the other day about Mary, the mother of Jesus, and her unusual pregnancy. In spite of the personal and cultural challenges her specific pregnancy provided, with great courage and faith she chose to believe that the child within her body was the long awaited Messiah. She literally carried the "Good News" concerning the Messiah [...]

Romans 12:10 - 21 was written during very dark days for followers of Jesus Christ. It was written to help believers navigate the anti-Christian waters of first century Rome. It provided a powerful recipe for Christian living. In many ways our days are just as dark as an anti-Christian sentiment grows. I would encourage you to read this [...]

I pray you had a wonderful Thanksgiving event with family and friends! Thanksgiving is an odd holiday for secular Americans. When asked what Thanksgiving means to them personally, Americans rank "to be thankful" behind "to spend time with the family." Our families are tangible, and we enjoy sharing a generic feeling of gratitude with them. However, [...]

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your families. Jesus certainly forewarned us in John 16:33 that, "In this world we WILL have troubles...but remember, I have overcome the world." In 1 Kings 19 we read the account of the Prophet Elijah on the run for his life. Queen Jezebel is after him for what happened in chapter 18. As a result, he ends [...]