Walking With Jesus

The Foolish Bridesmaids

“Then the Kingdom of Heaven will be like ten bridesmaids who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. The five who were foolish didn’t take enough olive oil for their lamps, but the other five were wise enough to take along extra oil.” (Matthew 25:1-4 NLT)

As I’ve mentioned before, parables are not allegories and have but one main point. The point of this parable is preparedness, but there are elements of the story that may demand insight if we’re going to understand what it means to be prepared to meet Jesus at His Second Coming.

The bridesmaids were all dressed properly and all had lamps. They all had expectation that the bridegroom would be coming and they would be invited to the wedding festivities. What they didn’t know was the exact timing of his arrival, just as we don’t. The wise bridesmaids brought extra oil, the foolish did not. What can we learn from their grave error?

Photo by Achilles Kastanas on Pexels.com

In Matthew 5 Jesus refers to those of us who follow Him as “…the light of the world.” Then adds a few verses later that the way we allow that to happen is through our good deeds. In John 15 Jesus says “apart from Me you can do nothing” and before His crucifixion assures us that when the Spirit comes He will empower and enable us to walk faithfully for the Lord and “He will tell you whatever He receives from Me.” What’s the clear implication? We can’t function as believers without the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit.

Oil in the Old and New Testaments is sometimes used in reference to the Holy Spirit. The issue with the foolish brides’ maids and with us when we seek to operate in the energy of the flesh, is we allow the “oil” of the Holy Spirit to be missing or depleted in our lives. We make decisions that are not Spirit led that result in decisions that can cost us our effectiveness for Christ. What are the implications?

The Spirit prompts us to open our hearts to the Lord, and we do, but like the seed that was scattered on shallow soil, our efforts for the Lord are short lived. We may clean up our lives, begin attending church and from all outward appearances we may look like a Jesus follower, but all of those things can be accomplished in the energy of the flesh.

We may adorn ourselves in the proper spiritual “attire” and show up for the coming of the “Bridegroom”, but if we don’t have the perseverance of the Holy Spirit’s presence in our lives, we’re going to miss Him when He comes. Does that mean we won’t go to heaven? Obviously, that’s the Lord’s call, but Jesus’ words to the five bridesmaids who weren’t ready when He came don’t sound very promising when He said: “Believe Me, I don’t know you!”

The only time to seek the oil of the Spirit’s presence is in this moment. If you’ve never opened your life fully to the Lord, please do that now. Please tap this link and let Ron Hutchcraft walk you through a brief and clear understanding of how to open your heart to the Lord and explain why that’s so vitally important. Please don’t delay. As the foolish bridesmaids discovered, we can wait too long.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😃

“You Are Dust and to Dust You Shall Return”: Something to Know but Not to Fear

By: John Stonestreet

*While Lent officially began yesterday, I believe this article will still be a helpful guide in giving us a better understand of what it is and why it’s important. But beyond that it guides us in navigating our lives as men and women of hope in a world that desperately needs hope. Blessings, Ed 😊

Today is Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of the 40-day period in the church calendar known as Lent, a time of preparation leading up to Holy Week and Resurrection Sunday. Around the world, countless Christians will have the sign of the cross written on their foreheads in ash—what is known as the imposition of ashes—and will hear the words, “Remember that you are dust and to dust you will return.”

That reminder, along with the various exercises in self-denial associated with Lent, can give the 40 days prior to Good Friday and Easter Sunday a somewhat gloomy tone.

But that would be missing the point. During Lent, we confront our mortality not only to be reminded of it, but also in order to better understand why we need not fear it.

Make no mistake, our culture fears mortality and goes to absurd lengths to keep that fear at bay. Our attempts to avoid death are the stuff of science fiction, such as uploading their consciousness to a computer and a kind of medical vampirism.

It is not only tech luminaries who try to keep thoughts of their mortality at bay. We all do. Years ago, when my grandfather was dying, he suffered terribly for about three or four months. In sorrow, I remember asking my pastor, “Why doesn’t God just take him?” I expected a gentle and comforting response, along the lines of, “Well, God has His ways, and His own timing. We have to trust Him.” All of that is true, of course, but instead my pastor said something more important: “Because your grandmother needs to fulfill the vows she made to him seventy years ago, and you grandfather needs to better understand his mortality before he meets God.”

Now if that sounds a bit unkind, or even cruel on God’s part, recall that God did not spare his only Son in this regard. The Epistle to the Hebrews speaks of Jesus “tasting death for everyone.” As New Testament scholar Mary Healy writes in her commentary on Hebrews, “To ‘taste’ death means to experience its bitter reality. Jesus drank the cup of suffering and death to its dregs.”

What’s more, Jesus experienced this “tasting” as one of us in every way except sin. Later in chapter 5, the author of Hebrews, referring to the Lord’s experience in the Garden of Gethsemane, says that “During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, He offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save Him from death. . . .” The Gospel writers also describe the physical and emotional toll of Jesus’ encounter with his mortality: “And being in agony [Jesus] prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Luke 22:44).

And yet as we know, that wasn’t the end of the story. Fewer than 72 hours later, Jesus destroyed death. Not only that, as the author of Hebrews tells us, He freed “those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.”

This freedom is about more than the promise of heaven, although, as Paul tells us, to be with Christ is gain. As Healy writes,

We instinctively resist and recoil from everything that reminds us of our mortality—pain, deprivation, weakness, criticism, failure. This paralyzing fear . . . leads to various forms of escapism and addiction, induces us to grasp the false security nets proffered by Satan, and keeps us from pursuing the will of God with freedom, peace, and confidence.

And that’s why Lent, including its reminder of our mortality, is the farthest thing from gloomy. Yes, like the “founder and perfecter of our faith,” we will taste death. But by God’s grace, death’s power over us in this life and in the next is destroyed. And that’s great news.

Whether or not you typically participate in Lenten activities—like the imposition of ashes, fasting, or giving up something—I hope you’ll still use these 40 days to face and ponder your mortality, with an eye to Jesus’ resurrection, and the resurrection that awaits all of us who belong to Him.

Western civilization is in crisis. Belief in God has been cut-off. The substitute god of radical individualism has failed.

Crisis calls for courage. Courage is formed when we love Truth. Be inspired by stories of ordinary people who chose faith over fear.

Join the movement: truthrising.com/colson

The “gospel” of Satan

“And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people.” (Matthew 4:23 NKJV)

“Gospel” simply means “glad tidings” or “good news,” but came quickly to be used in reference to the preaching and teaching of Jesus as those who were drawn by His Spirit to respond found new life and transformation in their relationship with the Lord Jesus.

What we sometimes overlook or fail to recognize is that Satan also shares a “gospel” of his own; a story of “good news” to those who are perishing. Satan’s gospel seeks to blind the spiritual eyes of those who are walking contrary to God’s will for them by lying to them. His lies, clearly exposed in the true Gospel of Christ, essentially seek to lull people to sleep in their sin.

Satan’s focus is, of course, this world and the things of this world: wealth, power, prestige, pleasure, honor, fame, recognition, enjoyment, and anything else that promotes “me-first!” Satan’s ultimate request when he tempted Jesus was that Jesus bow down and worship him. In other words, “Make me first!” And what did he offer Jesus?

Luke records the devil’s offer in Luke 4:5-7: “Then the devil took Him up and revealed to Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. ‘I will give you the glory of these kingdoms and authority over them,’ the devil said, ‘because they are mine to give to anyone I please. I will give it all to You if You will worship me.”

That’s essentially the “gospel” of Satan to us, but why? Arthur Pink gives us insight when he writes: “The gospel of Satan aims to make this world such a comfortable and congenial habitat that Christ’s absence from it will not be felt and God will not be needed.”

It’s ironic on some levels that what the enemy offers actually sounds better than what the Lord offers, it’s just not true. Satan offers happiness without heartache, life without pain, sex without consequence, sin without shame, fulfillment without effort, life on our terms with no view of eternity.

The Lord offers one thing that is critically different: He offers Himself – to never leave us! When happiness fails – He’s with us! When heartache threatens to cripple us for life – He’s with us! When the pain is relentless – He’s with us! He gives us sex within the safe bounds of marriage and is with us! He paid the penalty for our sin and bore our shame on the Cross. He gives us fulfillment we never dreamed could exist and is with us every step of the way.

But the most beautiful part of the Gospel of Jesus is that it far supersedes the boundaries of life on this planet. Our eternal life doesn’t begin when we die, it begins the moment we’re born again by the Spirit. We may be dying physically, but we’re growing stronger and stronger spiritually as our spirit is gearing up to be housed by our brand-new body the Lord is preparing for us in heaven.

Sin is pleasure for a season. Is it enjoyable? Of course, if it wasn’t, what would be its draw. Is sex more pleasurable than abstinence? Hello! But that’s the beauty of God’s plan. Sex, like every other avenue of sin grows old, stale, lifeless, unless it’s guarded by the sacred bonds and boundaries of marriage. Sin is enjoyable, but life in Christ is the essence of joy! In this season of my life, I find no pleasure in anything except that which the Lord provides and which includes His companionship. If I can’t share it with Him, it’s not worth having.

The gospel of Satan is an eternal lie! The Gospel of Jesus is eternal life! Your choice. Choose wisely!

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Relationships Are Like a Raincoat in Life’s Storms

*This devotional by Pastor Rick Warren really spoke to me and I pray will touch your heart as well. I pray you have people in your family and in your life who will be your “raincoat” in times of storm. Blessings Ed 😊

“Two are better off than one. . . If one of them falls down, the other can help him up. But if someone is alone and falls, it’s just too bad, because there is no one to help him.” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 GNT)

Relationships are like a raincoat during the storms of life. When friends or family members go through a storm, you help each other. People committed to one another protect each other in the storm.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 says, “Two are better off than one. . . . If one of them falls down, the other can help him up. But if someone is alone and falls, it’s just too bad, because there is no one to help him” (GNT).

Life brings all kinds of storms, and you’ll need to protect your loved ones through them. Sometimes those storms are seasons of change; other times they come as harmful influences.

But the most painful storm of all is rejection. When your friend, your child, or your spouse feels rejected, you—and others close to them—need to rally around them and act as a raincoat in the storm.

Many years ago, my oldest child, Amy, was in high school. She tried out to be a cheerleader. She went to practice after practice for the tryouts. Eventually, her friends got accepted, but she was rejected—and it broke her heart. When she came home, she ran into her room, went into her closet, sat down on the floor, and burst into tears.

Everyone in our family could hear Amy crying. And one by one, all on our own, we ended up walking into her room, sitting down on the floor in her closet, and crying with her.

We didn’t give her any advice; she didn’t need advice. We didn’t say, “Don’t worry. It’s not a big deal.” It was a big deal! We didn’t say, “Don’t cry!” That’s an insensitive thing to say to somebody who’s grieving. Instead, we all sat there for about 30 minutes and just cried with her.

Our family will never forget that experience. Why? Because, at that point, we were being a raincoat for Amy. We were being storm catchers. We were being protectors. Somebody in our family had been hurt, and we weren’t demeaning it. We weren’t trying to talk her out of it. We weren’t trying to cheer her up. We just wept with her.

Awesome families—biological, adoptive, and spiritual—protect each other in the storm.

Talk It Over

Why should people feel the most support from their families?
When a child in your life faces rejection, what do you typically say? What do you think is the loving, biblical thing to say or do?
How do you sometimes try to talk people out of feeling rejected? What is the harm in doing this?

Wisdom and Revelation

“Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believed, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in the this age but also in that which is to come.” (Ephesians 1:15-22 NKJV)

Did you notice the above verses are one sentence, thus one continuous thought? Why is that important? Because you can’t separate their meaning. Taken in context our understanding of wisdom and revelation must be centered and focused on Jesus. He IS the Author and Giver of all wisdom and revelation. How does that apply?

No one, regardless of intellectual capacity or lack thereof comes to an understanding of their need of Jesus as Savior except it is revealed to them through a deliberate act of the Spirit of God. A few verses earlier Paul had explained that salvation is a grace gift of God activated by faith for which we can take no credit. You can have an IQ of 300+ but will never figure out on your own how to have your sins forgiven and a home in heaven.

Wisdom, which is itself a gift of God, can be activated and increased by the Spirit of God in anyone willing to apply themselves and submit to the authority of their Creator, but human wisdom alone is never enough to bring us to a saving relationship with the Lord Jesus. That requires and demands revelation. The word Paul used that’s translated “revelation,” literally means, “laying bear, making naked; a disclosure of truth, instruction concerning things before unknown or used of events by which things or states of persons hitherto withdrawn from view are made visible to all; manifestation, appearance.” (Strong’s)

Everything, from the revelation of who Jesus was/is to the world in which He was born to the revelation that I and you received (if you’re a believer in Jesus) are all gifts from God. We don’t come to an understanding of Biblical Truth without the guidance and illumination of God’s Spirit. On several occasions I’ve heard some form of: “Now I finally see or understand what I’ve been missing!” And that’s essentially the experience of every born-again believer, including the Apostle Paul.

While we are all born with a “God-shaped vacuum,” as Blaise Pascal describes it, that vacuum can never be filled by anything but the God who shaped it. Only His Spirit can inform us, reveal to us, lay bare the truth of who Jesus is and why we need Him, and that revelation of Truth is ever and only accomplished through believing prayer. We must ask before we can receive.

Which begs the question: Have you ever asked the Lord of Creation to forgive your sins and become the Lord of your life? The Spirit of God is asking you in this moment to open your heart and life to Him. How do I know that? Because He’s revealing it to me as I type. Please click on this link and let Ron Hutchcraft walk you through a brief explanation of why that decision is the best one you’ll ever make in your life.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Be Refreshed

“Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint” (Isaiah 40:31). “For with you is the fountain of life” (Psalm 36:9).

*As I do each 15^th of the month, I’m featuring another helpful devotion from Sylvia Gunter. Please read with expectation and delight as you anticipate a very personal and unique encounter with the living God. Blessings, Ed 😊

When you feel exhausted and at the end of your endurance, receive God’s holy strength and refreshment. Psalm 107:35 says, “He turned the desert into pools of water and the parched ground into flowing springs.” When you’re in a wilderness, be blessed to drink from waters that stream from the hard places because He is your Spiritual Rock (1 Corinthians 10:4).

Isaiah 49:10 says that His compassion will guide you and lead you beside springs of water. God will make the Valley of Trouble into a place of springs, and you will go from strength to strength in Him (Psalm 84:6).

God committed Himself to you as your Abba, and He will meet all your needs today. You will not lack any good thing (Psalm 84:11). He has covenanted to heal and strengthen you. Be still inside, look to Him, and receive the power of the Holy Spirit. Let Him re-fill and rejuvenate you.

Be blessed to receive your Abba’s love in all its fullness. Receive His Spirit of wisdom and understanding, so that you take only His yoke upon you. His yoke is easy and His burden is light (Matthew 11:28-30). You can be confident in His ability and presence at work in your life in everything that concerns you. You have His favor and blessing as a shield.

God gives you grace for today. Tomorrow He will greet you with a whole new supply of Himself. Be blessed with peace and security in Him. Receive His sweet presence each moment.

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

*Looking for a gift that goes deeper than something to unwrap? One that speaks to the heart and lasts long after the decorations are gone? 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.

Learn More

Good Friends

“There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13 NLT)

Having had many good, close friends over the years, it’s never occurred to me to ask any of them to lay down their life for me, but in retrospect, I now know that some of them did. Not literally giving their life for mine but making significant sacrifices to make knowing Jesus a reality in my life. My sense is, that’s what the Lord is calling us to do for each other, but how?

True, godly friendship is a rare commodity in many people’s lives. Few have anyone they really trust with personal information, but why? What’s the key to building long-term, Christian friendships? The first step in building a meaningful relationship with another person is to build intimacy with the Lord Jesus. Jesus is the basis of true fellowship and friendship with anyone.

What might that look like? It begins in prayer. Ask the Lord to help you identify 2-5 people – men if you’re a man, and women if you’re a woman, with whom you can begin to build closeness in your friendship. It will likely be someone you already know and with whom you feel comfortable. They need to be a growing believer or at least open to growing in their walk with the Lord, but they also need to be personable, someone you enjoy being around. They must pass the D.I.L. test – Do. I. Like! It’s hard to build anything with someone you don’t like.

Do they have a similar sense of humor (i.e. do they laugh at your jokes and you at theirs? 😊). Humor, laughing together is healthy and can be a means of bonding, as long as the humor is wholesome and not crude or dishonoring to the Lord. It’s also important to be able to cry together. Loss can come in many ways and having someone willing to sit with you and cry with you can be a very comforting and bonding experience. Sometimes the most powerful response to a friend’s need is silence.

J. C. Ryle expands on this idea when he writes: “Good friends are among our greatest blessings – they may keep us back from much evil, quicken us in our course, speak a word in season, draw us upward, and draw us on.” Good friends also help to keep us on course in our faith. They’re not afraid to call us out when we’re slipping in our devotions – reading Scripture, praying, serving, etc. But how will they know? Good friends know because they ask questions: “How’s your prayer time going? What’s the Lord teaching you these days from His Word? With whom have you been sharing your faith recently? How are you and your spouse doing? Are you keeping things pure between you and your girlfriend/boyfriend?

Good friends need to give one another permission to ask those kinds of questions because, presumably, we have nothing to hide, but if we do, we need someone to help us get back on track who won’t judge us, just love us back to Jesus. We’re not looking for perfection, but progress. Regardless of how long we’ve walked with the Lord, we all struggle to keep our purity of heart, mind, soul, and body. Admittedly, it gets easier the longer we walk with the Lord, but we can never think we’ve arrived and let our guard down.

Gratefully, the Lord has put men of God in my life I can trust with my life, and yes, even with my secrets. But the greatest joy that grows out of the bonding of Christian men is seeing others come to Christ. Recently a young man visited our group for the first time. Before I left, we exchanged information and have gotten together, but after I left some of the guys began to ask him directly if he’d opened his heart to Jesus, which he hadn’t, but joyfully did before he left that night. That’s the greatest, most exciting aspect of good friendships, they’re contagious and are always pointing others to Jesus.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

The Future of the Church

“One day some parents brought their children to Jesus so He could touch and bless them. But the disciples scolded the parents for bothering Him. When Jesus saw what was happening, He was angry with His disciples. He said to them, ‘Let the children come to Me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children. I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.’ Then He took the children in His arms and placed His hands on their heads and blessed them.” (Mark 10:13-16 NLT)

There are parents today, even some who profess faith in Christ, who refuse to bring their children to church or even allow them any Christian influence in their lives. Why would this be? Perhaps because they don’t want them to feel pressured to make a lifelong decision to follow Jesus until they’re old enough to understand what it means. Newsflash! I’m 78 and still don’t know what it all means.

To knowingly deprive a child access to knowledge of Jesus isn’t only wrong, it’s sin. It’s disobedient to the clear instruction of the Lord. The first time I heard the Gospel I was only five. My parents would take us to church at Easter and Christmas. But even at five I remember to this day hearing the Pastor inviting anyone who’s heart was drawing them to the Lord to come forward.

It may have been my first time in church, so, I was reluctant to respond, but I remember to this day sensing something I’d never felt before. The Holy Spirit speaks to children, and they know what it means. I remember my wife coming to me when my daughter was maybe six or seven years old telling me she’d prayed with our daughter to receive the Lord. My daughter had said to my wife: “I want to invite Jesus to live in my heart.”

If you’re a parent or teacher of young children, please don’t miss opportunities to read to them, sing with them, pray with them, and instruct them in how to know Jesus. But most importantly, live Jesus before them. One of the most meaningful and profound messages of the Bible is: “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” Jonathan Pokluda helps us see this more clearly when he writes: “If you’re not reaching the future of your church, your church has no future.”

I’m a great proponent, not only of excellent Christ-centered children’s and youth ministries at churches, but Christian Schools that are truly “Christian,” not only in their curriculum, but evidenced in the quality of their staff and teachers. My sense is even an infant can sense the love of Christ when being held by a godly person. Remember Simeon, who “took the child in His arms and praised God!” and Anna who prophesied over Jesus in the Temple when He was only an infant.

We bear a grave responsibility to bring our children up with a knowledge and understanding of the Lord and His Holy Word. As Proverbs 9:10 reminds us: “Fear of the Lord is the foundation of wisdom. Knowledge of the Holy One results in good judgment.” “Fear” here can certainly mean “terror and exceeding dread,” as many will have on judgment day, but it also has reference to respect and reverence, an attitude of love of and appreciation for God.

We must maintain a healthy reverence for the Lord’s ability to snuff us out like a gnat, balanced, of course, by a strong, healthy love for His compassion and great love for us. Our children, and even those we instruct, will be as influenced by our attitude and demeanor as we interact with them as the words we use to communicate with them. Let’s inspire, encourage, and lead them to seek Jesus from an early age, after all, they are the future of the Church.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

How Do You Read the Bible?

“For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before His eyes, and He is the one to whom we are accountable.” (Hebrews 4:12-13 NLT)

If we blow through the pages of Scripture to check a box we’re going to miss the message, and to miss the message is to miss the Author’s intent. What is the Author’s intent? To allow us to stand before the “x-ray machine” of God and view what’s really in us; what we’re really made of in the eyes of the God who knows us better than we know ourselves.

Why is that important for us to know? If you have an interview for a new job or new position within your company, don’t you think it would be important to know what they’re going to expect of you? What qualifications you bring to the table? How you’re going to make the most contribution to the good of the company? Otherwise, why would they want you? Why would they waste their time interviewing you?

Scripture enables us to see ourselves as spent, worthless, valueless to the Kingdom of God unless and until we see ourselves from a proper perspective. When we’re full of ourselves, thinking we’re “all that,” when from the perspective of the Kingdom of God we’re of no eternal value, something has to change if we ever hope to make it to heaven.

Ron Hutchcraft gives us insight when he shares: “There are three ways to read the Bible. You can read it for information, you can read it for inspiration, and you can read it for transformation. And that last one is what God has in mind. When you pick up the Bible, are you asking every time you read it, ‘What connection does this make to something I’m going to face today?’ Start a spiritual diary, and in it you write two things: What did I read today; what is God saying here and put it in your own words… not Bible words. And then, ‘what am I going to do differently today because of what God said?’ The Bible isn’t just to be mastered. It’s to be obeyed.”

How are YOU reading the Bible? One day we’re all going to stand before the living God to give an account of our lives; for the decisions we made and why we made them. But most importantly, what we did with Jesus. Did we yield our lives and allegiance to Him by faith and follow Him closely, love Him dearly, and serve Him with passion? Or did we ignore His sacrifice and pretend it didn’t matter?

The tragedy to me is that many will stand before the Lord completely ignorant of these things, believing they’re going to be okay with God and given entrance into His perfect heaven, but why? Because the Bible never became their trusted companion; they never took the time to read and understand it. They believed saying a prayer and going to church was all it took.

Dear friend, if the Bible is not a daily companion with whom you spend time and make the effort to understand it’s truths, you’re missing a key ingredient in having joy in Jesus. You’re missing the truths you could learn, the promises that are yours, the intimacy with the Father you can have in no other way. Please don’t allow the enemy of your soul to rob you of vital time spent reading, studying, learning, memorizing, and sharing God’s Holy Words.

Don’t read out of obligation, but out of joy in your love for its Author.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed😊

How to Be Fully Alive

“Each of us will give a personal account to God.” (Romans 14:12 NLT)

*Please read this important article by Rick Warren, but then pass it on to others in your spheres of influence who will profit from its insights. Let it help you in your prayers and witness for the Lord. Blessings, Ed 😊

At the end of your life on earth, you’ll stand before God and he’ll evaluate how well you served others. The Bible says, “Each of us will give a personal account to God” (Romans 14:12 NLT).

Think about the implications of that. One day God will compare how much time and energy you spent on yourself compared with what you invested in serving others.

At that point, all your excuses for self-centeredness will sound hollow: “I was too busy,” or “I had my own goals,” or “I was preoccupied with working, having fun, and preparing for retirement.”

To all excuses, God will respond with something like, “I created, saved, and called you. Then I commanded you to live a life of service. What part did you not understand?”

The Bible warns unbelievers, “He will pour out his anger and wrath on those who live for themselves” (Romans 2:8 NLT). And Christians who live for themselves will lose eternal rewards.

The Bible says that you’re only fully alive when you’re helping others. Jesus said it like this: “If you insist on saving your life, you will lose it. Only those who throw away their lives for my sake and for the sake of the Good News will ever know what it means to really live” (Mark 8:35 TLB).

Then he repeats a similar truth twice in the book of Matthew and twice in Luke:

“If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give it up for me, you will save it” (Matthew 10:39 TLB).
“For anyone who keeps his life for himself shall lose it; and anyone who loses his life for me shall find it again” (Matthew 16:25 TLB).
“Whoever loses his life for my sake will save it, but whoever insists on keeping his life will lose it” (Luke 9:24 TLB).
“Whoever clings to his life shall lose it, and whoever loses his life shall save it” (Luke 17:33 TLB).

Did you catch that? This truth is so important that it is repeated five times in the Gospels. If you are not serving, you are just existing—because life is meant for ministry.

What does God expect from you? He wants you to learn to love and serve others unselfishly.

Talk It Over

• When you’ve served others, how has that service impacted you?

• Why do you think God wants you to learn to love and serve others? What does that say about him?

• What service has God called you to that you’ve been putting off? How can you start serving in that way?