Enemies

I remember a time in my life when I thought someone had something against me. I was very young and thought this person wanted to hurt me. I don’t remember if I did something against him or if it was something I said. After talking with him I was right, I had offended him. Since […]

I remember a time in my life when I thought someone had something against me. I was very young and thought this person wanted to hurt me. I don’t remember if I did something against him or if it was something I said. After talking with him I was right, I had offended him. Since I thought I didn’t do anything wrong we were no longer friends. I can’t help to feel bad sometimes about it.  I don’t know where he lives and I don’t even know his last name.
In the Bible we have stories of people that became enemies and how much one hated another for different reasons. But I would like to show you how Jesus treated his enemies. Because we are followers of Jesus we need to treat people who are against us the same way.
In Luke 22, Jesus heals the ear of the man that came to arrest him. This man was part of a mob that came to arrest Jesus and Jesus knew that the arrest was going to lead to his death. After Peter cut the ear off, Jesus healed Malchus. Jesus had compassion on the man who came against him. I believe we need to show compassion to those who seek to harm us. Remember the good Samaritan? He was helping a person who had hate against him. As followers of Jesus we need to be compassionate towards everyone especially those who are against us.

Kidmin 101

This past Sunday night, I shared five core values that our Children’s Ministry is founded on. These values are what helps keep each event, activity, and class in line with our overall mission. The core values are: 1. Know: Our children will learn to know God and the...

Faith On a Shelf

I have this hat that my dad brought back to me from a business trip to Atlanta when I was 9 or 10 years old. You can see that I’ve worn it a lot. In fact, I wore it to just about everywhere I went during the summer when I was a kid. Church camps, grandparents’ house,...

“Jesus Loves Me”

After being led in this song by two of our young men Sunday night, I was reminded of a quotation from Karl Barth. On April 23, 1962, Karl Barth (the renown 20th Century Swiss-German, neo-orthodox theologian) spoke at Rockefeller Chapel on the campus of the University...

That’s Not a Candle

Several years ago, there was story shared about a woman from Connecticut whose power had gone out during a storm. She left her house to go to a local hardware store to purchase some flashlights, but the store was closed. She returned home and found what she thought...

The Post-Christian Problem

I attended the New Day Conference in Murfreesboro, Tennessee at the end of last week with a small group from Riverchase. It was a good conference and I left encouraged about the opportunities we have to fulfill the call of Christ to make disciples. On Friday evening,...

Josiah’s Reform

In the thirty-one years of his rule, King Josiah proved to be a faithful man of God and a great king of Judah. He served God from the beginning as a young king and grew into a greater understanding of God’s will and a determination to follow that will. He made a...

You Are What You Eat

You Are What You Eat You’ve heard the phrase, “You are what you eat.” Simply defined, it means that you should eat healthy if you want to be healthy. This phrase can trace its roots back to the early 1800’s. It came from the 1826 work The Physiology of Taste, in which...

It Is Well

Above the piano in our house is a large wood sign with the phrase, “it is well with my soul” on it. Kimberly and I purchased it during a season of our life together where we were not completely sure what the future had in store for our little family. Since then, the...

Do Over

  I messed up on recording my recent radio programs. The sound quality was so bad Mark could not run them on the air. So, I deleted them and recorded them again.   I sure wish I could do that in real life with all the other mistakes I make. Just delete them...

Don’t Believe Your Preacher

Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. (2 John 1:9 ESV) Here is the test. The “teaching of Christ” is, of course, the very word of God. So, if your...