It doesn't matter how impressive your service and your gifts look on the outside, if you don't have love your gifts are nothing but an empty present...And empty presents never change the world.

Worship is a decision, it's a state of mind, an attitude, a posture. It is our heart and our mind making a decision for Christ, so we can't help but have Him overflow from our lives. That is what it means to worship in spirit and in truth.

Being sure you are right, and purging those who are wrong, sometimes seems like the road to peace. But it isn’t. Only love, as revealed through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, brings peace, and joy, and harmony. We are here to build the Kingdom of God by each of us, alone and together, living the Gospel in everything we do. And step one to achieving this goal is: we must love one anoth...

Have we just learned the right words to say, or is there something more behind them? Beautiful words from am unloving heart are just noise because if we don't genuinely love others, our words are meaningless. Loving one another as Jesus loves us reflects Him to the world, so let it be said of us that we are truly His disciples by how we love one another. When we walk through the doors of the churc...

The thing the world will know is by is our love. In our lives, our conversations, our Tweets, and our online posts we should be showing the love of Christ as He would.

If you give your whole heart to Jesus and make Him Lord of your life, He has promised that He will guide your path.

Jesus wants to give us a wonderful gift that we can share with others. Even when we're at what seems like our lowest point, He's by our side and we can turn a hardship into something to rejoice over. What gift does Jesus want to bring to you right now?

God loves us so much that He sent Jesus to deliver us. Have you let Jesus save you from your sins? Have you done the hard work you need to do today?

Finding favor with God does not mean the hardships will vanish. It simply means now the hardships have meaning, for they, even more than the blessings, become the means by which you bear witness that God is with us.

When Satan tells you that you are a sinner, and cannot hope to receive blessing from God, tell him that Christ came into the world to save sinners.

We are all temples or reference points to show the world the God who is love. The Spirit will use us as a way for God to reveal Himself to people as a God who wants to be with them.

A thank you for the implact that Pastor Bernie and his family have had on the Forest Lake Church as he transitions to his new role with the World Vision organization.

When the Spirit comes into our lives, we have much to celebrate and be thankful for. Even when it doesn't seem to make sense, when we trust in the Spirit our lives are enriched and we can impact others around us for God.

If we don't jump in and desire to experience the fullness of what God wants to do in our lives, we run the danger of just "faking it until we make it" which means we will never make it spiritually.

Is it possible that we have it too good? Is it possible that we, at times, have mistaken prosperity and comfort as God’s will for us? Are we willing to follow the Holy Spirit when we are clear that to do so will profit us, but a bit more reluctant to follow when the course the Spirit points out will definitely be difficult?

When we work together, we can be wings of hope in our community. Sometimes we can even be that hope for those outside of our community as well.

Present Truth is never stagnant. It is always moving forward under the command of the Holy Spirit. And even if you have all of Scripture memorized and systematized in a matter satisfactory for today, you may find that tomorrow Present Truth has moved on and left you behind.

What’s the RESULT of a conversion experience? How do we know that something has happened or is happening? A way to live life to the fullest.

How long have you resisted the Holy Spirit in your life? Is today the day you need to stop resisting?

Pastor Bernie shares an update on his family's future as he transitions to work with World Vision.

As Christians, we are to be witnesses to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. When the Holy Spirit comes upon us, how bright will our witness be?

What would become of us if the Holy Spirit fell on us in our lives as it did on the first believers at Pentecost?

We experience profound and significant community when we work together with purpose under the Holy Spirit's leading.

God has a purpose for us in our lives and as a people. Sometimes as we seek to do His will we come up against a seemingly impossible barrier, and it is easy for us to lose heart and just give up. But if God is truly in the work He has given you, to do, then He will be faithful and send a word of encouragement when we falter if we will listen for it. And if we get back up and push through, we will...

When people see us, do they see God? Would they say if us that God is with them because they have joy in their faces, in their hearts, and reflected in everything they have and do. Not necessarily with material things, but with a richness that will last forever.