“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” - Isaiah 43:18-19  Where God wants to lead you is greater than where you’ve previously been. Little Johnny had a toy soldier that he carried with him everywhere he went. If he left that toy soldier at home, h...  Read More

“Your servant has found favor in your eyes, and you have shown great kindness to me in sparing my life. But I can’t flee to the mountains; this disaster will overtake me, and I’ll die. Look, here is a town near enough to run to, and it is small. Let me flee to it—it is very small, isn’t it? Then my life will be spared.” He said to him, “Very well, I will grant this request too; I will not overthro...  Read More

“Enter through the narrow gate for wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” - Matthew 7:13-14  Letting go is not easy, but it becomes possible when we understand why it is necessary. The reason Lot’s wife and her family had to flee Sodom is because their presen...  Read More

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.” - Isaiah 43:18  Over the last few days, we have talked about the importance of letting go in order to experience God’s very best. The key to excelling in life is recognizing our shortcomings and working to improve them so that we don’t look back or go back to those former things that were previously a hindrance to us. This is the dilemma that c...  Read More

“But each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.” - James 1:14-15  How many times have you been convicted of a sin you are committing? We know sin leads to death. We have heard it from pastors. We have read it in the Bible. Maybe you even hav...  Read More

“But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” - 1 Samuel 16:7  As Christians, we can look at this title and think, “what a silly question, of course it matters.” We have been raised to believe there is far more importa...  Read More

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” - Hebrews 12:1    There is a story of a bald eagle that was gracefully soaring over the northwestern pacific in search of food one day. In the middle of its flight, the eagle happened upo...  Read More

“Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.” – Hebrews 13:2  The reason God commands His children to love the stranger, welcome the stranger, and to include the stranger because at some point, we will all be a “stranger.” And we would want hospitality shown to us as we are called to show it to others.   Leviticus...  Read More

“Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day.” - Deuteronomy 8:11  I once heard a story about a gentleman who went to a training conference where a course was being taught on how to improve your memory. He spent nearly $200 on the books, tapes and worksheets for the course and brought it home. When he ...  Read More

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” - John 13:34  Do you love others like you love Jesus? This is what God’s command for us as believers. There should be a noticeable difference in the way you walk and the way you talk. It’s easy to love those who love us, but how do you approach those who appear to be less than loveable?   We love those...  Read More

“There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?” - James 4:12  Have you ever read an entertainment news headline and assumed a fact about a person or group of people in the article based on the limited facts presented? Or have you judged a person based on someone’s else’s perception of that person? We have all been guilty of pre...  Read More

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).  There is a story about a family who was eating Thanksgiving turkey together. One of the children noticed that both the front and back end of the turkey had been cut off. It had been prepared t...  Read More