Sound Mind Set

Today, our Scripture is 1 Peter 4:8-13 … Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins. Cheerfully share your home with those who need a meal or a place to stay. God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself wer...

Today, our passage is James 5:13 through 16, 19 and 20. Are any of you suffering hardships? You should pray. Are any of you happy? You should sing praises. Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord. Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well. And if you have com...

Today, our Scripture is Romans 12:1-5 … And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then yo...

We’ll begin our week with Philippians 2:1-5 … Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate? Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose. Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble...

Today is our final day of a week spent challenging ourselves to place all our confidence not in ourselves or others but in God. Let’s go back to King David in the Psalms and look at a declaration He wrote for his life that we too need to choose to make: Listen to chapter 118, verses 5 thru 9 … In my distress I prayed to the Lord, and the Lord answered me and set me free. The Lord is for me, so I w...

Today in our focus on placing our confidence in God, we’ll look at the Book of Hebrews. Again, we see the promises of God that offers us an eternal hope we can fully rely upon. We don’t trust in a story or a fairy tale but in a Person who delivered a plan for all humankind. Listen to Hebrews 6:16-20 … Now when people take an oath, they call on someone greater than themselves to hold them to it. An...

One of the greatest barriers to salvation itself can be mistakenly believing that we are somehow better than others, and that somehow guarantees Heaven. How many times have we heard someone say, “Well, I’m a good person”? But even after salvation, comparison to others and placing confidence in our ability to do good works can quickly get us off-track in our faith. In Luke 18, Jesus used a parable...

This week our focus is on placing our confidence in God, which of course means increasing our faith in Him. The Bible is filled with promises to us, offering the great consequences of a life of trusting Him. Listen to Jeremiah 17:7-8 … “But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach...

As we get started on our topic for this week, let me ask: how many times have you sensed you are starting to build up confidence in who you are and how you are doing, only for someone to do something or say something that rips the rug right out of from under you? In a heartbeat, we feel like all our confidence is gone. That is exactly why understanding this week’s truth as a believer is so crucial...

Wholeness was our state in the Garden but then the enemy of God came along and, through disobedience, robbed us all of that God-given state. The spiritual battle for us every day is choosing God over that same enemy, just as everyone in the Bible had to deal with as well. Listen to 1 Peter 5:6-11 … So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in hon...

Colossians 2:6-10 … And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him.  Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness. Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and...

Today’s passage is Romans 6:21-23 in The Message Bible … As long as you did what you felt like doing, ignoring God, you didn’t have to bother with right thinking or right living, or right anything for that matter. But do you call that a free life? What did you get out of it? Nothing you’re proud of now. Where did it get you? A dead end. But now that you’ve found you don’t have to listen to sin tel...

So much of our Christian lives is spent trying to get rid of things, things we hold onto and struggle with, all while knowing we need to let them go. From attitudes to toxic behaviors to unhealthy relationships. Today, we read a crucial concept for this process. It’s called the Principle of Replacement. Listen to Ephesians 4:31-32 … Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander,...

To get serious about wholeness and total health, we have to take a hard look at ourselves. Today is a tough Scripture passage from Jesus, but also a reminder that there is freedom on the other side of our battles. Listen closely … Jesus is not angry here, just being honest … “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. For you will be treated as you treat others.  The standard you use in judg...

On our final day of focusing on stability in a season of instability, we will once again take a look at our available place within a solid and supportive community. The original Body of Christ should always be our model for our current Body of Christ. God always has one way and what we find in Acts 2 is His way for and to community. All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, a...

This week in our look at finding stability in a season of instability, today and tomorrow, we will focus on the support we all need within a solid and supportive community. When we come to Christ, we are grafted into His family tree. We become a part of His body. That’s what the Bible teaches. We enter into an eternal community where we have a definite and intentional place in which we fit right n...

This week as we look at finding stability in a season of instability, this is never going to truly come when we keep trying to avoid loneliness by just filling the void with a person. Jumping into relationships when God is not involved or we are not ready just become major distractions that keep us from growing deep roots and getting our lives built on what we talked about yesterday, the Rock that...

This week our focus is finding stability in a season of instability. Yesterday, we went outside ourselves to God. Today, let’s look into our own hearts. In Matthew 7, Jesus’ teaching covers quite a few topics, but He offers us a clear metaphor of stability vs. instability and the action we can take to enact His help. Listen to verses 24-27 … “Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wis...

This week is a huge topic for anyone these days—finding stability in a time of instability. For Solo parents, there are several factors in play … the first is working on surrender to God to allow His stability to enter our hearts and minds. The second is working on ourselves to be stable in our own feelings and emotions. The third is finding stability, not in trying to fill the void with another r...

On our final day we will focus on a very well-known but always powerful chapter in Scripture - this is from Psalm 139. Listen carefully to the words of verses 1 thru 6 … O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me. You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I’m far away. You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do. You kn...

When the Pharisees asked Jesus which was the greatest commandment, He basically answered by boiling them all down to what appears to be two, but is actually three. Listen to Matthew 22:37-39 … Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as your...

One of the most powerful chapters in the New Testament is Colossians 3. Paul reminded us to try and remember Heaven when all Hell is breaking loose in our lives and to not allow the stuff of earth to rule our emotions, thoughts, and actions. We have to have a ground zero for our own hearts and minds, to take care of what we need to do and not do in our own lives. Since you have been raised to new...

One of the greatest disruptors in this day in which we live in our relational stability and our personal peace is anger. Especially on-going and unresolved anger. Listen to Ephesians 4:26-27 … And “don’t sin by letting anger control you.” Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry, for anger gives a foothold to the devil. (NLT) 99% of anger in our lives is at a person that we are in a rel...

One of the aspects of Jesus’ life we can easily miss because we know how often he was in large crowds was how He went away to be alone and to pray. He not only got away from people in general, but also even His small circle of friends and disciples. Listen to Mark 1:35 … Before daybreak the next morning, Jesus got up and went out to an isolated place to pray. This is one of those verses where you...

While Revelation can certainly be a challenging book for us to understand, there are some very powerful passages of what we are promised as Christ-followers. Listen to Revelation 21:3-5 … I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them.  He will wipe every tear from their eye...