Living By The Word

  A Worship-Worthy God ( May 6, 2024)  “ God  is  Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:24) As Christians, we should seize every opportunity to worship an awesome God who sustains our earthly lives and secures our eternal futures. He alone is worthy of our highest praise and deepest gratitude because of His abounding love and His abiding grace. The Psalms are full of calls to worship. “Serve the Lord with gladness … “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise… ” (Psalm 100: 2, 4). Worship is the humble act of showing reverence, respect, and love for the one true God of glory and grace and should never be restricted to an hour on Sunday morning. Worship is our daily expression of the priority and place of highest prominence that we have reserved for God in our hearts and lives. The late Pastor Dr. Charles Stanley said worship satisfies the intense hunger and thirst for God and His Word that we de...

  Vessels of Honor ( May 3, 2024)   Ever wondered why God sometimes allows into our lives trials and hardships that can cause us to question His love? If you’ve ever observed a skilled potter at work, you know that this gifted craftsman often applies pressure in certain places as the potter’s wheel spins the clay to craft what becomes a beautiful piece of pottery. By the same token, the Master Potter who created us, Almighty God, may utilize   adverse circumstances to apply pressure as He molds and shapes those who trust and obey Him into vessels of honor and usefulness. “ Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete  it until the day of Jesus Christ. ” (Philippians 1:6) God is faithful to keep His promise to conform yielded believers to the image of His Son. Love for His creations is inherent in God’s nature and is reflected by His efforts to guide us to spiritual maturity. As a result, the L ORD can use dif...

    The Matchless Love of God ( April 29, 3024) “He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” (1 John 4:8) Love is the very essence of who God is, and to know Him personally is to love Him. By His grace, God provided the one way to salvation through faith in His Son Jesus Christ. Our Lord and Savior loved us so dearly that He willingly died so that every believer has abundant and everlasting life. Those of us who have a personal relationship with Him can take comfort in knowing that in Christ we are eternally inseparable from the matchless love of God! “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39)

  Shine “The Light” ( April 26, 2024) “ The  Lord  is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? ” (Psalm 27:1) In an immoral culture shrouded in the shadows of evil, Christians are called to walk in the light of Jesus Christ and to reflect His beams of hope into lives lost in the darkness of sin. Each day we need to be guided by the lamp that lights our paths, God’s Word. Applying biblical principles and moral standards to our lives, we are enabled to avoid the pitfalls concealed by the darkness and deceit of a fallen world that is temporarily Satan’s domain. We must allow to shine through us rays of divine light that attract unbelievers to Jesus like moths to a flame. Lurking in the darkness of the world, Satan aims to deceive and destroy those of us who seek to walk in the light of God’s glory. Scripture teaches that devoid of truth, the devil is the father of lies. “ He was a murderer from the beginning, and   does not stand in the truth, beca...

  Pride, the Pathway to Destruction ( April 25, 2024)           An abomination that God hates, pride is the pathway to downfall, debacle, and destruction! Arrogant attitudes and haughty hearts can bring promising lives and lofty dreams crashing down in dismal defeat. A prime biblical example is the selfish pride that prompted God to cast Satan out of heaven. The highest of all angels and the most beautiful of God’s creations, Satan (Lucifer) demonstrated his arrogant pride and his self-exaltation in a series of “I will” statements . “ I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God…I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.” (Isaiah 14:13-14) Satan seeks to puff up human pride lo to separate us from the grace and mercy that God offers all sinners who humble their hearts in repentance. “Let  nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let eac...

  Only Christ Offers Eternal Security ( April 24, 2024)   "And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand." (John 10:28)   We live in a dynamic world that is constantly changing. Every day we face uncertainty in connection with our relationships with other people, our health, our careers, worldly events, and virtually all areas of our personal lives. Author and artist Emilyann Girdner wrote: “No matter what there always seems to be something clouding my existence, nothing is ever clear.” While uncertainty is a way of life in an ever-changing world, we can know with perfect clarity our eternal destiny when we enter into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. The unpredictability of our earthly lives may prompt feelings of insecurity, but believers can be certain that they are eternally secure in Christ.   The Bible teaches that no one can get to heaven based on his or her good works in this life. O...

  The New Commandment ( April 23, 2024) “ A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35) After hosting the Last Supper, humbly washing His disciples’ feet, and identifying the one who would betray Him, Jesus commanded His followers to love and serve one another. As His crucifixion drew near, this command by the L ORD to His followers demonstrated His love for them as expressed through the act of washing their feet, thereby giving them an example of meekness and service to humanity to follow. “Beloved,  if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” (1 John 4:11) Practicing this new commandment to love each other as Christ loves us is the mark that defines who we are as believers and modern-day disciples of Christ. It is not optional; Jesus has commanded His followers to love one another as the...