Worthy Words

Success is what most people strive for. Products on TV infommercials promise instant success in everything from weight loss to financial freedom. Schools promise success in producing well-educated students who will succeed in college and the working world. In fact, there is a promise that if you are successful in work, business, education, sports or the arts, you will have lived a successful life. I want some of that! Sign me up! This idea of success sadly has infiltrated the church in almost all aspects. A successful church is often measured by the number of members, by Sunday morning attendees, by the number of staff members, or by the number of people who prayed at the altar on a given Sunday. I would like to offer the idea that the church is not called to be “successful” in the way success is measured today. Instead, we are called to be faithful. Jesus told a parable in Matthew 25:14-30 about three servants who have been given responsibility over differing amounts of money or “...

Paul wrote to his fellow Christians in Corinth, "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him" (1 Corinthians 2:9). There is no one in this world who can be in love with God and remain the same. Someone sent me a card that said, LOVE is the Great Transformer…LOVE transforms: Ambition into aspiration, Greed into gratitude, Selfishness into service, Getting into giving, Demands into dedication, Loneliness into happiness. Love transforms you into becoming a person with more of the qualities of Jesus Christ. Dedicate your life to love. Don't let our culture cheapen the meaning and transformation that takes place with agape love, God's highest form of love. When you seek the higher level of love you can rest assured that your life will never be the same. “These three things remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” — 1 Corinthians 13:13

The other day I was coming out of a parking space at the hospital, a driver in the space behind me flashed his lights then pulled up next to me and motioned for me to roll down my window. My thoughts raced. I didn't think I had cut him off, or interfered with his right of way. What had I done? With apprehension, I rolled down my window without any indication of the problem. The driver, friendlier than expected, informed me that my backup light on the right rear side was out. As I drove away, I became aware that I would never have known my backup light was out without that person making the effort to tell me. I needed someone with a different viewpoint and angle to see what I couldn't. I would have continued to drive unaware of any problem. The failed light was in a spot I could not see. You and I both have blind spots in our lives, don’t we? Just like the driver who helped me that day, the Lord uses other people in our lives to give us wisdom and correction. It is easy to g...

There is no doubt that you will experience trials in your Christian life. Some new Christians mistakenly believe that being a Christ-follower means living a life free of hassles and struggles. God never promised us freedom from trials; He promised us that He would walk with us through the trials and help us to endure our hardships. No one looks forward to trials, but trials can produce a stronger faith. You can withstand anything that comes if you remember that every trial is actually a test. Before gold is pure it must be tested in the fire. The trials which come your way will test your faith, and out of your struggles your faith can emerge stronger than it ever was before. The apostle Peter said; “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith — of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire — may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor...

I read a story some time back about a cattle truck traveling on I20 in West Texas that experienced trouble when the back of the trailer came open. For lack of a better way to put it, cows flew out. Of course, cows can’t fly, which in this occasion, is not good news for the cows involved. Neither was it good news for the traffic following the cattle carrier. The flying cows led to a chain reaction of negative events. Several cars hit some of the cows. State Highway Patrol officers scrambled to the scene. While working to control the accident scene, another truck approached on the interstate. It raced by, nearly hitting a patrol officer. Two Highway Patrol vehicles immediately began pursuit of the speeding truck. The truck quickly pulled off to the side of the interstate and two men jumped out and began running. The Patrol vehicles also pulled over, whereby the officers gave chase on foot. Eventually, the suspects were caught. Unfortunately, the officers had stopped their vehicles in t...

If you’re reading this it means the predictions from a small American religious sect’s leader Harold Camping have proven once again to be inaccurate. There have been billboards on major highways around the country that announce, “The Bible Guarantees It.” Camping a former civil engineer based in California has made the claim that May 21, 2011 will be when the world will face “Judgement Day” signaled by a “worldwide earthquake” that will begin in each time zone around the world at 6 PM incasing the world in hellish destruction then five months later the end of the world by which God destroys the planet in October 2011. The idea of the end of the world has been the topic of much discussion for over 2,000 years. Ever since Jesus Christ announced He would return to earth opinions about how that happens have been plentiful. If people would read just basic verses they would never worry about May 21, 2011. Let me offer up some scripture verses that speak to the issue. Check out; Matthew...

As a kid you may have at one time or another tried to keep your balance while walking on a fence. Sometimes you made it and sometimes you fall. When it comes to obedience, far too many Christ-followers try to "walk the fence." They keep one foot in the Spirit while one foot flirts with the world. These are some of the unhappiest people in the world. Charles Spurgeon once said, "I never saw anybody try to walk on both sides of the street but a drunken man; he tried it, and it was awkward work indeed; but I have seen many people in a moral point of view try to walk on both sides of the street, and I thought there was some kind of intoxication in them." If God is God and Christ is our Savior, let us give our undivided attention and whole hearts to God. “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm- neither hot nor cold - I am about to spit you out of my mouth.”—Revelation 3:15, 16 A lu...