During Paul’s life he had a lot of ups and downs. If you go through the book of Acts, you can see he didn’t have it easy. He had every reason to be downcast in appearance and speech, yet we find that was hardly the case.

In writing to the church in Philippi, we see Paul’s deep love for the people there despite his circumstances. In fact, he is so focused on all that God is doing in and through them that it drives him to praise God in giving thanks for all that He is doing. Life is hard and there is always something we could complain about, but who can you be giving thanks for and praising God for in your life. Find joy in the work God is doing all around and not just in your own life! Let’s see what happens when the church starts rejoicing together.

In Christ,

Pastor Sean Boehm

These are the words of Stephen just before he was martyred. It gives us a glorious glimpse of what lies ahead for the children of God. The Lord, in the moments leading to his death, filled Stephen with His Spirit and opened his eyes to the realities of heaven. And notice it says he saw the “Son of Man,” Jesus as brother and fellow man. This is the last time this title would be used in the New Testament.

In case you’re a little discouraged today, meditate on the amazing scene of these two verses and be encouraged. This is what awaits every child of God and follower of Christ.

I can’t wait,

Pastor Gerard Deleeuw

Do you ever go through stretches in your life where it seems the Lord doesn’t answer your prayers? There can be many reasons for it, but one of them is in the above verse – you’re regarding iniquity in your heart. The word regard means you’re considering it and you’re not letting it go. There are many sins in people’s lives they just can’t seem to shake. Then they wonder why their prayers aren’t answered.

King David went through a terrible time in his life when he committed the sin with Bathsheba that led to the murder of her husband, Uriah. The baby he had with Bathsheba died and it took the Lord speaking to David through the prophet Nathan to get him to acknowledge his sin.

Maybe the Lord is speaking to you today about a sin in your life you haven’t let go. Confess that sin to the Lord and be forgiven, like David did, and reopen up your lines of communication with God.

Hear me, Lord!

Pastor Ron Kitchell

James is writing to his congregation who’ve been scattered from their homes recently due to persecution. Here, he’s encouraging them to seek the Lord through these trials to learn what God was seeking to teach them. James was aware that His purposes in allowing trials was to grow them in their relationship with God (James 1:3-4).

What trials are you facing today that you have not prayed: Lord, what do You want to teach me through these? Pray today, pray with faith, as James encourages us, for God wants to teach you, to reveal His purposes and plans, to “grow us up.” After all, we read this morning that God will give wisdom liberally and without reproach. He has much to teach us and will do so gladly and without any hesitation if we will simply seek Him through it all!

Asking God to teach me today through my walk with Him,

Pastor Jack Abeelen

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