Freely Give

Matthew 10:8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give.   Have you ever been charged for something that was supposed to be free? I remember my brother doing that when we were little. My dad would buy a churro and divide it among the kids, […]

Matthew 10:8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give.
 
Have you ever been charged for something that was supposed to be free? I remember my brother doing that when we were little. My dad would buy a churro and divide it among the kids, then my brother would say that if I wanted my piece I had to pay him 1 peso. He still laughs about it now.

In Matthew, Jesus is sending the apostles on a mission. To assist them in the mission, he gives them authority to heal the sick, raise the dead, clean lepers and cast out demons. Jesus tells them one more thing. These things you have freely received, give them freely to others. The apostles now have the power to do all these things. They have no reason to hold back from helping whoever needed them.

This account in the Bible makes me think of all the things God has given to us. Everything that we have received comes from God. God has given us freely of his love and grace, and we should be able to do the same for whomever needs it. God’s love and God’s grace has been freely given to us. We should freely give it to all.

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...