Walking With Jesus

From the Backseat to the Battlefield

*Please allow these challenging words by Ron Hutchcraft to move you into action for the Lord’s honor and fame. Blessings, Ed 😊

Ever since I was little I’ve been fascinated by the American Revolution, and I always wanted to see Concord Bridge, where it sort of all began. You know, the shot heard around the world? By the time I got there, I had two little boys of my own who were not fascinated by the American Revolution. I wanted to spend a while at Concord Bridge, imagining those Colonial farmers descending and the Red Coats stepping up to the bridge in their rigid formation.

Unfortunately my sons were not interested in all of that. I tried to tell them the story; yawn! Come on, this is vacation. Who cares about history, right? One last idea. I got their tricorn hats that we bought them and we got some sticks for them to use as muskets. I made them the Americans and I played Red Coat. So they came charging across one side of the Concord Bridge. I went running away from them. I eventually ended up fatally wounded. And when we were done they said, “Let’s do it again, Daddy!” Of course they won every time. They became interested, but not until they had a part.

I’m Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “From the Backseat to the Battle.”

Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Matthew 20:6-7. Jesus is telling a story about a man who needs help at harvest time. He’s gone out three times during the day to get more and more help. And finally, he goes out near the end of the working day, and it says this: “About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’ ‘Because no one has hired us’ they answered. He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.'”

There’s an urgent job to be done! Harvest time passes fast; you’ve got to get to it. There’s only a few days to make it all happen. Big job – urgent job with not enough help. Men standing around? Why? Because they said they didn’t have a job to do. So Jesus says here basically there’s a job for everyone in the harvest; the harvest of human hearts.

See, a lot of church folks are like my sons at Concord Bridge. You hear the facts about the battle. You hear stories of what other people have done to reach people, but you’re not playing any active part. You’re just watching.

Actually, God doesn’t intend to have any of His kids just be spectators. This is a war with life-or-death stakes going on. He wants you out of the stands and into the game. Maybe your Christianity is kind of gray and boring. And it is until you get a mission, not just hear about people with a mission.

You need a job to do for Jesus, and you can be sure He’s got one. You’re surrounded by work He needs done. There are boys who need you. There are girls who need you to reach out to them. There are senior citizens who are lonely and need to hear about Christ in their few remaining years. There are teenagers maybe you could connect with. There are homeless people. There are Christian workers who are buried in administrative detail and you could help relieve them for the work that only they can do. You are urgently needed somewhere I’ll tell you.

When you get a mission, when you get a piece of the action, your faith comes alive. You read the Bible with a new appetite, you pray with a new intensity, and you listen with a new openness. You can’t just go to church to get filled up and meet your needs. It’s a staging area for God’s rescue operation on earth launched at the cross. It’s a place for God’s soldiers. It’s a place to get ready for the battles that affect people’s eternities.

Christianity seems hollow, meaningless and boring without a personal mission, and you are needed. So don’t just listen to secondhand facts about the battle for human souls and for eternities. Do what my boys did. Grab a musket and run to the battle in Jesus’ name.

Why Our Hearts Grow Cold

“Because of the multiplication of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold. But the one who perseveres to the end will be saved.” (Matthew 24:12-13 BSB)

When someone we know well and respect as a person of God falls or fails, it’s discouraging. It seems Biblical standards are so ignored or disregarded in the modern church when it happens it causes us to wonder “What’s the point? Why make the effort to live a godly, holy life? Who cares anymore?”

The motivating energy behind my continuing efforts to be all the Lord would have me to be is my Savior, the Lord Jesus. He never faltered or failed and HE’S MY EXAMPLE, no one else. Human effort fails and falls short, but the Lord will NEVER FAIL, NEVER LEAVE, AND NEVER FORSAKE!

“Living Water in a Frozen World” “Used by permission, © Ray Majoran, GlimpseOfInfinity.com”

He is my fortress in the storm, the Rock onto which I hold tightly, the voice of calm in the midst of the prevailing winds of culture that seek to sway my opinion to something other than the security of my trust in Jesus. Yet, even as I type these words, I realize the enemy is seeking to discourage me because in my efforts to represent Him well, so few seem to have any real interest in the things of God.

Again, that’s only as the Lord revealed it would be. His Word let’s us know the closer we get to the end of time and life on this planet, the harder it will be to be convinced that Jesus is the only way to heaven in light of all the wrong theology that’s being promoted in our world today. And here’s the irony. It’s not the lost people who are rejecting the Lord, it’s the religiously pious who are secure in their own goodness and right standing with God.

Their eternal “security” has been placed in a profession rather than in a Person, and, while they may not realize it or choose to believe it, their cold hearts that have allowed them to drift from the Truth of a moment-by-moment relationship with the Lord, is allowing them to slip from their security in Jesus into a false sense of security in their own goodness.

As Martin Luther points out: “The heart overflows with gladness and leaps and dances for the joy it has found in God…. You will have as much joy and laughter in life as you have faith in God.” Diminishing faith in God results in diminishing joy and gladness in the things of God. To drift from God is to drift from the joy, contentment, satisfaction, and security that only Jesus can give.

No one really doubts that believers drift, doubt, or at times even deny the faith. The only question is, where do these drifting’s end? Most often they lead to a lax view of sin. We too often wrongly assume that since the blood of Jesus paid the penalty for all sin, past, present, and future, let’s sin to our heart’s content because they’re all “paid for;” however, the writer of the Hebrew letter reminds us in Hebrews 10:26-31: “If we deliberately go on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no further sacrifice of sins remains, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume all adversaries. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses, How much more severely do you think one deserves to be punished who has trampled on the Son of God, profaned the blood of the covenant that sanctified Him and insulted the Spirit of grace?”

We take sin far too lightly, which results in our heart drifting and our soul growing cold to the things of God. Yes, of course, the Lord will forgive us when we sin, but when sin becomes our way of life once we’ve supposedly yielded our lives to Him, there remains no alternative. It’s as if we spit in the Savior’s holy face when we demand our sinful way over His way of holiness and desire to walk with victory over sin as Scripture clearly teaches we can.

The greater measure we yield to sin, the greater measure our hearts will grow cold.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

The Brighter Way

“The way of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, which shines ever brighter until the full light of day.” (Proverbs 4:18 NLT)

Whenever my family and I have moved to a new area we’ve always tried to find a place to live that was East of our work so we would be traveling West to work in the morning, and East home in the evening. Some may wonder: “Why would that even be a concern?” Otherwise, we’re driving with the bright sun in our eyes going to and from work, which is not only aggravating, but also dangerous.

However, in the context of our thoughts today, the rising SON that illuminates our pathway is the light of life that not only helps us see clearly how to live but is also the source of the light in our lives to show the way for those who will follow us.

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 10:31-33: “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Don’t give offense to Jews or Gentiles or the church of God. I, too, try to please everyone in everything I do. I don’t just do what is best for me; I do what is best for others so that many may be saved. And you should imitate me, just as I imitate Christ.”

Notice the clear reason why it’s so vitally important we not only walk in the Light ourselves but be consciously aware that we are illuminating the way for those who are following us who need to be saved. To try to dart in and out of the Light by trying to live with one foot in the world and the other following Jesus is not only crippling our witness, but harmful to those who are following us. Notice Paul says: “I do what is best for others so that many may be saved.” The salvation of those whom we’re seeking to influence is always our goal.

The principle of “paying it forward” is applicable here, especially as we’re seeking to honor the Lord and influence someone for Him. Someone we help in some way may say something like: “How could I ever repay you for your kindness?” Realizing this can sometimes be a platitude and they have no real interest in paying anyone back for anything, I give them the benefit of the doubt and will often say something like: “Repaying me need not be your concern. What I do I do to honor the Lord Jesus whom I love and serve, so, as He prompts you, do for someone else what He’s allowed and enabled me to do for you.”

Whether it’s money we give or a kindness in helping someone, the brighter way of the Lord Jesus would have us plant two seeds in their mind. First, though the kindness was given by us, it was prompted by the Lord we love and serve. Why is that important? Because the Christian faith isn’t a set of religious beliefs that we hold dear in our heart and mind, it’s following our eternal Leader in accomplishing good works He ordained for us to carry out before the foundation of the world. We’re essentially saying, “Do as I have done for you in following the Lord’s directives as He leads you in helping someone else.”

But, secondly, we’re emphasizing that the good we have done and are asking them to do isn’t to glorify, honor, or gain recognition for ourselves, but to point all glory, honor, and praise to the only One who deserves it, the Lord Jesus Himself. My friend, Ray Majoran, understands this well. Let the words of his helpful prayer bless you as they blessed me.

“Holy Spirit, guide our steps each day so that our lives follow the ways You teach. Give us hearts that are ready to listen, minds that are willing to learn, and courage to walk the path You set before us. Establish our steps in wisdom and faithfulness, because the path of the righteous grows brighter as it leads forward (Proverbs 4:18). May our lives reflect the beauty of Your ways, and may our journey lead others to seek the higher way found in Christ.”

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Abiding In The God Who Rejoices Over You

*As I do the 15^th of each month, I’m giving you the opportunity to benefit from the beautiful ministry of Sylvia Gunter. Please read as if you were listening to the voice of God to your ear. Blessings, Ed 😊

Listen to the Word of God for you in Song of Solomon 7:6. “How beautiful you are and how pleasing, O love, with your delights!”

Set your spiritual compass heading to these words of God to you. You are His precious one, and He takes pleasure in you. Be blessed to be enlarged with His deep love. Be blessed with knowing that you delight His heart. Listen as the Love of your life tells you from the Song of Solomon 4:9-10 that He loves you. “You have ravished my heart, my sister, my bride with one look of your eyes… How fair is your love, my sister, my bride! How much better than wine is your love, and the scent of your perfumes is better than all spices!”

Listen to His words in Song of Solomon 2:11-13. “See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land. The fig tree forms its early fruit; the blossoming vines spread their fragrance. Arise, come, my darling; my beautiful one, come with me, for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.”

You have faithfully endured the hardship of winter. Even in winter months, the earth is not completely dormant. The process of life continues. And now the spring has come. Let go of any fear or unbelief and fully embrace the spring. Rejoice! Sing! Breathe in the fragrance of new life. It is time to put the winter behind and arise in the new abundance that this season has for you.

You are the object of heaven’s love. He calls you precious one, His beautiful one. His love for you can never diminish, because He is the eternal I AM. He loves you freely with unchanging love (Hosea 14:4). How can you doubt God’s love for you? He doesn’t give you some of His love; He is love, and He gives you Himself (1 John 4:16). You have all of Him, so you have all His love at all times. Receive His love, just because you are His. His great love for you is bathed in rich mercy (Micah 7:18; Ephesians 2:4). What more can God do to prove His love than by giving you His Son in exchange for your life (Galatians 2:20; Ephesians 5:25)? Be blessed in the wonder of such an amazing love story.

Be blessed in the name of the God of love who is with you. (2 Corinthians 13:11)

An archive of our devotionals is available at on our website.

Strength To Equal Your Days: 365 Days of Prayers and Blessings is a year-long journey of encouragement, filled with daily reminders of God’s love, faithfulness, and strength. Each page invites readers to pause, pray, and be refreshed by timeless truth.

It’s the perfect gift for anyone who could use a touch of hope and peace: friends, family, coworkers, or even yourself. Give a gift that nourishes the soul and strengthens the spirit: 365 days of hope, faith, and blessings.

Dehydrated People

“Jesus replied, ‘If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask Me and I would give you living water.” (John 4:10 NLT)

It’s estimated the average person can survive about 3-4 days without water, but no one can survive in eternity for one second without the living “Water,” the Lord Jesus Christ. Yet, most human beings mistakenly believe since they have physical life, that’s their only concern. Each day we likely have access to dozens or more people who are walking dead people, dying of spiritual dehydration due to their lack of the presence of the Spirit of God living in and through them.

Jesus met a Samaritan woman who didn’t have a clue about her need of Jesus until she met Him, listened to His voice and responded by faith to His offer of living water, then she was empowered by His Spirit to tell everyone she met about the Lord. Where is that Spirit led compulsion to share the Lord in us? Why are we so reluctant to share the “Living Water” with every “thirsty” person we meet?

By God’s grace, He’s giving me greater boldness in speaking to strangers about Him. One key that I’ve found very helpful is speaking to someone we don’t know about common interests. Usually, when we meet someone for the first time it will be in a setting that gives us both a reason to be there, thus, a common interest.

In a doctor’s or hospital waiting room, a sport’s event, or casual outing, wherever we are, if we’re both there, there’s certainly a reason and an automatic common interest. I think of Jesus and the Samaritan woman, both were there because of the water. That was the common source of interest upon which their conversation could begin.

Notice Jesus didn’t say, as well He could have: “You shameful woman, you’re living a life of sin and shame, having had five husbands and now living with a man to whom you’re not even married. Shame on you! You deserve to rot in hell for your awful lifestyle! Repent and believe the Good News!” Yeh, right! She’d have dropped her bucket and been gone before the second sentence left the Lord’s mouth. But isn’t it ironic that after building some common ground He Has WAS able to tell her those things.

Folks don’t need to know how bad they are, they need to know how good Jesus is. “Please give Me a drink” were His opening words. No condemnation. No accusatory, negative comments, just a simple non-threatening request that caught her off guard but certainly got her attention. My sense is, we don’t have to cram the Gospel down anyone’s throat. If it doesn’t flow naturally, then wait for another opportunity. How do we know they’ll get another opportunity? We don’t, but the Lord does, that’s why it’s critical we let Him lead us.

We may not have opportunity to “harvest” someone’s soul in every conversation, but we can certainly plant and/or water the seed of faith the Lord plants. Not everyone will be open to hearing about the Lord, but they may be open to having a friendship with us. Don’t close the door for another conversation with someone, or, at least, another conversation the Lord can offer them later through someone else, by being pushy or overbearing.

Pastor Corky Calhoun made an interesting observation when he wrote: “We live in a world of dehydrated people who would rather die of thirst than fully humble themselves, repent of their sin and drink from the well of living water, Jesus Christ.” His words are true and challenging, but we must use them to encourage, inspire, and challenge us to be better at reaching those in our spheres of influence, not shut us down in fear. We walk in the power of God’s Spirit, the same Spirit who was leading Jesus in His conversation with the woman at the well.

Your next conversation with a lost, lonely, spiritually dehydrated person may not be at a well, but wherever it is, trust His leadership to fill you with wisdom and right words to help create a thirst in that dying person that may lead them to eternal life in Jesus as it did the Samaritan woman at the well.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Think Again!

“The seed that fell on the footpath represents those who hear the message about the Kingdom and don’t understand it. Then the evil one comes and snatches away the seed that was planted in their hearts.” (Matthew 13:19 NLT)

In Mark’s Gospel chapter, 4 after Jesus shares His powerful parable of the 4 types of soil, in verse 13 Jesus said: “If you can’t understand this parable, how will you understand all the other parables?” We can debate, as scholars and theologians have for centuries, whether someone who embraces the Gospel is eternally saved, but the message of this parable, from which we’re to gain insight into all the other parables, is clearly that they are not.

In the first example of the seed falling on the footpath, Satan immediately comes and snatches away even the seed of faith before it has any opportunity to take root. Surely this person isn’t saved, but more importantly, what can we learn? How might we gain insight so that when we plants seeds of faith our listeners may have a better opportunity of having them land on the fertile soil of their open heart?

Clearly, for the Gospel to be spoken, even as thousands of God’s messengers share from their pulpits across the world every week, is not always for the Gospel to be heard and understood. Some reasons may be the messenger isn’t actually sharing the “Gospel” as outlined in Scripture, but rather some watered-down version based on their own misunderstanding. Those who proclaim the Mormon doctrines come to mind, but also those in the Catholic or Orthodox traditions or in liberal “Christian” denominations where the name of Christ is rarely spoken except in formal declarations, not from personal, positive experience.

How many in our culture today are professing faith in the living Christ yet are living with or regularly engaging in sex with partners to whom they aren’t married? How many today who are living a homosexual lifestyle yet are professing faith in Christ and believing they are still going to heaven? It’s income tax time, so, we might as well mention those who profess love for Jesus, yet are dishonest in reporting their full income. Ot who claim to “Tithe” their income, but clearly do not?

In our large church only a fraction are members who regularly give, are involved in a small group or even attend services from week to week, yet, if asked, many would readily declare: “Yes, I’m a ‘member’ of _____ Church!” But why? Because they’ve been inoculated to believe being associated with church and knowing and understanding words about Christ makes them a “believer,” thus, a clear candidate for heaven. If asked they may even readily admit their love for and faith in the Risen Christ, but their lifestyle clearly declares “I never knew Him!” They don’t even understand the fundamental teaching of salvation by faith alone in Christ alone. Acceptable works only grow out of a meaningful relationship with Jesus.

How many people do we know who have had an emotional experience with the Lord, “a seed planted on shallow soil”, who have never grown or developed any meaningful faith. They continue to live as they always have, yet still believe because of that moment of inspiration that they are going to heaven? It breaks my heart because often they’re the hardest to reach because they’ve had this “experience with Jesus” that is unmistakable, yet not life altering as any deeply planted seed would be.

Honestly, I have no clear answers in how to reach these folks, but if you happen to know someone like this or, perhaps are yourself in this category, please click on ANewStory.com and allow Ron Huthcraft to walk you through a simple, straightforward way to open your heart to the Lord in a life-transforming way.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Glory

“Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you. Instead, be very glad – for these trials make you partners with Christ in His suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing His glory when it is revealed to all the world. So be happy when you are insulted for being a Christian, for then the glorious Spirit of God rests upon you.” (1 Peter 4:12-14 NLT)

It’s strange that as believers in America, we’re so prone to whine and complain when we go through any kind of difficult circumstance, yet Peter tells us that it’s in such circumstances, especially if they’re prompted by our faith in Christ, that we experience the glorious presence of the Lord’s Spirit upon our life. Glory, at least as used in Scripture, belongs to God alone.

Regardless of how faithful we are, how spiritual we believe we are, how many hours we spend in prayer, worshipping, serving, or in any other way doing things that exalt and honor the Lord Jesus or His Holy Father, we are never worthy to receive one ounce of glory. Why not? Because our sole purpose as a believer in Jesus is to render to Him ALL glory, praise and honor for everything we do, say, or think.

That’s the purpose of our being, to be conduits through which the Holy Spirit can direct glory to God the Father and to His sinless Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Darlene Zschech understood this when she wrote: “We were never designed to receive glory. We were designed to give glory.” Why is that? Because the word used in Scripture translated into English as “glory,” means: “the kingly majesty which belongs to God as supreme ruler, majesty in the sense of the absolute perfection of the deity; a thing belonging to Christ.”

Glory, honor, praise, and adoration belong to the Lord Jesus for all He accomplished through Creation, magnified and highlighted by His sacrifice on the Cross, doing for us and on our behalf that which we could never in eternity have done for ourselves. There is no amount of human effort, individually or corporately, that could have accomplished what Jesus accomplished on the Cross.

There’s no amount of human effort that can forgive sin, erase our past, and give us victory over sin, death, and the grave, only Jesus. There’s really no way to fully describe Him, but I love how Dr. S. M. Lockridge describes Jesus when he shares: THAT’S MY KING! (Just tap on the title) Be sure to turn up your sound! 😊

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Understanding the Soul of a Conflict Requires Having One

By John Stonestreet and Abdu Murray

*This timely message from the Colson Center is just too helpful not to share. Please read it carefully and prayerfully. Blessings, Ed 😊

Today on Breakpoint, apologist Abdu Murray, author of the new book Fake ID, describes how the war in Iran has exposed two blind spots—one diplomatic, one technological—that share a common root. Here’s Abdu Murray:

On February 28, 2026—the first day of U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran—a Tomahawk cruise missile hit the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ elementary school in Minab, killing at least 165 people. Most of them were girls between the ages of 7 and 12.

Ironically, women and girls spearheaded Iran’s most significant recent uprisings—and the regime killed thousands in response. Now, in the effort to strike that regime, it was girls in a classroom who paid the price—not deliberately, but tragically. The regime denies its women dignity. The fog of war, made foggier by automation, did the same.

As a former Shi’ite Muslim, I understand the weight these deaths carry in the souls of Tehran’s hardliners. I fear our leaders’ ignorance of that weight fosters a critical misunderstanding of how and when this conflict might end.

In AD 680, Hussein—Muhammad’s grandson and the third Shi’ite Imam—chose death for himself and his family over submission to the unjust Umayyad caliph Yazid at the Battle of Karbala. For Shi’ites, this isn’t ancient history. It’s a living moral code. Suffering at the hands of a vastly superior force doesn’t signal defeat; it confirms righteousness.

This is why some Shi’ite Muslims self-flagellate during Ashura, drawing blood in visceral identification with Hussein’s sacrifice. The practice is controversial, with notable clerics condemning it. But the theology of willing, redemptive suffering remains etched in Shi’ite Islam, coloring the hardliners’ approach to this conflict. Not every Shi’ite leader reads Karbala the way Tehran does. Yet the hardliners and their allied militias see this war as “the new Battle of Karbala” where even catastrophic losses can be endured.

For example, after Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei was killed in the opening strikes, the Axis of Resistance didn’t collapse. They declared “victory or martyrdom” as equally desirable outcomes. Khamenei himself had framed the coming conflict as “confrontation through the lens of Karbala.” His son Mojtaba, now Supreme Leader, represents an even more radical, apocalyptic wing—one that views all casualties as sacred martyrdom.

This creates a paradox that neither practical negotiations nor “shock and awe” can resolve. The regime will grieve the children of Minab. But like the zealous Muslims who draw their own blood to identify with Hussein’s suffering, the hardliners will frame those deaths as blood spilled to galvanize resistance. Overwhelming force doesn’t quench this ideology. It stokes it.

Western nations resolve conflicts through the cost-benefit analysis of casualty thresholds, economic pressure, negotiated surrender. The hardliners calculate through religious ideology, even if it means letting the nation burn in the process. Ayatollah Khomeini called the ceasefire ending the Iran-Iraq war worse than “drinking from a poisoned chalice.” That mindset diverges widely from that of despots like Muammar Gaddafi or Saddam Hussein whose motivations were mere power and self-interest. Viewing the Axis of Resistance through purely secular lenses will leave us perpetually misreading their moves. All of us, Americans and Iranians alike, will live with the consequences.

That the Minab school strike resulted from over-reliance on soulless AI punctuates the point. Preliminary investigations suggest the Defense Intelligence Agency still classified the school as part of an adjacent military compound—a classification not updated since the school was walled off and repurposed around 2016. The Pentagon’s AI-assisted Maven Smart System processed those outdated coordinates at machine speed. The U.S. struck over 1,000 targets in the first 24 hours.

If humans struggle to grasp the spiritual realities driving this conflict, a machine has no chance. It has no understanding of the soul of the enemy—because it has no soul of its own. It processed stale intelligence at a speed that outpaced moral discernment. Speed without understanding is not efficiency. It’s recklessness.

The hardliners’ ideology is not shared by most Iranians. The protests—led by women, fueled by a hunger for dignity—prove that. The Iranian people deserve better than a regime that would leverage their suffering for its theology. And the decisions about who lives and who dies should never be outsourced to a machine that cannot tell the difference between a military base and a classroom.

That the conflict has begun is immutable. What can be changed is our understanding of our adversary and how that informs our leaders’ decisions going forward.

Surprisingly, the Shi’ite conviction that willing suffering for a righteous cause has cosmic significance echoes something deep in the Christian story—creating an unexpected bridge for genuine conversations with our Shi’ite Muslim friends and neighbors.

Christ’s redemptive suffering runs deeper. At Calvary, Jesus suffered to defeat sin and death—enemies no earthly regime can resist and no algorithm can target. The Cross’s victory is not over political adversaries but over the very condition that makes us adversaries in the first place. The risen Christ did not leverage anyone else’s death for his cause. He offered his own.

Amid this conflict, we need more than threat assessments, better firepower, and smarter yet soulless machines. We need the wisdom to understand the soul of a conflict. And that requires having one.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Registration includes:

1-day conference admission
Breakfast & lunch on Thursday
$200 travel voucher provided at conference check-in
One night’s complimentary hotel stay for Wednesday night only

This summit precedes the Colson Center National Conference (May 29–31, 2026). For full event details and registration, learn more by tapping this link.

Is Church Attendance Really Necessary?

“Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep His promise. Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of His return is drawing near.” (Hebrews 10:23-25 NLT)

The above verses were written approximately 2,000 years ago. Would it be safe to assume the Lord’s coming is closer now than when those words were originally written? Similarly, why would we believe it’s any less important now to meet together than then? And yes, I understand we have the internet and FACETIME and group chats and all of the other electronic means we have to “gather,” but NONE will accomplish what face to face presence will.

God’s intention in giving us the command to meet together, for worship, for fellowship, for discipling, and to build friendships, wasn’t so we could check a box, it was to build community in much the same way as families grow as they spend time together. Some of the highlights of my family memories are times spent with extended family, playing together, eating together, worshipping together on special occasions.

Imagine having someone who wants to spend time with you, to build a friendship, but they say, “I really like you and would love to be your friend, but I hate your family. Your husband smells and your kids are out of control. Even your dog makes me feel like I need a bath when I’ve been around it.” How quickly would you be to jump into a friendship like that?

And even if you would, God wouldn’t! He allowed His only, perfect, sinless, Son to die for the sins of mankind for the express purpose of building a Family, the Family of God, the Church universal comprised of every blood-washed one who has yielded their life and allegiance to Jesus. And of His “Family” He says in Ephesians 5:25-27: “For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up His life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s Word. He did this to present her to Himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault.”

We’re so prone to simply believe Christ died for each of us as individual sinners, and, in a sense, He did. But God’s thoughts are far above our thoughts, as we tend to be very selfish, self-focused, and self-absorbed to the point we seldom consider He didn’t die for us to walk in newness of life alone. In some ways that’s like bringing a new lamb into the world and leaving it to make it on its own. How do you spell “wolf bait”?

The church isn’t a religious organization, it’s a family in which “newborns” are nourished, cared for, nurtured, and trained to be active and productive contributors of the family. There’s a sense in which our life in Christ isn’t about ourselves, it’s about our part in the Body. As an arm wouldn’t function if separated from the human body, we can’t function properly, as God desires, apart from our function within our spiritual Body.

We want to treat attendance at church like AA meetings, helpful, but not mandatory, when, in fact, it’s like coming to family dinner when we’re starving. It’s not an obligation to be kept, it’s a privilege to be honored. There’s no such thing in Scripture as a “Lone Ranger” believer. We’re a part of the Body or we’re an outcast. Yes, of course, people stray from the fold, but it’s our God-given responsibility to bring them back as best we can. It’s not unlike following after a literal child or family member who is estranged. We do whatever we can to bring them back, but in the meantime, we stay faithful to our loved ones who haven’t strayed.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

What Are You Waiting For?

“May the Lord lead your hearts into a full understanding and expression of the love of God and the patient endurance that comes from Christ.” (2 Thessalonians 3:5 NLT)

Waiting, in and of itself, is neither good nor bad. I may have to stop for a traffic light, but my sense is there’s no inherent blessing in waiting for that light to change; however, if I get angry, frustrated and out of sorts because of something designed to help me, it can become a tool in the devil’s capable hands to turn my heart and mind from Christ, thus becoming something very negative.

The sad truth is, every second we waste allowing the enemy of our soul to redirect our thoughts is a second we could be listening to the Lord, contemplating how to more effectively carry out what we already know to be His will, or just spending time speaking or singing to Him, and worshipping His Holy Name.

It’s like we’re giving our best selves, our best thinking, best energy, best money, best time to everything else BUT the things of God. Yes, of course, we attend our meetings regularly and may spend some time each day in reading the Bible and praying, but if we’re honest, where’s our heart? Our family, work, play? Where have we carved out quality time to invest in God’s eternal Kingdom? How are we demonstrating with the use of our time our commitment to the Lord’s Kingdom?

What is the Lord asking you to do that you keep putting off? To whom is He prompting you to reach out, to invite to church or for a cup of coffee or a snack to have some quality time with them? What makes us think there will be a better time? I love the song by King and Country a line of which says: “Why are we wasting all the time like someone’s making more?”

The reality is, this moment is the only one we have to do anything. We must be about our Father’s business and invest our time wisely doing the things that really matter. Things like growing our own life in Christ through extended time with Him in prayer, study of His Word, volunteering, or sharing with others how they can know Him. What can possibly be more important, more urgent than seeing someone yield their life and allegiance to Jesus? And the best place to begin our outreach to them is in conversation with our Savior.

We may profess that our true “home” is in heaven, but we sure pour a lot of time, money, and effort into the one we have here. Erwin McManus challenges us when he writes: “How many of us are saving our best for the next life when all we have is this life?” There will be no lost loved ones or friends in heaven unless we reach them while they’re here on earth. Once they pass from this life to the next, if they don’t know Jesus, it will be eternally too late. There are no second chances once our life is over here on earth.

Our ministry for the Lord, whatever that looks like for you, must be our top priority. And, yes, loving our family well and serving their needs is at the top of our “ministry” list. Unless we’re modeling Jesus well in our homes with our spouse and children, it doesn’t really matter what anyone else thinks. You may think I’m the greatest thing since sliced bread, but if my wife thinks I’m a bum, I’m a bum.

Waiting is for weenies! We must be about our Father’s business NOW!

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊