Good morning! Part of the willingness to reconcile relationships needs to include a willingness for forgiveness. Christ willingly forgave us and we should have the same willingness to forgive each other. It comes down to love. Our love has limits, but God's love does not (Romans 8:35-39). Love is patient, kind, compassionate and forgiving. It extends grace through a willingness to understand. A lot of offenses can be diffused through a conversation that seeks to bring underst

Good morning! Jesus gave us clear instructions for dealing with offenses against one another. As long as there are people living together in the world, there will be offenses. Rather intentional or not, there will be discord as some point. Jesus knew that. He gave us details on how to deal with it. His motive was always love and reconciliation. Never division, strife or separation. After all, He came to reconcile us to the Father and forgive us of our sins. So, our motives sh

Good morning! In Romans 7, the Apostle Paul talks about sin and the law and our inability to keep the law. Sin lives in us since the fall of mankind. The law is a mirror to show us our sin and our need for a Savior. Without that, we have no hope of escaping judgment. Our Savior is Jesus, who is outside of sin because He never sinned, but took on sin that He may be treated as the worst of sinners in order to pay the penalty for sin that we who believe, may go free and be forgi

Good morning! The world has become extremely sensitive and easily triggered, offended and incited by words. We have to be careful how we speak to people, especially those outside the body of Christ. We cannot expect them to think, react or respond like we do to the truth. How we present it can also mean the difference between someone receiving it or rejecting it. Love with grace in sharing the truth should be how we approach our speech. It should be seasoned with salt, not sm

Good morning! If you want to accomplish the will of God for your life, this is a good place to start. Rejoice, pray and be thankful in all things. Easy to remember, hard to apply at times. But it is possible and with practice, it can be a way of life. Rejoicing is our attitude. It is easy to train yourself to be negative and hard to break that habit when you do. Complaining can be contagious, but so can joy. Work at consciously thinking about how you respond to everything. Wh

Good morning! Sometimes, people who sin are embarrassed. They feel shame and like they can't go to God with their sin. We all need people in our lives who are able to help carry us to the feet of Jesus when we are too weak to carry ourselves there. A righteous person's prayers are powerful and effective because the motive they have is pure. It isn't to get juicy information about your sin to gossip over lunch. It isn't to blackmail someone to keep their story a secret. That i

Good morning! I used to look at this passage from verses 4-9 as a formula or pattern to use to change my thinking. And, to some extent, it is, but it's more than that. It is an invitation to a deeper relationship with Jesus. As a formula, it didn't always work for me. Some days were good and some were bad. It's not a math equation that always adds up like 2+2. It's about being in connection to the One who knows you better than you know yourself. It's an invitation to let His

Good morning! This is a very often quoted verse. It is the last half of a sentence that the first half is often overlooked. Verse 13 says, "When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people," which comes right before this verse. Context matters and that gives a completely different perspective. Because in context, God is sending problems to get people's attention with the goal to get them to repent and re

Good morning! This is a verse from a passage of Scripture about having Christian character. It describes what Christian behavior is supposed to look like. Love is at the forefront, without hypocrisy and hating evil comes while clinging to good is next. Being kind to one another in brotherly love, honoring each other, considering others better than yourself. That's humility. Being diligent, fervent in spirit and in service to the Lord. Then, this verse tells us to rejoice in h

Good morning! We must be students of the word in order to know the will of God. His will is found between Genesis 1:1 and Revelation 22:21. But not everything specifically deals with, "This is the will of God." So, we need to be studious of the word to understand His will. When we know His will, we can know how to pray according to His will. When we do, we can have absolute assurance of Him not only hearing our prayers, but answering them. Some of the things in His will are t

Good morning! Belief in God is good, but faith in God is better. Belief is different than faith because faith includes the element of trust. I can believe something exists but not trust it with my life. Belief can be based on evidence but faith takes belief and attaches hope to it. I believe in God, but I also trust Him. It takes faith to believe what I cannot see but have hope as a surety of His existence. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. It's hard to let go of

Good morning! I hear this quoted a lot by people who use it for an excuse to beat people up with words in the name of Jesus. Correcting people who are in a destructive pathway or sin is to be done with love, but love is not beating them over the head with Scripture and ending it with "I'm just doing it in love." To do it in love means in the spirit of gentleness with the goal to restore people to righteousness, not just to tell them off in Jesus' name so you feel better and p

Good morning! It is hard to find someone who has gone through the unimaginable pain and loss as Job. He lost everything he owned, children, health, respect, friends and even his wife told him to just give up, curse God and die. Yet, his response is unbelievable. He said right after losing it all, "The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord!" He chose to have faith and worship despite his circumstances. True faith is not circumstantial. Anyone can

Good morning! What mind are we supposed to let be in us that was also in Christ? The mind of selfless love that considers the needs of others and considers others better than themselves. Humility and service are paramount in the kingdom. Jesus could have come in full arrogance to show off His power and brag about being God. But He didn't. He came humbly, even being born in a manger, not a palace. He came to serve, not to be served. He gave, even His own life, as a ransom for

Good morning! One of the signs of being a true believer is a burden for the lost. It is the heart of God. After all, God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever would believe in Him, would not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16) God's heart is not to destroy the lost, but to save them. If we have a relationship with Jesus, we should exude the Father's heart and want to reach the lost. If you are not concerned about the lost, maybe you are stil

Good morning! No matter how far someone is from God, He is still able to save them. As long as there is breath in their lungs and life in their bodies, God is able to save them. If they just come to Him, He can and will save them. If you knew what a heathen I was, some of you might, you'd have hope for others because if He saved me He can save anyone. Just keep praying for them and believing God will intervene. Pray that God would protect them from themselves. Pray that God w

Good morning! Who is them in this verse? Context tells us the saints, the church, who have received Christ. They have the mystery of Christ, the hope of glory, living in you who believe. It has also been extended to the Gentiles (all non-Jews). That means all who believe regardless of race, nationality, gender or age have the hope of glory, which is Jesus, who grants us salvation. We should be aware of the dangers of sin because sin separates us from God. God's desire is to b

Good morning! It's all about Jesus. You can never undo your own sin. Not by works, righteous deeds, philanthropy, money or goods. It's not by traditions and religious rites or services. It's only by the blood of Jesus that we have forgiveness and redemption. The sacrifice of Jesus was perfect and once for all. God accepted this perfect sacrifice and judged Him instead of us. He gave us the right to be children of God through this perfect sacrifice. No longer do we need to bri

Good morning! By itself, this verse could mean a certain thing but I believe context is very important. In context, this verse talks about judging other Christians for what they eat or do not eat and what days they choose to celebrate or not celebrate. It's about judging their conduct as if we are God. So, this verse stands out to say only God is God and He alone can judge and see the true reality of each one's heart. Rather we choose to eat certain things or not or celebrate

Good morning! God put His fingerprints all over creation so we could see His handiwork. From the complexity of nature to the uniqueness of DNA, we can see His masterful hands in creation. What evidence do you see that makes you marvel at God's creative design? The more science tries to disprove God's existence and creation, the more they see more of the evidence of His work. In fact, they just discovered recently that they believe our universe was created by vibration and is