This wonderful gift from God has brought joy and gladness into my life and has spared me from unimaginable pain and suffering. Yet I have never heard a message preached on it. I don’t hear Christians talking about it. It doesn’t seem to be in the forefront of many people’s minds. It may be, but I don’t hear much about it. What is this wonderful gift from God, this incredible blessing? It is the fear of the Lord.

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I don’t know about you, but I want to grow more and more in my faith this year.

I’m so grateful that over the years God has helped me grow in faith, but I believe it’s his will for all his children to grow more and more.

Here are some suggestions to strengthen your faith this year.

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I have been a pastor in the same church for over 30 years. Over the years many have joined our church. But over the years a number have left, for all kinds of reasons.

Some left when they graduated college or to take a new job or move closer to their children or other “good” reasons. Others left for reasons I felt were maybe not so good – for doctrinal reasons, or they felt a need for a change. And some left because they had an “offense” toward me – they felt I had handled something poorly or wrongly.

One time many years ago, in my arrogance as a young pastor, I thought that our church was the best in town. That our church was the closest to a “New Testament Church.” So why would anyone want to go to an “inferior” church? Even if it was a good church, why leave the best church?

One unemployed carpenter told me he was going to move his family to Houston where there were a lot of construction opportunities. I told him that since he didn’t know if there were any New Testament churches in Houston, it would be better to stay in our church and take a job at McDonalds. At least he would still be in a NT church. How stupid was that? He moved to Texas. Probably one of the best things he ever did.

Fortunately God convicted me a year or so later, that I should ask his forgiveness. He had either moved back or was visiting so I called him, we got together, I asked his forgiveness for my arrogance and for how I made it so hard for him to leave and he graciously forgave me. There were several others at the time I had sinned against in similar ways, and they also agreed to meet and they too forgave me.

Well, you’d think I would have learned my lessons. But in recent years and months and weeks I’ve been freshly convicted of some things and reached out to some folks who left our church, and they have graciously met with me, shared with me and taught me some valuable lessons. I’d like to share them with you. So what should you do….<

I’m going to lead an Ash Wednesday service tomorrow.

I was raised by devoted Roman Catholic parents who sent me to a Catholic elementary school, where every Ash Wednesday, during mass we would kneel at the communion rail and the priest would dip his thumb into a plate of ashes, dab them onto our foreheads in the shape of a cross and say,

“Remember man that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

The only thing I understood about Ash Wednesday then was that it was the beginning of Lent. And possibly that the ashes meant that someday I was going to die.

I guess that’s not a bad reminder in itself; if more people considered that this life isn’t going to last forever, they might live differently, although as a kid I didn’t think much about it. It was just kind of fun having ashes on your forehead for the rest of the day.

In fact, no one ever explained the real significance of the phrase the priest said. And if they had, I don’t know if I would have found it very encouraging.

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Though we all have done things we can regret, God doesn’t want regret to rob us of our joy in him or cripple us in our glorious pursuit of him. Here are seven keys to overcoming regret.

I don’t know a single person who isn’t tempted to fear from time to time.

We can be tempted to fear for our kids and grandkids. I recently said to my wife, “I thought when our kids were grown and out of the house, all our worries would be over. But now they are even bigger! Not only for our kids, but now we have grandchildren to worry about!”

We can be tempted to fear for the future of our nation, especially the more we watch the news. Tempted to fear for our finances. Or our health. And most of us face the temptation to daily anxieties.

Thankfully, there are Bible verses about fear…

…about anxiety…

…about worry.

God knows our fears, and he has given us many, many Bible verses to help us overcome our fears.

I’ve been doing a good bit of premarital counseling lately, and I’ve married quite a few folks over the years. There’s lots of great advice in the Bible and other books, but here are 4 pieces of advice that have really helped me throughout my marriage.

We live in an unpredictable world.

A world of many blessings, but a world where there is lots of evil. A world where there are beautiful landscapes and sunny mornings, and a world where there are fires and hurricanes. One day we can be enjoying perfect health and the next day be in the hospital. We just never know. And we can be tempted to fear the future.

An author named H.P. Lovecraft once said, “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.”

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We must pay attention to what is going into and coming out of our hearts. We must watch what we’re thinking. Here are eight questions we can ask ourselves to see how we are keeping our hearts.

When we’re weary we can find fresh strength, joy and motivation in Christ. Here are 10 ways to do that.

All our gifts are gifts of the Spirit—they’re spiritual gifts. Even gifts that seem to be natural or “unspiritual.” God gives us gifts to serve others. They’re not for ourselves.

There is no way we can begin to number the blessings God has heaped upon those who believe in his Son, but here are a few spiritual blessings we should regularly recall, thank God for, and rejoice in.

On some point in our lives, we all need to hear God say, “Take courage.” Here are a few reasons we can.

Everything God does in our lives is for our benefit, including suffering. Though they never seem pleasant at the time, hard times produce wonderful benefits in our lives.