Proverbs 3:1-2

Solomon starts this proverb by reminding his son to not forget the law and keep his commandments.

I must have said that to my kids hundreds of times when they were young, “Don’t forget!” “Don’t forget to take your lunch….don’t forget to look both ways before you cross the street…..don’t forget to do your homework.” Don’t forget!

But now I am the one who forgets. Have you ever been asked for your phone number or maybe you needed to fill out a form and put your social security number down and you had to think about it? Not good! You have to remind yourself of what should be obvious to you.

Well, that is true with the Law of God too, we need to be reminded. Which is why we should have quiet time with the Lord each and every day so we won’t forget.

“Don’t forget the law,” Solomon says. Keep the commandment in your heart and it will grant to you length of days, long life, and peace.

Walking in His peace,

Rich Kikuchi

While living in America awards us many freedoms, those freedoms can be taken for granted. Israel wasn’t too different back in its prime. God had awarded Israel with many liberties, the land, and the law to be fruitful and protected as a nation. But as time went on and these freedoms began to be taken advantage of, its citizens began thinking they knew better, that their way of life was better than God’s way.

On a micro level, all of us as individuals have a tendency to fall into dangerous patterns of wrong thinking. We start making decisions without considering God, whether they be financial, relational, or spiritual. You name it, you started charting your own course, playing by your own rules.

May I encourage you to examine yourself and examine yourself often. By examine yourself, I mean put your thoughts, plans, and ideas before the Lord and His Word. See if they line up, see if they are of the Lord or of your own devise. The Lord’s warning to Israel and to all that go after them in thinking they know better, is… Woe! Woe means that trouble and distress are coming your way if you continue down this path.

There is only one way and that’s God’s way.

Pastor Jason Witt

Philippians 2:14-15

We need to have the right mindset before we can go out and serve. We start by having the mindset of Christ. Serving not with our own interest but in the interest of others. If we use Jesus as our model for serving, then everything we do is for the interest of others. If we can come together and serve one another, we should do so without complaining so that we can shine as lights in the world.

I get it, it is hard serving people. But if we focus our minds to our Savior and learn to love others the way Jesus loves them and see them the way He did, then we can serve without complaining. When others look at the church, they can see Jesus in the way we serve others making us blameless and harmless, children of God without fault even in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation who is only out for themselves.

Serving others, the way Jesus would.

Joshua Navarro

Ruth 1:16-17

At a time when God had allowed a famine in the land, Naomi and her husband, Elimelech, took their two sons and went to Moab to try to escape God’s judgment. And after Naomi had spent years running from God and experiencing great hardship all the way, it was in her repentance that her daughter-in-law would make the decision to follow her back to Bethlehem and the Lord.

“God chastens those whom He loves,” Hebrews 12:6 tells us and though this famine was severe and people were suffering, God was waiting to deliver them as they returned to Him. Through this, Ruth realized that it was far better to serve a God who cares enough for you to chasten you, than to serve 100 false gods who can do nothing for you. In the same way, our willingness to repent, return, and submit ourselves to the Lord can be a great witness to those who are watching us.

Pastor Doug Hardin

Matthew 14:29-30

The waves were always high and the wind was always boisterous, but Peter did not see them at first. When Peter’s eyes were set on the Lord, he was able to step out in faith despite the storm raging around him. The moment Peter took his eyes off of the Lord and put them on his circumstances, he began to sink.

When the storms of life rage around you, keep your eyes on the Lord and you will walk in victory. The moment you take your eyes off the Lord is the moment you start to sink. If you find yourself taking your eyes off the Lord, like Peter, be quick to call out to a merciful God who is quick to save. Better yet, keep your eyes on the Lord!

For the King,

Pastor Daniel Batistelli

Ephesians 2:1

I think it is easy to look at who we are today and forget who we were. Paul reminds the Ephesian church of what we once were before we came to Christ — dead. Plain and simple. Obviously we were alive physically, but spiritually we had nothing to offer and were decayed on the inside.

But Jesus made us alive! Never forget that Jesus is the reason you have life and a renewed mind so you can share the graciousness, love, mercy, and compassion that Jesus showed you when you were dead in your trespasses and sins.

Resting in Him,

Pastor Sean Boehm

John 15:4

To be “in Christ” is different than to “abide” in Him. The former is taken care of when we are born again. The latter can be interrupted. To “abide” means “to remain, to have continual contact, to have a conscious recognition of His presence.” We do that through prayer, reading His Word, and the fellowship of the saints.

Jesus gives the example that a branch is only the conduit, it doesn’t produce the fruit; the vine does. So our focus is not to bear fruit, but to stay in the vine. The immediate fruit we’ll see in our own lives is a resistance to sin. I recently talked to friend that had gone through a pretty dark patch in his walk with the Lord. I asked him afterward what had tripped him up. He simply said, “I stopped abiding.” Don’t let that happen.

Striving to abide,

Pastor Gerard Deleeuw

Jeremiah 36:23

While Jeremiah was in prison, he had Baruch deliver the word of God to the people of Judah and it eventually made its way to Jehoiakim, the king at that point. After hearing Jehudi just read a bit of the Lord’s word to Jeremiah, Jehoiakim had the scroll cut up and tossed into the fire. Why? He didn’t like what he heard about the Lord’s judgment towards Judah.

When we hear something we don’t like from God’s word, we might not toss our Bibles in the fire, but we might toss them in our trunks or on a shelf not to be looked at for a long time.

Yet just like Jehoiakim couldn’t stop God’s word from coming to pass by destroying it, we can’t stop the truthfulness of God’s word by ignoring it. When God points out sin in our lives through the Bible, it is still sin whether we believe it to be or not. It’s better to just accept the Scriptures as true and implement them in our lives because God knows better than we do.

Delighting in Your Word,

Pastor Ron Kitchell

Matthew 9:36-38

The heart of the Lord was always moved by the spiritual needs of the lost around Him. He saw them as weary and scattered, sheep without a shepherd. It was that vision and outlook He sought to convey to His disciples. The need for many to know the Shepherd was all around them; the harvest for hearing and receiving the Gospel was ripe but tragically few were speaking of Him. The laborers were few.

Are you a laborer telling those around you of the Shepherd who has come to save them, to lead them, and be their Lord? Jesus told His own to pray that God would send more laborers into the fields of harvest. Today I am praying God will send you!

Working in the fields with joy!

Pastor Jack Abeelen

John 16: 33

Why is it that as circumstances worsen, our faith often falters? Rather than believing that God remains in control – no matter how good or bad things appear – we let life’s challenges slowly overshadow our faith in God. Eventually, fear can replace our faith entirely. You might be experiencing this right now as you take stock of just how much has changed during COVID-19: our daily routines, our jobs, our finances. When life changes overnight, our faith can be shaken … but it doesn’t have to crumble.

For three years, Peter followed Jesus as one of His inner circle – one of the 12 disciples. When it came to Jesus’ earthly ministry, Peter saw it all: miraculous healings, powerful teaching, and provocative statements. Like most of Jesus’ followers, Peter assumed that Jesus was going to redeem the children of Israel as the long-awaited King of the Jews. So, you can imagine his shock when Jesus was arrested and sentenced to death on the cross. This wasn’t how the story was supposed to go – at least not according to Peter. Talk about a huge gap between expectations and current circumstances.

When life’s circumstances didn’t live up to expectations, Jesus’ closest followers lost hope and gave into fear. Yet, the story wasn’t over. Not only did Jesus overcome death on the cross through His resurrection, but He cared enough to specifically redeem His relationship with Peter (John 21:15-17).

The lesson for us in Peter’s story is that life’s circumstances do not determine God’s goodness. Even when hope seems lost and fears rush in, our faith need not falter. Why? Because even when the story appears over, God has other plans.

Pastor William Del Casale