Good morning! The Pharisees knew the letter, meaning the law inside and out. They had it memorized. But they couldn't see the one the law pointed to when He walked up to them and spoke. The letter didn't give life, only pronounced death. It made room only for covering sin, but never removing it or redeeming us. The letter is a mirror for us to see our sin and the need for a Savior. If you live only by the letter, your heart will grow hard and legalistic. You will miss Jesus i

Good morning! This verse starts out with something we cannot overlook. God is faithful. That's enough right there to make a verse on its own. The darkness of this world and the struggles of life can make you doubt that profound truth. But we must never forget God is faithful. We must also not neglect that we were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus the Christ. God has called us into a relationship with Himself through Christ. Even when we are not faithful, God never

Good morning! There is so much talk about identity right now. My first book from 2016 was about identity because I saw the trend heading towards a loss of true identity and wanting to have a sense of belonging. When you don't know who you are, you will be easily manipulated. So many people are struggling with gender, race, sex and sexuality and doing harm to themselves and others while trying to find who they really are. You will never know who you really are until you know w

Good morning! Since sin entered into humanity, life has been much harder than God intended it to be. Through the Scriptures, we have a portrait of heaven to give us hope of what to look forward to for us who believe. Jesus calls us heavenward as the ultimate calling into the riches of His glory. It is our inheritance. This verse is a prayer for us to have a full understanding of knowing the hope of this calling. We need to be enlightened in this day of enlightenment and every

Good morning! Sometimes, trials can make us feel like we're all alone in our struggles. We may even entertain the lie that no one knows what we're feeling or can relate to our struggling. We can use that as an excuse to isolate ourselves and the enemy loves that. Being alone with your thoughts is a dangerous place to be in times of struggle. It can be intoxicating to get lost in your own thoughts and internal dialog. This is why it is important to be sober and vigilant becaus

Good morning! We don't save ourselves by our own merits. It is only by the grace of God found in faith in Jesus Christ. It evens the playing field, so-to-speak. We all have sinned, we all need forgiven and we all need Jesus to do it. So many people trust in their church attendance, volunteer time, the work they do for the Lord, how much money they give or some other good work. If that saved you, then why did Christ have to come, suffer and die on a cross? If God sent His Son

Good morning! So many people live by their senses, feelings, emotions and what feels good in the moment. I hear things like, "I don't feel convicted by that so I don't see anything wrong with it." What a deception! There are things the word tell us not to do. You don't need to feel conviction or pray about it because God has already declared it as sin. If you try to use the Bible to justify your behavior, the motives of your heart is amiss. If you sow to the flesh, you will r

Good morning! Grass is resilient, but it is temporal. It can be destroyed just like the flesh. Flowers have a season, but at the end of the season, they fade and die. So it is with the glory of man. Our own glory only lasts for a season but the glory of the Lord will last forever. His word is eternal so we should build our life on His word and not our own abilities. His word performs what He sends it to do and does not return void. It accomplishes the purpose for which it was

Good morning! The word of God is unlike any other book in the world. You not only read it, but it reads you. It shows you the truth about yourself and cuts through all the masks we wear to cover up things we'd rather keep hidden. It looks beyond just the actions, it looks into the motives of our hearts to determine why we are doing what we do. That's kind of frightening. Maybe that's why so many people neglect to read it. The word gets to the heart of the matter in every matt

Good morning! The Bible is not just another book. It's not just a collection of books. It's not a fairy tale or traditional folk lore passed down through time. It is the inspired word of God. It is historically, archeologically, prophetically, scientifically and geographically accurate. There is no other book or books like it. Sixty six books, forty authors, spanned over fifteen hundred years with over forty three thousand cross references. Over three hundred prophecies about

Good morning! People are on edge it seems. I think they are too involved with the worldly communication out there and allowing the divided narrative to get into their belief system. It has invaded the culture of the church which should not be. We cannot speak to one another with such hatred and discord and expect anyone to believe us when we say God is love. If someone disagrees with you on something, pray instead of getting into an argument. I see so many people talking like

Good morning! It is good to have a fear of the Lord. He is all-knowing and all-powerful. Having a fear of the Lord helps lead you along the path of your life, giving you wisdom through anything you have to go through, and He gives you understanding like no other. Why is wisdom so important? Wisdom is a very important factor in your life, especially if you have wisdom in Christ. Wisdom helps you to lead others, have peace, and be a more knowledgeable person on the Bible. Witho

Good morning! The law of Christ is to love God with all you are and to love others as yourself. It's pretty simple. The law of Moses had 613 commandments. Christ said it can all be summed up in 2. Think of that... Sometimes, we over-complicate things and make it harder than it needs to be. Religious people love to argue, make a huge list of rules and make impossible man-made laws to uphold while hiding behind words like holiness. To be holy is to be Christ-like. To be like Hi

Good morning! I like to help people. I enjoy being able to give someone a word of encouragement, wisdom for a situation or advice in something I am knowledgeable about. When it helps someone, it is great joy to me. I help with my daughter's cross country team by helping to take down the team tent, gather up everything and take it to the bus to load it. I enjoy being a grunt. The one coach was trying to make his bag of zip ties last all season that he uses to hang up the senio

Good morning! Sometimes, it can be hard to be obedient to God. Loving your enemies is not an easy task, especially when they are attacking you. But, that's exactly what Jesus did on the cross as He was being mocked, spit on and scorned. He chose to forgive. It wasn't easy for Him to forgive, but it was necessary because He couldn't forgive, how could He ever expect us to? It wasn't His moral duty that disciplined Him to forgive though. It was His passion for loving His Father

Good morning! Life can beat you up sometimes. It can really take a toll on you. It can be hard to remain joyful when dark times come and linger. It can be hard to remember the joy of your salvation when you wonder how you are going to get through the day. The Apostle Paul was on a ship in the middle of a serious storm. It had been fourteen days since they saw light. He had just about lost all hope of ever getting out of it and the joy of His Savior seemed like a distant memor

Good morning! It's Halloween and there is much controversy in the church about this. Should we celebrate it or not, participate or not, and much arguing is about this. I think the greatest tragedy about this is we fight with ourselves to the point of almost hating each other. And, that is the most demonic thing we could do as the devil laughs at us. The words we say or type, the actions we take, the attitude behind what we say and do all matter. It points to what is in our he

Good morning! Waiting is hard. But sometimes, it is necessary. Waiting develops patience. Patience teaches you to wait well. Many people complain about waiting. I think it's because they don't understand the process of waiting develops character. It's also easier to wait patiently when you know what you are waiting on. For instance, it was a long wait for my kids to be born. It was several hours of labor for the process of my wife giving birth. But the wait was worth it once

Good morning! When we understand that God loves us and has a plan for our lives, it should inspire us to live differently. We can recognize the lies of this world that try to tell us all kinds of things about who we are or who we should be. We don't need to conform to the patterns of this world. The way it thinks, the behavior it demonstrates, the lifestyle it engages in and its attitude towards the things of God are not our portion or example. The Lord is our portion and Jes

Good morning! Sometimes, my kids would do something that got them into trouble, as all kids do, especially when they were younger. They were afraid of what my wife and I would think of them, not just the punishment they might receive. They had to be taught that no matter what they did, it didn't change that we loved them. They learned punishment was correction for bad behavior because that would teach them consequences for their actions. We wanted the best for them and still