Testing our Focus – Love
Sunday, May 3rd, 2009 : By Dan Miller
Last week we considered how favoritism is something the church can live without. When we treat some people better than other people (based on what they can do for us) we are guilty of playing favorites. When favoritism happens, we all lose. The person who is treated better can be led to resist and even reject the Gospel itself. Why? Because the Gospel demands we confront sin and who wants to tell a person (that they are trying to impress) of his or her desperate need of God’s forgiveness in Jesus? Conversely, the one who is “sucking up” also loses since they look to the rich and influential to meet their needs; a function that is reserved for God alone. …
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Testing of Our Faith In Life, Part II
Sunday, April 19th, 2009 : By Dan Miller
Have you ever imitated a person that you wanted to be like? Wanting to be more than you are may have started as a little girl wanting to be a princess or as a boy wanting to be a superhero or a famous athlete. But have you ever considered that you should never stop pretending to be someone else? C.S. Lewis takes up this thought when he communicated that playing make-believe was a key way to grow in his relationship with Jesus. He even encouraged Christians to make a “game” of pretending to be like Christ. Lewis argues that the moment we realize we are to act like Christ, we will discover ways in which our pretense could become reality. …
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Testing of Our Faith in Life, Part I
Sunday, March 29th, 2009 : By Dan Miller
How long has it been since you considered how amazing it is that God punished Jesus for your sins? It is an amazing thing to meditate on how Jesus completely fulfulled all of the holy demands of God for you and that you are now seen as if you have never sinned and now possess the righteousness of Jesus Christ through faith alone. It is the echo of His grace to us that is to reverberate through our lives touching every fiber of our being. Today we will discuss the connection between having a firm grasp on the goodness of God insulates us from temptation in life. James 1:18-21. MP3 download.
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Are You Smarter Than a Fish?
Monday, March 23rd, 2009 : By Hugh Williams
Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. (James 1:13-15, ESV)
Yesterday, Dan taught from James 1, which talks about temptation in terms of being lured. One big takeaway for me was that if you could just see the truth of the matter, the thing tempting us wouldn’t be so enticing. If we could only see that the thing
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Testing our Faith in Temptation
Sunday, March 22nd, 2009 : By Dan Miller
Today we move from learning how to trust God when life gets difficult (trials) to trusting God when tempted to disregard His will. What’s the connection trials and temptation to sin? Every trial brings with it a temptation to reject God’s will and, therefore, sin against Him. In the moment of being tempted to do something wrong I face a choice: to either trust in God (obedience) or trust in myself (disobedience). MP3 download.
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Testing Our Faith in Trials, Part II
Sunday, March 15th, 2009 : By Dan Miller
Last week we began to focus on how difficult circumstances (“trials”) are the tools that God uses to form a deep and enduring trust in Him. I am sure you will agree that as you look back over your life you see a direct correlation between going through painful circumstances and the development of a deeper faith. As followers of Jesus Christ it is crucial for us to realize the powerful relationship between the pains of life and the development of our trust in God. Let’s face it, you simply cannot develop a deep trust in God unless you recognize that you need to have a deep trust in God. MP3 download.
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The Trial of Prosperity
Tuesday, March 10th, 2009 : By Hugh Williams
James 1:2 talks about meeting “trials of various kinds.”
Did you ever think of prosperity as a trial? In an age that regards prosperity as a claim we have on God, it is probably unusual to think of abundance as a test of our faith. But I’ve heard enough wise old saints talk about prosperity this way to make me think they’re on to something.
I think the heart of the matter is this: whether it’s a trial of prosperity or a trial of adversity, the important thing is not the content of the trial. The important thing is the objective God has in mind for the trial. To the extent we focus on our circumstances, we fail the test.
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Testing Our Faith in Trials, Part I
Sunday, March 8th, 2009 : By Dan Miller
Take a moment and capture in your minds-eye a particularly painful moment in your life. A relationship gone bad, a sickness, etc . . . Now try and articulate how that event or experience led you to be a more mature follower of Christ. Don’t settle for a series of sloppy cliches or watered-down “God-talk”. Try hard to clearly connect how that experience matured you to trust God more. The teaching today is all about realizing the powerful relationship between the difficulties of life and the development of our trust in God. We cannot have the one without the other . . . and this is exactly how God designed it! MP3 …
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Introducing James
Sunday, March 1st, 2009 : By Dan Miller
Today we begin a study of the letter of James by getting to know the author, the intended audience, and the context into which the letter was written. Between now and September we will unpack the content of this bold 108-verse letter which averages a command in every other verse helping us know how we are to live God-centered lives. This small book deals with big, everyday issues that we all wrestle with. Issues like how to approach a crisis situation, or a temptation to sin, or filthy-talking, or peer-pressure. James deals with it. Suffice it to say that James deals with he defining scenes of life. MP3 download.
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Be Thankful
Sunday, November 30th, 2008 : By Kevin Hosner
Do you have difficulty being grateful? Today we are going to discuss what it means to be grateful, why we should, and some ways we can. As we enter the Christmas season, we want to reflect on the blessings we have as followers of Christ and the hope and peace that can be found only in Him.MP3 download.
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