Dane Ortland, in his book “Gentle and Lowly”, describes Christ’s desire to show grace with a story about a doctor on a mercy mission. He flies to a remote village that has never had the benefit of modern medicine to bring a cure to their illness and disease. He is traveling with all his tools and medicines, eager to bring them healing and relief. When he arrives, however, the proud and cautious tribesmen will not allow him to treat them, out of fear of the unknown and pride in their own (unsuccessful) methods. Finally, through gentle persuasion, the doctor gets …

Psalm 24 tells us: “The earth is the Lord’s and all it’s fullness  the world and those who dwell therein.  For He has found it upon the seas, and established it upon the waters.”  It can be hard sometimes to understand why, if the Lord is the master of the world, that it is so dark and evil.  The short answer to this is found in Ephesians 2 where we see that currently Satan is operating as the Prince of the Power of the air and he works in the “sons of disobedience”, those who are not redeemed followers of …

Have you considered the relationship between God and the forces of darkness, i.e. Satan and his demons?  Is it a classic dualism with both sides fighting neck and neck to win?  Is Satan equal to God?  Where did he come from?  What is he really like? As we continue the study in the biblical book of revelation, we come to chapter 9 and read about “the abyss” being opened and horrible creatures come out and torture many on earth.  This raises many questions about the nature of these creatures, the abyss, and the questions stated above: “Who is Satan?”, “What …

As we dive into Revelation 8 in this message, there are three themes that emerge, themes that have a very significant connection. First is the theme of prayer.  Do you believe God hears and responds to your prayers?  This passage in the biblical book of Revelation shows that God indeed does hear our prayers and they have an impact on His actions, just not always as quickly as we may like. The next theme, intertwined with the prayers of the saints, is that of justice.  Many times we think God is ambivalent to the wickedness and injustice going on around …

Racism, inclusion, bias; they are all words that are emotionally and politically charged.  Sadly, throughout all of human history, on every continent, nations and people groups have fought each other.  Whether the division is racial, national, or even socio-economic, one group has always been battling the other.  Pride, power, and greed has kept these fires of division burning strong. All of this breaks the heart of God.  The world as He created it was designed for us to dwell together in peace.  The diversity we see among humans was designed as a beautiful thing, an expression of God’s creativity. Sin …

Psalm 33:16-22 reads: No king is saved by the multitude of an army; A mighty man is not delivered by great strength. A horse is a vain hope for safety; Neither shall it deliver any by its great strength. Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, On those who hope in His mercy, To deliver their soul from death, And to keep them alive in famine. Our soul waits for the Lord; He is our help and our shield.  (NKJV) I’m just wondering, where is your hope today?  There is plenty to despair about.  It …

As we get older, we gain a treasure that cannot be had any other way: experience.   It can only be learned “the hard way”, however, its fruits can be shared.  A good person will try to pass on the treasures of wisdom he or she has gained by experience and a wise person will try to learn them.  Unfortunately, experience is often forgotten, underrated, or misused. It is sometimes forgotten by us, and we miss out on many important benefits thereby  repeating past mistakes and relearning things we once knew. It is often underrated, and people repeat mistakes  unnecessarily.  Finally, …