Pastor Mike Impact Ministries

Today, Saturday January 9 - Romans 2:6-16 - No doubt, we all have our opinions and thoughts about the major issues that are being played out in our world and our country both politically and socially.  I sure have mine!  And, if you are like me, you might often wonder how did we get into such a mess and how is it ever going to be straightened out!  And honestly, I'm not sure my opin...

Today, Friday January 8 - Romans 2:5-16 – In Chapter 1, Paul addresses the heathen, his ways and the consequences of his actions and life. In Chapter 2, Paul deals with the hypocrite, his ways and how God will judge him.  A hypocrite is one who says he believes one thing but does not really practice or live out what he says he believes.  In some ways, we are all hypocrites because none o...

Today, Thursday January 7 - Romans 2:5-11 – A popular quote that is often heard is: “Your decisions today will determine your destinations tomorrow!” As I have studied my Bible over the years, I’ve noticed that this is a major theme of the Bible! Paul said in Galatians 6:7-9 “Be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man sows that will he also reap. If you sow to the flesh, you will of...

Today, Wednesday January 6 – Romans 2:4-6 – In the first three chapters of Romans, Paul is dealing with sin and the righteous judgment of God on sin, which is always death! Death means separation.  When someone dies, they are separated from us.  There is no longer any connection between us.  In the Bible, death speaks of separation from God.  We have no connection with Him in a...

Today, Tuesday January 5 – Romans 2:1-3 – What are you most critical of in other people?  What do you stand in judgment about in the attitudes and actions or sins of those around you?  Now this might hit you hard, but Paul, in these first three verses of this chapter, says that you are guilty of the exact same sin or attitude.  Wow! That hurts!  The hardest person for me to be...

Today, Monday January 4 – Romans 2:1-3 – When I was a teenager I can remember using the hypocrites in the church as an excuse for my own sins and rebellion against God.  I’ve heard that Mahatma Gandhi said in his search for truth as a young man, “I would have become a Christian, until I met some.”  What a tragedy that people who try to come across as being so spiritual and religious, are...

Today, Sunday January 3 – Romans 1:21-32 – I heard someone say years ago, “When the plain sense of Scripture, makes common sense, seek no other sense.” For a fact, for the most part, the Bible means what it says, and says what it means, and it does not need a lot of interpretation. The Bible is a revelation, an unveiling of the heart and mind and ways of God. In these last verses of Romans 1, the...

Today, Saturday January 2 – Are you prepared? And of course the answer is, “Sometimes we are prepared and sometimes we are not prepared.” And sometimes we think we are prepared when we aren’t really prepared. Back in my college days, I thought I had properly prepared for a big test in my Christian History seminary class. As soon as I started taking the test, I realized I had not studied the right...

Today, Friday January 1 – Do you ever get discouraged with being discouraged? Does it sometimes seem like the harder you try to do right, you experience even more failure? When you take three steps forward, next thing you know, you’ve gone back five steps? You are tired of New Year resolutions, which only make you more discouraged, because you didn’t keep them in the past? Jeremiah the prophet was...

Today, Thursday December 31 – Romans 14:7-12 - The Tyranny of the Urgent! As we review this past year and prepare for a new year tomorrow, I felt led to remind us that we should be aware of how the urgent things we deal with every day can easily keep us from doing the important things. It would be a great tragedy to look back over your life and realize that you stayed very very busy doing good thi...

Today, Wednesday December 30 – Romans 1:21-25 – The Apostle Paul is revealing what will happen to any culture, society or nation that begins to trust in anything else, rather than the God who created them.  He calls it, “Exchanging the truth of God for the lie.”  The most practiced “religion” in the world today, could rightly be called, “Secular Humanism.”  This is not a new religio...

Today, Tuesday December 29 – Romans 1:17-22 – It’s possible to be lost and not even know it. On my first hunting experience way back in 1976, just outside Winchester, VA, early in the morning while it was still dark, I was placed next to a tree in the forest, across from a creek, and told to sit and wait and freeze and eventually a deer would come. I did get a shot at a deer and thought I hit it,...

Today, Monday December 28 – Romans 1 – If you want to find out what happened yesterday, read the newspaper or listen to the news reports on the radio or television.  But if you want to find out why it happened and what is going to happen in the future, read the Bible! This first chapter of Romans gives us one of the clearest pictures in the Bible of what will happen to any culture, society or...

Today, Sunday December 27 – Romans 1 – Before we can begin to understand and realize how wonderful the Good News is, we must come under the gloom and power of the bad news! Honestly, that’s really the main story line of the Bible! The bad news begin in the Garden of Eden when Adam disobeyed God and sin entered the human race and mankind was separated from God and everything and everyone came under...

Today, Saturday December 26 - Romans 1:17 "Romans 1:17 "For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "The just shall live by faith." The Living Translation says it this way: "This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has...

Today, Friday December 25 – Romans 1:16– Merry Christmas!!!!! Wow!!!! This special day has finally arrived!  And here in Troutville, we woke up with a “white” Christmas.  One of the first that I can remember in a long time! We are often reminded, especially if you are watching the Hallmark Christmas movies, that Christmas is the time of miracles! The Apostle Paul had experienced the mira...

Today, Thursday December 24 – Romans 1:14-16 – Merry Christmas!!!!! But what a tragedy, that as most of the world today celebrates one of the greatest and most significant events in all of human history, they have never experienced the real reason for the season! God Himself is robed in human flesh so that He could die and pay the penalty for our sins! There are two verses that I remind myself of...

Today, Wednesday December 23 – Romans 1:14 – The Apostle Paul felt he was under the tremendous burden of fulfilling his obligation to tell everyone he could, about the pardon they had been issued, so they wouldn’t have to pay the penalty for their sins, which was death.  Instead of dying in their sins, they could receive this pardon and live eternally.  For sure we can't save anyone. &nb...

Today, Tuesday December 22 – Romans 1:14-16 – We meet the Apostle Paul in Acts 9, when he was called Saul and he was killing and persecuting followers of Jesus Christ.  He was a very religious man and actually thought he was doing God a favor.  But one day, he met Jesus personally, on his way to Damascus to imprison and kill more believers, and everything changed!  He asked two ques...

Today, Monday December 21 – Romans 1:15-16 – The Bible could rightly be called, “The Story of Hope.”  It could also be called, “The Story of Salvation.” If you study the Bible in its entirety, you will come to the conclusion, that the theme of the whole Bible is God’s plan of redemption.  Bringing sinful, fallen man back into a relationship with a Holy and Just God.  When Adam and E...

Today, Sunday December 20 – Romans 1 – The Apostle Paul is writing this epistle to the believers who are living in Rome, the capital of the Roman world. He personally knew many of them, and some were even people that he had personally led to faith in Christ. It is likely, though, that he had never met most of them and so, as he begins this letter, he is introducing himself. In the first verses he...

Today, Saturday December 19 – Romans 1:7 “…Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”  Did you ever notice that the Apostle Paul used this phrase in his introduction to every epistle that he was inspired to write! As I thought about what I’m trying to accomplish in sharing these Pastor Chats over the past many months, I realized that’s exactly what I want you to ex...

Today, Friday December 18 – Romans – Life is difficult to say the least! So, what can keep you motivated and going when everything is falling apart all around you? I’m sure there are several things that would help you, but on the top of my list would be the “calling of God” upon your life. In the first verses of Romans 1:1-7, at least three times we read about the “call”.  Paul makes it very...

Today, Thursday December 17 – Romans – People often ask the question, “What is Christianity all about anyway?” The world of so called Christianity, can be so confusing today with so many “brands” of it, all claiming to have a corner on the truth. Hundreds of denominations around the world and hundreds of churches in the same community that look and sound so different. So where would you go to real...

Today, Wednesday December 15 –  Romans – It is interesting that the very first epistle (letter), in the New Testament, after the Gospels and the Book of Acts,  is this great foundational, doctrinal book of Romans.  To be able to live right, we must first know right!  And actually, the Righteousness of God, is the theme of the book. The word righteous, is used in one form or ano...