Anxiety is on the rise in America. Anxiety disorders afflict an astounding 40 million adults in the United States today according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America. Keeping in mind that these include only those with official diagnoses. The actual number of those vexed by chronic anxiety is likely much higher. Beyond these…
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Treasure in My Heart
A wonderful believer was recounting a very serious family difficulty and remarked that in looking back on the tragic time, she saw where she would crumble in her trust that Yahweh would provide relief from the pain. But, being the steadfast believer she is, this was short-lived. The reason for the quick turn-around was, she…
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Overcomers (Study of 7 churches in Revelation) Part 2 – SMYRNA
The second and third chapters of Revelation record Jesus’ communication to seven of the churches in Asia. This article is the second in a series of seven reviewing these chapters. Although Jesus spoke specifically to each church, his message is of great significance to all who want to enter the Kingdom of God. CHURCH IN…
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The LORD is my Banner
Many debate whether Yahweh is involved in our life events or not, and also, if He is involved, to what extent He is involved. Is He really interested in helping me with my problems? Is He really there to support me in times of trouble? Let us look at a record of Moses leading the…
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Jesus’ Guidelines for Prayer
Jesus provided very specific instruction about prayer in His first teaching, The Sermon on the Mount, and in Luke 11 when his disciples asked “Lord, teach us to pray.” “When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street…
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Clean Hands and a Pure Heart
Today’s news is basically the same content: steal, kill, and destroy. How can one live in this world with peace and joy? Humankind looks to all kinds of activities that, for a short time, may try to fill the void that only Yahweh can fill. Many Christians today, if asked, will report that they are…
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Who is on the Throne?
The problem for mankind since Adam and Eve’s fall is “self” replacing the centrality of God in their minds and therefore actions. When we consider the self-centeredness common to all of us, it is hard to imagine what it was like to always have God rather than self enthroned in the heart. We are all…
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Follow Me
Shortly before his ascension, Jesus had a significant conversation with Peter. John 21: 17-22 He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, “Do you love Me?” And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things;…
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Dealing with Our Culture 4: Progress
Over the course of time, humanity has made incredible progress. Slavery was once a widespread and accepted institution, but it is almost universally outlawed today. Workers’ rights, including child labor and equal opportunity employment, have made great strides in the last century. The realm of medicine has made remarkable progress over the last couple of…
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Dealing with Our Culture 3: Tolerance
Tolerance, as our culture defines it, is the idea that people should have the freedom to be themselves. You shouldn’t try to change people or hold them to your standards. You certainly shouldn’t push your religion on others. Faith is a private matter, so proselytizing is immoral. You shouldn’t label, define, or stereotype people. Since…
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Holy is He
Yahweh our God is THE God! Deuteronomy 10:17 says it well: For Yahweh, your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God who does not show partiality nor take a bribe. The Bible makes clear there are other lesser gods and other lesser…
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Balaam and the Birth of Jesus
The birth of Jesus Christ was extraordinary, or should I say supernatural, in so many ways with perhaps the most surprising being the fulfillment of the prophecy spoken by Balaam. When Israel was at the end of their 40 years in the wilderness, they came to Moab just east of where they would eventually cross…
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Dealing with our Culture 2: Hyper-Individualism
In my last post, “Seeing the Filter,” I considered how the culture is constantly nudging our sense of what’s normal by scripting and re-scripting what we think will make us safe and happy. The world puts filters over our eyes to color how we perceive everything without us even noticing it. Such deception is insidious…
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Dealing with Our Culture 1: Seeing the Filter
This past summer, I learned how to surf at Jacksonville Beach in Florida. While I was in the ocean, I constantly battled the waves pushing me towards the beach and the undertow pulling me back towards the sea. However, it was not until I came out of the water a quarter of a mile down…
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Donald MacMillan Family Praise Service
Donald MacMillan of Scotland is visiting this weekend and will be sharing and leading us in a praise service at Living Hope on Saturday night at 7pm as well as helping out Sunday morning. This will be a great time to enjoy Christian music and extol our wonderful God together that you won't want to…
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The Confession of Sins
At the heart of redemption, Romans 4 declares the following assurance while using a quote from Psalm 32. Look at David, too, for a moment. He describes the blessedness of the man whom God reckons as righteous on a basis other than that of works when he says: Blessed are they whose transgressions have been…
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Habits of a Disciple: 6 Giving
When we lived in Georgia, Ruth and I visited Creflo Dollar’s church, the World Changer Dome, for a Sunday service. We went to fulfill an assignment for our preaching class to attend a service different from our own tradition and write a report about it. We parked far away from the large building. So many…
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ADVERSITY AND BLESSINGS
Are a life of adversity and a life of blessings diametrical opposites or complementary realities for a believer? David, one of our great patriarchs and role models, lived a life filled with adversity and extraordinary blessing. He authored many of the Psalms that revealed his thoughts and actions in the midst of his struggles. David’s…
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Nature, Nurture, and Faith
With advances in the past twenty years, geneticists have greatly increased our understanding of how DNA effects our human development. Neuroscientists, bolstered by incredible imaging techniques that show activity on the molecular level of the brain, report about phenomenal electromagnetic, neurochemical, and physiological workings of our brain. Psychologists in the past thirty years have been…
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KINGDOM JUSTICE
“Lord, teach us to pray,” Jesus’ disciples said, and for the second time, he taught what is today commonly called the Lord’s Prayer. With the prayer he gave instruction to avoid hypocritical attention seeking and meaningless rote repetition; yet, he said to offer the prayer at least daily. Noteworthy is the substantial emphasis placed on…
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Habits of a Disciple: 5 Evangelism
It was a warm sunny day when Sal, Jaired, and I went to Washington Park in Albany looking for someone to talk to about the gospel. It was Sal’s turn. He had watched me talk to some folks, but now he was going to give it a try. He spotted a middle-aged African American man…
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By This We Know
Much of the New Testament was written against the backdrop of the lure of false religion. For example, in the early years of Christianity, shortly after Paul and Barnabas first travelled to the southern part of the province of Galatia, where churches were established in the cities of Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe (Acts…
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The Stability Of Thy Times
Isaiah 33:5,6 The LORD is exalted; for he dwelleth on high: he hath filled Zion with judgment and righteousness. And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times, and strength of salvation: the fear of the LORD is his treasure. The people of God in the days of Isaiah had turned away…
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Kingdom of God from Isaiah
The phrase “kingdom of God” is not found in the Old Testament although the concept regarding God’s Kingdom is written in every Old Testament book. Jesus, however, used the phrase often and the metaphorical equivalent “kingdom of Heaven,” in which “heaven” represents God. Jesus either coined the phrase or more likely, it was commonly used…
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Yahweh Preserves the Faithful
As the year begins, it is good to renew ourselves to living an even greater life that is more faithful to Yahweh and to continue to allow Him to fight our battles and preserve us for the ultimate victory of entrance into the Kingdom. Many wonderful and glorious miracles will likely happen this year as…
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Grief and Loss – Joy and Victory
This may seem like an “odd” article topic for November and December. Actually, it is very on point. So many struggle with God, family, and others during the holidays because of unresolved grief and loss. This is the year to accept God’s deliverance. If we take the time to search our life, at some point…
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Habits of a Disciple: 3 Serving
I used to wait tables at Long Horn Steakhouse when I was going to the Atlanta Bible College. It was a great job for a lot of reasons. In particular, it taught me about service. You see my title was “server.” We had twelve steps of service, and the managers expected us to hit each…
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Shut Up!
Nowadays, in modern America, one can say, "Shut up!", in a lighthearted way as an equivalent idiom for saying, "No way!" The literal idea might be expressed as, "That is incredible!" Nevertheless, there is no mistaking what is meant when even a faint hint of assertiveness or anger is injected into "Shut up!" If one…
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EMPATHETIC CONSCIOUSNESS
The degree to which we are able to know God is restricted for obvious reasons. Although we are too limited to comprehend the vastness of God, we can gain some understanding about Him from His creation and the Scriptures. Due to His grace and lovingkindness, we can marginally acknowledge His creativeness, omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence.…
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Examining Ourselves
Examine yourselves: are you in the faith? Check yourselves out. Or do you not think of yourselves as having Jesus Christ in your midst? Because if not, you have failed. 2 Corinthians 13:5 (Unvarnished NT) But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of…
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Godly Contentment
As is recorded in the earliest chapters of Genesis, we see that mankind became discontented. Adam and Eve lived in paradise and communed with Yahweh, yet wanted something more. Adam’s son, Cain, wanted what his brother Abel had. Joseph’s brothers were jealous of his relationship with their father, so they planned to dispose of Joseph.…
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Habits of a Disciple: 1 Scripture Reading
Today, the entire Bible is available in 531 languages. Over forty writers contributed to it over 1,500 years. It is the most accessible book in the world with countless websites, apps, and paper copies available absolutely free. All of this seems even more impressive once we realize that the Bible is not a small book.…
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Righteousness
Heroin, cocaine, crack, methamphetamine, marijuana ‒ which is the most dangerous drug of all? In my experience after decades of counseling hundreds of drug users and addicts, without doubt marijuana is the most dangerous. The detrimental effects with all the others are far more immediate and devastating with the addicts experiencing jail, institutions, or death.…
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Something to consider
God bless you in the name of Jesus Christ. Thinking about our God and Father is always good to do, and every so often, when times are hard, dwelling on Him, His promises, and hope is my only solace. What follows is something consider. I Love Thee, O LORD [Yahweh], my strength. The LORD [Yahweh]…
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Mourning
Paul the apostle spent much time in the city of Corinth helping the young believers to develop. Sometime after his departure, word came back to him that they were struggling in many areas. God inspired Paul to write the epistle that is now referred to as First Corinthians wherein numerous confrontations are. The city of…
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Freed from Sin; Enslaved to God
In his teachings to the Jews at the temple, Jesus used himself as an example of how we are to live today to be Christians that are full of the holy spirit. Jesus first made it very clear that the Jews that were arguing with him were not free, even though the so-called believing Jews…
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The Big Picture
Going out my front door in winter, I see what looks like an upright bundle of prickly sticks, about fifteen feet tall. If I'd never seen such a growth before, I could wonder why such a scraggly looking monstrosity is planted in my front yard! But I know what will happen in the near future.…
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Sadness, Anxiety, and Depression
For many reasons as we are living in the world, we are assaulted with sadness, depression, and anxiety. Therefore the direct scriptural imperative to rejoice is needed but also challenging. Philippians 4:4-9 provides insight into the subject. “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!” (4:4) Focus on the world around us or…
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Building Our Faith
Adam and Eve listened to Satan’s complaint that they actually did not have all that they could really have – they believed the lie that Yahweh’s provision was not enough. Genesis 3:5 For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing…
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