Pastor Mike Impact Ministries

Today, Tuesday December 15 – For the next several weeks, we will be looking at the book of Romans.  As a brand new follower of Jesus back in 1971, I quickly realized that I desperately needed a good foundation for my walk with God.  I was taught and believed that the Bible was the book, I should be reading, studying, memorizing and meditating on, more than anything else.  The first...

Today, Monday December 14 – James 5 – Today we will conclude our study in the book of James. The last two verses of this book reveal the real intent and motivation of James for his readers. The whole book is about being a spiritually mature follower of Jesus Christ. This is one who lives a life of effective and fervent prayer that produces a patience with life’s situations and a patience with othe...

Today, Sunday December 13 – James 5 – Prayer and Patience! Patient people pray and prayerful people have patience! The two go hand in hand. You can’t really have one without the other.  James concludes his epistle talking about the patience of Job and the prayers of Elijah! In most cases, we can’t determine or help what happens to us in life. But we can choose how we will respond to the diffi...

Today, Saturday December 12 – James 5 – We are so often discouraged with prayer that we begin to neglect to pray, because it seems that our prayers never get answered. We ask God to help us with our problems or with our habitual sins, and we wake up the next day and commit the same sins again. Do you ever feel that way? I believe James has some answers for this in our chat today! We should first r...

Today, Friday December 11 – James 5 – One our greatest privileges and responsibilities is to pray! We need to understand that there is a right way to pray but there is also a wrong way to pray. James 4:2-3 reminds us: “You have not because you ask not. You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly that you might spend it on your own passions.” Wrong praying is selfish praying. Praying simply...

Today, Thursday December 10 – James 5 – As we look at the last chapter of this book, James seems to conclude with the same theme that he started with, patience!  A mark of a mature person is one who is patient with others, and with circumstances beyond his control.  As believers we are blessed with the knowledge of the second coming of Jesus Christ.  This gives us great hope and wil...

Today, Wednesday December 09 – James 5 – It appears that one of the major themes that runs through the book of James is “Patience”.  You don’t ever want to pray for patience, because you would actually be praying for trouble to come your way! Remember the book of James begins with, “My brethren, consider it all joy when you encounter troubles, trials and difficulties, because these will try y...

Today, Tuesday December 8 - James 5 - We live in a broken and troubled world. Everyday I encounter and spend time with people who are broken. When something is broken, like a plate that fell on the hard floor, it means it has come apart, it is now in separate pieces. When sin entered this world, it separated man from God and ever since, everyone in the world experiences this brokenness. Today as y...

Today, Monday December 7 - James 5 - Years ago I read a book by Gene Getz called, "The Measure of a Man".  How do you determine the "Spiritual maturity" of a believer?  He noted from 1 Thessalonians 1:3 that there are three areas we can look at and "measure" to see if we are growing in our walk with the Lord.  "Remembering ... your work of faith, and labor of love and patience of ho...

Today, Sunday December 6 – James 5 – Over the years as a pastor and a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I’ve had to remind myself what the Lord has really called me to be doing.  It is so easy to get side-tract, distracted and discouraged as we serve the Lord and have to deal with the “raw” side of life so often.  Paul’s last words, just before he was martyred by Nero, were written...

Today, Saturday December 5 – James 4:11-17 – Is your peace being disturb today? Usually, when that is happening, it involves another person who has said or done something that caused us to get a bad or hurt feeling. In this chapter, James is dealing with conflict that come into our lives, our families, our churches and even our nation and the world. As he points out, we must always remember that t...

Today, Friday December 4 - James 4 - The root of all of our strife and conflict is pride!  Pride keeps us from receiving God's wonderful grace that enables us to deal with every situation and challenge we face in life everyday! James tells us what to do at this point in verses 7-10.  First we must "submit to God"! This means to surrender our will and our life to Him and be willing to com...

Today, Thursday December 3 – James 4 – My biggest problem and temptation in my life is pride. My greatest need for every moment and every day of my life is the grace of God. The Apostle Paul proclaimed, “By the grace of God, I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” (1 Corinthians 15:10)...

Today, Wednesday December 2 – James 4:6 “But he gives more grace. Therefore He says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” I’ve always thought that this verse summarizes what the rest of the Bible says, teaches and illustrates. Pride is the root of all sins! It is the sin with a thousand lives! The very first sin of the universe was pride. Satan, one of God’s leading angels, who...

Today, Tuesday December 1 - James 4 - We are at war! If we woke up this morning and turned on the morning news or looked at the headline of the local paper and we heard or read these words, "We Are At War!"  We would immediately ask the question, "Who are we at war with?" We would want to know who is attacking us, who wants to destroy us?  My friend, if you clearly read the headline in t...

Today, Monday November 30 - James 4:1-3  War is a fact of life, in spite of treaties, world peace organizations, and the threat of atomic bombs.  Not only are wars between nations, but there are wars of one kind or another in almost every level of life.  Throughout the Book of James we see that James is touching on several areas of conflict and strife in our lives.  He starts b...

Today, Sunday November 29 - James 4 - The Book of James is such a practical book.  It meets us right where we are!  James has been talking about spiritual maturity, being a grown up believer!  In Chapter 1, the marks of a spiritually mature people is that they can face trials and temptations with patience and overcome them.  They will be obedient doers of the Word.  In Cha...

Today, Saturday November 28 - James 3:13-18 - As a young believer in my early twenties, I read and memorized this verse in the Book of Proverbs: "He that walks with wise men shall be wise, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed."  As I continued to study the Book of Proverbs and the Bible, I realized actually there are only two categories of people around me, the wise and the foolish. &n...

Today, Friday November 27 - James 3:5-13 - Years ago I heard Zig Ziglar say, "The way to climb the ladder of success in life, is not by stepping on other people, but by pushing the people around you, up ahead of you, and you will get caught up in the draft!"  So often we step on other people, putting them down in the eyes of others, so we will look better, and we do this with our tongue. &nbs...

Pastor Mike Special Thanksgiving Chat 2020 - The Lord laid it on my heart to do a second chat today, to especially encourage and pray with so many who might have lost a loved one this past year, and this is their first Thanksgiving without them.  So many others might be facing family or financial crisis that has left them broken or broke.  Others of us, might have a loved one or friend i...

Today, Thursday November 26 - James 3 is dealing with the power and influence of one of the littlest members of our bodies, the tongue.  In this chapter we learn that the tongue has the power to direct, the power to destroy and the power to delight like a fountain or a tree.  Today, would be a good day to remember that our tongues can also be used to praise, to give thanks to the Lord Go...

Today, Wednesday November 25 - James 3:2-5 - Verse 5 says, "So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boast of great things."  The tongue is little and hidden inside our mouth, but what tremendous power and influence it has.  That's the point James is making here.  Have you ever heard someone say, "Oh, I'm sorry I said that, I take it back."  But the truth is, once you said...

Today, Tuesday November 24 - James 3 - If there is anything that has gotten me into trouble or has cause a problem in a relationship with someone, it is my tongue! How about you?  Well, that's what James is dealing with in chapter 3.  In chapter 1, we find the mark of a spiritually mature person is their attitude toward suffering.  In chapter 2, it's their obedience to the Word of G...

Today, Monday November 23 - James 2:14-26 - In this passage James says at least twice, that "faith without works is dead."  He concludes with this in verse 26, "For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead."  We can afford to be wrong about a lot of things and it really won't matter in the long run.  I can be wrong in thinking I have a five d...

Today, Sunday November 22 - James 2:14-17 - The great reformer, Martin Luther has been quoted as saying, "The Book of James is an epistle of straw." If you remember, his message that laid the foundation for the great protestant reformation was, "The just shall live by faith" or said another way, "Justification by faith and faith alone."  Martin Luther was dealing with the religious, ritualist...