Worthy Words

There is something each person needs to be aware of—when you sin; others pay a price, too. When you lose your temper, others suffer. When you lie, others suffer. When you’re unfaithful, others suffer. Just like when King David began his little tryst with Bathsheba, he apparently gave no thought at all to the price that others would pay for his sin. Then David’s pastor, Nathan, confronted him about what he had done and after the rebuke David confessed, “I have sinned against the Lord.” (2 Samuel 11:13) If you are going to survive the failure of sin in your life—we all have sinned—then like David you must take the first step and confess your sin. “Confess your sin” is a phrase voiced often in church. What does it mean? It means you take responsibility for your actions. You say, “I did it. I’m at fault. I’m not going to transfer the blame off on someone else. It was me.” Too often one’s so-called confessions amount to nothing more than blame-shifting—“Yes, I lost my t...

Have you ever found yourself completely confused by the multitude of religious ideologies being "sold" in the market place? I'm not just talking about the different religions — Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, Christianity and so on. I mean the different ideologies within the Christian faith. There's quite a bit of diversity there. Many churches teach many different things — and to be blunt, some of them are a little off the wall. There have been times when someone has said to me, "My church believes such and such" and I will ask, "Where did you get such a crazy notion? There's not a single verse in the Bible that comes close to saying anything related to that!" We're sometimes guilty of preaching what C.S. Lewis called "Christianity and Water." In other words, this means preaching Christianity and some other ideology, for example, Christianity and the Republican Party, Christianity and contemporary music, Christianity and P...

God doesn't respond to your needs or your wants or your wishes. He responds to your faith. This is an important principle. When two blind men came to Jesus and asked to be healed, Jesus said, "According to your faith will it be done to you." (Matthew 9:29) God responds to your faith. Someone reading this is facing a difficult situation. Maybe it has to do with money, or maybe it has to do with a relationship, or maybe it has to do with your health — but you're up against it, and you need God to intervene. Do you know what will get his attention? Or, more accurately, do you want what will ignite his action? The situation, in and of itself, won't. Neither will your whining and complaining. Do you know what ignites the action of God? Your faith. "According to your faith will it be done to you." In Hebrews 11:6 it says, “Anyone who comes to him must believe that there is a God and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.” God respon...

From time to time people have asked me the question, "What does God want from me? What am I expected to do?" Surely, there are some things that God wants you to do, some rules that he wants you to live by. Most Christ-followers know about those Ten Commandments. But the question is, what does God most want from us? The writer of the book of Hebrews tells us in chapter eleven and verse six that, “It is impossible to please God without faith.” That's what God wants most from you. It is mentioned several times. Verse 2 “God gave his approval to people in days of old because of their faith.” Also in verse 5, “It was by faith that Enoch was taken up to heaven without dying ...Before he was taken, he was approved as pleasing to God.” Then in verse 7 it talks about Noah, “By his faith he condemned the rest of the world and was made right in God's sight.” Faith is the only way to please God.    I heard a beautiful story recently. A couple was getting married. They were enga...

I was afraid of the dark when I was a child. I remember thinking monsters were outside my window because strange sounds would come from that direction while I lay in bed trying to go to sleep. I’m sure children in today’s world when they go to bed at night also fear the dark where the imaginary world of monsters, bogeymen, and things that go bump in the night come to life. The most reassuring word came from my mother who would sit by my side calm my fears and say a prayer with me; “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray dear Lord my soul will keep…”, that brought back a sense of peace to my troubled heart and allowed for sweet slumber. Adults often laugh off the fears that seem so real to children. But, the fact is that many adults experience something very similar. After the lights go out and the sound of silence fills the air, we are forced to face the things that hide in the busyness of the day. The grown-up monsters of deadlines, pressure at work, addictions, marital strife, abuse, de...