These words are such a comfort to me. Do you feel the pressure of having to do all the work? Not only starting and finishing, but you feel like it’s all on your shoulders. Good news, it isn’t! The change you have seen in your life is from the time you have spent with the Lord through prayer, His Word, and fellowship. You are not able to will a complete work in yourself, it all comes from the Lord. The Lord started a good work in you when you gave your life to Christ and HE will be the one to complete it until the Lord comes back or calls you home. Be confident in the Lord’s work in your life knowing He will always finish what He has started.
In Christ,
Pastor Sean Boehm
When you fall in love with someone, it’s not for anything they can do for you but it’s for who they are. You admire them as a person and you’re enamored with their character. As this verse says, our love for God comes about because He loved us first. But do you think God loves us because of anything we’ve done for Him? That would be a “No!” The fact that He loves us so displays His grace because He has seen EVERYTHING we ever did or will do and He loves us anyway.
Hopefully that realization will cause you to love Him back today with all your heart, mind, and strength and as you fall deeper and deeper in love with Him, it’s guaranteed you won’t be able to keep that to yourself. His love will spill over to everyone around you.
Overflowing for Jesus,
Pastor Gerard Deleeuw
There is a verse in Ephesians 4:15 that tells us to speak the truth in love. Generally you have two types of people — those who are good at telling the truth and those who can show mercy. I happen to be more of the truth teller, but my mercy tends to lack, making my truths harsh. Then you have those who pour mercy on people, but never get to the truth and let those people get away with sin.
Then there’s Jesus, the perfect combination of mercy and truth. When He spoke to the woman at the well, He truthfully revealed He knew about her past marriages and her current indiscretion, but also praised her for honestly saying she had no husband.
Which of these areas is your strength and which do you need to still work on? We need to pray the Lord would give us guidance and we would be more like Jesus daily.
I want less of me and more of Him,
Pastor Ron Kitchell
Paul, the most celebrated first century evangelist, asked everyone he spoke to and wrote to that they keep him in prayer. In particular, he made a prayer request we should all be praying: that the Word of the Lord may run swiftly and be glorified, just as it is with you. As we share God’s Word with the lost, we should be asking the Lord to cause His Word to run swiftly and move forward without hindrance, with obstacles removed in the lives of those we are reaching out to. It had happened that way quickly in the lives of those in Thessalonica, so Paul asked that it would happen again with those who were hearing the message of God’s love. Share your faith, but do so with prayer, that God might cause His Word to find clear sailing into the hearts of the hearer!
Praying for an open door today,
Pastor Jack Abeelen
One of the greatest tools the devil uses when it comes to Christians sharing the Gospel is distraction. What is the Gospel? That Christ died for our sins and rose from the dead. It’s the greatest news anyone will ever hear, as it’s the key to salvation from sin and death and the beginning of an eternal relationship with God. The devil will do just about anything to keep that message from being heard.
Think about it: Anyone who’s ever shared the Gospel with a non-believer can attest to how the devil will use any kind of distraction to get that conversation sidetracked. It’s uncanny how often right in the middle of the conversation, a phone will ring or someone will walk into the room or a baby will start crying. Even personal times of prayer and Bible study aren’t immune to these attacks. Distractions like checking our phones, emails, or social media are the greatest tools the enemy uses to keep us from sharing the Gospel and walking with God.
In Acts 16:16-19, Paul and Silas experienced this early on in their ministry. Now, you might think Paul and Silas would be happy with this free publicity, but after a while they became frustrated. Rather than drawing people to listen, this young woman became a distraction that kept the people from hearing the Gospel.
So, what did they do? Paul knew that divination and sorcery come from occult practices and so he commanded the spirit possessing her to leave in the name of Jesus Christ – and it did. Immediately she was healed.
Distractions are everywhere, especially when we strive to walk with or talk about God. Are you struggling with distractions when it comes to spending time with God or sharing your faith? Ask God for an opportunity this week to share the hope of the Gospel with someone in your life, and to help you stay focused on His will as you battle the distractions in your life.
Pastor William Del Casale
Today’s passage is a call to repentance and renewal. God, in His infinite love, desires that all be saved and that we seek Him while He still may be found. The picture makes it seem that God is only near for a time, but the truth is that it is our hearts that distance ourselves from Him over time. Therefore this is a call to receive Him while there is still any inclination in our hearts to do so. The wicked are to turn from their sinful ways and even from their very thoughts, for not only do the thoughts of the unsaved condemn them, they naturally oppose God because by nature our hearts are desperately wicked.
To the backslidden, God calls for them to return to the Lord, because our God is the God of restoration and mercy. God wants to shower His grace upon us and abundantly pardon us for our sins, if we would just seek and accept His gift of salvation by faith. There are unsearchable riches in God through Christ (Ephesians 3:8). Among them are salvation, peace, and eternal fellowship with Him. If you are not in this place of abundance today, I pray that you call upon the Lord while He is near.
Jeff Mericle
There are four requests in Paul’s prayer for the saints in Ephesus. Paul prayed that the “Father of glory” would open the eyes of their heart 1) to learn wisdom and know Him, 2) to know the hope of His calling, 3) to know the riches of the glory of His inheritance, and 4) to know what is the greatness of His power.
It is interesting to observe that the two requests in verse 18 have a future focus: to know the hope of His calling and the riches of a future inheritance. We know from Romans 8:24-25 that hope that is seen is not hope, for you do not hope for what you see. But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance. There is great joy in this hope of future grace and the glory of an inheritance yet to be discovered.
So, are you depressed or sorrowful over your family, your present circumstances, the rampant evil in our world, or the belittling of God in our culture? It is our hope in a good, good Father who will cause even these devastating things to work together for good to those who are called. It is in the hope of His calling and the hope of an infinitely valuable inheritance that we find grace to help us now in our time of need.
Tom Day
Imagine our highways without traffic laws. There would be utter chaos, more road rage, more accidents, and, as a result, more deaths. Many of the traffic laws we abide by, serve the good of the people driving them because it creates a safer, consistent, and more enjoyable drive that keeps you alive. That’s what the 10 Commandments accomplish. If everyone were to abide by the 10 Commandments, everyone would be safe from each other, property would be protected, and life would be enjoyable.
That means there are certain laws that actually protect our freedom versus take from it. That’s exactly what the 10 Commandments do, they provide freedom and liberation by protecting both our souls and our humanity. So when God says, you shall have no other gods before Me and to not make for yourself a carved image, that means this will enhance your life and protect your soul.
The reason this is true is because, if you were to worship other gods you would be putting yourself into bondage to something that 1) can’t save you and 2) can’t satisfy the longings of your heart. You were created for God and by God and to entangle your affections for other, lesser things would be robbing yourself of a joy and peace that can only be found in YAHWEH.
How awesome is it that God created laws that both bring Him glory and liberate us to live a more joy-filled life.
Pastor Jason Witt
When I first came to know the Lord, I had a really good Christian friend who had times when he was knowingly sinning and I called him out on it. Their reply without fail would be “Well, God is still working in me. If He wanted to, He could remove this desire from me, and I would be clean.” Although that is true, we still have to continue to do what we can.
If we continue to read the next few verses, we will learn that if we have died to sin, how then can we continue to live in sin. Just because grace abounds and we can come to God every time we sin and receive forgiveness from Him, that does not give us the right to continue in our old ways. We also learn in 2 Corinthians 5:17 that we are a new creation, the old things have passed away. We no longer have to live in that old sin nature because the old man has died at the cross with Jesus. He has made us new.
Let us never be put into a place where we sin thinking we can just ask for forgiveness later. If we died to sin, why should we continue to live in it?
Joshua Navarro
What should our response be when we realize that we are in sin? The prophet Joel writes here, “Don’t tear your clothing in your grief; instead, tear your hearts.” Return to the LORD your God, for He is gracious and merciful. He is not easily angered. He is filled with kindness and is eager not to punish you. One of Satan’s biggest lies is to convince us not to repent, that God is just waiting for His chance to judge us, but as we see here, nothing could be further from the truth.
Just look at verse 14, “Who knows if He will turn and relent, give a reprieve, and leave a blessing behind Him.” You see we don’t have to come to the Lord with fear of judgment, but we come to Him with repentance because He is “gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love.” Forgiveness is in His hands and He will leave a blessing, rather than a curse, that provides for us more opportunities to honor our God. Yes, turning to the Lord will open up more worship and fellowship with Him.
So, don’t wait, run to the Lord now!
Pastor Doug Hardin
