I’m not much of a roller coaster gal, but I’ve been to plenty of amusement parks in my life (mostly for the food!) and I’ve noticed how many rides have a height requirement at the entrance. Many times you’ll see a child approach the measuring stick with hesitancy in hopes they grew a little taller since the year before, and ...

Victor Hugo said, “You can give without loving, but you can never LOVE without giving.” Isn’t this so true? Giving can come in all forms: out of obligation, required (like a staff party), out of guilt, etc., so love isn’t always the motivator to giving (in other words, you can give without loving). But… you can never LOVE without giving. ...

Satan knows how we see ourselves is a key element to our relationship with God. His goal is to get us to re-think EVERYTHING about God, about life, about everything. He wants to hinder us from walking in the fullness of God’s plan as we’ve already learned from 2 Corinthians 2:11, “Lest Satan should take advantage of us, we shouldn’t be ...

I recently told you righteousness is God’s RIGHT SYSTEM. The real definition of righteousness is right-standing with God; the ability to stand before Him without guilt or inferiority as if you had never sinned. What’s interesting about this definition is, if righteousness means to stand before God without guilt, it’s easy to see why the devil wants to feed us ...

So let’s talk about condemnation. Number one, it’s a mean trick of the devil. Number two, it’s a self-pronounced sentence of guilt (meaning, it’s fed to you by the devil). And hopefully the obvious number three is (just to be clear), God’s not the author of it. CONVICTION IS HOW GOD CORRECTS US.CONDEMNATION IS HOW THE DEVIL DEFEATS US. To ...

If your car doesn’t have a built-in GPS, your smart phone probably does. It’s your map or guidance system (to keep you on the right course). And now that paper maps are a thing of the past, we need a GPS. Why? Because it’s easy to get lost on our own. In other words, we need directions and help. Life ...

Beautiful GodLaying Your majesty asideYou reached out in love to show me lifeLifted from darkness into lightKing for a slaveTrading Your righteousness for shame These are the opening words of the song, Like An Avalanche by Hillsong United. I am especially touched by the last phrase: Trading Your righteousness for shame. I remember when God first began opening my understanding ...

Easter: a time when Christians everywhere remember, and celebrate, their Savior being raised from the dead. It is through His death, burial, and resurrection, that all our beliefs are based. So appropriately, I want to share with you from Matthew 27:15-26 about the events leading up to Easter and how they impact us. At that time, it was custom for ...

This article first appeared on The Christian Broadcasting Network | “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law” (Deuteronomy 29:29). Responsibility and accountability aren’t the most popular words in our vocabulary, are they? Yet each ...

Who doesn’t need more faith and more power? I think we all do. At any given time, we can face challenges that require us to take a deep breath and face it head-on, or shrink back in fear. Preferably, God wants us to grow in faith and walk in the power and authority He has given us in Christ. And ...

With any kind of sickness (big or small), I always remember my prayer for healing works on this principle: Natural + Supernatural = Work Together Too often, we rely on one or the other (most people leaning only on the natural). But as Christians, you and I are spirit beings living in a physical body. We are filled with the ...

Ok, I’m going to push you a little today… But hear me out before you form an opinion. The devil has deceived some people into believing that “working” your faith is just that… work. And this kind of thinking opens the door to the enemy for condemnation and frustration when what they’re believing for isn’t coming to pass. So the ...

This article first appeared on The Christian Broadcasting Network | One of the positives that hopefully came out of the 2020 quarantine is that we finally had no excuse for not tackling those little projects around the house we’d been putting off. One of mine was my closet. To paint a good picture for you, it wasn’t a total mess. ...

I saw a post from a friend the other day that said something like, “I’m not motivated to drive my numbers up. I’m motivated to get my message out.” This reminded me of something I’ve been rolling around in my heart for several months now. In the Book of Revelation, Jesus said to the loveless church, “I know your works, ...

I’m going to tell on myself. My birthday is February 13, the day before Valentine’s, and so for my entire life, my birthday has been associated with love. I actually believe all birthdays should be celebrated with love no matter what day they fall on, but mine is especially accentuated because of the month and day it falls on. One ...

I’m sure you’ve heard the song Reckless Love by Cory Asbury –or at least I hope you have. The first time we sang it at church, I only guessed the name of the song was “Reckless Love” because those two words stood out so strongly to me in the lyrics. Think about that word: reckless. The dictionary defines it as ...

This article first appeared on The Christian Broadcasting Network Fickle.  For a long time I thought that word was a quaint, southern lady-like version of a cuss word. Not a real cuss word of course, but I remember hearing my grandmother whisper it when her rolls burned or when she was poked by a stick pin while laying out a ...

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 The Professional School of Psychology did an interesting study on the life of Abraham Lincoln. Due to documented reports of depression, they handed out an assignment to students that focused on the psychological study of his life. Each student prepared an essay describing the manner in which a contemporary psychologist might have ...