Good morning! Fear is rampant in the world today. From wars and rumors of wars, political and financial uncertainty and violence all over, we see people afraid. But a spirit of fear is different than the emotional response to trouble or danger. A spirit of fear is a demonic entity that desires to rule over you with fear. It is a looming, oppressive presence that takes you captive to fear. It will paralyze you to the point of not wanting to even leave your home for fear of som

Good morning! Love is not just an emotional response or feeling. Love takes more than emotions or feelings to work. God didn't just say He loves you. He proved it with action by sending Jesus to be born of a virgin, live a sinless life, die like the worst of sinners and rise again to life. The truth is if we let how we feel be our guiding principle for life, we will be whimsical, shallow, fickle, unreliable and unstable. Feelings lie to you. But God never will. His truth free

Good morning! God's love was displayed through Jesus' conception, life, death and resurrection. Justice demands sentencing and punishment. But God's grace was extended to us that we might know His love for us and receive forgiveness and eternal life. You want to see God's love? Look at Jesus. God's mercy and grace was manifested toward us through Him. As we go through this lenten season, think more about Jesus and the depth of God's love. Think about that price that was paid

Good morning! We don't have to wonder what God requires of us. He made it very plain and clear so anyone can understand it. Love Him with all of yourself. Your mind, will and intellect. All your physical, emotional and spiritual strength. All of who you are, use to love Him. Then love others like you love yourself. It's not easy to do that. That's why you have to love Him first with all of who you are so He can fill you with His love, mind, heart and strength. Then you can lo

Good morning! I used to believe the thoughts God had toward me were to destroy me because of my sinfulness; if He even thought of me at all. But He does think about each of us and not in a destructive way. God does not delight in evil, but rejoices in the truth. The truth is, He created you in His own image. Each of us is created uniquely in His image. He wants us to be at peace with Him. He wants His peace to dwell in us. He wants hope to be our portion and to embrace the fu

Good morning! We can see evil on display right now in many forms. People are doing all manner of things that hurt and destroy people in many ways. But the hidden evil is sometimes the area where people really let the devil take root in their lives. The Pharisees memorized the Scriptures. They knew the law inside and out. They knew righteousness. But they let evil thoughts take hold of them and turned it into actions. They devised evil in their hearts, plotted together how to

Good morning! I remember in my younger years believing in God but having such a fear of Him, I would not draw near Him. I understood His holiness, but never felt like I could serve Him or felt like He could love me. I didn't know how loving He truly is. Once I realized He loved me and nothing I could do would change that, I wasn't so fearful of Him to draw near to Him. I realized His love for me was shown through Christ who died for me. It cast out the fear I had of being des

Good morning! The Ten Commandments are in two categories: How we are to love and treat God and how we are to love and treat people. Paul is talking about the last six that deal with loving people. They can be summed up into one thing. God gave the command in Leviticus to love your neighbor as yourself. If you love them that way, it covers not being a thief, covetous, adulterers, murderers, liars and the like. Love doesn't intentionally harm. It seeks to do good to others with

Good morning! At some point in life, someone close to you will probably offend you in some way. Rather intentional or not, someone will sin against us. Our love for them offers forgiveness and reconciliation. But it becomes harder when they are a repeat offender. People tend to have a pattern, of behavior rather good or bad. Sometimes, they just have a moment and do something out of character. But when bad things become a habit, it causes separation and division. Love among f

Good morning! This verse is needed so much in today's church. I've never seen so much discord and strife towards each other. Why are we letting the enemy influence us as the church to make enemies of one another? Why are we letting ourselves be so divisive? I think the greatest need of revival in the churches of our nation of America is a revival of God's love. We need a baptism of His love that helps the body to stop hating, nitpicking, badgering, belittling, bad mouthing an

Good morning! God's love is not fragile. Sometimes we make it out to be so fragile that if we make one mistake, He will cast us into hell, or at least strip us of His presence, disqualify us or take away our salvation. That's not what the Bible teaches. His love is so great, that nothing in all of creation can separate us from His love. He sent Jesus to take away our sins before anyone ever turned away from them. for while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. His love is

Good morning! God's love is not just amazing, but it is empowering. Despite trouble, hardship, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger or sword, we are more than conquerors through Christ. The important part is "through Christ who loved us." In ourselves, we will run out of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. In Him, we have all these things and more. We won't seek vengeance against those who oppose or persecute us. We wil

Good morning! God's message hasn't changed. It has always been about Him loving us from the beginning, us loving Him for His goodness and for us to love one another as we have been loved by Him. Jesus didn't invent this, it was there from the start. Too often, people get hung up on the laws of the Old Testament and think it was just a bunch of rules of what to do and not to do. But the spirit behind the law was love. God loved us even in our sinfulness. He gave a us a law to

Good morning! God has always loved us and loved us before we loved Him. We couldn't love Him until we knew Him. He is love and to truly love, you have to have His love living inside of you. That happens when we surrender our lives to Him. When we receive His forgiveness and experience His goodness, His love floods our being and we love Him who first loved us. It is the response of a grateful heart that has received an unjust pardon, in that we deserved death, but received lif

Good morning! One way we prove we love God is by how we obey Him and treat others, especially in the church. I see so much discord going on in the body at large and it is not of God. We can't afford to lose sight of what our greatest witness is, especially in this last hour. People will know we are from God by how we love. If we argue about who is right about every theological topic, yet cannot love one another through debates and disagreements, what do we really have to offe

Good morning! I don't think there is a more popularized and even commercialized verse than this in the Bible. Tim Tebow, a former college and NFL quarterback, wrote "John 3:16" on his eye black (the black paint players put under their eyes to minimize glare from the lights) during the 2009 BCS National Championship Game. This led to 94 million searches on Google for the verse and its meaning shortly after the game. Exactly 3 years later, Tebow played in a playoff game for the

Good morning! The word of God seems to use comparative writing often to show the difference between good and evil, right and wrong, and what love looks like verses what it does not. It is important to take note so we can recognize what is and is not from God. Love does not rejoice in evil, wicked, or sinful things, but does rejoice is truth, righteous, and just things. Love bears all things, meaning it covers them to handle them. It is a reference to how God's love covered ou

Good morning! There are many definitions of what people think love is and what it looks like. But opinions are not truth just because you strongly believe it to be true. God's word is truth and will last forever. What He says about love is truth and the standard we should use to measure love. Love is not mean, hateful, manipulative, coercive, divisive, envious, prideful, rude, selfish, easily offended or evil with its intent or practices. It does not dishonor God, people or i

Good morning! Religion has rituals, rules, doctrines and traditions. They may all be right and true, but they do not replace love. People can have it all right and still miss it because of a lack of love. Everything should done out of love. Out of love for Jesus and for others. What good is it if you can move mountains with your faith but can't help a widow cut her grass? What good is it to have all the musical talent in the world to make a living from it, yet not go sing in

Good morning! It's very easy to point out all that is going on in the church today that is wrong. It's easy to see all the ways people are adopting unbiblical teachings, how leaders are falling into sin and even how they are becoming more of a social justice center than a place for believers to be equipped. But it takes the lens of the Bible and the Holy Spirit to see all the good going on too. There are churches going into revival. Reformation taking place. College campuses