GospelLife360 Podcast

If we have been crucified with Christ and we are a new creation, what is that supposed to look like? If we are in the process of being transformed into the image of Christ, what is that supposed to look like? I'm not sure we are looking into that spiritual mirror of our lives, and asking the right questions. There is so much more that happened on that day of our salvation than our names being written in the Book of Life! God didn't save us so that He may create a better version of ourselves. He is in the process of transforming us and preparing us for our entry into His glorious Kingdom. He is transforming us from one stage of glory to another! This is not an idle or casual process that we are involved in with our Heavenly Father! But when we gravitate to the comfortable and convenient, we will see very little transformation and miss out on what the Lord is desiring to do in us, and through us! Open up the gospel and join me in discovering the transforming work of the Holy Spirit in our lives!

2023 Is coming to a close, and as we look back on where we have come from this past year, what have we experienced of God's purpose and activity in our lives? Have we been too busy just managing our everyday lives to have noticed what God had planned and prepared for us? One of the major questions Christians ask themselves over and over again, is what is God's will for my life? As the new year approaches, and we make our New Year's Resolution, is God's will for our lives even a consideration? Are we willing to pay the price and make the necessary sacrifices to discover His will for our lives? We can only experience God's glory as we live within the middle of God's will! Jesus said, "I can only do what I see the Father doing." This coming New Year, make it your resolution, your conviction, and your commitment to be in the middle of God's will! God's will for your lives is your sanctification! To be set apart for His glory! To humble yourself that He might through the word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit transform you into a vessel of honor, useful for what He has already prepared for you!

rel·e·vant/ˈreləv(ə)nt/closely connected or appropriate to what is being done or considered.appropriate to the current time, period, or circumstances; of contemporary interest."critics may find themselves unable to stay relevant in a changing world"This is how the world defines "relevant". It gives the appearance of being very open-ended and up for interpretation.But for those who are followers of Jesus Christ, what is relevant? Is Jesus relevant? Is God's love relevant? Is the gospel relevant? Is God's grace relevant? You see, if there is no absolute truth then nothing is relevant. If truth is what you want it to be then you determine what is relevant in your life. But tomorrow when that all changes so does your relevancy!If the truth sets us free and there is no absolute truth, then freedom is not relevant! If God's grace is no longer sufficient, then God's salvation is no longer relevant!So, how can we as followers of Jesus Christ remain relevant in a non-relevant world? Let's open up the relevant gospel and find out!

There seems to be even among many Christians the idea that happiness and joy are the same or at least similar. Not!Happiness is a worldly pursuit that depends upon something happening to make us happy. It requires our circumstances and expectations to be met. How much could go wrong there?! Happiness requires us to be able to control our circumstances and the people around us. Again, not happening! (Pun intended)Happiness requires our feelings to be the determining factor. The heart is deceitful above all else, right?Joy on the other hand is based upon our relationship with Jesus Christ! The fruit of the Spirit is love and one of the by-products of that love is Joy! When we rest in His love for us and our love for Him there is Joy! And, the joy of the Lord is our strength! When we lose our joy we are left with the strength and abilities of our own flesh! The mind set on the flesh and our dependence upon that flesh is death! Our flesh cannot save us and our flesh cannot produce Joy!Join me in this journey through the gospel and discover the abundant life of Joy!

The days we live in seem to be getting darker with each passing day. We attempt to ignore it in order that we might not be overwhelmed by it. In John 3:19 God's word tells us that this is the judgment, that light is come into the world and men loved the darkness rather than the light for their deeds were evil. Men fear exposure!But there is a darkness that we find that belongs to us, and we must not allow it to rule our lives. We don't have to fear exposure, for our God sees all and has provided the grace and freedom for us to deal with our darkness. We must come into the light of His presence. Shame, guilt, and fear were never meant for us to carry very long. Sometimes our shame, guilt, and fear have been brought on by those who have hurt us deeply. We've attempted to deal with those painful sins on our own, only to create a deeper darkness with our weak substitutions. Sometimes our darkness is of our own making. We've allowed our own sinful choices to become a growing cancer that permeates our body, soul, and spirit. Jesus calls us to, Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest, I am gentle and humble in heart!

How would you define faith? Hebrews defines it as the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen.But Jesus described people's faith as little faith, no faith, and great faith. None of us can remain on the mountaintop of faith every day, so how would you rate your faith right at this moment? How would you rate it over the last 3 months or year? How is our faith impacting our lives, our family's lives, our neighborhoods, where we work and play, and the church we attend? There are some Scriptures I would like to share with you today that I hope will take you from where you are in your walk of faith to a place that will allow you to see the glory of God in a way that you have never seen it before!

In Ezekiel 22 God tells us that he was looking for a man to stand in the gap and build up a wall to stop the oppression and the wrong that was being done to the most vulnerable of their time, but Scripture tells us that He found no one!When good men do nothing evil prevails! When good men do nothing our children who are among the most vulnerable in our society are allowed to be swallowed up in the darkest of evils!We know these things are going on, but we choose not to think about it. We close our eyes to it and it continues to become even darker day by day!In Ezekiel 16 we are told that God destroyed Sodom, not because of sexual immorality but because they lived in arrogance, abundance, and careless ease, and did not help the poor and needy!  This problem of human trafficking is a huge monstrous problem, and it will not go away overnight! But we as followers of Jesus Christ can do something! We can find the most vulnerable in our community and begin to build walls and stand in the gap, being faithful to what Jesus died for and gave to us: FREEDOM!

Even as believers and followers of Jesus Christ, we struggle with who we are as a new creation in Christ. We are constantly wrestling with who people think we are and what we attempt to tell ourselves that we are that the reality of who Christ says we are gets lost in the noise.Being in the world but not of the world can many times confuse how we see ourselves. For all believers, no matter how long you have been a believer, this battle is real. Our desire to fit in and be accepted messes with our identity. We want to be successful in this world and success distorts our view of who we are in Christ.Scripture tells us that we have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer we who live but Christ who lives within us, but most of us still remain living under our old identity. It was for freedom that Christ died, but we find ourselves living under the bondage of our old nature and identity. Paul describes his new identity this way; I am who am I by the grace of God! God's grace was what defined his new identity. Let's look at some other Scriptures and discover an identity that allows us to live as new creations and walk in the freedom of the Sons of God!

Over the past couple of years, I've had numerous casual conversations that ended up gravitating toward church and faith. I didn't guide them that way, that's just where they went to. In those conversations I've heard the same story told with differing circumstances, but the same end result. People leaving the church or giving up on God. The pain, disappointment, and frustrations are real. The wounds and scars are visible. I believe the church as a whole has chosen to focus on the low-lying fruit. The Ministry of Reconciliation for the above folks will cost too much for most churches to commit themselves to over the long haul. I'm looking for people who like me find this disconnection heart-breaking and desire to see how God could use them for His glory and Kingdom. I'm finishing up a website called Vagabondfaith.com. A place to share their testimonies, find encouragement and find resources to start afresh in their journey of faith.My hope and prayer is that we can help people find their "Oikos". The Hebrew word for family. Family in this sense meant anyone within the household and those outside the household that we did business with or lived life with. These "Oikos" were small enough (20-50) to know one another, yet not so small we didn't have the resources to serve one another or serve our communities in a loving way.We should only be doing what we see the Father doing, and this is what God is showing me right now!Any questions or comments contact me at myvagabondfaith@gmail.com

Where is our faith if we do not trust in the sovereignty of God? Romans 8:28 is shared with numerous people when they are going through difficult times as words of encouragement. But the verse begins with the words, "And we know". What do we know? We know that God causes all things to work together for good! Do they? Well, that depends on whether you believe God is in control and is working through your difficult circumstances for His glory and eventually for your good! Is God sovereign if you do not see the good in things until you enter His glory? Is God sovereign if your circumstances get worse before they get any better? Can you say with Joseph, what others meant for evil, God meant for good? When we quote Romans 8:28, we must keep it in context with the Scriptures that surround it, in order to understand the promise He is making to us. Let's open up that Scripture once more together and let the promise become fresh and new to us once again for the days that lie ahead!

The Church is still trying to rediscover itself after the Covid-19 pandemic. I'm not really sure if we've learned all that God intended for us to learn through those difficult days. Many churches have made some adjustments when it comes to social media and adding online digital services to reach out to those who have found church online to be more necessary or convenient.But, where is the real fruit of the gospel being planted in the lives of those listening? Are we still counting the numbers that are showing up in person and online for our indication of fruitfulness?God builds His church! He adds to the church day by day as we faithfully make disciples who make disciples, who go into all the world with the gospel!What is the overall soil situation in our churches? Is the seed of the gospel falling on good soil? Are we equipping the saints for the work of service or are we managing volunteers who have shallow rocky soil? We will see the fruit when we start cultivating the soil with the whole gospel!

The words that we speak and the promises that we make may be well-intended and spoken with the utmost sincerity, but in reality, they can fall short of expectations as well as our own.But when God speaks there is no wavering from His intended purpose. Because His ways and our ways are not the same, we can sometimes misinterpret the final outcome, because it didn't happen as we expected or in the time frame we thought to be appropriate. When E. F. Hutton speaks, the commercial says that people listen. They do until their investments take a nose dive. When God speaks, not everyone listens. But the rest of His creation does. Think of the story of Jonah. God spoke and the waves, big fish, and a worm carried out His bidding. Let's open up the gospel and discover the importance of us listening to God's voice, and trusting that what He has spoken will accomplish everything that He intended for it to accomplish!

We have questions thrown at us every day. Some of those questions are insignificant, but there are a few that become life-changing in our lives. They set the course of direction and purpose. These life-changing questions usually have a high price tag attached to them. The Scriptures tell us that God's Word is living and active. But we should not think that we can casually read His word and maybe memorize a few key verses and think we have all the understanding we need.We need to look intently into the Word of God and as we do we must be honest with what we see and ask the difficult questions of what God is desiring to do in our lives. Then by faith, we must be obedient to the answer to our questions. We are going to look at a few sections of Scripture where we might discover the questions and answers that will transform our lives into the image of Jesus Himself. Join us!

Faith! Is that which is hoped for the conviction of things not seen! We can make it so simple sometimes, but is it? Salvation is a free gift of God, but faith is not just simple trust, but a total surrender to the One who is the object of our faith. There is no such thing as "faith in faith."Saving faith comes to us from God! It's an extension of His amazing grace. Each one of us has been given a measure of faith. But is the faith you claim to have "enduring" faith! It's the endurance of our faith that will eventually indicate whether we had genuine faith, to begin with.Allow the Word of God to speak to you on this issue of enduring faith!

We can easily find ourselves becoming so confident in what we do that we forget that Jesus said we can do nothing without Him. We live most of the majority of our days without the least acknowledgment of God's presence or purpose.Even when we are faced with circumstances that are beyond our ability to perform, we forge ahead and do the best of our ability to accomplish the task anyway. Though we are part of the Body of Christ we live and breathe our lives in prideful isolation. God's word has plenty to say to us concerning our thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought to think. The Body of Christ is suffering and our personal lives are unstable due to our attempts to live life outside of God's sovereignty. How much of your life is lived outside of God's sovereignty?

Many times we come across someone that looks very familiar and we ask, "do I know you?" They may look familiar, but sometimes people may have familiar features and mannerisms, and not be the person we know! We may know intellectually someone that we have read about in a biography or history book, but that does not mean we know them. We claim to have 500 friends on social media, but again that doesn't mean that we know them. So, the question arises, do you know God and does He know you?Let's open up the gospel and examine whether or not we know Him and whether He knows us.

WHAT'S GOOD ABOUT IT? We do a lot of good things in the Name of Christ, but are they really God's good things or just good things that we have done in our flesh for our flesh? Seems like an easy question to answer doesn't it? Our flesh can easily justify "good" things and place them under the heading of God's things. I believe if we look at the Gospel we will discover that there are certain qualifiers that define what things are good and come from God and are for God!Only the brave should enter here! Let's get serious about being faithful to what God has created and called us to do!

The wisdom of the world is unstable and unreliable, but the majority of people today, including many within the church put their trust in it.  A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways and the man who attempts to follow after Jesus Christ and trust in the wisdom of the world will live an unstable life. The wisdom of God is Jesus Christ Himself! This wisdom is a mystery to the world we live in.  This wisdom comes to us through the Holy Spirit as we walk in reverence with our Savior and Lord. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.The wisdom of God is pure, peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy, and good fruits, unwavering and without hypocrisy! The wisdom of the world is earthly, natural, and demonic. Are you living according to the wisdom from above?!

What does it really mean to live? And in what sense does it mean, to die is gain? Before God in His grace pursued us in His love, and saved us we were dead in our sins. We may have been breathing and our heart was beating, but we were dead spiritually. We may have by all practical purposes looked successful to the watching world, but without Christ, we were still dead in our sins. Many professing Christians believe in what Jesus did for them on the cross, but the reality of the life that was brought forth because of the cross and the resurrection is a mystery to them.If you have put your complete trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ; He has become your life! Life is no more defined by who you think you are, the status or title you have, or what the world has labeled you to be. To live is Christ, and to die is gain. We must as Paul put it, to die daily that we may gain Christ who is our life!

Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me. Whoever came up with this quote couldn't be more wrong. Words hurt! Words have brought more divisions and wars than anything else we could talk about. Scripture tells us that words bring forth death or life. A child's life is formed by the words they hear growing up. Marriage is strengthened or destroyed by the words each spouse speaks into it. Businesses grow or collapse by the words spoken over a period of time. Churches thrive or close their doors because of the words spoken by their members.Entering another election year the words that we are hearing through media outlets and social media platforms are so divisive and filled with hate. And much of the words we are hearing that are so hateful are coming from those proclaiming to be followers of Jesus Christ.If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, all that I ask is that you take a few minutes to listen and right down these Scriptures, and allow the Holy Spirit to reveal to you how we should use our words, making the most of every opportunity for the gospel.

There is a great deal of church hopping going on today, and now this issue has hit the fever pitch as podcasts and church online have given our consumeristic onlookers more options to choose from.They have their shopping lists of what they are looking for and expect from today's church. What is extremely sad is that most of what they are looking for is not biblically founded. It's about programs, methods, and styles of worship. It's about shorter messages that are non-confronting. But then those who are a little more familiar with Scripture, will hear a message from Acts chapter 2 and realize that the right answer is described here after the events of Pentecost. For church folks, this is the best description of what church should be, and the church we should all want. But behind the answer we know is right, is the lack of commitment and sacrifice to make this kind of church a reality.God said that He would build His church, but many churches thought that God needed a little help. As we read through these few sections of Scripture today, take a second look at what God intended for the church to be, and ask yourself, is this what we are becoming?

The gospel is the power of God for salvation! But the power of the gospel doesn't come from our persuasive words or wisdom. The transformational power comes from the revelation of that gospel through the Holy Spirit. We are to be the voices crying out in the wilderness preparing the way of the Lord to reveal His salvation to those He draws to Himself. We are the instruments of reconciliation as the love of Christ controls us, freeing the Holy Spirit to work through us.The word of God is sharper than a two-edged sword piercing as far as the soul and the spirit. Our faith is manifested in the power of the gospel and the working of the Holy Spirit bringing revelation to the glory of God in the face of Christ. Much of the deadness and lukewarmness in the church today is the result of man attempting to do something that only God can do through the gospel. Many who are sitting in pews today are holding onto a man-made salvation. They are searching the Scriptures to discover eternal life but are unwilling to come to Christ for the life they are searching for. They are not coming to Christ because they have seen the glory of Christ and the depravity of their sin, but rather they are searching for some self-preserving approach to avoid being crucified with Christ and dying to themselves so that Christ might become their lives. If you are uncomfortable with what I am saying, I would plead with you to look closely at what God's word says, and allow the Holy Spirit to reveal to you the glory of Christ and the power of the gospel.

One of the Greatest Disconnects of God's calling upon men today is found in Gal. 2:20. "We have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who lives, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me. There was a dramatic shift in who we are and how we live life on the day that Jesus Christ came to take up residence in our lives. For many men, not much changed on that day, if that day indeed happened. Many still live pretty much as they always did except now they attend church and call themselves Christians. God has told us that He has come to abide within us, and we are to abide with Him if we ever hope to live out this new life that He has called us to. What does it mean to abide in Christ, and what does that kind of life look like? Open up your Bibles and let the Holy Spirit get real and personal with you, as we discover what the gospel has to say about abiding with Christ.

Did you prepare for today? Did you prepare for this week? How about this month or year? We would like to think that we are prepared for at least the day we are living in, and maybe we are to some degree. We need to take responsibility for the things that are in our lane each day, but we can never be prepared for everything that the world confronts us with. Our greatest discouragement comes from the fact that we have convinced ourselves that we must be prepared for everything. In the midst of all our preparations, we must acknowledge and humble ourselves to whatever preparations that God has already made beforehand. What God has prepared beforehand for us is so much greater than what we could ever imagine.What we struggle with is, that what God has prepared for us usually never takes the path to get there as we thought it would. We miss many of the things that God has prepared for us because when God goes left, we continue going down the path of assumption straight ahead of us. God will always prepare our hearts for what He has prepared for us. Open up the gospel with me and discover the greater things God has already prepared for you!

Control or the lack of it creates such anxiety and fear in our lives. Even when we have done all that we can to create a safe and secure situation, we know living in the world we live in, we are never in complete control. The more we feel the control slipping through our fingertips, the more we try to control the things and people in front of us.  The level of control in our lives indicates the level of faith we have or do not have in the God who is truly in control of everything around us. Faith is that which is hoped for, the conviction of things not yet seen. So, how much do we truly live by faith, and how much do we persist in wanting to control the outcomes? Is it any wonder why the Lord tells us repeatedly, to fear not, and wait upon the Lord?

Fear is a part of every one of our lives. Fear was given birth in the Garden of Eden when man sinned against God, and attempted to run and hide from Him. Today, fear comes in many shapes and sizes. It reveals itself when we least expect it. We can all be caught off guard and startled by some unexpected event or circumstance. Its when we allow that fear to remain in light of Who Jesus is, and what He has promised. Fear erodes our faith to the point we find ourselves attempting to control everything around us including the people that love us. The more we attempt to control the more things become unstable around us. That double-minded man syndrome. Let's open up the gospel and discover how we can disarm the fear that attempts to steal, kill and destroy our lives. 

We are all created in the image of God. But we are all born into this world with a sinful nature. We don't become sinners because we sin, we sin because we are sinners. The natural bent of our heart is toward the flesh and satisfying its desires.When God calls for us to train up a child in the way he should go, it requires us as parents and adults to cultivate his heart to hear the voice of God and discover what glory He has created him for.As we see the rise in numbers of kids who are leaving the church after the age of 18, and as we see more and more kids who have never heard of the gospel of Jesus Christ; even those just down the street from our churches, something has gone terribly wrong.We have an obligation not only to our own children but to those who have been placed in our places of influence. Our neighborhoods, churches, schools, communities, and those who are being helped through non-profits and governmental programs.With the breakdown of the family, this problem has become an epidemic in our country. Your children may have grown up and left the house, and you may or may not have grandchildren, but you have some children in your sphere of influence that you need to make the initiative to cultivate their hearts before the thief is able to kill, steal and destroy!We can no longer turn a blind eye and make our comfortable and convenient excuses. What will the Lord find you doing when He returns?

The Titanic was one of the greatest shipwreck events of all time. It was said the architect and builder of the Titanic thought his ship was indestructible. Someone heard him say, that God Himself couldn't sink his ship.The portion of the iceberg the Titanic saw above the water line was not a threat, it was the iceberg that extended below the water line that sank the ship. So many lives, families, and communities were drastically changed because of that event. Over the years we have seen prominent pastors and church leaders suffer shipwrecked lives because they drifted off course. These are very visible in the media today. But the even greater tragedy is, that there are so many others within the church that have drifted off course and found themselves broken, and their lives and homes destroyed. They seemed to be managing their faith that is above the water line, but underneath within the heart, there was danger lurking, Our hearts can drift into the shallows of our flesh, and worldly desires until the impact of the sin shatters our lives.How can we avoid our faith becoming shipwrecked? Open your Bibles and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal how far our faith has drifted. Don't become another statistic for the world to use against the glory of God and His salvation.

How much time, energy, and resources do we expend in our efforts to justify our existence? We can feel so inadequate in who we are, that we find ourselves constantly on the defense as we self-justify the image we have portrayed to others around us. Our lies and insecurities have us working overtime in the futile game of justification. In and of our flesh we are incapable of maintaining the justifications we make. News flash! If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, you have been justified already. You are not perfect or complete, but in the eyes of God, you have been justified, redeemed, and reconciled by the blood of Jesus Christ.   Whatever life we live beyond the cross and the blood applied to our lives, should be acts of love, not attempts to justify ourselves before our loving God. If you are not living under the freedom that comes in Christ, or if you are not experiencing the peace that passes all understanding, you may have stumbled back into those fleshly efforts of self-justification again, and have fallen from grace. The justification that comes through Jesus Christ comes through His finished work on the cross. There is nothing more for you to add to that work. Matt 11:28-30 "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. 29 "Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls.  30 "For My yoke is easy, and My load is light."

Most of us who have been in church long enough have heard many sermons and teachings on confession and repentance. Sometimes repetition can numb us to the reality of both of those. I believe a great deal of our complacency and apathy in the church today is not so much the repetition of the messages we have heard, but the lack of understanding and application of God's call for a full confession. The word confess means to agree with God! We may agree with God that we have sinned, but we are not confessing why we sinned, or why our hearts chose to live selfishly instead of depending upon God for His provision and timing.If God knows the motive and intentions of our hearts, I'm sure the Holy Spirit is attempting to convict us of those motives and intentions. There can be no true repentance without a full confession. Complacency is formed in the soil of casual confession. The reason why most of us continue in the cycle of sin confess, sin confess, and sin and confess, without any real change of mind bringing about a change of action, is our superficial lives of confession.Explore the Scriptures with me and let's discover God's design for a full confession.

As followers of Jesus Christ, God is in the process of transforming us into the image of Christ Himself from glory to glory. He didn't save us to make a better version of us. This transformation doesn't happen without the intervention of the Holy Spirit and the power of the gospel. From the very beginning of our new life in Christ, the word of God has brought confrontation into our lives. We were first convicted of our selfish, self-serving sinful lives, revealing our hopelessness and lostness without Christ. Jesus is the author and perfector of our faith. What He started He will finish, but not without confronting the self-righteousness of our flesh. Our flesh will not give in without a fight. The Apostle Paul stated that he saw a different law in his members waging war against the law of his mind and making him a prisoner of the law of sin which was in his members.Paul also said that he died daily to his flesh. Sanctification and transformation will not happen without the confrontation of the truth confronting our pride and sinfulness. Avoiding the confrontation for comfort and convenience will only deter our transformation. Salvation is a free gift but transformation will always cost you something.  

Men's discipleship is suffering for a number of reasons. But one of the foundational issues is our lack of love for one another and our fear of confrontation. Many men are struggling and suffering in silence. They are drifting from the place God has called them to, and no one cares enough to go after them. Men have allowed some sin to remain in their life, and because of the guilt and shame associated with it, feel trapped and alone in their brokenness. In Galatians chapter six we are given the admonition to restore that man who is caught in that trespass, whatever that trespass may be. It calls out to those who are spiritual to be an instrument of restoration. A spiritual man is not a perfect man, but a man who desires to walk by the Spirit, with a heart of love, gentleness, and grace. God is the One who restores! We as spiritual men are to be faithful in the moment, with the man that God has placed in front of us. We are to make the initiative by the power of the Holy Spirit, and by faith, watch the power of healing grace do its work. 

Evil is the darkness that pervades our whole society! There is no place to escape from it. From wars between nations to the hostility that resides in many of our homes.Parents try to protect their children from it, and communities attempt to use law enforcement to curtail it. Churches preach against it and politicians create more laws to legislate against it. Evil was given birth in the garden of Eden and continues to be handed down to every new generation. Evil is a heart issue. Evil is anything we do that ignores and lives outside of what God created us to be. Evil is any form of unbelief! God is love. The opposite of love is not hate, but selfishness. When we live selfishly, we open the door for evil to prevail. The majority of our attempts to curtail evil are focused on the words, weapons, addictions, and the divisive categories we put each other in.If we do not deal with the selfishness, unfaithfulness, and unbelieving hearts that we have, the darkness will continue, and evil will destroy everything in its path.Jesus Christ and the power of the gospel are our only hope!  

I've been married long enough to know that when I get that look from my wife, without her saying a word, she is saying, "are you really going out looking like that?"I think I look just fine, but I know if I'm going to leave the house I'm going to have to at least change the shirt that I'm wearing, especially if I'm going somewhere with her! As Christians, we can become really comfortable with our casual Christian walk and lifestyle, but the Holy Spirit is saying, "are you really going to represent Me in the world you are living in looking like that?"There are two main outfits (if I can use this analogy) that we can put on as Christians. We can put on the righteousness of Christ, that He has given to us through His finished work on the cross, or we can put on our self-righteousness, as we continue attempting to prove we are okay and acceptable to God.To us, they can appear indistinguishable, but to God, they are so far apart. Let's discover what the Word of God has to say about these two outfits, and how we can tell which one we have on.

On our journey through the Beatitudes, we have come to the place where many people sitting in the pews will most likely get off the bus. When Jesus says that we are blessed when we are persecuted, many begin to squirm in their seats, and their minds begin to go off into never-never land as they attempt to block out the truths of our faith journey. When you and I walk in the life that has been described in Matthew chapter 5, it's not a matter if we will be persecuted, but when.Jesus said that if the world hated Him it will also hate those of us who are following after Him. The darker and more distant our world gets from the life that Jesus calls us to live, we can expect the persecution to increase.  Here is where I believe comes the greatest falling away from the faith that the church encounters. It's that place where we become complacent and lukewarm. In our attempts to avoid persecution, we compromise on the foundational truths given to us in the Sermon on the Mount. All of the attributes of the Beatitudes culminate here at the crossroads of faith and persecution. Will you get off the bus or continue the journey in following Jesus Christ?

All I want is a little peace and quiet! Have you ever heard that said, or maybe you are thinking that right now! Our problem with peace is that the peace that Jesus speaks about and the peace that the majority of people are looking for are most likely not the same. We read in the Scriptures that there is the peace "with" God, and there is having the peace "of" God. We can have both of these at the same time, but not always. We have peace with God because we have been reconciled back to God due to HIs death and shedding of blood on the cross. The peace of God is something we know by walking in faithful fellowship with Him on a daily basis. If you are living a casual Christian life and walking in lukewarmness, you can never know the peace of God. Jesus Christ is our peace! Knowing Him in your everyday circumstances allows you to know the peace that passes all understanding!Join us in this journey of Peace!

We continue discovering how we can maintain a heart that doesn't drift into lukewarmness as we travel through the Beatitudes. Today we look at Matt. 5:8 where Jesus proclaims that blessed are those who are pure in heart for they shall see God. James tells us that this is pure and undefiled religion, that we remain unstained by the world. The world produces complacency when allowed to defile the gospel message and the faith we are called to walk in. Out of our hearts come the foundations and essence of everything we are and live by. Join with us as we go through God's word and discover what it means to have a pure heart.

With all that has gone on and continues to go on, marriages have come under fire from all directions. Couples can barely find time to take a breath, much less find time for one another, and become one as God intended for us to be. Work, kids, appointments, the house, the yard, the neighbors, and the church all seem to be crying out for our attention. We can feel our relationship slipping away, but it gets pushed to the bottom of our priority list, because of the next emergency that arises. We search Google and YouTube for anyone that might have the best and quickest answer, but it all seems to be nothing but a word salad that only brings more confusion and frustration. I pray that you would take just a few minutes to listen to what the gospel has given us, that we might find some healing, hope, and joy in our marriages. As we open up the gospel, I want you to see the main theme in this Marriage Counseling 101 time together. We live out of the overflow of our relationship with Jesus Christ. If our marriages are faltering, it is because our relationship with Jesus Christ is faltering. Let the gospel speak new life into your marriage!

No, we are not going to talk about the Christian song group! We are going to look into the gospel and what it has to say about the mercy of God and the transforming power it should have on our lives. When we forget or take for granted the great mercy that has been extended to us from the Father of all mercies, we will definitely drift into lukewarm casual Christianity. We have been examining ourselves as we travel through the Beatitudes to see if we have possibly slipped into being lukewarm as the word of God portrays the last church age to be in the book of Revelation. We've examined ourselves by asking, are we walking in humility, are we maintaining a sensitivity to the sin that we sometimes justify, do we have a gentle spirit, do we hunger and thirst for righteousness, and today, do we live with a heart of mercy because we have been shown mercy?We can't live out one of these without the other. Humility is the foundation, but each of the rest builds upon the others.Are you living a lukewarm life? Has your church become lukewarm in its dedication to the Risen Savior?

Our bodies were created in such a way by God, that we have a natural response to satisfying our hunger and thirst needs. We can become unhealthy physically when we attempt to satisfy them with unhealthy food or drinks. But God has also created us with a desire for Him. He tells us that He has placed eternity within each one of us and that the eternal void can only be satisfied by His abiding presence.He tells us that we can find satisfaction if we hunger and thirst for righteousness. But like our attempts to satisfy our physical hunger and thirst with those things that are unhealthy, we many times try to satisfy our spiritual hunger and thirst with self-righteousness. An unhealthy spiritual life will lead us to that place of casual Christianity and lukewarmness. Unhealthy eating habits lead to obesity, diabetes, heart issues, and so many other debilitating health issues.Self-righteousness leads to compromise, complacency, a hardened heart, and a falling away from the grace that was provided for us on the cross. How are you satisfying your hunger and thirst?

We continue our journey through the Beatitudes. We are discovering how we can examine our lives to ensure we do not find ourselves living like the Laodicean church in the book of Revelation. LUKEWARM! We have discovered so far that we must walk in humility which is the foundation of everything else we will discuss. The next thing we discovered is that we must maintain sensitivity to our own personal sins. Not just say that we have sinned but to agree with God in the fullness of what they are.Today we are going to look at the importance of having a gentle spirit. The Greek word for gentle means that we have strength under control. This is a self-control that is the result of being under the Spirit's control. Jesus said that He was gentle and humble in heart and that we were to take His yoke upon us and learn from Him. So let's learn.

On our journey of examining ourselves to see if we fall into the definition that Jesus gives to the church in the last days; being lukewarm, we are using the Beatitudes as our examination tool.Not only to examine ourselves but also to use as our foundation to keep from drifting into that lukewarmness.  In Matt. 5:3 we've already discussed the humility that needs to be considered and now we will look to Matt. 5:4 and our need individually and corporately to see and deal with the sin in our lives. We know that Scripture tells us that where sin abounded that grace abounded all the more, but we must never take the grace for granted and allow sin of any kind to remain in our hearts or minds.Let the word of God speak!

As we spoke last time concerning the lukewarmness of the church as we live in the last church age of Laodicea, we now will look to the Sermon on the Mount to discover how we can prevent ourselves and the church as a whole from becoming those casual Christians. Humility is the foundation of our relationship with Jesus Christ that keeps us from being conformed to this world and becoming lukewarm. There is no sanctification, no transformation, no fruitfulness, and no walking by the Spirit with living a life of humility

We are living in the last church age as we look to Revelation and its revealing of the Lukewarm Church. Many of us would try our best to separate ourselves from this defining statement given by Jesus, but the reality is, His word is not up to our own interpretation or justification. Are there people in the church today faithfully serving and proclaiming the gospel, as well as making disciples? There are! God has always provided for HImself a remnant to move His kingdom forward. But if we are going to be faithful to HIs word, we must be willing to examine ourselves as well as the church we are placed within to see if we are truly taking up our cross and following Jesus Christ!His words in Revelation chapter 3 are troubling! They are more uncomfortable than we would like to admit. But to ignore them or justify them away is extremely dangerous. His words to the Lukewarm Church are a loving expression of His love and grace, but they carry eternal consequences if we do not repent!

We are told in Scripture that we are not to be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of our minds. But that transformation is not into a better version of ourselves, but into the image of Jesus Christ! This transformation is what allows us to experience the freedom that comes from knowing Jesus Christ and walking in fellowship with Him every day. Transformation is impossible for us to accomplish in and of ourselves, it is the work of God in us and through us in everyday life and circumstances. Taking up our cross and following Him is paramount to our transformation. Also, vital to our transformation is our faithful obedience as we serve within the body of Christ. Salvation starts at the moment of our salvation and continues as God works out the fulness of that salvation as we enter into glory with Him. Jesus is the author and perfector of our faith, as well as the author and perfector of our transformation. Transformation is focused upon the image and glory of Jesus Christ, and not the image we desire or our glory. The fruit of the Spirit is the evidence of our transformation.

The Apostle Paul said, that I am what I am by the grace of God. Grace is what defined him. He discovered that when he was weak it was then he was strong through the grace given to him through Christ. If God's grace is so amazing, shouldn't it be seen by the amazing life we are living to the glory of God? If it is in our weakness that the glory of God's grace is revealed in power, what is the watching world seeing concerning this amazing grace?Is God's grace truly sufficient for you, and how is this amazing grace transforming your life to become more like Christ?

There are so many men sitting in the pews today that are hiding in plain sight. They are religiously busy but their busyness is nothing more than their futile attempt to hide from God's calling on their life. They have chosen comfort and convenience over the cost of carrying their cross and following Jesus wherever He goes. There is a cost to hiding and there is a cost to us as men not taking up our cross daily and serving the One who has redeemed us and reconciled us back into a relationship with the Father.Understand gentlemen, you can run but you cannot hide from the God who called you!Come out of your hiding and into the glory of your Heavenly Father!

This is not about exposing the darkness of this world, for that darkness has become brash and unashamed to live out in the open every day. We as followers of Jesus Christ need to expose the darkness that we have allowed to remain in our own hearts and lives. This is about the desires that are naturally ours by God's creation but those in which we attempt to satisfy outside of God's will and design. Our flesh and spirit are in opposition to one another, and if we allow our flesh to choose the means of satisfying our personal desires we will find ourselves living in the darkness that comes from our sinful choices. Exposure is never a comfortable thing, but we have the grace of God that is sufficient for us to overcome the darkness that remains in our hearts.This is not an easy journey, but it is the only journey to our freedom and peace.

Every day we write another chapter into our life's story! Many times the chapter we are writing does not play out like we hoped it would have.A great deal of the anxiety we struggle with comes from our frustration and disappointments in our life's story being played out differently than we have written it.Did you realize that God has already written your story out to its final details? If we would just understand that our freedom and fulfillment are found in living out the story He has written out for us!Open up the gospel with me and discover the amazing story God has prepared for you. If you try to save your story you will lose His. But if you lose your story for His sake and the gospels you will find the beautiful story He has for you.

When Jesus Christ becomes real when His word is more than a set of principles for you to live by; life as you once knew it changes. Of His fullness, we all have received, and grace upon grace. When His word becomes flesh in our life we will begin to be transformed from glory to glory.When we realize that we are a temple of the Holy Spirit and that His glory abides within us, our desire will be to glorify Him in all that we do. Has HIs word become living and active in your life? Are you living for HIs glory or your own? How can we believe when we seek the glory that comes from man?Scriptures: John 1:14,16; 2 Cor. 4:3-6; 2 Cor. 3:14-18; 1 Cor. 6:19-20 John 17:22-23; 1 John 1:1-3; John 5:44; John 17:4

Faith! Is it real? Is it changing my life? Is it impacting the lives around me? Scripture calls us to examine our faith. But how do you do that? What determines if my faith is real or just manufactured by my self-righteousness. Scripture again paints a vivid picture of what real faith looks like. Take the test and see!