At the time I write this, a well-known Godly woman in our church body has gone to be with the Lord. Over the years, she touched many in our church with her genuine love for Christ and she exhibited great kindness and grace to all, always ready with a word of encouragement or uplifting scripture. Her husband is also well known to many in our church body, and he is a font of scripture, joy, and encouragement. A day-and-a-half after his wife joined the family in heaven he reported, “I have had an awesome day of worshiping the Lord. He just keeps filling my heart with reminders of His grace.”
He can worship during his time of grief because the Lord is real in his life, and because he grasps the truth in the second half of our scripture passage there is one family in Christ. The members of the church family reside in one of two places, either in heaven or on earth. When a saint dies, they have been merely relocated to their heavenly home. The familial relationship with that person has not dissolved, thus we will see our loved ones in the Lord again. As Christians, we have a blessed assurance of our eternal destiny. If you find yourself missing a loved one today, take comfort in the implications of our passage today, knowing full well that you will be united with them in the future and that you will spend an eternity praising our Lord Jesus Christ together.
Jeff Mericle
In Romans 6, Paul gives some very helpful and practical information about the spiritual battle we all face daily against sin. It is not a fight you can afford to neglect either, as John Owen emphasized: “Do you mortify; do you make it your daily work? Be always at it whilst you live; cease not a day from this work; be killing sin or it will be killing you.”
All of us at times are beguiled into complacency by the knowledge that God’s grace has washed away our sin, and are fooled into believing that it really doesn’t matter much if we give in to sin now and again. We remember, “You are not under law but under grace” but conveniently forget “sin shall not have dominion over you.” As if anticipating this devilish compromise, the Spirit urges Paul to make the point absolutely clear: “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not!”
So, let us not dabble in sin by easily giving in to evil thoughts, evil words, and evil mouse clicks. “Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren,” James admonished us. You cannot fight sin without equipping yourself for the battle, taking on the full armor of God in Ephesians 6, of which the word of God is the only offensive weapon. Immerse yourself in the word; memorize specific verses to fight specific temptations. Instead of being a couch potato watching unedifying or enticing programs, slay that sin with Psalm 101:3: “I will set no worthless thing before my eyes.” Kill sin, or it will kill you!
Tom Day
I love proverbs, a lot of them are usually short little truths that pack a big punch. This is one of those big punches. I don’t know about you, but when someone speaks to me harshly my initial reaction is to be harsh back. There is a trigger that I feel in my stomach that just has to be pulled because if I don’t pull it, then the person speaking to me in this way will continue to disrespect me, and I don’t deserve that… at least I don’t think I do.
The problem with this response is, it usually only makes matters worst. Remember what we learned as children; two wrongs don’t make a right? Well, that’s still true for adults, even more so for Christians. As Christians, we need to do a lot more thinking before speaking because when we do, we give ourselves time to listen to God. When I find myself in a heated situation, I found the only thing that anchors me and keeps me from pulling the trigger is when I pray first before I respond. Just a quick, heartfelt prayer up to God asking for help to speak love to this person speaking very angrily towards me.
When I slow down enough to listen to God, I find myself in a position of self-control that is then able to speak tenderly or softly to this person and then this person usually calms down. We are then able to address the problem and speak rationally to each other instead of having a conversation fueled with unbridled fury.
Remember this the next time you find yourself in this situation and watch God show Himself off in you.
Pastor Jason Witt
Now that Moses is dead, God instructs Joshua to take the people and go and possess the land that He had already given to them. Joshua, up until this point, has seen all that God has done. But now he is to go into the land that was promised and take it. It’s now all too real. Joshua, it’s your turn. But don’t be afraid, no one can stand against you. I will be with you as I was with Moses.
Joshua was about to embark on the biggest “mission” of his life. And here God gives him a promise to reassure him that. Whatever God has called us to do, we should rest knowing that God will never leave us nor forsake us. God didn’t leave Joshua in his time of need, and neither will he leave you in your time of need.
Joshua Navarro
We all have our morning routine, right? One of the things that we must decide each day is what we are going to wear. Closets, drawers, and sometimes dirty clothes hampers (for us guys anyway) are assessed and the days’ clothing is chosen.
Before Jesus caused our spirits to be born anew in Him, attending to our material-bound selves was our only concern. But we have been changed by the power of God, and we now have a spiritual wardrobe just waiting to be chosen and worn. Tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, and longsuffering are Godly traits that are given freely to each believer to express, but if we don’t make a conscious effort to put them on, they will continue to just hang there unworn and unused.
Lord, thank You for reminding me to put on the holy qualities each day that express your heart within and through mine. May each of us look to you and your inspired word to grow us and change us every single morning.
Jeff Deal
God controls and allows every detail of our lives; nothing happens without His knowledge and approval. Every day, little changes in our schedule or small irritations occur, and we can choose to let these obstacles upset us, or we can rest in the knowledge that God lovingly ordained them as small irritants to help us look to and rely on Him. For example, we can complain about the frustrating traffic jam that is keeping us from getting somewhere in our timing, or we can remember that God knows about our timelines and view the time we have sitting in traffic as an opportunity to pray. We can complain or we can rejoice.
Allow the knowledge that you are continually “surrounded by God’s unfailing love” to take you from “woes” to Worship! “Rejoice in the LORD and be glad, you righteous; sing!”
Pastor Doug Hardin
John answers the question that every Christian has asked, “What am I supposed to do when I fall into sin?” As Christians we should not be caught in habitual sin, but there are going to be times that we fall into sin. What we do when we fall into sin makes a massive difference in our lives. We can choose to run from God and try and fix ourselves or we can run to God, the only one who can fix us.
Here John tells us that Jesus is our advocate, the one who is called alongside in defense. When the accuser of the brethren brings your sins before God, Jesus is the One who comes to your defense. He stands as the propitiation, or atonement for sins. When you turn to God your Advocate reminds you that your sins have already been paid in full.
For the King,
Daniel Batistelli
It is easy to glance over the introduction to any of the epistles we read in the Bible. It just states the name of the writer and who they are writing to with a blessing to the people. But there is much more to these introductions than this superficial information.
Paul’s writings to the churches were not for him to boast, brag, or domineer over anyone. It was always rooted in his love for Christ. In the beginning of this letter, we see that Paul, before anything else, was fueled by his love for Jesus and his love for serving Him. If our motivation is anything less than a love for Him and His Word, we will fall short and be doing it for ourselves. What is motivating you today?
In Christ,
Pastor Sean Boehm
If you don’t eat, you won’t stay alive. There is a certain satisfaction that comes from working hard and being able to enjoy the literal fruit of your labors. So why does a person eat? So that he can add years to his life. But what good is it for me to add years to my life if I don’t add life to my years. It’s equally important to feed my soul and there is only one way to do that.
Solomon sensed what Moses had already said and Jesus later repeated: Deuteronomy 8:3 …Man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD. The satisfaction for our souls comes from His Word. Let’s not neglect His wonderful nourishment and provision.
A daily dose of His Word,
Pastor Gerard Deleeuw
Part of being a Christian is concern for our spiritual brothers and sisters. We should be encouraging each other and helping one another along our paths. We shouldn’t want to in any way hinder the walk of another believer.
Yet that’s what we can do when we flaunt our liberty in front of others. Maybe we don’t have a problem with drinking or certain TV shows or movies, but those might cause difficulties in the lives of others, so we should be careful about how we talk about these things whether face-to-face or on social media.
Paul, who wrote 1 Corinthians, said in 8:11, could that liberty cause a weak brother to perish, a weak brother for whom Christ died? We might not stumble someone to the point of death, but we might hinder their Christian walk for a stretch of time.
The apostle Paul said he’d never eat meat again, whether offered to idols or not, if it stumbled his brother (1 Corinthians 8:13). Do we have the same concern for our brothers and sisters in Christ?
Pastor Ron Kitchell
