Your 100 Day Prayer: Day 40 – Stress-free
by TJ Bates Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall. -Psalm 55:22 How often have you heard someone say they "feel stressed," or that they are "anxious" because the world seems to be falling apart and they feel helpless to do anything about it. Here's a simple solution: "So dump it, toss it off, get rid of it as soon as possible! Cast it off your shoulders, and let God do the caring
Your 100 Day Prayer: Day 33 – The Hiding Place
by TJ Bates You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance. -Psalm 32:7 I have been quoting only a portion of Pastor John's comments each day. Today, I am going to quote everything he says about this particular passage. I feel it is too important to leave out any portion of it: It was Corrie ten Boom who titled her amazing biography after this phrase in Psalm 32. In The Hiding Place, she
Your 100 Day Prayer: Day 31 – Love
A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. -John 13:34 I just love LOVE! Don't you? Don't you LOVE that dress or LOVE that movie or LOVE what I'm saying? In the present day, "love" is a word that is overused and often has no meaning. However, Jesus is not using the word love carelessly as we do. He wants us to truly love one another—to be a conduit of
Love One Another: A Human Impossibility Today?
The Bible is full of references to the subject of love in its connection with faith, so that we receive the correct impression that true love is in direct relation to its Author, God himself. Without God’s nearness true love is not possible, and the greater the distance from him the greater the level of distortion of that love. In the Chapter 13 of the Gospel of John, as well as in Chapter 13 of Paul’s letter to the Corinthian church,
From the Pastor: Pentecost – Faith, Evangelism, and the Holy Spirit
Paradoxically faith, like love, increases the more it’s given away. Rather than waiting for it to reach a peak high enough to communicate to others (as most believers do), it grows and expands as we do so from the very beginning. Also, once the nature of true faith becomes clear, the character of true evangelism comes to light as well. What the church goes to such great lengths to reinterpret or avoid altogether, and what so many Christians dread so
From the Pastor: Trust in the Lord
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. -Proverbs 3:5–6 The above is one of my favorite passages. Life would be much easier and more positive if we could do what it says we should. The advice for us, as well as the promise, is clear enough: Have complete trust in God’s faithfulness, never depend upon our own perceptions and understanding
God Will Never Forsake You
We are currently going through the letter of 2 Peter and in it Peter teaches us how to discern between false preachers and teaching. Additionally, he wants to remind us constantly of the Good News and for us to remember that God is true, reliable, and forever. Why do we need reminders? We need to be reminded of the Gospel daily, weekly, and monthly—every chance we get for our entire lives. And an important way to do that is to be in
