By Brother Brian Shimer Thank you to Brother Gary for launching us into this area of discernment and decision-making last week! Considering what he shared, my thoughts went to King Solomon’s first, great decision. True, later in his life he made some “not so great or even really BAD” decisions, when by choice, he corrupted […]
By Brother Stephen Rankin “But solid food is for the mature, for those whose faculties have been trained by practice to distinguish good from evil” (Hebrews 5:14). In some ways, distinguishing good from evil is a relatively straightforward matter, if the good is obvious or the evil is obvious. Very few people fail to recognize […]
By Brother Gary Wheeler You know, sometimes, it’s really hard to follow the commands of Jesus, especially that “love your neighbor as yourself” one. I mean, come on! Did He live in a community with an HOA? Does it really matter in the grand scheme of things how tall your grass is, and do they […]
Blessed are the poor in spirit. So far, in Matthew 4, Jesus has been tempted, began his ministry with a call to repentance because “the kingdom of heaven was near” (Mt 4:12-17), called his first disciples, and began to grow in popularity (Mt 4:18-25). We have seen Jesus preaching and healing many. Then, at this […]
By Brother Gary Wheeler We dated for seven years (I was in ninth grade), then married for seventeen and a half years, when I stood along with my young sons beside my wife and their mother’s casket after a four-year battle with breast cancer. I knew where she was because of the promise of the […]
By Sister Cheryl Jacobs Matthew 5:5 – Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. A song about the Beatitudes I especially enjoy is A City on a Hill by The City Harmonic. The song highlights the irony in this verse with the line: Blessed are the meek, with the world at your feet. I […]
By Brother Stephen Rankin You’ve been working in the garden on a warm Spring Day, absorbed in digging weeds and turning the soil to get ready for planting. Suddenly, you realize that you’re very thirsty. From that moment, until you are able to stop and get a drink, you can hardly think of anything but […]
By Brother Guy Ames Jesus’ amazing Sermon on the Mount sets the picture of God’s New Kingdom – not like the natural ways we try to live, rather a paradox. Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are those who hunger for righteousness, blessed are those who are persecuted for doing right all speak to […]
By Brother Matt Henson Gaining access to someone who is famous can be a lot of work. Whether it is purchasing a backstage pass for a famous singer or going through the process of background checks and applications to visit a world-leader, work must be done. If the access is granted, we spend time in […]
By Brother Wade Paschal “Love your Neighbor as you love Yourself” (Matthew 19:19) The commandment to love my neighbor as I love myself implies a relationship between how and why I love myself and love of neighbor. So what is that relationship? Growing up I often heard people talk about “self-esteem” and the “problem” of […]
