God’s Healing Grace Psalm 147:3 If there’s one truism I have learned in my 64 years is that no one goes through this life without pain, hurt, and sorrow. Everyone has problems, hurts, and hidden wounds, emotions scars that we allow no one else to see. One of these hurts, wounds, and scars is called … Read more

Our Ebenezer Stone 1 Samuel 7:12 Whenever we hear the name, Ebenezer, our minds automatically go to Christmas and Charles Dickens’, “A Christmas Carol,” and its main character, Ebenezer Scrooge. But there is another Ebenezer, one that is far more famous, but far less known. It’s also not a person, either real or imagined. Rather … Read more

God’s Growing Grace Ephesians 4:22-24 An oxymoron is not someone who is foolish with a bad complexion. It’s a figure of speech using words that seemly contradict each other yet has a special meaning to create a special effect like, “A wise fool,” “Cruel Kindness,” “Thunderous silence,” or “Make haste slowly.” Oxymorons are found throughout … Read more

Living in the Fullness Joshua 13:33 How are we to live our lives in full possession of the promises of God, or better yet, how are we to live our lives to the fullest? What I have found in my 40 years of being a Christian and pastor is that I had to stop trying … Read more

God’s Liberating Grace In the desire to be free, the American public is in greater bondage than at any other time. While this is true given the increase of violence and overpopulation of jails, the real bondages are far deadlier. People are in the shackles of alcohol, drugs (both legal and illegal), sexual immorality, and … Read more

God’s Sustaining Grace It seems that many people are going through so much. It’s really unbelievable. It ranges from those with a wide variety of illnesses to those whose stress levels have reached so high they’re one tick away from a heart attack. And let’s not forget about those whose emotions are out of control … Read more

God’s Amazing Grace There are a lot of words that are misunderstood in today’s culture. Take for instance the word “love.” A lot of people say, “I’m in love,” but in truth it’s more like, “I’m in lust.” But there is one word that we cannot afford to misunderstand, and that’s because it has everything … Read more

The Fruit of the Spirit “Self-Control” 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 Today we’re on the last quality of the Fruit of the Spirit, and hopefully as we’ve gone through this series it’s been an eye opening. Through it we’ve seen that all these qualities are not distinct from each other, as is often taught, but they’re related … Read more

Spiritual First Aid Facing Our Fears “Fear” is a four letter word that has stopped a whole lot of people dead in their tracks, especially Christians, even though we’ve been told that God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, love, and of a sound mind, 2 Timothy 1:7. Frank Herbert, … Read more

The Fruit of the Spirit “Gentleness” In one of the best-known Beatitudes, Jesus said, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” (Matthew 5:5 NKJV) This word, “meek” in the Greek language is the same word the Apostle Paul uses in describing this eighth Fruit of the Spirit, “gentleness.” A very professional looking … Read more

Living According to God’s Purposes Ecclesiastes 1:2-15 Last week we looked at seizing those opportunities God places in our lives. To follow up on that teaching today I’d like to look at living our lives according to God’s purposes, and I’d like to do so by starting out with a statement made about King David … Read more

Seizing God’s Opportunities 1 Samuel 14:1-14 John Wycliffe lived 200 years before the Protestant Reformation that ushered in a belief system that moved the church away from Roman Catholicism and towards a belief in God and the Scriptures as the source of divine revelation. Wycliffe, and others like him, seized the opportunities provided by God … Read more

Our Heart’s Desire Psalm 37 God is far more interested in what lies within our heart than all the externals we try to add, that is, our image. And if we’re honest about it we’re more interested in the image we project, because we think it covers up what’s really going on inside. In this … Read more

Spiritual First Aid “Dealing With Depression” I am not a medical doctor, nor am I a clinical physiatrist. This sermon series I’m doing is a treatise on various disorders and what the Bible says about them, from the reasons behind them to God’s prescription for them. The reason I am even doing this is because … Read more

Spiritual First Aid “Grappling with Guilt” Have you ever felt guilt? Have you ever been sitting or driving somewhere when all of a sudden you remember something you did or said that you shouldn’t have? Or maybe it was something you thought about that would bring shame if anyone ever knew? And this overwhelming feeling … Read more

What’s Up With Forgiveness? With our Spiritual First Aid series underway, and since the next message in our series dealing with the topic of guilt and shame, I couldn’t think of a better topic to talk about than “Forgiveness.” And truthfully, there aren’t a lot of topics that could really be considered more important. Now … Read more

A Father’s Heritage There is a Scripture that really speaks to what I’d like to talk with you about this morning on Father’s Day. It goes back to the beginning and God’s creation. When God made us He said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” (Genesis 1:26) Now the Scriptures make … Read more

Defusing Disasters Joshua 22 This past week at a concert in Manchester England a terrorist bomb exploded killing 22 and wounding over a hundred. Such disasters are mind boggling, and so what I’d like to do today is to look at how we can defuse situations before they turn into full-blown disasters. And while this … Read more

Revive Us Again At this weekend men’s retreat the theme of our time together was “Revive Us Again.” This was actually a prayer for God’s mercy upon the nation of Israel by the sons of Korah in Psalm 85:6. “Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?” (Psalm 85:6 NIV) … Read more

Growing Down to Grow Up (Updated) Isaiah 37:31 Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6vxYkGs8tQ It was a real pleasure to host this year’s women’s retreat with Living Grace. It was entitled, “Rightly Rooted.” And when I heard this title, I remember years ago when pastoring Living Grace, which at that time was called, “Hallelujah Christian Fellowship,” as pastors we … Read more