Good morning! How often do you tell God you love Him? It can feel weird to say that to someone you can't see like a human, but it's important to say. Expressing love vocally in any relationship is important to keep that relationship healthy. Rather you know it or not, the Lord gives you strength each day. He is the solid rock to keep us stable in turmoil. He is our fortress for protection against the enemy. He is our deliverer to save us from trouble. He is trustworthy and fa

Good morning! I remember when I fell in love with my wife. I was a hardhearted teenager who loved heavy metal music. But I found myself singing sappy love songs thinking about Kelly. Love changes your heart. When I met Jesus, I found myself singing the songs about Him I used to despise and make fun of. His love changed my heart. He rescued me and healed me of all my afflictions. I had a reason to sing about Him. How about you? What's your reason to sing about the Lord and His

Good morning! Faith has an expectation to it by definition. This verse excites me with possibility. It's like God is saying, "You can't even imagine something big enough to comprehend all I have prepared for you who love Me." That excites me! I hope it excites you too, because we will experience that together one day. I remember being a kid and hearing about a certain place that had a mystique about it. Dad and Mom decided to take me there. The whole trip I couldn't hardly st

Good morning! Knowing God's love and seeing what true love looks like through Jesus, we ought to love God truly with all we are. His love is compelling and irresistible. When you truly experience His love, it has an undeniable effect on you. Oftentimes, people want to limit how they love God. They will give them their service (strength) but not their heart. They will give Him their soul, but not their mind. Give their heart but not their soul. It takes all of you to love God

Good morning! Today is known as Valentine's Day and many associate it with romance. Though that isn't exactly what Valentine really was about, he did show God's love in the face of persecution and is believed to have been a martyr for it. God's love changes you and for the better. He could have destroyed Adam and Eve when they sinned, but He chose mercy instead. God sent Jesus to show us true love. He is ready to forgive our sins because Jesus paid the price with His own life

Good morning! Love covers a multitude of sins. When we love people, we learn to be patient with them and be gentle in correction. Sometimes, we can fall into the trap of expecting too much out of others with a standard too high for anyone to keep. Treat people how you want them to treat you. Be humble and don't think of yourself more righteous than someone else. You can fall into a trap of pride and great will be your fall. The enemy loves to exploit failure, but love covers

Good morning! Most people when they get into leadership think it's about having others do the work while they supervise. Jesus broke the mold and showed us true leadership is marked by servanthood. He lead by example through serving. He even said He did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. He was the greatest among them, yet was the servant of all. When He gave the last supper, He washed the disciple's feet. Even Judas who would betra

Good morning! Worship is important. God has given us a way to worship Him in His word. There is a pattern for worship that is acceptable to Him. It's often hard for us to understand, especially in the USA because we don't have a king or live in a kingdom. In kingdoms, the king has a specific way that is acceptable to be approached. You don't just get to come any way you want before a king. In some instances, approaching the wrong way meant death. In the Old Testament, God had

Good morning! There is a serious war going on but it's not what most people are making out to be. They're making it about people, parties, policies, rights and ideologies. It's about spiritual warfare between the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of darkness. It looks like Republican verses Democrat, ICE verse immigrants, pro-life verses pro-choice and many other hot button issues. But it is simply Satan and his demons verses God and His holy angels. It is not against the peo

Good morning! This verse is backwards from how the world thinks, believes and acts. They say to exalt yourself to get ahead. Lift yourself up and make your own success. In the words of Jesus, "What shall it profit you to gain the whole world and lose your own soul?" Our lives are supposed to glorify God and draw people unto Him, not ourselves. When He lifts you up, it will be higher than you could lift yourself up and people will see past you and know that it was God. He will

Good morning! The mind is a powerful thing. What you think on is extremely important. The thoughts you keep will be the thoughts that direct your life and develop your belief system. Be careful what thoughts you keep. You have the choice of what thoughts you let stay in your mind. You can't stop the thoughts from coming, but you can keep them from staying. It's not the thoughts that come and go, but the thoughts that come and stay that are pivotal for your life. What thoughts

Good morning! One way we really need God's wisdom is in relationships. Oftentimes, people rush into a situation without praying, taking some deep breaths and thinking about the situation first. Leading by emotions can make a mess into a disaster. When someone sins, take time to asses the situation and pray. Don't have a knee-jerk reaction to it. If you consider yourself spiritual, then be gentle and remember the goal is not to beat someone down with words, but to restore them

Good morning! I cannot tell you how many times I've needed wisdom in situations and didn't ask for it. The result was bad decisions that wasted a lot of resources and put me in situations that could have been avoided if I had just asked for wisdom. Can you relate? On the flip side, when I have asked for wisdom, God has given me insight beyond what I should know for my age or intelligence level. Now, we can't ask for selfish things like we just found a genie in a bottle and no

Good morning! I remember being a kid and wanting something I saw in a store. My parents would say, "no" usually because I didn't need it or they didn't have the money. Whatever the reason, I would keep asking, nagging, prying, pestering and persisting them to get it for me. Eventually, I would get whatever it was. Sometimes sooner than later and other times way after I asked for it. I kept asking my parents because I believed I would eventually get what I asked for and that t

Good morning! Oftentimes, when someone wrongs us, we want justice and revenge. We want them to hurt like they hurt us. But we must be careful. If you sow revenge, do you think you will reap righteousness? We must let God avenge His own and leave room for His justice. If you seek to justify your behavior, you prove yourself to be a lawbreaker (Galatians 2:17-18). If we seek to do fleshly things, we will end up in destruction. If we seek to live for God by the Holy Spirit, we w

Good morning! I recently preached at a youth rally in Ashland, OH. There were a lot of people who were struggling with turmoil and being hated for their faith. During the message, The Lord prompted me to say something profound. It wasn't my thought, He gave it to me in the moment. It was, "If God loves you, then why worry about who hates you?" So often, we spend so much time thinking and worrying about who hates us rather than God who loves us so deeply. Jesus promised in thi

Good morning! So often, people do the opposite and treat people how they get treated. Jesus tells us to live differently by doing to people what we want them to do to us. We treat people with respect, dignity and love regardless of how they treat us. Why? Because while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. We deserved to be on the cross, yet Jesus, who never sinned, took our place. He didn't wait for people to repent, He didn't wait for people to treat Him like the Messiah

Good morning! This passage is very often misquoted and taken out of context. Many interpret it to say, "God will never give you more than you can handle." That's not what it says nor what it means. The distinction is important. First, we are all tempted by three categories of sin. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. The details of what tempts us may be different, but the categories of sin are the same. Temptation can be overwhelming, but God is

Good morning! To live in the truth and walk according to the Spirit is the best way to be a walking witness of Jesus Christ. The evidence of living differently than everyone else will cause people to take notice. How can we be different? The world complains about everything. It wants its own way all the time. It argues about everything even to the point of violence when someone dares to disagree. As disciples, stop complaining, but rather pray for God to intervene His will in

Good morning! When you fill your life with the truth, you experience a freedom the world can't give or take away. You never know what you are carrying until you are no longer carrying it. You get used to the load you carry. When you put off everything and put on Jesus, you realize how light His burden really is. When you fill your life with the word, you learn to walk according to the Spirit. If you walk according to the Spirit and not the flesh, you live in freedom. Sin beco