It is God’s nature to give. One of the greatest deceptions of Satan is that God wants to steal from us. But God gives His one and only Son for us on a cross. Jesus gave up His own life so that He could give us forgiveness, his peace and presence through whatever situations we …
Recently I heard Larry Osborn speak about courage. Courage and wisdom need to be coupled together. Without wisdom, we have courage about the wrong things—things that don’t matter. Without courage, wisdom never acts or changes things for the better. Without courage, wisdom is restrained by fear. One of the other things that really grabbed my …
Ephesians 4:15 says spiritual maturity results from people speaking the truth in love and hearing the truth spoken in love. Rev. Isaac Smith said honesty is about speaking hard truth in the right spirit with the right motive. Respected leaders speak honesty to others and receive honesty from others. We don’t help anyone when we …
While at Winter Retreat, Larry Osborne reminded us of Ezra 3:12-13 where the Jews returned from captivity to rebuild the temple that had been destroyed and burned. The hard part was that many of the old people remembered the glory of Solomon’s temple. The rebuild was no match for it—they were building without the resources …
There’s no good reason to practice Christianity if we don’t take our sin seriously. The reason we have Christmas, Good Friday, and Easter is because God sent His only Son to die to save us from the wages of our sin and to give us victory over it. God didn’t send His Son to die …
Betrayal is one of the most painful experiences we go through. That’s because it comes at the hands of people whom we trust to be the most loyal to us. We trust them because of our relationship with them, because of their position, and because of their reputation. Jesus experienced betrayal. His family didn’t understand …
We do not naturally choose or enjoy suffering. Sometimes, we cannot avoid it. What we can choose is God’s will while suffering. Oswald Chambers encouraged us to choose God’s will even if it means we will suffer. That is putting Christ before ourselves, before our pleasure, etc. While we suffer, we can try to gain …
Wise servanthood remembers we are not God. We cannot be everywhere, know everything, execute plans flawlessly, and never become exhausted. Wise servants know their limits, know when to say “no,” and know when they need to refresh themselves with rest, good nutrition, recreation, and time with the Lord. Jesus modeled all of this for us. …
We can do service that isn’t sacred—our motives can be selfish while we serve. True servants can forget themselves to fully focus on those being served because they are secure in God’s love for them. Methodist missionary to India, E. Stanley Jones, wrote “Only the Great can afford to stoop.” Jesus knew who He was, …
Charles was raised in a pastor’s home with a saintly mother. He was religious, but in 1738 he trusted his life to Jesus. In the first year, Charles found victory over his bad temper and his drinking problem. To celebrate his one-year anniversary of his conversion, he wrote a hymn with eighteen verses. His brother, …
Adrian Timmons 