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The Kingdom of God (God’s sphere of salvation) is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. The watching world should be taking notice of the evidence of God’s grace in our lives. Spending your life on minor issues is akin to rearranging the deck furniture on the titanic. Instead, we should be pursuing the things that make for peace and build the church.

When our preferences have become more important to us than the people for whom Christ died, we have made idols out of our opinions. In these verses, Paul shows us that you can be strong and wrong. If practising our Christian liberty places a roadblock in the path of another believer, we need to realise that we are tripping up someone for whom Christ died. However, laying down our Christian liberti...

Paul has told us that we are not to judge each other on non-essentials. But how do we stop trying to "fix each other"? Paul shows us that we accomplish this as we acknowledge the Lordship of Jesus through his death and resurrection.

“Part of the reason we don’t grow deeper is because it’s easier to let someone else do it for us.” In this message Mark Vanderwier warns us not to get stuck with a secondhand faith, rather to build a relationship with the Lord that goes deeper. Mark further explores how we can do this together. Have you grown spiritually lately?

The favourite pastime of Christians is changing each other. Paul teaches us how to avoid the urge to fix our fellow Jesus followers by minding our own walk.

Our giving and hospitality need to find their roots in our identity as children of God who brought us into His family when we were far from Him.

Everything changes when we are living in the sphere of hope.

When we serve for the wrong reasons, we can find ourselves quickly burned out and disillusioned. However, if we serve the Lord, we are serving the greatest person in the universe who calls us to serve Him, while at the same time, He is serving us.

Paul tells the Roman church that he does not want them to be ignorant regarding God's plan for the Jews and the Gentiles. To understand God's plan for the Jews, we need to have an understanding of covenant as recognised during the times of the Abraham, Issac and Jacob.

Romans 10:16-17 Shows us the importance of faithful and faith-filled reading of the good news about Jesus.

Charles Spurgeon called the Apostle Paul the master of condensation. Paul can take the Gospel message and condense it down to a few great phrases. That is what Paul does here in Romans 10:8-9.

When God brings you into his family, he gives you a new identity in Christ. You receive the family name, the family likeness, and the family love.

Our new freedom in Christ is exemplified as we say yes to the Spirit and no to the flesh. If you invert that order, you will put yourself into a legalism trap. This self-trust will result in a deadly collision of your ego with your weakness.

Our freedom from sin and death is a direct result of God’s no condemnation declaration. There are many ways to avoid sin. I have countless books on breaking habits with many great tips and tools. But the result will not be God’s righteousness, but self-righteousness which according to God is no righteousness. God’s forgiveness and through faith in Jesus must come first, and then will empower us to...

Message from Wesley DeVries on November 26, 2017

We are experiencing an epidemic of worry, depression and anxiety in Canada. Romans 8 is the cure, the solution to this epidemic! When someone is worried, anxious or depressed, it is usually in one of these three areas: A regret from the past, anxiety about the future, or an obstacle in the present. In the first verses of Romans Chapter 8 Paul tells us that there is no condemnation for our past, he...

Message from Wesley DeVries on October 29, 2017

The law is good, but it cannot make us good. God wants us to realize that His goodness is impossible to reach apart from Jesus.

The saying "Just a Sinner saved by grace" is not confidence. We use this phrase to justify the complete lack of victory and forward momentum in our lives. Is that the gospel message? It's true that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. But the moment you put your faith in Christ, sin lost its power! Paul says: "Sin shall not have dominion over you." Why? Because you are not under law, but...

God doesn't simply improve upon our old lives, but He gives us an entirely new life in Christ.

In Romans 6 Paul explains that continuing in sin would be inconceivable for those who have been given new life in Christ.

Discontentment is a lack of faith, not believing that God knows what is best for you and that He knows what He needs to do in order to provide for your needs.

Philippians 4:8 "What a small little part of a person’s life are his acts and his words! His real life is led in his head, and is known to none but himself. All day long, the mill of his brain is grinding, and his thoughts, not those other things, are his history" - Mark Twain It is very important to think about what we have been thinking about. What is on your mind? Paul challenges us to think th...

Philippians 4:6-7

Philippians 3:17-19 In this scripture, Paul is addressing the con artists in the church. He shows us that a good "antidote" to these evil examples is a good example. He encourages the Philippians. Paul wants his life not to be admired, but imitated. All men will imitate someone. Paul wants us to be imitators of those who are wholeheartedly devoted to Christ.