Mark 5:21-43 Desperate confident faith in Jesus changes everything. Trusting in the world leads to fear. Trusting in Jesus leads to faith. Anyone who laughs at your faith in Jesus doesn't belong in your inner circle of life and needs to be kicked out. Jesus is Life and death cannot hold Life down. Jesus is the only One who can conquer death. He offers Life with Him for all eternity to anyone who chooses to submit their lives to Him in desperate confident faith. He stops for you.
Jul 18, 2024•16 min
In Psalm 43, 44, & 45, the descendants of Korah express their praise and worship of the Lord as the sweet sunrise reminds them of God's Light and Truth. God's goodness and mercy follow us all of our days and His Light and Truth lead us. They faced a huge defeat and cry out to God honestly and openly giving every emotion to God and trusting Him with the outcome. Even in this storm of defeat, they stand firm in faith, trust God and His faithful love, and praise the Lord. They trust God through...
Jul 17, 2024•13 min
In Psalm 40, 41, & 42, David sings of God's great rescue and redemption and points us directly to Jesus and His saving mercy and grace. He trusts in God and His great saving power. He trusts in God's unfailing love and faithfulness. He knows "the Lord is Great" and shouts it out passionately for all to hear. He praises God in gratitude - even in the midst of the storm. More than anything else, David wanted to please and glorify God and bask in His sweet presence. He confessed his sins openly...
Jul 17, 2024•13 min
In Psalm 38 & 39, David repents brokenheartedly before the Lord. He was honest with himself and God and laid it all before Him. He was really sick and walking through some huge struggles and sufferings. He even admits the writhing pain before God. When we face struggles and pains in life, we can focus on ourselves and experience sin's painfulness, we can focus on others and experience sin's loneliness, or we can focus on the Lord and experience sin's forgiveness. David chose to remain silent...
Jul 15, 2024•12 min
Jesus loves us no matter what and always will - forever! The world around us tries to tell us lies about who we are and Whose we are. It's more important than ever to know what God says about who we are. He's the One who created us so He is the only One who should be allowed to define us.
Jul 13, 2024•16 min
In Psalm 36 & 37, David ponders God's world, praises God's character, and prays for God's protection and justice. He worshiped God and took personal responsibility for obedience to God. He focused his attention and energy to God's great glory, His faithfulness, His love, His mercy, and His grace. He worshiped and served God in the confidence of who God is. Rather than worrying and fretting over his circumstances, he trusted God. He trusted God's perfect timing, pursued God's holiness, and de...
Jul 12, 2024•12 min
In Psalm 34 & 35, David knows the Lord redeems those who serve Him wholeheartedly. He knows the Lord answers our prayers, provides all that we need, and delivers us from evil. He knows the Lord protects us from danger and turns our fears into faith. He cries out to God and praises Him with reverent fear and awe of who God is and God answers. God is our Creator and He cares for us. He redeems us. We belong to Him. He loves us. He wants us to trust Him and His will, pray and stay in communicat...
Jul 11, 2024•12 min
In Psalm 31, 32, & 33, David is in deep distress and deep grief. He is being ridiculed and the enemy is pursuing him on every side. He feels forgotten and attacked. In spite of all this, in spite of all the circumstances surrounding him, he chose to look up. He chose to trust in the Lord. He chose to praise the Lord in the storm. He chose to glorify God regardless of every circumstance. He chose to trust the strong arm and faithful love of our life-saving Redeemer. He lifted his fears to God...
Jul 07, 2024•14 min
In Psalm 28, 29, & 30, David expresses praise to God in gratitude and thanksgiving. In spite of the evil all around him, he chooses to worship and praise God and trusts His goodness, His mercy, and His strength. He expresses the glory of God and magnifies God's great Name. He humbly came to God with a heart of repentance realizing life is not about him, but about how he can glory God in this life. He trusted in God's comfort and strength for whatever he faced ahead and worshiped God through ...
Jul 06, 2024•14 min
God is everything. Everything we've ever needed, do need now, or will need is given by God. He created us for Him, to be sustained through Him - to bring His glory to the earth. God created us to show what He can do with less when less is wholeheartedly dependent on Him than with more when more is in rebellion against Him. This is God's world, designed God's way, for God's glory and yes - for our good too.
Jul 06, 2024•10 min
Forgiveness is God's greatest gift because it meets our greatest need. Our faith can impact a person's eternal destiny if we are willing to put our faith into action. We don't just know Jesus saved our lives, we are called to live as if Jesus saved our lives. (Mark 2:1-12)
Jul 06, 2024•14 min
In Psalm 25, 26, & 27, David was walking through a really difficult time in life. He had enemies chasing him trying to take his life. In spite of his circumstances, God was still his focus. He wasn't perfect or sinless, but he was repentant and humble and chose to seek God's face. The one thing he asked of God above all else was to live in the House of the Lord all his days. He was single minded and laser focused on God. He trusted God's goodness, mercy, grace, kindness, forgiveness, and vic...
Jul 05, 2024•15 min
In Psalm 23 & 24, David attributes the Lord to be the Great Shepherd who cares for His sheep and prepares them for ministry as well as the Chief Shepherd who is returning for His sheep. Jesus cares for us and He is returning in all His glory. We are to worship Him wholeheartedly as we live the lives He has given in gratitude and to glorify Him. This is God's World and He created us and placed us in His perfect time and place on His earth. He is the King of Glory and He loves us beyond compre...
Jul 03, 2024•14 min
In Psalm 20, 21, & 22, David cries out to God praying for victory in the battle ahead. He confidently prays to the Lord knowing it is God who fights every battle and boasts in God and God alone giving Him all the glory. He then praises God for the victory and exalts the Lord for all He has brought them through. Then he beautifully takes us straight to the cross as he cries out again to God. He prophetically speaks of our amazingly Good Shepperd, our Messiah, who came to earth humbly sacrific...
Jul 02, 2024•15 min
In Psalm 18 & 19, David raises praises of thanksgiving to the Lord for His mighty victory and stands in awe of God and His great glory. When you catch a glimpse of God and who He is, it changes you. When the Word of God moves from your hand and head to your heart, it changes you. He delivers when we call on Him, He rewards when we humbly repent from our selfishness and offer Him our lives in obedience to His will, and He equips us for all He brings us to and will see us through. God is glori...
Jul 01, 2024•14 min
In Psalm 15, 16, & 17, David outlines the patterns of the Lord passionately and sincerely and how living blamelessly, pursuing God's holiness, living the Word of God from our hearts no matter the cost, not speaking ill of others or telling lies, reverently fearing and standing in awe of God, not taking advantage of others for selfish gains or bribes will result in living a righteous life in the honor and glory of the Lord. When Jesus is the foundation of our very soul, we cannot be shook and...
Jun 28, 2024•14 min
In Psalm 11, 12, 13, & 14, David sees a lot of evil going on around him and is being attacked at every side. The pressures of life were real and evident. Through every storm, he was honest with God and in constant communication with Him. He brought every emotion to the Lord and trusted Him with the circumstances around him as well as with the outcome. He chose to view the situations he faced through the lens of God and His truth. He trusted God's unfailing love. He trusted God's faithfulness...
Jun 27, 2024•15 min
In Psalm 8, 9, & 10, David beautifully writes of the awe and wonder of our Almighty God who created everything we see. God in His greatness chooses to use us in our weakness to reveal His glorious greatness on earth. It strikes David with humble reverent awe of God that He is so big and mighty yet loves each of us so incomprehensibly much and it should us as well. He further calls out to God as His refuge and strength as he faces enemies and battles ahead. He knows God will not fail and stan...
Jun 26, 2024•14 min
In Psalm 6 & 7, David cries out honestly and sincerely to the Lord. David experiences his emotions and brings every single one to the Lord. He trusts God wholeheartedly and knows He is trustworthy and faithful. He brings every pain to God and every joy as well. He talks with God all day every day humbly and submissively. He doesn't try to take matters of his enemies into his own hands. Instead, he trusts God to handle it. God's love is a holy love. He is perfect, pure, righteous, and just. G...
Jun 25, 2024•13 min
In Psalm 3, 4, & 5, David cries out honestly before God. He is wholeheartedly devoted to God, glorifies God in all things, and trusts God's character. He admits his struggles and troubles honestly, trusts in God completely, and knows God is on the throne and will handle everything perfectly. No matter what circumstances he faces or how bad they look, He trusts God through it all. He was in constant communication and prayer with God. He loved God with all His guts and passionately pursued Him...
Jun 24, 2024•15 min
It was an uncounted young boy who held the 2 fish and 5 loaves that provided the materials needed for the miracle that fed roughly 20,000 people. The miracle came forth with the breaking of the bread. Jesus broke Himself as the perfect and final Miracle for each of us. Jesus never asks us to look for what we don't have or compare ourselves to others. He's put all we need in our hands to live our lives passionately for Him, falling more and more in love with Him as we do.
Jun 22, 2024•15 min
In Psalm 1 & 2, we see a contrast of choosing Jesus vs rebelling against Him and the results that come because of both choices. Those that delight in the Lord and His Word - loving and pursuing Him heart and soul- are blessed. Those who refuse are condemned to the chains of sin and death. "For the Lord watches over the path of the godly, but the path of the wicked leads to destruction." God pleads with us to "serve the Lord with reverent fear, and rejoice with trembling" before Him, and to "...
Jun 21, 2024•14 min
In Esther 9 & 10, a vast number of Haman's followers rise up and try to take out the Jewish nation. But God. God give them victory. Because of the 2nd decree, they were able to defend themselves and God moved mightily in their defense. God's plan will come forth. God brought forth His Son, Jesus did come to earth, and through this nation, we all have the opportunity to hear, see, and learn about the one and only true and living God. Our Father and Creator who loves us so much that He sent Je...
Jun 20, 2024•16 min
In Esther 8, the first decree could not be changed or taken away, but a 2nd decree was issued overturning the first. Just like sin hanging over humanity today, the 1st decree issued declared that we are destined to condemnation and death. The 2nd decree issued points us to the saving mercy and grace of Jesus. Only by responding to Jesus can the first decree be overturned. The 2nd decree cries out the amazingly great news that Jesus came to earth and died on the Cross to save us from death for et...
Jun 20, 2024•17 min
In Esther 7, the masks fall. Haman, in his pride, thinks he is invincible. He quickly learns he is not. The king learns his wife is Jewish, Haman is actually the enemy, and he inadvertently allowed a decree that would end his wife's life as well as the life of the man who had previously saved his own life. Haman ends up dying on the gallows he intended to use to kill Mordecai out of pure hatred. Rather than killing the man he set in his heart to hate, he ended up killed. The seeds we sow in life...
Jun 18, 2024•16 min
In Esther 6, the king can't sleep and asked for his history to be read. The event of Mordecai saving his life is read and it is brought to his attention Mordecai was never honored or rewarded for saving the king's life. Haman comes along and is asked what a proper honor would be for someone who pleases the king. In his pride, Haman thinks he's talking about him so he spills out this elaborate day of over the top honor publicly throughout the kingdom in front of everyone. Rather than killing Mord...
Jun 17, 2024•17 min
Jesus' very first miracle took place at a wedding. Jesus is returning and it will be the biggest celebration of all time as He returns for His Capital "C" Church Bride. It's "now" time to drink from the very best - Jesus. The things of the world will never compare to what Jesus will bring us to - for all eternity. (John 2:1-12)
Jun 15, 2024•9 min
In Esther 5, after 3 full days of fasting and praying as a nation, Esther moves forward into action. She risks everything and stood in the courtyard before the king. He invites her in and she arranges for a back to back banquet with her, the king, and Haman. In doing so, God is setting up the perfect timing, the perfect place, in the perfect way, and with the perfect audience that He needs for His plan to save the nation to unfold. Haman was controlled by false confidence, pride, and evil and it...
Jun 14, 2024•14 min
In Esther 4, Mordecai takes action. The entire nation is about to be killed due to the death decree issued. Esther has no clue any of this is happening. He succeeds in getting her attention and gets a message to her. He reminds her that her life is not safe just because of where she lives. She needs to be all in for God because God placed her in this position for this exact moment. Revival breaks out and the nation begins fasting and praying. This is life and death. Esther is all in. She decides...
Jun 13, 2024•18 min
In Esther 3, we see that Haman - who is completely evil - is given authority in the kingdom that he doesn't deserve. He uses that authority to try to wipe out the entire Jewish nation. He lies to the king and ends up getting a decree of death approved for all the Jews in the kingdom and it would all happen in 1 day just short of a year away. God has everything in place He needs to save the nation to continue His plan to bring forth our Messiah, Jesus. Sin entered the world and the decree for ete...
Jun 12, 2024•18 min
