Life Lessons with Dr. Steve Schell

When some people come to Christ, they passionately follow Him for a lifetime. No one is exempt from testing and temptation, so they experience hardships just like everyone else. But in their case, hardships don't destroy their faith: they actually seem to draw the person closer to Him. But there are others for whom that's not true. They may start out in a flurry of zeal, but over time when crises...

The devil will test everything God tells you. No truth or promise will escape. It's always been that way. God gives a gift, and the devil tries to take it. The process is predictable and frustrating, so sooner or later we find ourselves asking, "Why does God let this happen? Why doesn't He protect me from these attacks on my faith? Did I do something to deserve this?" In this brief pastoral warnin...

For years I felt sorry for Paul, and not for the reason you might think. I was amazed at the physical suffering he endured and marveled at the boldness in him that kept him preaching the truth no matter how badly he was treated. But that wasn't why I felt sorry for him. What grieved me was the apparent absence of his family. Apart from one reference to his sister's son helping him while he was in...

There are group dynamics of size that haven't changed one bit over the past 2,000 years. We might be inclined to look back on the way Jesus or the early church made disciples as a quaint relic of the past, but the truth is people today still need that same level of relationship. Being a face In a crowd isn't enough. But many of us have decided that we have to function in a "realistic" way. Those e...

When we step out to serve the Lord, we come under spiritual attack. You're not just imagining that. It's true; you are. But the answer is not to hide your faith or do nothing for God and hope the devil doesn't notice you. The answer is to learn to pray for one another. This is the truth Paul models for us in this brief passage. We hear him asking believers in Rome to "agonize" with him in prayer i...

Neither Jesus, nor the eleven apostles, nor Paul asked people simply to believe the message they proclaimed. Listen to Jesus: "If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but If I do them, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father." (Jn 10;38). Neither He nor the early church tried to argue peopl...

My body has a mind of its own. And it's not a happy mind. It worries; it fears; it grows angry; it looks for comfort in all the wrong places. It replays unpleasant memories over and over again. It fixates on whatever's negative, and I can find myself getting upset before I even recognize what's happening to me. I don't try to think these thoughts; they're effortless. They just come. I don't want t...

There's a secret to having God's power that only a few seem to understand. The secret is this: He only blesses what He initiates. When we speak His words, there's anointing; when we do what He asks us to do, the miracles flow. No one understood this more deeply than Jesus. His all-absorbing desire was not to do His own will, but the will of Him who sent Him (Jn 6:38). He spoke what He heard the Fa...

What condition were you in when you got saved? For some of us that's an easy question to answer because we've only known the Lord tor a few weeks or months. But for others that encounter took place so long ago we hardly recognize the person we once were. We've changed so much over the years it's like we're talking about someone else. Memories of the old us start us laughing or blushing or cringing...

If asked, most Christians will say they want to see people born again and gathered into the church. But when those newly saved actually arrive, some with rough histories and much brokenness, few seem to want to be involved in healing and teaching them. Most long-term Christians prefer to gather with others like themselves and have warm fellowship, and there's certainly nothing wrong with that. But...

Anyone who violates God's moral standards as flagrantly as was apparently being done in Rome (v13) has lost most or all of their fear of God. Any real expectation that they will be held accountable for their actions must have receded in their thinking so far into the future that it no longer had any power to restrain their behavior. Jesus made it abundantly clear how He wants His disciples to thin...

Why I do something is more important than what I do, and there is only one reason that pleases God: love. I could do the most noble thing in the world, and if I do it for the wrong reason, it means nothing to Him. I may have benefitted someone else but spiritually I haven't pleased God. If I've done it selfishly or fearfully or pridefully or begrudgingly, I receive no reward from Him at all. The o...

Paul is teaching the churches In Rome how to live successfully In a non-Christian society. Most of their neighbors and family were not believers and many were growing suspicious or even hostile. And with Nero as emperor, the government was certainly no friend. In a few more years it would become a bitter enemy, so if believers weren't careful, their situation could deteriorate very rapidly. Yet ju...

Hope is an amazing quality. In a moment I can go from being tired, discouraged, aimless and withdrawn to being energized, focused, grateful to be alive and engaged with others. It all depends on whether or not I have hope. And unfortunately hope is not constantly present in me at the same level. It waxes and wanes. Sometimes I have a lot and other times little or none. And it's not hard to tell wh...

It's only natural that most of us came to the Lord because we have needs. In some way we needed Jesus to help us. Our focus was on ourselves. We were lost or hurting, so we came to the Savior. And that's the way it should be. But as we grow in Christ that inward focus turns outward off of ourselves. Though we never stop coming to Him for our own needs, that compulsive drive to care for myself less...

We often refer to joining the military as "answering the cali to serve our country." Every person who hears that call is forced to make a very serious decision. The very act of putting on a uniform means that person has accepted the possibiiity that they might die defending us. They choose to put our safety ahead of their own. And joining the military means a radical change in lifestyle. You join...

Having just encouraged us to fulfill God's call on our lives (Ro 12:1-8), Paul immediately turns to address the quality of our relationships because if we can't work together harmoniously, everything he has just taught us falls apart. Yes, each of us must discover our calling, and yes, we need to pursue the full dimension of God's plan, but if we don't learn how to get along with each other, none...

It takes time and serious exposure to the Word of God to change the way we think. It also requires a new skill: the ability to listen to the Holy Spirit. We usually come to Christ with some pretty deep programming. Old values, perspectives and attitudes don't just fall away overnight. In fact, some appear to remain with us the rest of our lives and become familiar enemies we have to diligently put...

Paul urgently appeals to every believer who understands the mercy we have received from God, to respond by completely devoting themselves to His service. This, he says, is the only appropriate way to thank Him. We surrender our lives to Him as completely as if we had placed our bodies on an altar like an animal about to be sacrificed, only in our case we are not there to be slaughtered but rather...

When God calls us to salvation, He also summons us to serve Him. The great task of winning lost people is simply too urgent to allow anyone to sit on the sideline and watch. Jesus shows us God's view of this situation when He says, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore beseech (ask, beg) the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest" (Mt 9:37,38). He's tellin...

What is a revival? It's a move of God which draws people to Himself with such power that it cannot be explained by human activity. What's taking place is not the result of some well-run ministry. Past revivals saw large numbers of people return to the faith in which they were raised; they came back to the Christianity they had rebelled against or ignored. But today the situation in America is diff...

It's so easy to give up. We may start out with high hope that a family member or friend will soon receive Jesus, but as time passes, those expectations weaken and may even die completely. We've prayed and tried to share our faith, but ail our attempts have been rebuffed repeatedly. The fact is some people are really... well, let's say slow to believe. They actually seem determined to refuse the go...

God is so great He can use even human sinfulness to serve His purposes. During the time of the Exodus, He used Pharaoh to spread His reputation throughout the ancient world (Ro 9:17), and here in Paul's day He was using Jewish hostility to spread the gospel to the Gentiles. The rejection of Jesus by so many in Judaism had forced believing Jews to cease preaching in synagogues, and in some cases to...

Spiritual ignorance is one thing; refusing to believe is another. Every time someone says "no" to God, a change takes place inside. There are decisions that must be made every day, but most occur at merely a mental level. But refusing to surrender during one of those moments in which the Holy Spirit has opened my spiritual eyes to see His truth and assures me of mercy if I will repent requires me...

Have you ever heard someone say, "I wish I had faith like you do. For some reason I just can't seem to believe." They may sense something inside that prevents faith. For them it's a struggle to believe God exists or that they could have a relationship with Him. Faith is a remarkable quality. For some it comes as naturally as breathing while others find it hard to even imagine a spiritual realm exi...