When the enemy terrorizes....

In Psalm 64:1 King David asked to be preserved not from the enemy but from the fear of the enemy.

Fear and faith cannot live in the same heart (Mark 4:40). If the enemy can make you afraid, he has almost won the battle.

A calm heart makes a confident soldier.

Jesus asked the disciples "Why are you so fearful?"(Mark 4:40) ....... Are you?


Warren Wiersbe
Bible Teacher/Author

The above note came to me from my good friend John Samuel. John often send me profound wisdom in his daily emails to me. It is true that in our moments of deepest trouble, we find God there. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted."

a couple of thoughts... first, the Greek word for comfort is in the future tense. That means that whatever the type of comfort that we receive (that will be my second point) it isn't happening right at the time when we start to mourn. My thought is that though it does not come when we start to mourn, our comfort comes when we are most desperate. When we reach the end of ourselves, we can have an inner state of happiness because that is when God shows up.

Second, the word for comfort literally means "will have someone to come alongside". Consider the implications. the idea that Jesus conveys in relation to comfort is not that your pain will be eased or that your heart will be without hurt. But that you will not be alone. First, you have the Holy Spirit as your inner guide. He is always with you. Second, we have each other as believers in Christ to walk through life's crazy circumstances together.

How devastating it would be to have to navigate life's tragedies alone! So, may you always have a life full of friends. And may you find the strength to journey with others as they hurt in the deepest parts of their souls. And may you find comfort in life's darkest moments because you know that you are not alone. And may you never have a fear of the enemy!

The elephant in the room.....

The elephant in the room.....

If I preach against gay marriage, everybody cheers. If I preach about sin you can hear the amens ring. But those aren't the real problems. The biggest sin in our church is you sitting there doing nothing and still calling yourself a follower of Jesus.

The elephant in the evangelical room is that were not making disciples. People are still struggling through how to do that. We studied 2,500 Protestant church attendees and did so again a year later and the spiritual development was shocking and frustrating.

Whom are you discipling today?





Ed Stetzer
Author/Bible Teacher

"I Just want to hear from God!!!!!!"

Have you ever felt that way? Life is so crazy, and so many things come at us from so many different angles that it seems impossible to stop long enough to eat and sleep, let alone a definite quiet time with God. And it feels like we miss God all the time. Are we moving too fast or is God not talking? I want to set up some parameters for this idea...

First, in John 5:17, Jesus says, "My father is always at His work..." That means that no matter whether we are sensing God's leading or not, He is doing things around us all the time. We don't have to ever worry about whether or not God is doing His part. He will always do His part!

Second, in Psalm 46:10, God says, "Be still and know that I am God..." So we constantly work on the back half of that phrase while spending very little time on the first half. I have seen this phrase plastered all over everything. Heck, I had a coffee mug with this verse painted on the side. Which if you think about it, is a bit of a contradiction! (Caffeine makes it hard to sit still or be quiet). But when was the last time that we sat down and really focused on being still? When was the last time we quieted our hearts enough to gain clarity on anything. Even for those who choose to fast, we often fast but life still happens at such a rate that we don't slow down and wait and watch and know. I would submit that you can't truly know that He is God unless you slow down enough to let Him close the gaps in our life. Instead of wishing for more hours in the day or more hands to juggle more obligations in a day, maybe we should slow down enough to watch God work and resolve many of the issues that keep us up at night.

Third, if you are struggling with this right now, you are already thinking BUT I DON'T HAVE TIME!!!!! I want to give you a quote from George Mueller...

George Mueller, after having read the Bible through one hundred times with increasing delight, made this statement: "I look upon it as a lost day when I have not had a good time over the Word of God".

He explained "Friends often say, 'I have so much to do, so many people to see, I cannot find time for Scripture study.' Perhaps there are not many who have more to do than I. For more than 50 years I have never known one day when I had not more business than I could get through. For 4 years I have had annually about 30,000 letters, and most of these have passed through my own hands."

"Then, as pastor of a church with 1,200 believers, great has been my care. Besides, I have had charge of live immense orphanages; also, at my publishing depot, the printing and circulating of millions of tracts, books, and Bibles; but I have always made it a rule never to begin work until I have had a good season with God and His Word. The blessing I have received has been wonderful."

May we never think that the world's obligations should take priority over God's time. May we be still and know that He is God, that He is in control, and that that He is always working. And May we stand and be amazed at the handy work of God, and always give Him the glory!!!

More discussion...

So, Who is the most influential person in your spiritual development and why? Both present and past is fair game.