Sustaining Faith is the product of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the lives of Christians in tandem with prayer and immersing ourselves in the Word of God.  

Saving faith believes Jesus’ death and resurrection were the only and all-sufficient means of making us right with God.  Soli Fide!

This week we are going to take the “churchy” sound out of this phrase and reduce it to practice.  “It ain’t easy!”

“The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.”…  (from Psalm 14:1) This is April Fool’s Day around the world.  The origin is vague at best, with many stories and legends put forth as truth.  One consistent theme apparently stems from people doing things to “prank or fool” people as far back as the 18th century.  People were tricked into believing something was real that was, as we might call it today, “fake news”.   For the most part, in fun, people did, and still do, their best to deceive others to make them look foolish. It may seem…

As I was having my quiet time this morning, and as we approach good Friday on this Maundy Thursday, I was reading a Spurgeon devotion the focus of which was the suffering of Jesus as spoken of by the writer of Hebrews in 5:8.  “Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.” Bam!  The Holy Spirit gave me the following words that pierced my spirit because, for me, they are both convicting and true.  Perhaps they are not true for you, but I was led to share them anyway. “There is a huge difference between suffering…

  So many great and wonderful things have been written, posted, and said concerning Billy Graham, such an amazing, faithful man of God who finally arrived safely Home today. I can only add to such beautiful testimonials what the Holy Spirit impressed upon me this morning as I sat praying and praising the Lord for his life during my QT.   I found myself in Isaiah 50—a passage that is both poetic and prophetic.  The Servant (Jesus) spoke clearly—calling out the unfaithful nation of Israel, reminding them (us) of His power and willingness to help.  He was faithful and obedient to…

Homeless Men – Not all of them live on the street! “Not all homeless men are without places to live” were the words the Holy Spirit brought to mind this morning as I sat praying and journaling.  The fact of the matter is many “homeless” men live in mansions and palaces, mountain retreats and homes on the beach, rescue missions and prison cells.  For the Word of God teaches us that any man who lives without a relationship with Jesus Christ is “homeless” indeed.   But for those of us born-again in Christ, He gives us both provision of our home now…

The Greatest Impossibility of All – Eternal Life Exchanging Difficulties for Impossibilities (Part Four) But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”  (Matthew 19: 26 ESV) While this sounds encouraging, the disciples were very disturbed over the whole conversation.  The preceding verses contained the discourse between Jesus and the rich young ruler who asked Jesus the question, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”  He was ill-prepared for Jesus’ answer.  Most of us know the story well. (Matthew 19: 18-23)  The rich young man did a good job of…

What Men Can Learn from the Most Amazing Girl in His-Story Exchanging Difficulties for Impossibilities (Part Three) “For nothing will be impossible with God.” (Luke 1: 37 NASB)  The Difficulty:  Biblical experts put her age as young as thirteen—no older than sixteen.  By our standards today, if age is the discriminator, she was just a girl.  But God in His infinite wisdom chose Mary, out of all her gender who came before or would follow, to be the earthly mother to bring His Son into the world.  Wow! is about all that comes to mind. This divine decision brought huge,…

The Most Ridiculous Real Estate Transaction in History Exchanging Difficulties for Impossibilities (Part Two) “Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh; is anything too difficult for Me?”  (Jeremiah 32: 27)   Like most prophets of his day, Jeremiah was often the bearer of bad news.  He continued to warn the king and God’s people of the coming judgment for their ongoing disobedience and sin.  Jeremiah prophesied that Judah, the southern kingdom, would soon go the way of the Northern Kingdom—be completely overrun and captured by their enemies (see vs 28-36) .  The king’s officials were fed up.  Jeremiah…

Exchanging Difficulties for Impossibilities sounds on the surface like a bad swap or, at a minimum, moving in the wrong direction.  But when LORD inserts Himself into the equation amazing (supernatural) things happen.  Negative numbers become positive, fractions become whole numbers, and division becomes multiplication.  There are so many great, encouraging examples in Scripture, it was difficult to choose which ones to share in these brief devotions.  I chose four that were great encouragement to me, hoping they will encourage your hearts and breathe fresh wind in your sails.  Since each promise/miracle is unique in its own right and application, I decided…

Even those of us who do little cooking are familiar with the acrostic, EVOO – Extra Virgin Olive Oil.  It has great use in healthy cooking and possesses proven health benefits related to cholesterol and CV disease. The use of olive oil for anointing purposes throughout biblical history is well-documented.  (Anointing typically means pouring over someone’s head.)  We first see this used on Aaron (the brother of Moses and first high priest (Exodus 30).  David, the shepherd boy who became King, used this well-known phrase in his most eloquent psalm.  “Thou anointest my head with oil.”  (Psalm 23: 5).  I…

 Athletes – God’s Process for Building Men Learning to “Trust the Process” “…and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.”  (Hebrews 12: 1) Out of the gate, I may lose part of my audience due to comments on what has become, in the last decade or so, a time-consuming area for men in the months leading up to the next major sport season, especially football, the draft.  The amount of hyperbole surrounding star ratings of young men for their athletic prowess is (in my humble opinion) over the top.  In some circles (not all), there…

The King of Kings on a Donkey’s Colt – The “Un-triumphal” Entry First, I should write that I looked long and hard for the origin of the phrase “triumphal entry” used to refer to Jesus’ ride into Jerusalem on a donkey of all things.  I could not find any specific references other than the words were assigned based on the response of many Jews to Jesus riding into Jerusalem accompanied by a crowd. His arrival seemed “triumphal” to observers.  These people (not their leaders or the Romans) were shouting and singing—praising God and calling on Jesus to “save them now” (Hosanna in the…

  So many great and wonderful things have been written, posted, and said concerning Billy Graham, such an amazing, faithful man of God who finally arrived safely Home today. I can only add to such beautiful testimonials what the Holy Spirit impressed upon me this morning as I sat praying and praising the Lord for his life during my QT.   I found myself in Isaiah 50—a passage that is both poetic and prophetic.  The Servant (Jesus) spoke clearly—calling out the unfaithful nation of Israel, reminding them (us) of His power and willingness to help.  He was faithful and obedient to…

Gigi and I attended the Christmas Eve service this morning, had lunch, and  checked our list (one more time) to make sure I did not need to join the hoards of last-minute shoppers.  Thankful I did not, my mind turned to hear what the Holy Spirit would breathe into mine regarding “just another Christmas Eve”.   All I knew was I really wanted to share a brief word of encouragement on this joyous eve of expectancy – for little children who cannot wait to see what Santa brings and Christians who manage to clear our heads of all the “Christmas clutter”…

ACCOUNTABILITY A Powerful Weapon for Demolishing Strongholds “Secret Sins” Series  (Part Three) A Sad Story. Hard to believe it has been twenty-plus years since that awkwardly, sad time.  Our accountability group was composed of a few men from church—friends and golfing buddies.  One was an associate pastor—a terrific man with a great family.  At that point in the life of our group, I seem to recall we were not drilling down very deeply into our personal lives. The first troubling key was our pastor friend began to join us less frequently. When we did see him, his countenance was not…

“Secret Sins” – Finding Forgiveness  “…be sure your sin will find you out.”  (Numbers 32: 23 ESV) Pastor Thomas got caught.  The fourth desperate man character in the book, All Men Are Desperate Whether They Admit It or Not, Thomas made a rather stupid mistake that uncovered his “secret sin” of pornography—forgetting to close out one of the porn sites he frequented on his computer.   One day when her iPad battery was dead, his wife decided to check Facebook on the computer in his study.  Uh-Oh! What she saw stunned her.  As she checked the URL history in the drop-down…

“Secret Sins”  – Things We (Think We) Hide from God  “For nothing is hidden…nor anything secret that will not be known and come to light.”  (Luke 8: 17 NASB) When our youngest son was a toddler if he could reach the cookies, left too low on a shelf, he would grab the bag and take off.  He had two hiding places—in the curtains or under the comforter on our bed.  It was comical to watch the covers shake and hear giggles coming out while he celebrated getting away with something because he “hid” himself from us. As funny and silly…

All Men Are Desperate Whether They Admit It or Not opens with a number of sobering statistics about ‘man issues’ in the U.S.  That is followed by the introduction of five desperate men with whom you will connect or identify in some way as their stories unfold.  As I always say when introducing such ‘numbing’ numbers, you must read them as names, not numbers.  Insert your name, names of your sons, father, brothers, fraternity brothers, golf or hunting buddies.  Only then will such statistics hold your attention. The focus of this lesson is addiction, so I decided to share just one…