Alive and Active

In Daniel 1, Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself and eat the King's food or drink the wine. Daniel understood who God was and he was not going to give his mind away. Resolve or purpose starts ahead of time and Daniel looked for ways to expand the gospel. God gave Daniel and his friends wisdom knowledge and skills. As believers, we have to be like a flagpole that is firmly planted...

Sin and Grace go together. Our sin leads us to our need for grace and our sin is necessary to understand grace.  When you recognize how much you are loved by Jesus, you will want to obey Him and not sin. Grace is not a license to sin. Instead we humbly live out of the Grace of God.

Jackie Gleason was one of the funniest actors ever, but even a famous actor cannot talk / bluff his way into heaven. The only way to get into Heaven is trusting in the finished work of Jesus Christ who paid the penalty for our sins by dying on the cross and was raised on the 3rd day and reigns now in heaven at the right hand of God.  Luke 23 tells the story of three people hanging on a cross. One...

In Matthew 16, Jesus foretells his death and resurrection but Peter rebukes him. Jesus spoke truth to Peter and told him to set his mind on things of God and not man. Sometimes a compliment will come and sometimes a rebuke might come, but our response shapes the growth that comes from it. Peter learned from his mistake and in Acts we see that he gave his life to following Jesus.

In Matthew 16, Jesus asks who do people say that He is and Peter answers you are the Christ the son of the living God. God opened Peter's heart so that he could understand to trust the Lord Jesus as savior. Peter had an aha moment. Just like the prophet Jeremiah, we too are to extract the precious from the worthless. Our job is to allow the Lord God to work through us in proclaiming Christ, b...

Jesus healed many people when He was on the earth. One of them was Simon's mother-in-law. However, the main reason He came was to fulfill God's plan for saving His people by living a perfect life of obedience on their behalf and dying for their sins.  Sometimes in life we pray for healing. God may or may not heal us. Either way, our responsibility is to let the Lord work in us for His pl...

When we are born again, we see the immense love of Jesus through the righteous life He lived on our behalf and the suffering that He endured on the cross for us. Because of this, we WANT to live a holy life and avoid sin while understanding that our good works are NOT what saves us. Good works come FROM salvation, not FOR salvation. The only good works that are FOR salvation are from Christ's...

Peter wasn't fully ready to follow Jesus because he didn't understand the intensity of what was going on. Peter needed people who would call him out and encourage him. We need people that will call us out for when we are off and not "yes men" holding us accountable. We must be reminded of the fact that the enemy wants to sift us. We must examine the scriptures and be alert and...

Peter followed Jesus but at times he wasn't alert or humble. We too can be picked off by the enemy so we must be trained in God's word, alert and confident in Christ. Peter was only one degree off, but it caused him to lose track of Jesus Christ. We must keep coming back to the foot of the cross.

There are times in our lives where there has to be a necessary ending so we can move on. Stephen was a man in the book of Acts who preached the word but sadly he was stoned to death. But God used the necessary end in Stephen's life to bring about a bold and resilient group of new believers.  No matter what comes our way, our job is to trust in the Lord .

When it comes to alcohol, it can be very easy to get outside of your natural state of mind. Paul says in Ephesians 5 to be very careful how we live and we should make the most out of every opportunity because the days are evil. With alcohol we can't look for loopholes and we shouldn't model drinking to our kids. Instead we should model what it looks like to be filled with the Holy Spirit...

There are a lot of players in the NFL that succumb to debt, divorce, and drugs.  Those three issues lead to a dead end. As Christians we need to look at the scriptures and encourage each other in the faith. Let's be culture shapers who steward our money biblically, who are in Christ, and who go to the Lord with the pressures of life.

Hebrews 10:25 says to "... encourage one another all the more as you see the day approaching." Youth sports are a growing industry and Christians are taking themselves out of fellowship by missing church on Sunday morning due to games. Do we trust God with our kids? How are we going to handle the whiff of idolatry? As Christians let's look forward to Christ's return make sure w...

The Bible makes it clear that we should not get drunk with alcohol, but instead we should be filled with the Holy Spirit. Alcohol has the potential to alter our natural state of mind. We should think responsibly when it comes to alcohol. Our goal is to be conformed into the image of Christ and we cannot let alcohol get in the way of what Jesus will do inside of us.

The Bible is full of people who experienced seasonal changes in their life, but their faith didn't waver. Despite the fact that Joseph was thrown in prison for 13 years for a crime he didn't commit, God never forgot about him. Job lost everything but God remained faithful. Stephen was stoned to death, but Jesus showed him His glory. Seasons will change in our life, however we must not fo...

Seasons change in life.  As Christians, no matter what comes our way, we are called to be steadfast and trusting in the Lord.  Psalm 27 is a great reminder that the Lord is our light and salvation. This Psalm later says wait for the Lord, be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. As seasons change in your life, allow Jesus to continue to train you, so that no matter the circumstances, you ca...

Jesus said if you want to be a great leader then you must be a great servant first. Are we willing to humble ourselves before the mighty hand of God? We look to Jesus who was the perfect servant leader as He humbled himself to the point of death of the cross. If you humble yourself and serve others with all we have, like Jesus did, then God will exalt you.

Are we loving and trusting in the Creator more than creation? Paul learned to be content in Christ. We too are called to be content in the Lord. We should abide in Him, study the scriptures, and have a Christ like attitude.

Jesus wants us to be persistent in prayer because He listens to us, and The Holy Spirit fine tunes our prayers before they get  into the throne room, all the while as we are being shaped into the nature of Christ. Being persistent in prayer is important because that is one way that God trains us, renews our mind and matures us. Prayer is not about getting something from God, but it is about being...

2 Corinthians 2 tells us to spread the fragrance of Jesus everywhere we go. 1st John 1 tells us to confess our sins and when we do that God forgives us of our sins and cleanses us of all unrighteousness. Living for Christ means repenting of our sins, embracing Jesus and spreading the fragrance of Christ to others.

In 1 Kings 6 the Lord came to Solomon and promised Solomon that if he observed His laws and kept His commands then the Lord would live among the Israelites and not abandon His people. Solomon knew the law, especially  Deuteronomy 17 which instructed kings on how they should serve. By 1 Kings 11 Solomon had violated the law and pursued gold, foreign women and foreign gods. When we are tempted for p...

In Luke 22, Peter denied Jesus three times. Jesus looked at Peter with love and pursued him after his resurrection. Peter went back to fishing, but Jesus met Peter on the shore in John 21 and he wanted to challenge  and teach Peter that he no longer needed to be fearful of man. We too can walk in the unconditional love that Jesus alone provides.

In second Samuel 24, David's pride shows itself as he takes a 10-month census to count how many soldiers he had. At the end of the census David realizes the sin he committed and how he had put his hope in the number of fighting men over his trust in the Lord. David owns his sin and falls on his face before the Lord. There were consequences, but David modeled what true repentance looks like an...

In 1st Kings 3, God comes to Solomon in a dream and asks him to ask for whatever he wants. Solomon understood the important responsibility of leading God's people and he asked for a discerning heart to govern God's people. It says the the Lord was pleased with Solomon's ask and God blessed Solomon and gave him way more than he could have ever asked for. We tend to be trivial with ou...

The Bible is full of people like Joseph and Paul who endured difficulty, suffering and isolation. They could have been crushed but they were strengthened by God and their toughness came from a continual relationship with the Lord. We look to Jesus Christ as our perfect example of how to be tough despite the circumstances.