We recently got back from the beach. Kenlee’s favorite thing to do at the beach is to pick up seashells. One night we were out picking up seashells and she was passing by the beautiful shells and picking up broken shells. I asked why she was picking up the broken shells and not the whole shells and she said “It may be broken but it still has a heart and beautiful to me.” What she said stopped me in my tracks and I thought WOW, my six year old daughter gets what most people never get. She was doing what we as Christians should be doing. We should be picking up the broken because they are beautiful and worth it. All too often outward appearances stops us from showing the love of God. A new com

Respond to crisis, suffering and tribulation. From suffering to overcoming victory. Read Exodus 1:6-21 You can grow in the midst of affliction. Honor God always! The midwives feared and honored God. Embrace God…don’t run. Fulfill your promises. Make a Plan! Exodus 2:1-9. Moses’ mother had a plan for her son and got paid. Do your part…faith without works is dead. Don’t react in the flesh. Respond by the Spirit. Ephesians 6:12 we don’t wrestle against flesh and blood. Exodus 2:11-25 Moses reacts and kills someone that cost him 4- years in the desert. Honor…Plan…Respond daily! In Jesus Name.

This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success. Joshua 1:8 We live in a very routine driven world. Whether it’s our coffee, our morning news show, or even our social media. We schedule everything in our lives, but how many times do we just put our Bible and Jesus time in when it is convenient. One of the best works of the devil to get us so busy with our lives that we start to let our time in the Word and with God start to become something that we get to when we have time. But honestly do we ha

Over and over in the Bible you see where someone is taken through a process. You see where they start and you watch as God grows them. He forms them into a mighty tool that he can use to lead his people or help someone who needs it. Most of the time restoration is found. Life is a process we go through highs and lows. Our life is a journey, some live a life where they can be a strength that others can lean on. Some, in the category that I fall under are restored. I say that to say this. Our Church is growing in a ministry that is so very valuable. Life has chewed up and spit out people who need to see Jesus. The devil roams around like a roaring lion seeking whoever he can devour. The church

Often times as a believer I have struggled with carving out time to commune with the Lord. From the time I was a young teenager I would have this constant reminder in my spirit of the importance of reading His word and spending time in prayer. At times it would be the enemy reminding me of my failure and most times it was my Savior who would lovingly call me to spend time with Him. It wasn’t until in my young adult life that I realized if I continued to listen to the voice of the enemy who reminded me over and over again of my short-comings, then I would never be able to live in the perfect grace of God. Once I realized that His grace covered my short-comings, then it was as if a switch was

Life is full of contrasts. We go through mountains, and we go through valleys. We go through successes, and we go through failures. We have wins, and we have losses. In weather, there are four seasons. But in our life, there are dozens of different seasons. And every season of life includes both good and bad times. Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 gives us a representation of different life experiences: “For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to harvest. A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to tear down and a time to build up. A time to cry and a time to laugh. A time to grieve and a time to dance. A ti

The year is 1892. The place is New Orleans and we are just in time for a major boxing event. It will be the first time it is fought under the new Marquess of Queensbury’s rule and gloves will be used. Before this time, fights were fought bare knuckle and without rules causing the fight to not be “respectable”! The challenger was “Gentleman Jim” Corbett and the favorite was heavyweight champion John L. Sullivan. The fight goes for twenty-two rounds and Sullivan is defeated. The year is 1942 and we are aboard the battleship USS Washington. We are in the midst of the Atlantic Ocean fighting furiously to prevent the threats to U.S. and British shipping by German U-boats. The allied losses

John 14:15-18 “If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever-the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” John 14:21 “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.” Our emotions will make orphans out of us. When we allow our emotions to dictate our truth, hopelessness creeps in. The Lord has called us to replace our cares and our bur

For Matt and I today, our coffee time together consisted of Romans 2. Wow! As he would say, it is a checkup from the neckup….or heartup! Please do not bypass this devotion today. God is speaking to us, I will type, as the Word of God lays it out….. In this chapter, Paul points out 3 principles that tells us about God’s righteous judgment. God judges according to: 1) Truth 2) Deeds 3) The “Light” that a person has (keep reading, HE will explain) The Truth…. You have no excuse, when you pass judgment on someone else, you are condemning yourself, because you do the same things. God’s judgment against those who sin, is based on truth, HIS truth. So, when you, a man, pass judgment on them and yet

How important is the name given to us at birth? Does it make a difference in our lives as adults? A lot of us were named after another member of our family, or a friend or someone famous. Our name often times defines who we are (our character). Names are important to God. We see in the Old Testament where God appeared to Jacob and changed his name to Israel, Genesis 35:10. Israel became the father of many nations. In the New Testament, we see several names that were changed. In Mark, the third chapter starting with verse 14, Jesus ordained twelve and gave them power to heal the sick and cast out devils. In verse 16 thru 19 he gave them new names. After his encounter with Jesus on the

While reading my devotionals by Beth Moore about Breaking Free from the things that hold us back, I came across a great statement. She said “He bought us to set us free.” Two Thousand years ago God sent His son, Jesus, down to Earth in order to buy us, so that we could be freed from our sins. The cost of our souls was not cheap; it was the cost of His Son’s life. John 3:16 says “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” God loved us so much that He paid the price for all of our souls. God gave up His Son’s life for the soul of anyone who would believe in Him. What a price to pay? Would you be will

In the last two days I have come across the message that my faith in God is going to help me break free of what is holding me back. I listened to a speaker last night who talked about how he couldn’t believe that he was facing cancer and the doctors had only given him a short time to live. He put his faith in God; found a doctor who was working on a cure for his type of cancer, and is now months later is cancer free. He also talked about with everything he had gone through since he was a teenager and the number of times he should have died over the years, at the age of 66 he had given up on finding a wife and ever having kids and grandkids. He was surprised when God brought him a beautiful w

2 Thessalonian 3:16 reads “Now may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace always in every way. The Lord be with you all.” I was reading a devotional on breaking free by Beth Moore when I read, “You see, God’s way is the right way. And the only peaceful way in a chaotic world.” As humans we don’t always listen to God’s plans for our lives. Some of us require Him tell us numbers of times what His plans are. I was one of those people. When I was in High School, I was taking a religious class through Girl Scouts and started to sense God’s presence. The problem was at the time I was going to a church that didn’t talk about having a relationship with God or hearing God’s voice, much less that Go

“Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.” Galatians 6:7-8 How one mocks God may not be a verbal outburst of words denying God’s existence. But, as the Bible describes, it is our DAILY LIVING in corrupted flesh, which means living outside of God’s written laws: unbelief and or without any application of service to the kingdom of God. Each day we are sowing or dropping seeds along the way. Those seed, good or bad, will germinate. That is what seeds do. The Bible tells us in Romans 2:8, “to those who are se

As an athlete, it’s always the dream of each athlete to be the best on the team and to win a championship or a title. Very few athletes ever figure out the impact that could be made by simply making those around you better. The influence on those around you can lead to your own personal success and that of your team. One of the arguments for Micheal Jordan being the best basketball player of all time is not just because of his personal talent (which was really good!) but more for his ability to make those around him better which led to numerous championships and titles. As Christians we are all on the same team and working toward the same goal. We should also spend a lot of time working to

I made my daughter's birthday cake and I had this perfect picture in my head. It was going to be amazing. I bought all the piping bags, the pans, a Barbie. I cooked them cut the cake pieces to Set the 4 circle cakes on top of each other. As soon as I set one on top of another they shifted and crumbled. I got it all iced and put together on top. Finally comes the Barbie in the middle I put it in there and it leans and it cracks. Oh my goodness was I mad, I tried to get the icing to hold and it just kept crumbling and I got madder. I just wanted to go to my room and cry. I wanted the frustration to be over. Then here comes the birthday girl. She hears my grumbling which upsets me more. I don

In the English language there is only one word that describes the complexity of human feelings for others and that is the word: LOVE. It was not always that way. According to the Ancient Greeks, they had around 30 words to describe love…in different shades. I’ve chosen a few rods that will help us have a greater understanding of the emotion…which they say from the past, “that makes the world go round.” Agape – It is a God kind of love. This love expresses the deep and constant love and interest of God to an unworthy world, producing and fostering a reverential love in them towards the Giver. Storge- Family love. The love a parent has for a child or a child has for favorite aunt or uncle.

“Oh my, look at that windshield. I just cleaned it,” I moaned. A clean windshield is a rare event in the summertime. Big bugs, little bugs, colored bugs, and plain brown bugs splatter our vehicles while we drive. We scrub and rub to get the windshield clean and then more bugs splatter in just a few more miles of driving. Cleaning is a never-ending task. If we don’t clean the windshield periodically, it will coat over with bug remains and impede our sight for safe driving. There are other “bugs” that come our way even more destructive than insects. Rudeness, anger, deceit, rejection, and lying from others splatter on us as bugs do on our windshield. To clean these bugs out of our lives, forgi

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds. Titus 2:11-14 Oh my! We had a time in lesson last Sunday during Children’s Church! We have been studying doctrine. We are on our last few lessons about the end times. I was a little concerned about how to get across to the children this vital information. It is

“God loves you!” We hear people tell us all the time how much God loves us and how great and wonderful God’s love is. But what does God’s love look like to you? How much does He love us and how can we use His love in our everyday lives through joy, hardships, happiness, and tribulations? Here’s some facts: The word LOVE appears in the Bible (NIV) 551 times and the Definition of love-according to google-is an intense feeling of deep affection. What does God’s love mean to me? God’s love is my comfort, my strength. It gives me peace to know how much God loves me. I don’t, and may never, know exactly just how much He loves me but through faith and the things He does for me, that is enough evide