Category Archive

The Calling of God He’s the God of the calling. He knows what we need before we ever get there! If you have grown up in church or hung around with Christians for long, there is a topic you’ve likely heard about. This is one of those topics that a Christian could spend a great deal of time praying about. I’m talking about knowing the call of God on your life, recognizing that you have one and yearning to learn what it is. First of all, if you have been born again, you have a call on your life. Matthew 28:18-20 teaches us the “Great Commission.” Jesus is instructing His disciples by saying, “All authority in Heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” This is what we are all “called” to do. You could actually say that there are three separate callings from God. The first is the call …

Ancient Gods Despite mankind creating gods in our image since ancient times, there’s only ever been ONE God with ONE plan and One Design. We are going to do a dive into the New Testament and into the book of Acts where we find that the apostle Paul makes it to Athens. Now you history buffs may know some things about Athens, Greece during the days of the early church. This visit can be found in Acts 17:13. This section of scripture talks about how Paul immediately becomes aware that these people are inundated by a ton of gods. They had gods for everything! Some of the more well known ones are Aphrodite, the goddess of love and desire, Athena, the goddess of wisdom and Zeus, the king of all the gods. During this time there was an author from the very first century who lived the same time that Paul was living and and his name was Petronius. He was a Roman historian, author and satirist. He said this, “Athens is so full of deities that you may more frequently meet with a god than with a man.” That gives you an idea of how many gods they had. …

Super Natural Organic, Super Natural work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. When you hear the word supernatural you more than likely think of things that are extra terrestrial or something you see in a Marvel movie. However, it can also mean…”extremely or super duper” natural! We hear a lot about natural things when we discuss things like food. It’s not a synthetic or fake product, but an all natural product etc. It’s this kind of super natural that the work of the Holy Spirit should be in our lives. It shouldn’t be as scarce as a lunar eclipse, instead it should be something we are very used to. Sometimes we make the work of the Holy Spirit far more complicated than it needs to be. When we have to make decisions in our lives we don’t need to over spiritualize things, we just need to make a flipping choice. That is meant realistically, but the phrase will be easy to remember as well. Some big decisions are made by flipping a coin. Think about the Super-bowl and how a game that generates millions of dollars begins with the flip of a coin to decide who starts the game. …

A Fresh Start God has programed into His system that every day would be a day of fresh start, not a one time thing. You get it over and over and over again. Have you ever had a time in your life when you just wanted a fresh start more than anything? Maybe it’s to move to a new job or school or even a new state? After all even nature gets to start over. Every new season is a fresh start just as every new day is as well. In the book of Lamentations chapter 3 the prophet says, “My mercies are new every morning. Great is his faithfulness.” This is wonderful news for us because this means that God’s mercies are there every single morning, In fact, God’s mercies are new every time we repent of sin. We don’t have to wait for a new day or a new season to start anew, we can get things right with the Lord as many times as we need too. I’m not talking about what is referred to as “greasy grace” where you willfully sin because you know you can repent. I’m talking about living in the knowledge of the …

The Good Stuff When life pressures us, what comes out is not always what was on the label. But if we stay under pressure long enough the “good stuff” will start to come out! Have you ever had a time when you squeezed a tube of something and you were surprised at what came out? Have you ever squeezed a tube of lotion or medicine and because it had not been used for a while an oil of some kind comes out? It can be surprising and off putting as well. Now let’s take a moment to ponder what could come out of our hearts and mouths if squeezed unexpectedly. Being squeezed can look like many different things like someone dangerously cutting you off in traffic with your kids in the car. It could be when your spouse snaps at you or when your kids have gotten on your very last nerve. It can also be any combination of mental, emotional, physical, financial or spiritual issues. We all like to think that if we were squeezed we would burst into prayer…however, many times that is not the first thing that happens. We might react with anger, rage, jealousy etc. Now, …

All That Remains Something that when all things are set and done, we know we can still hold on to. I feel it is relatively safe to say that most of us if not all of us have struggled with the constant changes in this world. So much is taking place all day every day that it can be disorienting. We know what we believe and we know the difference between sin and Holiness, but we are still affected by the never ending movement towards complete chaos. We find ourselves reflecting on that thing that is unmovable and unshakable. Let’s look at 1st Corinthians 13:13. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love,” I’m sure I could get a hardy “AMEN!” When I say that it takes great faith to live in this world! Thanks or no thanks to social media we have real time exposure to every little thing happening around our country and even the world. We obviously need hope as well. If we didn’t have hope of being with our Heavenly Father in Heaven, we would be racked with fear as those who don’t trust Jesus are. As wonderful …

Shape of God – The Square Psalm 23:5 says, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” Now, this is not a literal table with literal food. This is a picture for the fact that we can feast on the Lord’s presence and the peace that He offers us in His presence. What a beautiful picture this paints for us! In this world we encounter so much opposition and when we as Christians are feeling beat up by the world, God will lead us to green pastures where we can rest and again experience the peace that God offers us. Now, the specific table we are learning about this week is the Passover table. In the Old Testament God called Moses to deliver the Israelites from their slavery in Egypt. The Pharaoh at that time was a very stubborn man and so God sent the 10 plagues against Egypt while keeping the Israelites safe. These plagues were to demonstrate God’s power and yet Pharaoh’s heart remained hard and he refused to let the Israelites go. The final plague was for the death angel to move through Egypt killing the firstborn in all families. In order for …

Shape of God – The Square We know who Jesus is, we know what Jesus said, we know what Jesus did, and we are trying to align ourselves with His purpose!

Shape of God – The Rope The cross paid my price. The resurrection gives me hope.

Shape of God – The Circle God Has Promises for You – This week we look at the circle which represents the fact that we finish where we start. God takes us full circle in our lives and with His promises. There is an academic phrase dealing with literature called “ring composition” and we are going to discuss it in regards to our circle shape for this week. Ring composition is a technique that basically means the story will end up where it started. On the left side, you have the events building up to the arc, which is at the bottom. After the arc, the story starts making its way back around and back to an eventual close. Interestingly enough, there’s a parallel between situations going on, on the left and the right of the ring. There are some amazing cinematic examples of this technique such as The Lion King. The movie starts with a baby and ends with one as well. On each side you have Scar…one side he plans to rule and plots to kill the king. The other side relates because Scar then does become the King. This is an amazing visual of ring composition. You …