Sometimes we have trust issues.  We struggle to believe that God really does love us and is working in our lives.  Bob La Forge writes, in his book Contemplating the Almighty, “To say that God is faithful or consistent is not to imply, however, that He is predictable. Much bitterness toward God results from a misconception of this. Too often we speculate and try to guess the actions of God and, therefore, develop expectations. Through our limited and often perverted reasoning, we determine the “best” for our lives and then consider God’s only reasonable response to be one of quick …

Heroes often get celebrated, but the ordinary, can be forgotten.  The truth is though, that the world doesn’t run on heroes. The world runs on ordinary people doing good. It runs on people doing the right thing, over and over every day, unnoticed.  While heroes are needed to stop super villains, what has helped us all the most is someone using their gifts and strengths on an everyday level to help one or two people near them. The message today is meant to help encourage everyone to recognize the ways that God has uniquely shaped and placed each of them …

Can you remember the last time someone corrected you?  How did you feel about that?  Were you glad or sad or angry?  Correction is something we all need at times, some more than others, but we are often resistant.  To accept correction means we are admitting we were wrong.  Admitting we were wrong means admitting we are not perfect and that someone knew something we didn’t or they discovered something we hoped would remain hidden. Ouch. Our prideful natures do not like that.  But do we really want to go through life being wrong?  Does it really help us if …

When things go bad in the world, we often start to wonder what God is doing. Why is He allowing so many problems, so much trouble? We are tempted to think, to worry, that maybe God has faded from the scene or stopped caring. Because He knows our humanness and our tendencies, God has taken steps to prepare us for bad times. He has always done that for His people. Over the next few weeks, we are going to see this as we continue our study in Daniel. We are not just going to look at the “what” of prophecy, …