Flourish (def) - to achieve success: prosper. Jesus promises the abundant life when we follow Him and He has also said in John 14: 12  “I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. 13  You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father. 14  Yes, ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it! If we bypass these verses

Today, we will look at the bells that should be and can be ringing when finding our place in serving the Lord and moving forward in our faith. Bell #1 - Step forward in your personal walk by a commitment to share what Christ has done for you. Your story and your conversion are powerful, and God will use both to win others to Jesus.  Why?  This is the story of your personal faith in Jesus. Bell #2 – Step forward in studying God’s word .  When you have pure truth as your gui

As we begin the third chapter of Vision for Life, it is easy to see that God is not static in His plans for those who follow Him. In fact, God reminds us that people without a vision for moving forward are sadly disillusioned and weak. When we are born-again in the Spirit, Jesus becomes our motivation and the gas for our motor, and the motor is running. Our Vision for Life is all about Jesus, and our identity is found in Him. We have no “forward ” except with Jesus.  It

Spark #4 – Wor k – In the early church, different jealousies caused them to focus on the “whos” in their fellowship.  Saints began to lift up certain individuals more than others, and it confused the people by causing them to wonder who to follow. Paul cleared it up in 1 Corinthians 3: 9  For we are both God’s workers. And you are God’s field. You are God’s building.  Churches that align with and promote certain saints over others have gone down a path of disobedience, and

Yesterday's blog featured the need for true elements to be in a born-again believer's life, and these elements cause us to seek out and make connections with other believers as led by the Holy Spirit. When those believers get together, they find out that even though they are different, they are still very much the same. The Word of God uses the word like-miinded, and only God can make this happen. I will speak to another part of this uniquie fellowship called "The Church."

A very important part of growing in your faith walk is our interaction with other believers, and this very spiritual fellowship is called a Koinonia fellowship. God takes a group of people who have a very personal faith, and connects them at the heart level to develop and build what the Bible calls the church!! It is so much more than a building, because it is an ever-growing organism that is full of like-minded people of faith. This blog takes excerpts of my book Vision fo

When we are born again in the Spirit, our way of thinking about life itself changes, and a new me replaces the old me, thus repentance. Paul said it this way in 2 Corinthians 5: 16-17 At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! 17  This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! This new life will be attacked by our old life, but we do not feed the old

A foundation is what we build a life on, and in the Christian life, this foundation is to be built on Jesus. He is not only Savior, but Lord, and our surrender to His will comes with a desire to serve Him and follow His Word. When Jesus called His first disciples, He called them from their vocation of fishing and told them they would be fishers of men. They had to commit to follow through, and they were never the same. It is still the same today. When you are born again,

We see and hear of so many converts over time who fall away from the faith and soon become "like the lost" in their living and in their personal lives. Why is this happening? I believe it is because of the lack of follow-up and discipleship for those new converts to help them deepen their faith through study in God's Word. When I was a youth pastor, I made it a priority to disciple all the new converts and used a ministry tool called the Paul and Timothy discipleship proces

Treasure (def) - used as a verb: "Something valued or thought highly of." There are a few things I treasure on this earth, but I do treasure my wife, my children, and my grandchildren. I also treasure true good friends, my music, my writings, and a studio to make more music in the future. I treasure my relationship with my Savior, Jesus, most of all. Jesus was making the point to His followers early on that it was important to treasure the "right" things. Matthew 6: 19  “

John 16: 25  “I have spoken of these matters in figures of speech, but soon I will stop speaking figuratively and will tell you plainly all about the Father. 26  Then you will ask in my name. I’m not saying I will ask the Father on your behalf, 27  for the Father himself loves you dearly because you love me and believe that I came from God. 28  Yes, I came from the Father into the world, and now I will leave the world and return to the Father.” The old movie A Few Good M

Skeptic (def) - a person inclined to question or doubt accepted opinions. What is your inclination? Is it to doubt what you read in the Bible? I read some people on Reddit saying that Jesus dying on the cross for people who hate Him and are guilty of sin is just too good to be true. Hmmm. Looking at true salvation makes our perspective cause us to not believe in Jesus dying for a lost world, and for sure not rising from the dead. It is all beyond their reasoning, and s

Jesus left all kinds of instructions to His disciples, who were closest to Him and traveled with Him. Those instructions were what they needed to continue to spread the message of the gospel, and along with their commitment to share the gospel, they needed the power of God to protect them, empower them, guide them, and work through them. All these years later, the same applies to us who are followers of Jesus, and our faith walk must have the power of the Holy Spirit to kee

The eternity of Jesus proves He is eternal in every aspect of His being. He is God, and His power is real and present. Scripture says this in Colossians 1: 15  Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, 16  for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see, such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the

Matthew 7: 1 “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. 2  For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged. 3  “And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? 4  How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? 5  Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye

I hear a lot about God's grace and how we can abuse it by knowingly sinning, and then just getting forgiven seems unfair and contrived. It is important to realize where God's righteousness takes us when we receive Jesus, and we grow deeper in our faith walk. First of all, God's grace is just that...God's grace, not ours. Our grace has stipulations on it because of our lack of understanding of God's righteousness. God spoke the following through the prophet Isaiah in Isaia

My oldest son, Ty, replaced his decking on the back of his home a couple of years ago, and when I noticed it was a "strange" looking wood, he told me it wasn't wood at all, but engineered flooring. I asked him. Is it better than wood? To which he replied, "It doesn't rot like wood, and it is guaranteed to last a lot longer than even treated wood! "Makes sense to me", I replied. This flooring, which has additives to make it look like wood, yet is not wood at all, appears

When Saul was met by Jesus on the road to Damascus, his life direction changed immediately, and Jesus had a purpose for Saul's life after He was born again and filled with the Holy Spirit. Ananias was given specific instructions by the same Jesus who met Saul on that road to Damascus, and Jesus gave Ananias a hint of what was going to happen through Saul's life. Acts 9: 15  But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gent

I have seen and heard some say that when we are born again, there is not much change, but I don't agree with that conclusion. Mainly because of the conversion of Saul and the new direction of Paul. Acts 9: 3  Now as he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him; 4  and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” 5  And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” An

A few years ago, LED lights were born, and it is amazing to me how a light can be so strong and clear and not create any heat when on. The following information is taken from an explanation of the action that takes place to make an LED light work. It is very interesting. An LED (Light-Emitting Diode) works by passing an electric current through a semiconductor chip, exciting electrons that then release energy as photons (light particles) when they recombine with "holes," a