Even when He seems silent, God is always speaking to our hearts, souls, and minds. His perceived silence is an invitation to strengthen your relationship with him. It’s an invitation to open your heart and mind to discover all the ways He is speaking to you.

The Bible is full of ministry. It is packed with people using the talents God gave them to serve the people in their world. The ultimate purpose is to share the good news of Christ, and through their selfless service they did just that.

Let’s be honest, change is not easy. In order to change, we first must change our attitudes. Once our attitudes are changed, we are able to make subtle or major changes to make our prayer lives the best they have ever been.

Goats are stubborn. They like to do their own thing with no shepherd or farmer guiding them. All the goats my family had wore collars with bells on them, so we knew where they were. They liked being free to do their own thing. Herding them was close to impossible. So are these characteristics similar to Satan? 

Today we can glean from this verse that God has begun a good work in all of us. He wants us to live out a life that shows us progressively becoming more like Him. Paul reminded the church at Philippi that God would do the work, but they needed to be an active part in that work. Today, we must remember the same.

Biblical characters like David, Job, Nehemiah, Paul, and others dealt with depression during their lifetimes. During those times when they were feeling down, they all looked to God for encouragement and guidance.

This year, as you gather with family, take a moment to remember how God has not only blessed you but the ones you love. Our God deserves all the praise and the glory! 

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While hitting rock bottom hurts in the moment, it is essential to building a stronger relationship with God. This point could not be plainer than in the story of the prodigal son.

God has always been asking His people to obey commands. In each situation, God’s instruction is doable because He has already set his plan into motion. God did not leave Moses, Esther, Jonah, or his disciples. It was with Him they accomplished their tasks.

The decline of church attendance today happens, in part, because we have chosen to believe the myth that the youth are our future. They are not. They are our present and as the church we have a responsibility to them.

God is not anti-fun. He is a God who desires for us to have an abundant life with joy and happiness. He created fun and His desire is for us to embrace it. He wants us to show others how good He is by showing them how exciting our lives are living for Him.

When I was in high school, I learned about a man named Martin Luther. I was taught he was a powerful figure and led the team for the Protestant Reformation. He alone posted his 95 Theses to the door of Wittenberg Castle, and he alone led the charge to take down the Catholic Church.

Well, I was wrong.

Martin Luther is an important figure in the Protestant Reformation and his 95 Theses are a critical document which shows Christians what it means to question authority and theology. Let’s take a step back in history and discover the man who wrote the 95 Theses and extract what we need to know about them.

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My husband often talks about when he was a little boy and went shopping with his mom, he would play a joke on her. He would leave her side and go to the customer service desk and say he was lost. Then he would request the associate page his mother to the front desk.

Now, my husband thought this was funny, but his mother did not. She was separated from her son, felt scared, and worried. This is what all Christians feel when we feel separate from our Lord. In Romans 8:39, Paul gives us an absolute confirmation that we could never be separated from our God.

“Neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Paul’s words are comforting, but packed with meaning we can only understand by probing deeper. In the following article, I want to share with you what this verse means by analyzing the context. Lastly, I want to discuss how we should live considering Paul’s declaration.

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Shame will isolate us from the world and from our God. When we isolate from God, we begin pointing fingers. We want to blame others for the shame we feel. We may even blame God for our less-than-great lives. Then we begin to feel there is nothing we can do to change our situation. This vicious cycle is exactly what Satan is wanting.