Living By The Word

                                              A Christmas Message of Hope ( December 25, 2023) “Blessed is the man who trusts in the  Lord , and whose hope is the  Lord .” (Jeremiah 17:7) Christmas is the season of hope! As Christians around the world celebrate the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ, we can rejoice in the hope that is ours because the Son of God chose to set aside His heavenly glory, enter humanity, and, in obedience to His Father’s will, fulfill a divine purpose. Because of Christmas, believers have a present and eternal hope without which our earthly lives would be meaningless and devoid of purpose. The world was hopelessly lost in sin, dead spiritually, and doomed to an eternity apart from our righteous Creator, when God demonstrated the greatest love imaginable by sending the incarnate Christ to live a sinless life among us and ...

  Simply Believe! ( November 2, 2023) “ Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24) Unfortunately, our Christian faith can fluctuate with the changing circumstances of our lives? We are flawed like all human beings, and our trust in God often ebbs or flows depending upon whether or not we’re experiencing happy times or life’s trials. Satan constantly attempts to deceive us, draw us astray in our walk by faith with God, and bring about our ultimate downfall and defeat. However, we must remember that He who is in us—Jesus Christ living in our hearts through the Holy Spirit— “is greater than he who is in the world.” (1 John 4:4) Simply believe! When doubt and fear cloud our well-placed trust in Christ, we can allay our apprehension and anxiety by focusing on our unchanging and ever-faithful L ORD rather than dwelling on our shifting circumstances. We must recall God’s past faithfulness to deliver us from our woes according to His will and perfect timing. As diff...

 Cry Out to God in Crisis ( October 27, 2023) “ In my distress I cried to the  Lord , and He heard me. ” (Psalm 120:1) When the battle lines are drawn and the storm clouds of life threaten to shatter the peace and serenity of your world, what plan of action do you follow? Do you forge ahead in an effort to resolve the problems facing you in your own limited human strength and wisdom, or do you first seek the divine counsel and all-powerful intervention of the sovereign God and Creator of the universe? Scripture tells us that the wise response to life’s trials is to trust in the L ORD and prayerfully invoke His power to see you through the conflict or crisis at hand. The Bible is full of examples of frail, but trusting individuals who depended upon God to help fight their battles and deliver them from their enemies. For example, when Asa, the godly king of the ancient Jewish kingdom of Judah, was attacked by an Ethiopian army of a million men, we’re told in 2 Chron...

  Our Devine Delight! ( October 26, 2023) “But   seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33) What is your heart’s deepest delight? We all have desires (wants, dreams, goals, and aspirations) that determine how we conduct our lives. Pride is often the driving force behind the desires of human hearts that are focused on materialism and worldly pleasures. However, God desires that we humble ourselves and make Him our delight, promising that He will supply all of our needs and align our longings to His perfect will for our lives. The L ORD wants us to seek Him and His righteousness above the passing things of this world, trusting that He will provide rich blessings that bring genuine joy and satisfaction. Because of love for us beyond measure, God’s greatest desire is that we turn away from our sins to receive His offer of grace and His gift of eternal life. To delight ourselves in the L ORD , we must ma...

  A Rightly Motivated Heart ( October 25, 2023) “ Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the  Lord  weighs the hearts. ” (Proverbs 21:2) When a serious crime is committed and a suspect is arrested, investigators search to identify a motive in the case. All human behavior is driven by motives that underlie our actions. The real reasons that we do what we do can be obvious or obscure. The Bible says that the human heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. So those of us seeking spiritual maturity need to frequently examine our hearts to make sure that our motivations are pure and pleasing to an all-knowing God who weighs our intentions. We must seek to please God, rather than man! “I, the  Lord , search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.” (Jeremiah 17:10) Many people are motivated by selfishness and pride that prompt them to pursue flee...

  An Eternally Secure Identity in Christ ( October 24, 2023)   “ By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35) When voters go to the polls in the general election in two weeks, we will have to present to the poll worker our driver’s license or other acceptable identification in order to cast a ballot. In today’s increasingly impersonal, technology-based society, we are known and identified in the realms of government, business, and the world at large by our Social Security and account numbers, ID cards, and other similar documentation. As we all know, we have to guard this personal information very carefully in light of the fact that identity theft is among the fastest-growing crimes in the world. While our earthly identities—the digital or physical sources of personal information that distinguish us from everyone else—may be at risk of theft, believers are securely identified as holy and set apart from the world throug...

  Unstoppable (October 23, 2023) “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31)   “Unstoppable” was the theme of a spiritually refreshing guys getaway attended by six men from my church during the weekend at Fort Caswell at Oak Island on the NC coast. The featured speaker, retired college and NFL coach Bob Sanders related this theme to our daily walk as followers of Jesus Christ.   In our human frailty and weakness, we long to shed our limitations and become something more. Thankfully, as believers, we can be unstoppable because we have the power of the Holy Spirit living inside us. Christ in us, “the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27), is the unstoppable source of the God-given strength that empowers us to live victoriously in a world where Satan seeks to defeat us.   Our identity is in Christ who has overcome the world and given us access to the divine armor of God that shields and protects us from the devil’s ...